Besides sales, how do you measure your Kindle book publishing success?

You're way overthinking this. Without sales there won't
be much author branding or outreach.

Listbuilding comes to mind. We've been recommending this to our clients for years now but lately I have noticed that more and more authors are using coupons and squeeze page links inside their books to build a list.

A list can then be monetized on and on, especially with a good mailing strategy.

Sales are not the be all and end all for some books. Make sure that you have a quality book that is full of great content permanently free on Amazon and other ebook platforms. You can use this book to send people to your squeeze page and opt in for another freebie.


Success for this particular book will of course be measured in leads.

I agree with list building, yet I also agree the best way to measure is through dollars and cents. But its also good to keep in mind that 1st week sales could be sheerly based off anticipation and hyp, its really the sales over the long run that determine quality.

Also, I would deeply consider the following and fan base grown afterwards and over the longrun as well. I know many publishers that have developed a cult like following from there books...not saying it has to be that extreme...but reviews are important to watch.

If you don't base your online efforts - including publishing ebooks - on income generated by those efforts....

What on earth is the point of doing it????

What is the point of a free ebook that builds a list by providing more freebies? Or author brand recognition? Or fanbase? or "outreach"? Good goals when they result in sales.

TO MAKE MONEY is the purpose. If you lose track of that or you are embarrassed at having a profit motive.....working online may be a hobby rather than a business. Nothing wrong with a hobby as long as you recognize that's what it is.

I like the way you think.

Seriously.

While cash is the ultimate benchmark, getting there, and more importantly, preserving an income level are also equally important objectives.

Building a solid author platform in your niche is definitely a worthwhile goal and one key measurement of success is author brand mentions. Also, list size is a definitely helpful metric.

Someone who earns more money than another person, doesn't have to be automatically more successful.

Here's an example:
- There are two people in the publishing business
- The output rate of person 1 is low but he provides very high quality. So his income is very stable. He has a long term strategy.
- On the other hand there's person 2. He earns twice as much as person 1. He's a scammer, his output rate is very high but his quality is bad. His income is not stable and he can get banned every day by Amazon. His sales are drying fast but he can't stop with publishing - otherwise he can't hold his "higher" income level.

For me person 1 is the winner because the potential of his business is much higher. The business, the (registered) brands, the email lists, the products etc. have also an financial value (and person 2 has nothing except of his dirty income). If you're financial free you don't care anymore about the short term money. You can make much more if you focus on long term success and if you renounce the fast money.

You can make a lot of money with sales on amazon,

but you can make even more money if you know how to build a back-end.

Make a book free permanently, build a list, send them affiliate offer.

If not dollars and cents, what other metric would i want to focus on?

That's like starting a successful business only to WANT to do more work.

Those of you who tout the free book are missing a key fact...

Whether the sale is for money or not the important metric is getting
the book into the hands of end consumers. Nothing else matters.

None of the wonderful goals listed in this thread will come to pass
if you don't get the book into the hands of end consumers. That's a sale,
regardless of the price.

You have to sell them on taking your free book just as skillfully as you
would sell them on giving you money for a book.

The only thing that matters is sales. EVERYTHING else flows from that.

Period.

Establish yourself as an expert through your books and this can open the way to many other opportunities

Guest posts

Featured articles

Foreword invitations (this is a hot trend on Kindle currently)

So on and so forth

uhm...

I thought the purpose of writing a book, was to share a story and have it be read and enjoyed.

I wrote my first book in 1978.

It is now 40 years, 170+ novels, 600+ short stories, 2,000+ articles, a few comic books, and a couple dozen stage plays later.

The majority of my work is given away free. In spite of my massive amount of published items, I have yet to have a year of making more then $2,000 from my writing (due to the fact that 90% of my work has always been given away for free.) I did not start making money on any of my writing until 2007, and that was only because I started posting articles on Squidoo and Squidoo paid me to let people read my stuff for free.

I started using Kindle in 2010. Of the 100+ books on Kindle, (across 21 pennames) only 1 of them does not go free. I have 5 to 10 of my books listed for free every day of the year all year long via the Select program.

I don't do lists, don't use email at all (only have an email address so I can have "log in" info for social networks)

I don't do affiliate links either.

I think the American obsession with money is one of the things I find most baffling and puzzling about Americans. Why does everything have to be about money? Why can't books, be about sharing information? Why does it have to be about money? Why can't it be about the joy of reading something for the sake of the joy of reading something?

Of course, I have Autism, can't count, don't know math, can't do numbers, and don't use money, so, I am baffled by anyone who obsesses over gathering up money for that reason too.

My long term strategy? Give readers something worth reading. Write something I myself would enjoy reading.

Reviews? How happy the customer is with the content inside the book.

There are excellent reasons for giving away a free ebook. The sales come later.

You can use Amazon as a traffic generator by giving a free ebook, which then directs them to your website opt-in page. Free ebooks are downloaded way more than paid. Of course, th free ebook should be good quality material, not something just thrown together.

Basically, you are forfeiting the short term monetary sale of your ebook for longer term monetary gain in your list.

Many well-known Kindle authors do this.