Need to Market my Amazon Kindle Ebook Business and How Much Should I Charge

18 replies
Ok. Let me tell you a little about myself.
I started IM about 2 years ago. I failed at everything I did until Jan. or Feb. of 2009. That is when I got into Amazon Kindle ebooks and have done well with it. I sell thousands and thousands of ebooks every month on Amazon. All of my ebooks are in the public domain. I have a couple of people that help me and I make enough to pay them and meet all of my monthly expenses. It also pays for my full time college education. My wife is a stay at home Mom and we have 4 children. In fact this is our only income and has been since last July.

I tried to get into CPA to diversify. I put in a couple of hours a week the last couple of months and quite a bit of time the first of this summer but I am having poor results. I put it on the back burner a couple of days ago, and have been brainstorming again ever since.

I just had an idea but I don't know how to market it.

I would like to sell my formatted public domain ebooks to others so that they can resale them on Amazon. Now I know that since they are in the public domain anyone can find the books, format them, and sell them themselves. However, I know the process inside and out and can do it very quickly. It also takes some time to learn. After you have formatted hundreds of books it is a very grueling process. I have also had several people ask me to do small jobs for them, so I know that it could work.

So how can I market this?

It is obvious to me that I am a little marketing challenged. My marketing campaigns have not done well (adsense, CPA, etc.). The reason that my Amazon books sell is because of Amazon's marketing not mine.

It seems like all the WSO's are ebooks and a few software programs. Not services. Would this even be allowed?

I know that there is a classified section on the Warrior Forum, but I have never checked it out. Would that be the way to go? If yes what are the charges?

What other ways could I market this?

How much should I charge?

After a quick vision of some nice looking dollar signs, I quickly realized that this has to be a win, win scenario. I would rather build several long term relationships with a few people, instead of making a couple of good sales off of them.

I was thinking that I could offer 1 formatted ebook for $5 or 3 ebooks for $10. I could also provide additional discounts for larger orders.

I could even offer a service to run someone's enter account. this would include formatting the ebook, creating a book cover and everything else required to make the book go live. Then my client could always log in and check his reports, and then collect the monthly direct deposits.

What do you think?
Do you think that I have a solid idea? Am I forgetting anything? I would love to hear what you guys think.
#amazon #charge #domain #ebook #idea #kindle #market #public
  • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
    I thought Amazon was restricting public domain works because they didn't want multiple publishers publishing the same book. Is that not correct or have they changed the rules?
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    • Profile picture of the author imon32red
      Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

      I thought Amazon was restricting public domain works because they didn't want multiple publishers publishing the same book. Is that not correct or have they changed the rules?
      They stopped last year but after a couple of months they redesigned their program and started accepting them again. The problem was the formatting. There were dishonest marketers uploading crap to their platform. Now they inspect each book to make sure that it is a quality product before accepting it.

      I had 50+ go active last week.
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      I'm not selling anything.
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      • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
        Can you also make books ready for the iPad? If you could bundle Kindle and iPad conversions, you'd cover a good chunk of the digital book market.

        Plus, one of my eBooks has color images and those probably wouldn't work out too well on the Kindle.
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        • Profile picture of the author imon32red
          Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

          Can you also make books ready for the iPad? If you could bundle Kindle and iPad conversions, you'd cover a good chunk of the digital book market.

          Plus, one of my eBooks has color images and those probably wouldn't work out too well on the Kindle.
          I have not had any luck working with the iPad. I don't think they allow public domain books through their iBooks store. You would have to market the books through an app, and there are plenty of people doing that now. The Amazon Kindle App allows books that are sold for the Kindle to be read on the iPad. At this time I am not pursuing the iPad in any other way then the Kindle App.

          If you have written a book yourself there are ways to sell it for the iPad through a publisher or self publisher. I looked in to it a while ago. I don't remember what companies will do this but it seems like Lulu does.

