Is anybody actually making money with Kindle books?

[Matt Poc]

Hey,

I just wanted to ask this question:

Is anybody actually making money selling Kindle books?

It is a hot topic, but I don't know anybody who would be making money with these little books.

If somebody is making money with that, could you reveal us how much you're making?

I am already making money from internet marketing and I am really curious about Kindle books, but I don't think it is worth my time.

What do you think?

Thanks,
Matt Poc

[royljestr]

Well, I'm pretty sure Amazon is :-) Beyond that...most of the "Make Money using Kindle" things are garbage...they basically tell you to take your PLR and sell them as kindle book and then before you know it you will be making millions...or should I say you will actually be making nothing

[Afreidman]

Heya,

I saw a webinar recently about it that really made me excited about giving it a try...

After a day or two i realized that its basically putting out crap on amazons website.

A better idea is put your reports up on there to get more credibility in your niche!

[jonnyrhinestone]

I'm pretty sure the only people that make money with Kindle books are authors, and publishers, not marketers. I think for marketers and others it's more of a way to increase your awareness, visibility, and credibility rather than make money.

[Nick30]

i couldnt imagine so.

[fitz10]

Yes, people right here in the Warrior Forum are making money from it, but they aren't using garbage tactics like using crappy PLR.

[mmixon]

I make $100 a month every month. I have 500+ plr books uploaded, but sell about 50 of them over and over.
The books that sell??? The ones that women that watch Oprah would buy. Forget about anything to do with internet marketing.
Write your own or find some good plr books or public domain books.

[donhx]

I have some full length books I have written on Amazon, both in print and in Kindle format.

The distributor (Amazon) or the format (print, Kindle) does not change the dynamics of book marketing, and that it you must promote your books like crazy to get decent sales. The distributor and format guarantees nothing. The trick, as always, is in the marketing.

Personally, I am sorry that PLR and other crap is making making it onto Amazon. More unreasoned "get-rich-quick" opportunism as far as I'm concerned. It won't work on Amazon for two reasons: Amazon takes too big of a bite for it to be seriously profitable, and because Amazon will be clearing out junk just as Google is doing.

[Canuckystan]

Making sales on Kindle is tough. I have a fiction book on there with a bunch of great reviews and crappy sales numbers. At first I spent 4 hours a day marketing it and it was doing pretty well. As soon as I stopped marketing as much sales tanked. There is just too much crap on there for readers to find you organically.

The exceptions like Amanda Hocking prove the rule.

[jwiggens]

Absolutely. I've had success with putting a couple of my ebooks on Amazon and make a few sales a month. The process of actually putting a book up using Amazon DTP is very straight-forward and doesn't cost a cent so I'd recommend giving it a try.

[donhx]

Originally Posted by Canuckystan

Making sales on Kindle is tough. I have a fiction book on there with a bunch of great reviews and crappy sales numbers. At first I spent 4 hours a day marketing it and it was doing pretty well. As soon as I stopped marketing as much sales tanked. There is just too much crap on there for readers to find you organically.

The exceptions like Amanda Hocking prove the rule.

I agree with you, except I don't think Amanda Hocking is an exception. She had a good blog with a solid following and that was the launch pad for her tremendous success.

To be successful with a book you need a "platform" like a blog or some other kind of following such as being an expert in a certain filed or famous for another reason.

Yes, she did have lots of good fortune too--I'd say much of that came from her followers who were not afraid to share how much they liked her book. Word of mouth is still the very best kind of promotion.

[Canuckystan]

I meant she was the exception to the rule that the vast majority of authors will only see a few sales per month on Kindle, not that she was just fortunate.

She submitted her books to every single book review blogger out there at one point, which she says was the beginning of seeing big sales, as each review had a direct link to the kindle sales page.

[Daredevil Marketing]

We've been testing in the space for a while now and have had mixed results. We're finally fine-tuning what seems to be a profitable strategy and dumping what hasn't worked for us.

Like donhx said, there's a LOT of crap making its way into the markets now and the real challenge is making your products stand out from the crowd. Doing that has made the major difference between profitable products and busts for us.

Make no mistake, there's lots of opportunity there but from our experience, the WSO's that were made concerning Kindle marketing were way off mark. I'm not saying that they won't work, but we've been testing the market for well over 13 months now and anything remotely close to what those guides taught were not only not profitable, but were complete busts - meaning that even massive tweaking couldn't turn the project(s) profitable.

However, a few different approaches have returned promising results but I'm afraid that is information I'll have to keep to myself for the time being.

