Kindle anyone?

Originally Posted by Eva

Gosh, who would think Kindle could bring in that kind of money.

That was my exact thought as well.

The volume of traffic at Amazon must be beyond imagination.

Book prices of .99 to 2.99 must seem like giveaways to customers, and result in a large volume of sales. I know I don't blink at buying a 2.99 book. I bought a 6.99 book today just to see what a best seller looks like on the inside. Kid book.

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Well, my conclusions so far is, if you want to make a stab at Kindle, or any publishing avenue for that matter, it has to be more than just a stab.

- Write about what you know, if that is a hot niche, the better, if not, you will make less
- Just putting it on Kindle and doing nothing else is not going to get you far
- A supporting website, blog, twitter, facebook and what else marketing technique gives you higher sales and maybe even a following if you write a series of books
- Easiest way to get reviews to boost sales confidence is to actually buy a few reviews from Fiverr, a book is not considered a "product" and therefor does not fall under the FTC's rules of disclosing that you paid for the reviews
- Including a free book at the end of your sold book with a link to an optin page to build your list is an excellent idea
- Title, description, tags, cover and reviews are extremely immportant
- Forget Public Domain and PLR, unless you spend a lot of time re-writing and adding to it.
- Non-fiction is the way to go
- Sending review copies to bloggers helps a lot
- Your earnings will grow slowly over time if you keep promoting and adding to it, less effort into marketing is needed as you grow since you now can promote to your own list

And then, there's more to it than that....

Eva

[RgrPett]

In 2010 Amazon sold more Kindle books than hardcover books. The following year Amazon sold more Kindle books than paperback and hardcover combined.

The single biggest advantage offered by having an e-book on the Amazon Kindle is that your Kindle e-books will never go out of print, so they will keep on selling forever. Printed books, on the other hand, have a very short life on bookstore shelves.

Reddit.com user "throwaway_writer" wrote about his first $1000 day as a Kindle author:
http://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comm...he_first_time/

It didn’t happen overnight: his journey from $0 a day to $1000 a day took 8 months.

At the time the thread was written he had 80 titles for sale for the Kindle mostly as short stories, compilations of the short stories and novellas. That was in late 2011, his title count now is 200+.

His titles are in multiple genres including kids titles, non-fiction, science fiction and erotic romance.

He uses a different pen name for each genre.

He says sales come from 5 things: Cover, Description, Ranking, Title, Reference. Notice that he does not list "content".

He says Kindle book buyers make their buy/don't buy decisions in a manner of seconds. Therefore....

He believes a good cover, great blurb (short, to-the-point, keyword friendly description of your book that convinces the reader to buy, and a solid linking strategy is more important than great content.

He does ZERO promotion. No blog posts, no Facebook account, no Twitter account. Instead he lists each book in 2 categories and adds a clickable link to his first book in each succeeding book.

Now get this: the link is his own affiliate link. Thus he makes a small sales commission on top of the 70% "cut" Amazon pays him as the author. I LOVE the way this guy thinks!

[RgrPett]

Kindle authors include links to their other books, websites or blogs in their books. Usually they place these links at the back of the book where only buyers will see them ... but only AFTER they've bought the book.

Now, notice that Kindle books usually have the "Click to Look Inside" option. This gives the potential buyer a sneek peek at the beginning of the book.

Authors with marketing smarts put their links at the beginning of the book (between the title page and first chapter). Now everyone who clicks on "Click to Look Inside" ... whether or not they buy that book ... will be able to see other books written by that author.

Roger

There is a post on my blog about Canadian author Cheryl Kaye Tardif who shares her story of how she made over $42,000 in one month selling the Kindle books she wrote through the Amazon KDP Select program. In a recent update she says she made $200,000 in just over 9 months.

http://50alone.com/42000-in-1-month-...-kindle-ebooks

There is also a link in the post to download her Kindle book of exactly how she has done it. This is an Amazon promotion and these books are usually only free for 24-48 hrs. I just checked and this one is still free.

I would give you a review of it, but I didn't download it. I don't have the time to spend writing, and don't have the desire either.

Regards,
Steve MacLellan

I love a free book.

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Originally Posted by RgrPett

Kindle authors include links to their other books, websites or blogs in their books. Usually they place these links at the back of the book where only buyers will see them ... but only AFTER they've bought the book.

Now, notice that Kindle books usually have the "Click to Look Inside" option. This gives the potential buyer a sneek peek at the beginning of the book.

Authors with marketing smarts put their links at the beginning of the book (between the title page and first chapter). Now everyone who clicks on "Click to Look Inside" ... whether or not they buy that book ... will be able to see other books written by that author.

Roger

Hmm, that's an interesting concept I have not seen anywhere, thanks for the tip! If that is indeed allowed by Amazon, surprised to hear only a few are using it,

Eva

Hey Steve: long time no see for me at least... Thanks a lot for the link. I've written a few Christian ebooks and have been looking for a way to self publish. Maybe this will be the start of something new!

Thanks again...
Pappy

Hi Pappy,

I spend more time lurking these days rather than posting. Hope you managed to get the book while it was free. I've checked the link today and see it's no longer free. But still, $3 isn't much money, and this lady has published a number of books through the Amazon Kindle select program. I expect if anyone knows how to do it... she does.

I hope it offers you some help. And let us know! There is nothing I like to hear any better than stories of regular people who have followed their dream and succeeded.

Interestingly enough, I had an ex girlfriend (from 20 years ago) thank me for the post as well. She has written two novels, and a collection of short stories; and no idea how to proceed. She needed someone to proofread, correct sentence structure and make the text flow a little better. My brother does this kind of work part-time, so I was able to put the two of them together. I hope they become #1 best sellers on Amazon -- she's gone through some tough times, and could really use a little boost.

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

[RgrPett]

Eva,

I'm not sure how long authors have been doing this. I've only recently noticed it.

With Kindle books being so inexpensive, I usually don't click on the "Click here to look inside" button. If the book description sounds interesting I go straight to the "buy" button.

Roger