Q&A: Can Amazon Customer Discussions boost book sales?

QUESTION: I've heard that the "Amazon Forum" is a good place for authors to participate in discussions and help generate book sales. Is this true, and where can I find this forum?

ANSWER: Perhaps you're thinking of the Customer Discussions feature that appears on every book detail page. Since Customer Discussions appears near the bottom, it's not one of Amazon's most popular features. But there seems to be an uptick in activity in recent weeks.

For example, look at the bottom of this page and you'll see "Active discussions in related forums":

When this feature debuted about a year ago, it was rarely used. Most customers posted only to forums on popular or controversial topics such as religion, politics, parenting, etc.

Sometimes a forum pertains to the book displayed on the page, and other times it's a generic discussion displayed on all books detail pages in that topic area. There are some generic discussions about fiction genres too.

Lately, however, it seems Amazon Customer Discussions are becoming more popular because Amazon is cross-posting most of the generic content across wide topic areas -- for example, if a customer starts a forum on adoption, those postings will pop up on the page for every adoption book on Amazon.

Here's one of the most active forums on Amazon.

Certainly, if an author can find a discussion where they can contribute, the exposure can only help. I've heard from one author in the parenting field who said she's boosted her sales from participating in these discussions. You can add a signature to the bottom of your message giving your URL and book titles, much as you would in an e-mail or discussion board. Your posts will automatically include a hyperlink to your Amazon Profile, which contains your bibliography (if you're enrolled in Amazon Connect.)

The drawback to Amazon Customer Discussions is there's no apparent way for an author or publisher to delete inappropriate postings. I've reported some off-the-wall posts to Amazon, but it seems they won't delete anything unless it involves profanity.

There are other kinks. Often the cross-posted forums are completely unrelated to the book they appear with, but instead are linked to some random keyword. For example, look at the raging discussions about human evolution that appear with the business bestseller Everything Is Miscellaneous. How did that happen? Look at the first phrase in Amazon's editorial review: "Human beings are information omnivores..."