[thegotoguy]

I suggest you get into private label publishing. By buying ebooks with PLR rights you can render them to PDF after adding your name and URLS and then list them on Amazon. But you should also list them on your own sites and blogs and then offer them in multiple formats like e-Pub and mobi as well as PDF. I sell a few books on Amazon here and there (not enough to brag about), but I sell tons of tablet books in my tablet book store. But just like Amazon, you have to market your own sites and blogs (if you choose to sell on them) day in and day out. So in essence, there is no easy fix for increasing your sales but I'd rather keep 70% of my book sales (minus the paypal fee) than to get a 30% commission for working my tail off to push Amazon books. I hope that makes sense.

[Kierkegaard]

I put stuff on Amazon as a book, people buy it and I get money. As long as you get an ISBN, somewhere like lulu will sort out getting it on Amazon for free. I don't market the Amazon side, the sales I get must be from people browsing Amazon and finding it. Although I noticed the other day that the Amazon page was appearing Google for my keywords.

Scaling things up I could make quite decent money selling books on Amazon.

[thegotoguy]

I agree, it all boils down to your marketing potential and the willpower to invest your time to do it.

[imon32red]

I make a living from selling Kindle books. I don't sell PLR or any other crap. I have sold public domain titles in the past, but Amazon doesn't allow them. In order to make money on the Kindle these days you must have first rate work, multiple books, and you have to build your own following. There was a time when you could put a book up on Amazon and people would at least try it. Those days are gone thanks to all the people selling PLR and other crap.

[edlewis]

I sell thousands of ebooks a month on Kindle.

A large portion of those sales come from maybe 3 or 4 ebooks....however, I have around 50 more that make sales. Some only make a couple sales a month...others make a few sales a day.

It all adds up.

I'm not a fan of those who basically "SPAM" Amazon with junk PLR...and I'm not a fan of those who line their own pockets by teaching others to do it.

With that said, I do have several ebooks I've published from PLR content. However, I take the time to re-brand these ebooks. I give them a new title, a new cover, and edit some of the content.

[cage73]

I published my first book on February 19th of this year and so far to date I have made 74 sales from that one book. My second book which was published around the 1st of March has garnered 27 sales. That is definitely not going to break the bank but I was able to find a hungry market that is willing to spend money for information on this particular subject. My plans are now to upscale my efforts and write more books in this particular subject. I actually have two more books that should be completed within a day or two. So far I have not done any marketing for these books but plan to get the ball rolling in the next few days.

I'm not using any PLR for these books but a combination of Public Domain material and my own knowledge of this particular subject.

Publishing on Kindle is no different than creating products for any particular market. Find a market with hungry buyers, create a quality product and if your lucky the sales will start rolling in.

[Peeps66]

Originally Posted by edlewis

I sell thousands of ebooks a month on Kindle.

A large portion of those sales come from maybe 3 or 4 ebooks....however, I have around 50 more that make sales. Some only make a couple sales a month...others make a few sales a day.

It all adds up.

I'm not a fan of those who basically "SPAM" Amazon with junk PLR...and I'm not a fan of those who line their own pockets by teaching others to do it.

With that said, I do have several ebooks I've published from PLR content. However, I take the time to re-brand these ebooks. I give them a new title, a new cover, and edit some of the content.

What sort of sales rank are you getting to sell an ebook with the numbers your suggesting. Is it under 10,000 for instance

[JayPeete]

Originally Posted by edlewis

With that said, I do have several ebooks I've published from PLR content. However, I take the time to re-brand these ebooks. I give them a new title, a new cover, and edit some of the content.

That's how you take it from junk to palatable.

[limestone614]

I've read a bunch of stories where people are making money from kindle, in a number of ways too.

Kindle is a huge market. 60,000 x 99c = ....

Write a short Story....

[imon32red]

Originally Posted by edlewis

I sell thousands of ebooks a month on Kindle.

With that said, I do have several ebooks I've published from PLR content. However, I take the time to re-brand these ebooks. I give them a new title, a new cover, and edit some of the content.

Congratulations with your sales Ed. Without trying to toot my own horn, I sell thousands of ebooks a month on Kindle.

I know that I said that PLR on the Kindle is crap. It really is. But if you are changing the content and putting some work into it like you are doing, that is different. I meant no offense to you. I have come across quite a bit of PLR recently and it is really quite bad.

There is plenty of money to be made on the Kindle. It just takes work. However, if you put the work into it you can have a book that makes tons of sales each month.

[edlewis]

Originally Posted by imon32red

Congratulations with your sales Ed. Without trying to toot my own horn, I sell thousands of ebooks a month on Kindle.

I know that I said that PLR on the Kindle is crap. It really is. But if you are changing the content and putting some work into it like you are doing, that is different. I meant no offense to you. I have come across quite a bit of PLR recently and it is really quite bad.

There is plenty of money to be made on the Kindle. It just takes work. However, if you put the work into it you can have a book that makes tons of sales each month.

