by Ewan1998 Banned
14 replies
When publishing a book to the Kindle store, does it have to top notch.

Like does everything have to be perfect?

I know the grammar, spelling and all the rest must be good, but is there a standard? I was hoping to sell a book about some money making techniques, but was wondering if I'd be able to get it published on the Kindle Store.

I've heard it isn't as hard as getting a real book published?
#kindle #question
  • Profile picture of the author revstan
    Why don't you try?

    Simplestan
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    • Profile picture of the author PattyK
      Go to Amazon and you can get a lot of free information on kindle publishing.
      Also youtube has some vids on kindle formatting. I know that there are warriors here that do self-publishing and may have a WSO.

      Self-publishing is the way to go!
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  • Profile picture of the author KenJ
    Originally Posted by Ewan1998 View Post

    When publishing a book to the Kindle store, does it have to top notch.

    Like does everything have to be perfect?

    I know the grammar, spelling and all the rest must be good, but is there a standard? I was hoping to sell a book about some money making techniques, but was wondering if I'd be able to get it published on the Kindle Store.

    I've heard it isn't as hard as getting a real book published?
    If you want to create a fan base then your book will have to be top notch. Once you put out a book on Kindle that is average you will not get repeat sales.
    When you say "Is there a standard" I'm not quite sure what you mean. I'm sure my dear old english teacher would be devastated to know I have books in print and on the Kindle. (She is alive and well and living 500 yards from my home - but don't tell her) But I left school 35 years ago. In the meantime I have learnt to write and write well.
    Also you will get occasional reviews. You want these to be positive. A 1 star review will reduce your sales dramatically.

    Kenj
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    • Profile picture of the author Ewan1998
      Banned
      Originally Posted by kenj View Post

      If you want to create a fan base then your book will have to be top notch. Once you put out a book on Kindle that is average you will not get repeat sales.
      When you say "Is there a standard" I'm not quite sure what you mean. I'm sure my dear old english teacher would be devastated to know I have books in print and on the Kindle. (She is alive and well and living 500 yards from my home - but don't tell her) But I left school 35 years ago. In the meantime I have learnt to write and write well.
      Also you will get occasional reviews. You want these to be positive. A 1 star review will reduce your sales dramatically.

      Kenj
      I was planning on releasing it free but I see what you mean. I was thinking of making it about 10-20 pages?
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      • Profile picture of the author KenJ
        Originally Posted by Ewan1998 View Post

        I was planning on releasing it free but I see what you mean. I was thinking of making it about 10-20 pages?
        Hi Ewan
        It would have to be a cracking 10 -20 pages to do well. but it is not unknown. Just Unlikely.

        Kenj
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  • Profile picture of the author marketingva
    Ewan1998,

    Amazon reviews every Kindle book before publishing it so they do have internal standards but if your book doesn't pass their standards you'll get a chance to fix any problems.

    I'm a huge Kindle fan because you can buy books on so many more topics than you can with print books.

    Bonnie
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    Magic Wand Author Services helps writers polish their manuscripts and connect to readers.
    http://www.mwauthorservices.com

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  • Profile picture of the author Curt7
    Kindle sent me a rather abrupt email about a book I had on their platform for a long time. It was a book on credit repair which I had written, but I included all of the laws that were pertinent. I think that including those public laws in a book like that is important. Yet, they pulled the book because that information was freely available elsewhere. They threatened to close my account if I did anything like that again.

    Here's the thing. I have the very same book on Amazon in paperback. It's been there even longer than it was on Kindle, and it sells well. I have to wonder what Kindle's real standard is.
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    • Profile picture of the author tpw
      Originally Posted by Curt7 View Post

      Kindle sent me a rather abrupt email about a book I had on their platform for a long time. It was a book on credit repair which I had written, but I included all of the laws that were pertinent. I think that including those public laws in a book like that is important. Yet, they pulled the book because that information was freely available elsewhere. They threatened to close my account if I did anything like that again.

      Here's the thing. I have the very same book on Amazon in paperback. It's been there even longer than it was on Kindle, and it sells well. I have to wonder what Kindle's real standard is.

      This is something that I refer to as the "STUPID Amazon Bot".

      The issue is that since the PLR-scams were outed by the mainstream press, Amazon has gotten very active in eliminating duplicate content inside book titles.

      The bot is seeing the legalese and assuming that you are copying content from other writers. Well... you are, but your method of doing so should be seen as a positive rather than a negative.

      This is why I say the Amazon bot is STUPID, because it cannot see the positive use of quoting -- among other things -- inside of Kindle books and in our book promotions.

      The bot is seeing "duplicate content" and assuming that we are doing bad things, when in a lot of cases, that is not the case at all.
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  • Profile picture of the author GuruGazette
    I've been publishing Kindle content since 2008 and some things are still a mystery.

    One of my earliest tests is an 8 page non fiction piece that, at best, could be called a long article. It sells like clockwork, gets borrowed in the lending library, has never gotten a review, never been promoted and never been refunded. I'm not even sure if I have it tagged.

    My best seller is somewhere around 40 pages and packed with color photos. I've gotten 5 star reviews for the usefulness and at least one 1 star from someone ticked that it was short and basic (despite the word "Basics" in the title).

    So length doesn't seem to matter drastically and "quality" is in the eye of the beholder.
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    • Profile picture of the author drum.deborah
      You should definitely try for quality but it certainly doesn't have to be perfect. You can even mention in your forward or introduction or even disclaimer that you are just an ordinary person who wants to provide readers with valuable information and to pardon any misspellings or grammar issues. However, it is NOT ACCEPTABLE to have horrible grammar and misspellings because that means that you just didn't tr hard at all.
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Gram
    If you put a book on the Kindle, it should definitely be top notch, both in quality and format/grammar etc.

    Some people think they don't have to do this with a free book but you absolutely should put the best quality out there or else people will either not buy your book, leave negative reviews, not buy your future books, or all of the above.
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  • Profile picture of the author colinph970
    Some simple points for publishing on kindle (or any other platforms);

    Create the best quality content you possibly can - grammar, spelling, punctuation etc

    Get yourself a good cover - 2D not 3D

    Format it correctly - nothing turns off readers quicker than poor formatting

    make sure that the free sample actually lets a potential reader read your book! if the first 10% (that's the amount delivered by the free preview available for all kindle books) is taken up by the cover, licence conditions etc then they never get to see how good the book is and therefore never take the decision to buy

    Tag the book with relevant tags - use the maximum allowance

    Encourage honest feedback and reviews by adding a link into your book

    Monitor sales - if they are not good then modify content, cover or tags to see what makes a difference (I guarantee that at least one of them will!)
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  • Profile picture of the author Tomwood
    Just may sure you get someone to proofread it I put my book up then my mother found numerous mistakes in it. I had to republish and just hope no one brought it while it was being re reviewed.
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  • Profile picture of the author cashcow
    If you want your book to stay on Kindle, it has to be top notch quality.

    People that buy the books there are holding your book to the standard of print books that they have read so you had better make sure it is formatted correctly (including the clickable TOC and has no spelling or grammar errors). People can be merciless when they review your book and will not hesitate to give you a bad review because of these things.

    The problem is that people looking to make a quick buck slapped up so many low quality books that there is now a backlash against it. The next big kindle slap will probably be on books that have formatting, grammar and spelling errors (in fact someone on one of the kindle boards posted the other day that his book was removed from sale because of a malformed sentence).

    Lee
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    Gone Fishing
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