Advice From Published Kindle Authors?

Buy a kindle course like Kindling at WSO section. All your questions will be answered there.
Good luck..

Actually I think all of his questions might be answered in there - do you have it? It's not just a course, Geoff keeps adding to it regularly. His teachings have launched many peoples books into the stratosphere including my own.

But, to answer the questions...

Write as much as you need to make the book complete. Having said that, people are looking for longer books (30,000 words is plenty - I would aim for over 10,000). It's about the reading experience and most people buying books on Amazon are used to buying books in bookstores which take hours/days to read. Make the book as complete as you can.

For promoting non-fiction, you need to use the same techniques you would use for a website or an ebook you would sell from your own site or on Clickbank. You do get a bit of an advantage by being in the Amazon marketplace, but that seems to be diminishing quite rapidly.

One thing I would recommend is putting it in the KDP select program so that you can offer the book for free. This will give your book more visibility and (sometimes) a boost in rankings and more sales.

The best thing you can do is publish several books in the same general niche, then have them link to each other in the back of the book.

Also, setup your author platform over at author central, get a fan page and a website and link to those in the back of the book. On your website put an opt-in so you can collect emails to let them know about your next book.

Publish your book in print using createspace or some other print on demand platform. Some of my books sell way more in paperback than they do on the kindle and, since you've already done the hard part (writing the book) it's just a little more work for formatting and getting a cover.

Speaking of covers - make sure you get a great professionally cover. Thats probably one of the most important things that will get your book noticed in the Amazon marketplace.

Thanks everyone for your help, really appreciated !

Have you answered the question WHY KINDLE first?

If you want to expand your lead-gen efforts in markets that are proving to be hot sellers on Kindle platform, that's a great reason.

If you want to see your book in the Kindle directory - ok, valid answer, but not going to put money in your pocket per se.

If you are like 99% of other people out there looking at Kindle as the shiny new distribution method that is going to turn a staggering or non-existent ebook business into wild riches, then it may be time for a rethink.

We have books on Kindle (main goal is lead gen) and many others NOT on Kindle (bread-and-butter money makers).

Not trying to burst anyone's bubble, but there are so many people peddling Kindle courses that you typically only get one side of the story...when the fact is the people peddling the courses are only making money (real money) from peddling courses.

Jeff

I have been mostly using my book as an offline lead generation tool. My initial goal with it was not to make any money. I will say that there is great advantage to being in the Amazon marketplace, at least in my experience. My book has been for sale (both Kindle and paper versions) for the past month or so. Thus far I've sold a little over 30 copies and the book had been borrowed 10 times. The book is relatively expensive. $12.99 for the paper version and $9.99 for the Kindle version, which is why I'm surprised it's sold this many copies, with zero marketing done by me.

Perhaps it is the attractive cover as I had it professionally designed. Also, interestingly enough, for the first week I didn't sell any copies. It was only after I made it free for 3 days (970+ copies given away in that time span) did it start selling. So I'd venture to say that being enrolled in KDP helped my sales.

As for how many words you should shoot for, it really depends on how much you plan to price your book IMO. My book is 27k words, or 130 pages, and it's sold at a pretty high price. My customers have been happy with it. If your book is only 5k words and you're trying to sell it at the $10 range, I personally would feel ripped off unless your content is amazing. At $0.99 to $2.99 you can get away with 5k to 10k words IMO.

In terms of marketing your book, I HIGHLY recommend that you create and build your "author brand". It can be the difference maker when it comes to success selling on the Kindle.

To market your book and build your brand, make sure you have an author website/blog, social media, free previews of some of your best content, and consistently communicate with your potential book buying fans.

I have to respectfully disagree with Jeff above where he says "the fact is the people peddling the courses are only making money (real money) from peddling courses". This is definitely NOT true. Although some Kindle WSO's that I've bought have been mediocre at best and yes, those people probably make more with the WSO than on Kindle, but the "big ones" (like Geoff Shaw's Kindling) and other comprehensive courses are based on the author's successful Kindle "career".

Kindle is a FANTASTIC way to get your stuff out there for virtually no cost. If you do it the right way, it can be a huge money maker for you. Plus, you can use that Kindle content in many ways to leverage that work into a lot more money.