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Kindle Selling and Fiction

by sgoerger
17 replies
Hi All,

I have been hearing more and more about Kindle publishing on the WF lately (we all have). Like many I am intrigued by this idea as a way to make some good IM money.

That IM money desire in Kindle Publishing also dovetails with my true training and #1 passion: writing fiction. Many times I have thought about going into self-publishing via the Kindle with a collection of short stories of mine, some of which have seen publication in writing journals here and there.

When I say fiction, I should clarify that I mean 'literary fiction' more than genre (thriller, sci fi/fantasy, romance).

I know there are a lot of resources on the web about publishing fiction, self-publishing, and publishing fiction on Kindle. But I would be really interested to hear from any Warriors who also possibly write fiction, and/or sell fiction on Kindle. If you know about genre fiction selling I'd be very interested to hear about that too, it's just not what I have written by and large in the past. Anybody? Or, what do you think of the possibilities of such a model, if you have any insights into the Kindle Marketplace.
#fiction #kindle #selling
  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Evans
    I've been thinking of the same recently and I'm keen to write a fiction book which I've had stabbing at the back of my mind for the past 6 months.

    I'm not sure whether to go all out or to present it as a short story.

    At risk of going off on a tangent, how many words is your typical short story?

    Do you feel that a collection of short stories presented in the same book would add value as opposed to the potential of each thriving on their own through more focused categorization and marketing?

    Appologies for throwing questions back at you!
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    • Profile picture of the author paul wolfe
      A guy who is having great success with Kindle and Fiction - and sharing a lot of his experiences is Sean Platt.

      you'll find him at:

      Ghostwriter Dad | Ghostwriting Advice ?

      HTH



      Paul
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      • Profile picture of the author sgoerger
        Originally Posted by paul wolfe View Post

        A guy who is having great success with Kindle and Fiction - and sharing a lot of his experiences is Sean Platt.

        you'll find him at:

        Ghostwriter Dad | Ghostwriting Advice ?

        HTH



        Paul

        Wow, that'll be my reading for the weekend Paul, thank you! Great link there, and it's appreciated.
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott Burton
      Originally Posted by Daniel Evans View Post

      I've been thinking of the same recently and I'm keen to write a fiction book which I've had stabbing at the back of my mind for the past 6 months.

      I'm not sure whether to go all out or to present it as a short story.

      At risk of going off on a tangent, how many words is your typical short story?

      Do you feel that a collection of short stories presented in the same book would add value as opposed to the potential of each thriving on their own through more focused categorization and marketing?

      Appologies for throwing questions back at you!
      I can't speak for any one individual author's typical short story, but if you mean the conceptual size of a short story, some of the measures are "can be completed in one sitting" which in modern parlance may not mean one single time period. Some definitions place short stories in the 1,000-9,000 word range, while in contemporary usage it typically means a story not exceeding 20,000 words and not less than 1,000 words.

      My works of fiction are almost always at least in the novella category by the time they are completed.

      The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America defines these for the purpose of their Nebula Award categories as:
      40,000+ words = Novel
      17,500-40,000 words = Novella
      7,500-17,500 words = novelette
      under 7,500 words = short story
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    • Profile picture of the author sgoerger
      Originally Posted by Daniel Evans View Post

      I've been thinking of the same recently and I'm keen to write a fiction book which I've had stabbing at the back of my mind for the past 6 months.

      I'm not sure whether to go all out or to present it as a short story.

      At risk of going off on a tangent, how many words is your typical short story?

      Do you feel that a collection of short stories presented in the same book would add value as opposed to the potential of each thriving on their own through more focused categorization and marketing?

      Appologies for throwing questions back at you!
      Hey Daniel, no worries on the questions back at me, it's great if this is thread helps us all spark ideas.

      My story lengths usually end up 6,000 - 8,000, which is a somewhat long 'short story' in the modern day...just a little on the long side I think.

      I'm not sure which would be the best way to tackle marketing my stories, at all. Seems possible that selling them separately, or even in duos or trios, makes sense. Another possibility might be to take one and give it as a freebie as a leader for the whole collection. I suppose it is very much like the music industry 10 years ago when all the artists had to start fumbling through how to sell their songs: individually, albums, what?

      Good luck with your book!
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  • Profile picture of the author danr62
    Also check out Kindleboards.com. Here's a link to the writer's subforum there:

    Writers' Cafe
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  • Profile picture of the author George Wright
    Many of the how to SEO and MMO books are fiction. (sorry need coffee)
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    "The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book." Mickey Spillane
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    • Profile picture of the author Canuckystan
      I write and sell fiction on Kindle.

      Bottom line is this: do it for fun not money, unless you can dedicate to marketing it full-time.

      I've got 4 out of 5 stars, many great reviews, etc etc and I still only sell a handful per month. When I was marketing it many hours a day I reached about 200 per month, but that doesn't translate to much of anything money-wise.

      There are millions of self-published fiction books - you have to work hard consistently and for a long period of time to get noticed.

      No different from traditional publishing in that sense anyway.
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    • Profile picture of the author KenJ
      Hi sgoerger

      Like you, my passion is writing. Kindle publishing is now central to my future income.
      My first 2 books were cookbooks. One is a good seller and the other sells only a few copies per month.
      In November 2011, I launched my first novel. Sales were slow to start with but have now exceeded a sale a day. From experience I know that this will increase substantially. My goal is ten copies per day.
      Books on Kindle need to gain momentum. Once they have it they will maintain their sales.
      I am currently researching my second novel which I hope to complete by the summer.

