Indie writer Amanda Hocking proves that it is possible to write profitable fiction ebooks. She the author of a vampire series, as well as novels of paranormal romance and urban fantasy.

Mike Shatzkin had an interesting post on The Idea Logical Company blog about book marketing.

One of the ideas that he raises in passing is one that I think authors should take seriously. Mike writes:

Changes are definitely occurring. The big publishers are undeniably SEO-conscious, investing real effort thinking about what search terms apply to each book they publish.

SEO, search engine optimization, is the practice of optimizing web pages so that they rank highly in search engine page results. Google offers a great SEO primer for beginners if you’re interested in finding out more.

Earlier this month, DC Denison, at O’Reilly Radar’s publishing blog, wrote abut SEO for authors and booksellers.

As an author trying to promote is own ebook on the web, DC asked himself:

Was I neglecting some obvious SEO techniques? Should I be choosing keywords? Optimizing chapter titles? Posting an ebook sitemap to Google and Bing? Are there emerging best practices for an ebook author?

To learn more about how to improve the ebook web visibility, he spoke with Matthew Gray, lead software engineer of Google Books Search Quality. Matthew outlined three best practices authors should consider to get their book noticed.

1. Use descriptive titles and chapter headings — Gray said an approach that favors “cleanliness of information” will make it easy for Google to find relevant content in a book and serve it up to the inquiring mind on the other side of the Google search box.

For example, if a book on the Internet has a chapter on the history of the web, it would be much better to use the title “History of the Web” than simply, “History.”

“We’re going to do the best we can,” he said, “but more complete chapters titles will help us out.”

2. Create quality content outside the book — The content you create around a book can also make a difference. As an example Gray cited the bestseller “Freakonomics,” by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, pointing out that the first result from a search for the title is not the book, but the New York Times “Freakonomics Blog.” That comes ahead of the book’s web page, and the Amazon listing.

Presumably the frequency of the blog updates, the authority of the New York Times, and the number of inbound links to the column on the Times’ website boost the newspaper site’s ranking over the original book.

Yet the column’s prominence also helps the book’s ranking on Google. As more book publishers use the web to augment the content between the covers, this kind of synergy is likely to become more common. “This blurring of the line between books and other content is something that I expect to happen more and more,” Gray said.

3. Book covers matter — One significant piece of metadata that Google has discovered, Gray noted with wry irony, is the book cover.

“A book cover is actually very rich metadata,” he said. “People associate a cover style with a particular author, or a particular series, and they respond to that. They recognize the cover and say, ‘That’s what I’m looking for’.”

Gray’s advice to book and ebook publishers: pay attention to the covers. “We have observed,” he said, “that people actually do judge a book by its cover.”

The increase in ebooks sales from 2009 to 2010 made the Time Magazine’s Top 10 Numbers list, part of the Top 10 Everything of 2010 list.

Time points to the release of the Amazon Kindle in 2007 as the inflection point for ebooks.

“Print has reigned for centuries. But the end of this decade may prove to be the beginning of an era for digital books. With the emergence of Amazon’s Kindle in 2007, e-books have taken off, most notably in 2010. The Kindle spurred a number of rival platforms, as well as the iPad, and e-books now account for almost 10% of U.S. consumer book sales, according to the Association of American Publishers. The shift from print to e-ink has forced large book chain Barnes & Noble to not only shut a number of stores but also release its own reader, the Nook. The e-book revolution, it seems, has only just begun.”

A post about the success of author Brian S. Pratton on the Smashwords blog shows that it is possible for indie authors to self-publish and be financially rewarded for their efforts.

Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, interviews Brian about his path to becoming a full-time indie author. It’s worth the read if you’re an aspiring ebook author.

Brian writes “fast-paced, can’t-put-it-down fantasy” fiction and has published 17 books, a combination of full-length novels (20,000-190,000 words) and what he calls “minis” (60,000-90,000 words) listed on Smashwords, which also distribute to Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, and Diesel, as well as to online mobile app catalogs of Stanza and Aldik. He also lists his books Amazon.

Brian provides some key advice that I think is critical for ebook authors to take into consideration.

First, be accessible to your readers. Brian suggests having an email address dedicated solely to your readers and others to contact you directly about your books. He advises, “post it everywhere.”

Second, get a website. Websites are a place your readers can go to learn more about you and your books. For a quick way to get up and running, I recommend launching a free Blogger or WordPress blog. Blogs are a great way to interact with readers and keep them up-to-date on your writing plans.

Third, get writing, and get your books out there. “The more books you have out, available through the most channels, the better your exposure,” Brian says.

Finally, he discusses how he used giving away free promotional copies as a way to build his sales.

“When Smashwords signed the deal with Barnes and Noble, my sales jumped 300% that quarter. Barnes and Noble have one of the best “Free eBook” sections and now people could find my book without having to see a small ad. Without Smashwords free copy of book one at Barnes and Noble, I would hardly be doing the sales I am today. That was the one act that set into motion sales the likes I never thought possible for an Indie without agent, editor, or publisher.”

Mark Corker also wrote about the idea of using free copies as a promotional ebook strategy in a post on the Smashwords blog in October.

“Give (some of) your books away for FREE - The highest grossing authors at Smashwords offer at least one book for free. FREE is one of the most misunderstood and underutilized ebook marketing secrets. Free works best if you have a deep backlist.”

So if your thinking about using “free” as a promotional strategy, get that second book written.

Google today launched its cloud-based ebook platform, Google eBooks. Offering a repository of nearly 3 million free ebooks, Google eBooks enters the game with the world’s largest selection of books. The Google ebookstore will also sell ebooks in ePub and PDF formats, compatible with Android phones, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, as well as a host of ereader devices. While Google eBooks are not currently compatible with the Amazon Kindle devices, Google makes a point of saying in that it is “open to supporting them in the future.”

More importantly for authors and publishers, the Google Books Partner Program appears to be a valuable venue to promote your books. Books uploaded to the platform are discoverable to readers using the Google search engine. You can also leverage access to tools like Google Analytics, Google Adwords and Google Checkout.

It’s still early days, but if your an author or publisher with an eye on publishing ebooks, it worth your time to check out the program.

Here’s a quick overview video.