Tips for Kindle Publishers (or anyone who wants to be one)

hi Amanda,Just thinking to start kindle business,Thanks for the Tips.

I haven't seen any one on one mentors but there are tons of great products and tons of free information out there!

Great advice Amanda - actually thats more information than I've seen in some WSO's!

I love your advice on getting an editor - can't stress that enough. I consider myself to be a pretty decent writer and didn't have an editor for my first couple of books. Guess what? Someone found a few spelling errors and gave me a bad review for it! They are brutal about that stuff over there so it pays to make sure your book is edited and formatted correctly.

Another thing that I have been doing is publishing my books in paperback on Createspace. You have to have a good size book for this - at least 100 pages - otherwise the book is too thin and customers will be disappointed when they get it.

One of mine is 200 pages so it makes a nice paperback and I sell about one of those a day plus it seems to have increased the sales of my kindle version.

If you already have the book made, then getting it on createspace is just a matter of some formatting and a cover and you can make some extra money!

Lee

The first step is that you need to learn how to become a good writer or you need to have good story ideas and can hire a good ghost writer. Poorly written books will never do well for very long on Amazon. I've seen several Kindle books that looked good with the cover design and description, but were slaughtered in the user reviews.

Good advice, Amanda.

Where are the best places to find good editors?

Those are all good tips. There's a lot more when it comes to marketing your book, but those are all very solid points to start with.

Createspace not only helps with your business credibility, it also helps sell more books - Kindle and paperback alike. Having a paperback book for sale on amazon, right there along with your kindle version will cause people to psychologically value your book higher than, say, just a Kindle book of another title. Also, having a paperback lets you cover more amazon real estate. Your book can come up in results twice. And, I don't know why, I'm selling more paperbacks than kindle books.

You have to be sure you know what you need in terms of an editor. A lot of times, you only need a proofreader instead. Proofreaders will go through the book looking for grammatical and sentence structure errors. Editors may proofread as well as change content in your book; among other things. You should be able to get a proofreader cheaper than an editor.

I do 1 on 1 mentoring/book publishing for self publishers.

What is a good length to make a book valued at 2.99? Just curious, as I've been thinking about doing this as well.

Great thread!

Another one: make full use of your About the Author page on Amazon....they give you free marketing tools, so use them!

I haven't published anything on Kindle but I have interviewed a couple of bestsellers in the romantic fiction niche and this is what I got from them:

1. Give the readers what they want to read. This is not hard to figure out, just look at the Top 100 list; a great example in the romantic fiction genre is the current obsession with paranormal romance, I guess we can thank the Twilight saga for that.

2. Always ALWAYS give killer content. Your book should be one that will have the readers raving because you need them raving so they can leave fantastic reviews for you.

3. Give them the complete experience. Don't take a single story and break it into 5 different stories simply because you want to charge more from your readers. This is particularly relevant in fiction writing. You can write series, yes; but make each one a complete reading experience for the buyer.

4. Nail it with the Cover. I'm a buyer and each time, the cover is what makes me decide whether I'm going to click to find out more or not.

5. Build your platform. You should start this as soon as you start thinking you might want to publish a book. Don't wait till you're already published...get networking; build a blog and relate with other bloggers in your genre.

There's so much more when it comes to being a successful publisher on Kindle but I hope these help someone.

Great advice, Amanda . Okay hate me, but I'm glad that Amazon kicks the publishers that upload the PLR's to Kindle -- that would make this precious marketplace flooded with crap! (sorry for shouting). I've been writing for magazines before I jumped to IM, both fiction and non-fiction, and quality is a MUST if you want to make money in the far longer term.

I think another tips are :

1. give your reader a sample.

2. make a short sales letter in your blog about your book. not that kind of hard selling, but more of informative article on what this book can do + testimonials from free review.

3. Involve in a writers community. I joined one in my country, and got tremendous value from it : from writing tips, senior mentors, and people who were willing to be proofreader for my work and giving feedback - all for free of charge. These were the same people who would charge you $$ if you're outside the community. Even if you're doing Kindle for "internet marketing", it indirectly makes you a writer too. Okay, unless you hire a ghostwriter for it.