          As far as the images go the Kindle shows them in a grayscale. They actually work out quite well. As time goes on I believe that the Kindle will continue to attract book readers. Their reader is geared towards people that read books. The iPad can do all kinds of things that the Kindle can not, but is harder on the eyes and more difficult to read in sunlit conditions. If you have an interactive book the iPad is absolutely amazing. check out the Alice in Wonderland book for the iPad on Youtube.
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          • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
            The book I have with color images would very likely not work in grayscale. They are part of a series of visually-oriented tests. Some of them are hard enough as it is, and grayscale makes it a lot harder. And less natural.

            I do have a fair amount of under-noticed public domain titles, though. And they wouldn't need color. What formats can you work with?
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            • Profile picture of the author imon32red
              Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

              The book I have with color images would very likely not work in grayscale. They are part of a series of visually-oriented tests. Some of them are hard enough as it is, and grayscale makes it a lot harder. And less natural.

              I do have a fair amount of under-noticed public domain titles, though. And they wouldn't need color. What formats can you work with?
              I prefer Word doc's or HTML. If I can cut and paste the book it will work.

              I don't like to work with PDF's. Amazon just added zoom to the Kindle for PDF's which makes it easier. But customers prefer the HTML files because they can change the font size and the Kindle will repaginate the book for them. You cannot do this with a PDF.

              What are you doing with your public domain titles now?
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              • Profile picture of the author imon32red
                Does anyone have any marketing ideas for me?
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                • Profile picture of the author pierrebenoit
                  How do you charge (in average) for any book in kindle? I would like to publish my first kindle from PD, and I think $9.99 is more. I began to have some sale with paperback book.

                  According to the succes you have now, I will tell you not to market your service.
                  This is the road I will take:
                  - Publish the book version
                  - Publish translation (french, spain,...) of by best selling book
                  - Publish other book from CB-> Kindle

                  Hope this help
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            • Profile picture of the author tj
              Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

              The book I have with color images would very likely not work in grayscale. They are part of a series of visually-oriented tests. Some of them are hard enough as it is, and grayscale makes it a lot harder. And less natural.

              I do have a fair amount of under-noticed public domain titles, though. And they wouldn't need color. What formats can you work with?
              Dan, if your book has a lot of colored images and you want to publish it in this way then it would be better to go with the Ipad option, the Kindle is in the moment "only" a EReader with a 16 level grey scale display.

              Timo
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              • Profile picture of the author imon32red
                Originally Posted by tj View Post

                Dan, if your book has a lot of colored images and you want to publish it in this way then it would be better to go with the Ipad option, the Kindle is in the moment "only" a EReader with a 16 level grey scale display.

                Timo
                Timo,

                Have you had anything published for the iPad. I have a book that I am working on (if I ever finish it) that I was going to try and get on the iPad through LuLu. If there is an easier way I am all ears.
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  • Profile picture of the author PaulaC
    I'm not sure I understand. You are wanting to sell 3 ready-to-go ebooks for only $10? Wouldn't it be better for you to put those ebooks up on Amazon yourself and make money from that rather than sell them?
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    • Profile picture of the author tj
      Originally Posted by PaulaC View Post

      I'm not sure I understand. You are wanting to sell 3 ready-to-go ebooks for only $10? Wouldn't it be better for you to put those ebooks up on Amazon yourself and make money from that rather than sell them?
      Paula, this way the potential buyer of this book has already a head start with Kindle ready formatted files and can start right away to sell them to Kindle Readers. If you ever tried to format a Word File for the Kindle the first time then you know it is a bit different then to just upload a file there without proper formatting.

      Timo
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Travis
    Here is an idea you may want to pursue:
    Create the Kindle book as you normally do to sell it on Amazon. Create a simple website with a simple sales page, privacy policy, contacts page, etc. All the pages Google likes. Let the Kindle book go live on Amazon. Once the book starts to make sales then keep track of those sales for a month. Turn around and sell the Kindle book and website on Flippa for 4 to 10 times what you make a month from the Kindle book.