No problem....

I take no offense to the PLR comment. I've said many of the same things myself about PLR. Most of it is crap and most of those uploading it are just polluting Kindle with garbage because they have either been sold the idea it will make them rich with "no work" or because they are just plain lazy.

PLR content accounts for only 5 ebooks I have published.

You hit the nail on the head when you said, "it just takes work"....I've had some people asking me what my "secrets" are lately. Sure, there are some tips and tricks...but the real "secret" was hard work.

[stingrays06]

I created a kindle site not too long ago...still waiting for it to rank. Ill let you know how it works out.

[edlewis]

Originally Posted by Peeps66

What sort of sales rank are you getting to sell an ebook with the numbers your suggesting. Is it under 10,000 for instance

It's lower than that...

My best-selling ebook is on pace to sell a tad under 2,000 copies this month. (US & UK combined)

It's rank is under 2,500 on most days. But that rank is the US ranking...and in my total sales I am counting UK sales, which has it's own ranking.

[drmani]

Originally Posted by Matt Poc

I am already making money from internet marketing and I am really curious about Kindle books, but I don't think it is worth my time.

What do you think?

Thanks,
Matt Poc

In a 'book launch' for the Kindle, I sold over 100 copies of "47 Hearts"
with a week's promotion.

If you already have ebooks that are selling online, then the Kindle
store offers a nice additional channel to get your ideas out there and
read by a fresh new audience you can't reach otherwise.

From that aspect, how much "money you make" depends upon so much more
than just how many copies you sell on the Kindle store, or what your
royalty payments from it are!

Smart digital publishers are jumping all over this opportunity because
they see Amazon.com as doing them a massive favor - by AGGREGATING an
audience, and letting them sell to it!

The equivalent, in IM terms, would be for someone to build an email
list of 5 million people - and then let you post your ad on it, for
FREE!

With *any* form of "book marketing", you need a 'platform'. With it,
even a mediocre piece of writing can become a "best seller". Without
it, you could be the next J.K.Rowling - and sell a copy every month,
if you're lucky!

All success
Dr.Mani

[Mark Jordan]

Yes, when it was still starting. But now that Amazon imposed so many rules it's getting harder and harder to add new ebooks. However, the old ebooks that were posted are still making money but not as it used to.

[Rambo007]

For those that are making money,

How did you promote the books?

[Page-One]

Don't know if I saw the same webinar you did, but a couple days ago I went to a webinar replay about Kindle. Downloaded the vid rather than watching it onsite. Glad I did. Webinar was a couple hours long. Skipping through to the end, I saw the "sell" for a $1,000 "Make Kindle Money" package.

Into Ye Olde Recycle Binne it went!

If the guy is making such a killing with Kindle, why does he need to charge an obscene price for his great wisdom?

[celente]

I am from oz, i thought it was harder for us to make it with kindle books.

Isnt there some strange clause for aussies. I would love to know.

Cheers

Celente.

[ebooks4u]

Amazon has announced that they will delete all PLR Kindle books from their site.

Here's their email that I got recently:

"Undifferentiated public domain titles will no longer be offered for sale in the Kindle Store. Examples not considered differentiated include a linked table of contents, formatting improvements, collections, sales rank, price, freely available Internet content, etc. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation. Regards, Kindle Direct Publishing"

[lalou]

Perry Marshall recently did a webinar on the subject. (And he wasn't trying to sell anything that day!) He reckoned it's a nice little earner. Like others have said you can't publish crap, because stuff does get reviewed.

The 2 things I got from Perry's presentation were 1) it's very easy to put something up, but a lot of people are 'frightened' so you can get paid just to do that. And there are a few SEO-type tricks in terms of what title you give the thing.

And 2) the real key lies in underpinning it with good SEO

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Matt Poc

Is anybody actually making money selling Kindle books?

Yes ... this gentleman, who had no previous writing experience, has recently sold over 1,000,000 very short books on Kindle for $0.99 each, and made a lot of money out of it.

There's more information here and on this blog he answers maybe 100 questions about exactly how he does it (that one was written a few months before he joined the "million seller club").

[Marc Philipp Schildmann]

Originally Posted by Matt Poc

Hey,

I just wanted to ask this question:

Is anybody actually making money selling Kindle books?

It is a hot topic, but I don't know anybody who would be making money with these little books.

If somebody is making money with that, could you reveal us how much you're making?

I am already making money from internet marketing and I am really curious about Kindle books, but I don't think it is worth my time.

What do you think?

Thanks,
Matt Poc

Sure, you make make a few bucks. But: Can you make a living from it? I really dont think so. Just my 2 cents.