Here's some other marketing methods that work. I seen positive results from most of these. Haven't done blog tour yet.

1. Press releases for your book.
2. Blog Tour
3. FB Ads (or other PPC)
4. Amazon Reviews
5. KDP Select

Never believe that the cheaper the price the better since it's not actually true.

Great thread.

My issue - I can't find any good info on putting images within a Kindle publication. I am using MS Word and I have my image running along the sides. I know to save the file as a webpage, but when converted to Kindle content - it doesn't translate - images are all messed up. I don't need help with the cover - that is easy. But inner images - there is not a lot of documentation out there. Any help? Thanks!

What is PLR?

Enjoyed reading the thread. Just starting to look at Kindle and this is helpful.

This is very helpful to me...I will definitely have to start on a book project. Thanks for the tips!

Yeah definitely don't use PLR as your Kindle products. I know a fellow who got his account and products closed because of it.

Why you need self esteem eBook: Carol Finlayson:...
I would so appreciate feedback esp about the cover. I use 3d on my website but you might be right about not using 3d on kindle.

Di Heuser from the forum did all the formating for Kindle and she is simply awesome at this stuff

This is a great thread. I've had some success with my Kindle books, with one being especially successful and reaching the number 1 position in a couple of categories. What I do find difficult is keeping the momentum going concerning sales. As time goes by the sales slowly decrease to only a handful as more competition comes along.

Does anyone have ideas for keeping the momentum going a bit longer? I always enroll in the KDP Select and have used their promotions to good effect, but I find the second time I use the promotion it becomes far less effective. I guess one part of this depends on how competitive the niche is, but I would be interested if anyone has any other ideas for reinvigorating sales or is it just best to move on and concentrate on publishing new titles?

I like the idea of press releases and using a proofreader/editor is also a great suggestion. Thanks.

Three Tips:

1. If you've gone to the trouble of writing a book... don't limit yourself to Kindle.

If your book is long enough (100+ pages) consider a hard copy version by self-publishing on Createspace.

After that, look into other distribution channels including Smashwords, ePubit, and MYO.

2. Think long and hard before enrolling in KDP Select:

Don't enroll in KDP Select without weighing the pros and cons. Biggest con right now - you can't distribute in other channels while you wait for KDP Select to expire and if you aren't careful - the 90 day term will turn into a 180 day term - because 'as a courtesy' Amazon will auto re-enroll you into their KDP Select program at the end of the first 90 days.

Also, giving away free books doesn't necessarily improve your sales or rankings (in the long run)...so, being locked into that program for 180 days (if you don't opt-out of auto enroll) could be beneficial for Amazon but not for you.

3. Join writing groups, master mind Facebook and Skype and G+ groups, and forums for writers. Writing is a lonely business and some groups can help you with everything from writing techniques to editing to marketing suggestions.

Hi Amanda, good tips!! Know of any good ideas for getting reviews that won't violate Amazon's terms and conditions. I like the idea of gifting books to someone that will read and review in exchange for the same. I wonder if there are any takers for that sort of thing here on the Warrior Forum?
53

Thanks so much for this thread! I'm going to go back through it and take notes. I have a self-pubbed nonfiction book that came out in 2003, and with all the Kindle craze I've been reading about, I've been wanting to re-release it in digital format. I appreciate everyone's input & suggestions!

Hi Amanda,

How do you decide on your titles and subject matter?
I want to know:
(i) the keyphrases people are searching for in the MMO niche on Kindle, and (ii) how to appear at the top of an Amazon Kindle search?

Thanks
Richard

This was a great thread Amanda. I've been wanting to try Kindle. You should put your experience together in a WSO! I would buy it!

Great thread. I'm slowly starting on my fiction book series and will want to self publish them. a couple of questions:

1. Does publishing more than one book at once actually help with Amazon listing results?

2. Can anyone recommend good online forums and communities for writers?

PLR is totally prohibited in Amazon Kindle, a lot of accounts get closed permanently as a result of that.

I am still learning kindle publishing.

Do you recommend any product or products for that?

Mike,

Great thread. Thanks for starting it Amanda. I too am writing ebooks and will be publishing them on Amazon.