      Good Luck with your books

      Kenj
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    • Profile picture of the author Aussie_Al
      Originally Posted by George Wright View Post

      Many of the how to SEO and MMO books are fiction. (sorry need coffee)

      BUHAHHAAH

      Touche!
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  • Profile picture of the author Canadian 51
    I am aware of two fiction authors, who have been very successful with self-publishing (including Kindle) and have shared their methods. Both write action/thriller fiction, but they may have ideas that would be useful.

    J.A. Konrath wrote "The Newbie's Guide to Publishing", which is huge - over 1,100 pages. It covers every imaginable aspect of self-publishing and has a Kindle chapter. The book is available as a free download at Konrath's blog (sorry, don't remember the name).

    The other one is John Locke, one of the most successful authors on Kindle. He wrote "How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months" - and what he says in the title is true. I bought the book from Amazon as a Kindle edition (I think the price was about $5).

    Hope this helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author RussellJ
      Originally Posted by Canadian 51 View Post

      I am aware of two fiction authors, who have been very successful with self-publishing (including Kindle) and have shared their methods. Both write action/thriller fiction, but they may have ideas that would be useful.

      J.A. Konrath wrote "The Newbie's Guide to Publishing", which is huge - over 1,100 pages. It covers every imaginable aspect of self-publishing and has a Kindle chapter. The book is available as a free download at Konrath's blog (sorry, don't remember the name).

      The other one is John Locke, one of the most successful authors on Kindle. He wrote "How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months" - and what he says in the title is true. I bought the book from Amazon as a Kindle edition (I think the price was about $5).

      Hope this helps.
      http://www.jakonrath.com/TheNewbiesG...ishingBook.pdf

      or on Amazon

      The Newbie's Guide to Publishing (Everything A...The Newbie's Guide to Publishing (Everything A...
      and

      Amazon.com: The Newbie's Guide to Publishing...Amazon.com: The Newbie's Guide to Publishing...
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      Russell

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  • Profile picture of the author YasirYar
    I think it is only worth it if you truly enjoy writing fiction. If it is a hobby and you want to earn a tiny income for not doing much (or a very average income after spending several hours a day marketing it) then selling Kindle fiction is a good idea. If you're doing it for money, I don't think you should. Not too many people buy it, unless you get incredibly famous.
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  • Profile picture of the author lotsofsnow
    You can make a lot of money by writing fiction.

    Do not get discouraged by some people that tell you otherwise.

    Sure you have to enjoy the writing but that does not mean that you have to starve to death just because you are a writer.

    John Locke's bock is definitely a good start. Marketing is something that can be learned and if you know how to do it is is not boring or tedious.

    The most important step is the market research. That is where some writer fail. They think that just because they think their story is just plain beautiful the rest of the world should love it too.
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  • Profile picture of the author marktheonlinesurfer
    I do know for a fact that some people are making a killing writing fiction Kindle books. I would def give it a go!
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  • Profile picture of the author TycoonRob
    I've outsourced a series of short fiction books and they are selling slowly, but picking up steam. A lot of it has to do with GREAT REVIEWS. The social aspect of it really is huge. Plus, be sure to market the books with a website or an Author Central account at least so you can get repeat buyers.
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  • Profile picture of the author zamzung
    I have just one question for OP ... he says "I'm thinking about it" ... but why don't you try and see for yourself how that will work for you?

    I mean, it's not hard to publish book on Kindle just to see how it will work with natural Amazon's traffic... you can devote one of your stories for that project, or write a completely new one... I don't think that's a problem, right?

    Also, you can check on Amazon to see what is selling there right now... you can see some genres are hot sellers for a long time... which means Amazon's traffic like that genre... so you can fit into it and probably do good... no matter what you are saying about not being a genre guy...

    Next, there was some pretty good WSOs about this subject, and some of them were devoted to marketing your Kindle book... recently was a pretty good one... and also you can check stuff from Paul Coleman... I'm not saying it's easy to market your Kindle book, but it's achievable for sure without spending whole days on marketing...

    Even if you are not so much into marketing, you can hire someone to do marketing for your Kindle books, if you love writing and think you can achieve good results and feedback with your books... I mean, let's get real here... if people love your books, they will give you positive reviews, the more reviews you get, the more sales you will get... especially if someone is doing some marketing out there for your books... I think it's all about the content and not just marketing... if you have a great book, you won't need a lot of marketing help...

    But, as I said, you should try and see how it will work for you... I would say that Kindle game is not fast game... take it slowly and build up your reputation as an author... that's also one important part of the whole story... it looks to me like Kindle publishing is not much different than any other part of online business - build reputation, build list and connect with your readers... if readers like your content, you won't need to do any "big" marketing in the future because your readers will search for you... few years before who knew about John Locke? But now people go on Amazon and search directly for his name... that's not built over night for sure...

    So, maybe your first, second, fifth book won't be success, but tenth book could bring in lot of money because you already have built up your readers list and they like your work... after that it's easy to write because you love to write... but before that it's all about getting to that point, and that requires work and action, not just thinking...
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