[colinph970]

no doubt that you can make a living from it......some very simple guidelines;

1. Original content only that is also quality (write or buy)
2. good 2d cover - don't bother with 3d ebook cover
3. good reviews.....links to first point
4. correct tags (based on decent search terms)
5. decent title (based on good search terms)

THATS IT.....5 SIMPLE LITTLE SO CALLED "SECRETS"......AND YOU WILL GENERATE A DECENT PASSIVE INCOME.....

enjoy!

[Matt Poc]

Originally Posted by royljestr

Well, I'm pretty sure Amazon is :-) Beyond that...most of the "Make Money using Kindle" things are garbage...they basically tell you to take your PLR and sell them as kindle book and then before you know it you will be making millions...or should I say you will actually be making nothing

Ha ha, this is a really great point, Amazon is really making money from Kindle books

By the way, I know a few people who make money with Kindle books, but most of them take regular ebooks and convert them for other people for a fee

[neoo28]

I think if use public domain book and rewrite it you can sell it on amazon.

[colinph970]

Avoid PLR and trying to rewrite it. There is a good chance that Amazon will reject it. See my previous post - totally original quality content is the only way to go............

[davejug1]

Definitely unique content sells, not particularly in my opinion but I haven't put much effort into testing. I'm doing about $50 per month (slowly diminishing) which helps towards my total takings, but i don't have the time or the desire to test it fully, I use it mainly as branding.

[Jacob Cuculiza]

You can make money, of cause, but other things are much better!

[colinph970]

Doing more but you have to concentrate on the books that really sell.....as someone has already pointed out - avoid the internet marketing genre.........too specific a niche

[HeySal]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

Yes ... this gentleman, who had no previous writing experience, has recently sold over 1,000,000 very short books on Kindle for $0.99 each, and made a lot of money out of it.

There's more information here and on this blog he answers maybe 100 questions about exactly how he does it (that one was written a few months before he joined the "million seller club").

Thanks Alexa - I was just getting ready to click over to kindle to see if maybe that is where I'll want to put my estory "Saving Ricky". All I see as being a problem is trying to figure out how to format the thing. I am soooooo not a tech.

I will, though, be using it in the next month or two and will be glad to post my experience with it on the WF. If I can figure out how to get it loaded up and formatted anyhow. LOL.

[yesdoab]

i ebook is worth it and insightful, people will buy it.

[JeanneLynn]

I often buy Kindle books. I usually download a sample before purchasing the ebook. I like to see the author's writing style beforehand. I notice a lot of people are giving a real chincy one-page sample that usually consists of a few lines of copy and links to their website. I pass on these because I think the author didn't put much thought into their offering. I buy the ones that give a good well-written sample because the sample entices me to want more.

[Suze Thomas]

The notion that you can just spin some plr and throw it up on Kindle has been proved false. They are deleting books that are basically copies of already listed books.

[KenJ]

I am deeply puzzled by this thread title.

It is blatantly obvious that many Authors are making a living with kindle books. I am happy to be one of them.

The people who are not making money are Marketers - Go figure!!!!

This is good news for us writers who create quality books to sell on a number of platforms. e.g. Kindle, Createspace, Lulu, and heaven forbid through a publishing deal with a traditional publisher.

If you are a writer then Kindle is the future for you IMHO.
If you are a marketer then go and do something else - you are playing with the wrong toy.

Kenj

[JeanneLynn]

Originally Posted by Suze Thomas

The notion that you can just spin some plr and throw it up on Kindle has been proved false. They are deleting books that are basically copies of already listed books.

I'm glad to hear this. This will make for a better Kindle buying experience. These plr books were messing up the search for buyers. There were 1000's of this type of book on Amazon.

[nixn]

My friend and I are partners on a project for a book she's written and we're selling on Amazon Kindle, Smashwords (which automatically sells through Barnes and Noble, Diesel etc.) and our site.

The Kindle sales were off to a very slow start - also considering that the book is about Sudoku (she's developed her own methodology) and it seems the craze has certainly gone downhill since a few years back.

Having said that since March - August 2011, we've made just over $100 (52 units). This is the royalty amount ie. you have 35% or 70% - for the first 3 months we only had the option of selecting 35% as we were not in the accepted countries for a 70% royalty.

We've tried various pricing: $16.95 (our first sale was a week later after putting up the book), then we experimented with these prices: $9.95, $12.95, $7.95, $2.99. The more reviews and more sales you have, the higher your ranking, pretty obvious.

We've driven traffic to our page through Google Adwords as well as putting out press releases.

All in all, not enough to quit our day jobs of course but, all good, we're taking this as a great learning experience. Obviously we would love more sales but this is the reality.

I think it all comes down to the popularity of your topic and how well you market it.

[raven007]

Hi guys, has amazon changed the way they accept articles ? I purchased james jones course a while back but now i understand it is useless

please pm me.