    I just searched for "Published Amazon Book" on Flippa and found several that have sold for $150 and up in just the past few weeks. These books didn't have any sales yet either. People on Flippa are lazy and want something that makes them a few bucks a month. Once you have a template for the website setup you can just copy, paste and update.

    You may want to take books you currently have that are only making a few sales per month and create a website for them and sell the book and website. This would be a good way to dump the losers and keep the profit makers.

    Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author tj
    Originally Posted by imon32red View Post

    Ok. Let me tell you a little about myself.
    I started IM about 2 years ago. I failed at everything I did until Jan. or Feb. of 2009. That is when I got into Amazon Kindle ebooks and have done well with it. I sell thousands and thousands of ebooks every month on Amazon. All of my ebooks are in the public domain. I have a couple of people that help me and I make enough to pay them and meet all of my monthly expenses. It also pays for my full time college education. My wife is a stay at home Mom and we have 4 children. In fact this is our only income and has been since last July.

    I tried to get into CPA to diversify. I put in a couple of hours a week the last couple of months and quite a bit of time the first of this summer but I am having poor results. I put it on the back burner a couple of days ago, and have been brainstorming again ever since.

    I just had an idea but I don't know how to market it.

    I would like to sell my formatted public domain ebooks to others so that they can resale them on Amazon. Now I know that since they are in the public domain anyone can find the books, format them, and sell them themselves. However, I know the process inside and out and can do it very quickly. It also takes some time to learn. After you have formatted hundreds of books it is a very grueling process. I have also had several people ask me to do small jobs for them, so I know that it could work.

    So how can I market this?

    It is obvious to me that I am a little marketing challenged. My marketing campaigns have not done well (adsense, CPA, etc.). The reason that my Amazon books sell is because of Amazon's marketing not mine.

    It seems like all the WSO's are ebooks and a few software programs. Not services. Would this even be allowed?

    I know that there is a classified section on the Warrior Forum, but I have never checked it out. Would that be the way to go? If yes what are the charges?

    What other ways could I market this?

    How much should I charge?

    After a quick vision of some nice looking dollar signs, I quickly realized that this has to be a win, win scenario. I would rather build several long term relationships with a few people, instead of making a couple of good sales off of them.

    I was thinking that I could offer 1 formatted ebook for $5 or 3 ebooks for $10. I could also provide additional discounts for larger orders.

    I could even offer a service to run someone's enter account. this would include formatting the ebook, creating a book cover and everything else required to make the book go live. Then my client could always log in and check his reports, and then collect the monthly direct deposits.

    What do you think?
    Do you think that I have a solid idea? Am I forgetting anything? I would love to hear what you guys think.
    Where do you see your target market? WF or outside of WF?

    Timo
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    • Profile picture of the author imon32red
      Originally Posted by tj View Post

      Where do you see your target market? WF or outside of WF?

      Timo
      So far I have done better outside of the Warrior Forum. Most of the people from the Warrior Forum are starting out in IM and don't want to spend money. I don't blame them, this is where I started.

      I have been thinking about creating a website to list the books that I currently have available. I have to admit though that I struggle a little with website design. What would be ideal would be a site that has a cart, checkout and then automatically sends the ebooks to an email address.
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      I'm not selling anything.
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      • Profile picture of the author tj
        Originally Posted by imon32red View Post

        So far I have done better outside of the Warrior Forum. Most of the people from the Warrior Forum are starting out in IM and don't want to spend money. I don't blame them, this is where I started.

        I have been thinking about creating a website to list the books that I currently have available. I have to admit though that I struggle a little with website design. What would be ideal would be a site that has a cart, checkout and then automatically sends the ebooks to an email address.
        One market that you can try is to reach out to writer of books (not here in the WF) to advertise your service. Regarding a website - I have sent you a pm.

        Timo
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        • Profile picture of the author Raineagain
          I think you can market a range of products related to helping other Imers do exactly what you are doing. I have sent you a pm
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