I'd suggest that people not put all of their (ebook) eggs in one basket, aka Amazon. I'm coming from the fiction part of the equation, and there's an ongoing debate among Indies/self publishers on whether or not to just upload at Amazon and nowhere else.

Personally, I think this is shortsighted. The more and different people who see your ebook, the better.

But I digress. :-)

Two sites you might want to consider - Barnes and Noble (B&N) and Smashwords (SW). With Smashwords, you can upload your book and, thru their Meatgrinder, they will slice and dice your Word doc until it's in several different formats: mobi (Kindle); ePub (Nook, etc.); iBook (esp. good for those of us who don't have Macs :-)); PDF; and couple of other formats I can't think of.

SW is also good for those outside the U.S. who want to get on B&N (Nook), since B&N doesn't allow non-U.S. people to upload to their site (silly, I know). I could have set up a separate account at B&N, but I'm lazy, so I let SW do that for me. It's really great to go into my SW dashboard and see books that have sold on Sony, for example.

Just something to consider. :-)

Nancy

I'd suggest that people not put all of their (ebook) eggs in one basket, aka Amazon. I'm coming from the fiction part of the equation, and there's an ongoing debate among Indies/self publishers on whether or not to just upload at Amazon and nowhere else.

Personally, I think this is shortsighted. The more and different people who see your ebook, the better.

But I digress. :-)

Two sites you might want to consider - Barnes and Noble (B&N) and Smashwords (SW). With SW, you can upload your book and, thru their Meatgrinder, they will slice and dice your Word doc until it's in several different formats: mobi (Kindle); ePub (Nook, etc.); iBook (esp. good for those of us who don't have Macs :-)); PDF; and some other formats I can't think of.

SW is also good for those outside the U.S. who want to get on B&N (Nook), since B&N doesn't allow non-U.S. people to upload to their site (silly, I know). I could have set up a separate account at B&N, but I'm lazy, so I let SW do that for me. It's really great to go into my SW dashboard and see books that have sold on Sony, for example.

Just something to consider. :-)

Nancy

I am a real estate investor and currently have 24 rental units. What suggestions do you have for someone like me where I published my first book on real estate investing. Here is my book . I have done zilch to promote the book that was published on Kindle last year and in print on December 31, 2011. In the 30 days of April I have sold a combined 49 copies. What do you recommend that I do now that my book has been published to generate some noise about it, increase sales and get it moving up the amazon rankings?

What is the estimated up-front cost required? For front cover design, proof reading, promoting, etc.

Great thread, Amanda. I'm one of those looking to move into self publishing using Kindle anors.

What's the go with pen names? Some say you should publish under your own name to build a brand. Others say go pen names for different genres/niches.

Which is the better option?

Amanda,

Huge help in this thread. From what I've read, seen and experienced, I think your offer to mentor new authors would be popular. Can you re-kindle your former Kindle book biz into a mentoring service?

Kater

I have a question in regards to marketing Kindle products....

You mentioned doing PRs and setting up a niche site to market your book. Wouldn't it be better to use that marketing method to direct your traffic to a non-kindle sales page to keep the full amount of your sale? Or do you have to use Amazon site for the customer to physically DL the book onto the eReader?

I've noticed people will buy your book from Amazon and lot quicker than they will from your own site. I think there's a bit of credibility with Amazon which makes it so much easier for people to 'trust'.

It does look suspect when there are a lot of 5 star reviews with nothing else. When I ask friends/reviewers to write me a review, I'll actually ask for a couple 4 stars. Also, there's a copywriting technique that involves a very well scripted 1 star review that actually can help sell your book and reduce refunds. This is valuable because a lot of people can see the most popular 5 star review compared next to the 1 star review. It's nice to tackle the 1 star review before somebody else does. But hopefully, you don't get any more 1 star reviews.

There's an old saying that good teachers are generous. Clearly, it applies to writers as well. Thanks, Amanda, for a lot of info, and a good read.

Thanks Amanda for the post. I have just began publishing my first ebook and will be using kindle to get started. This is really useful information. I will have to use the tips in developing and promoting my ebook.

Thanks for bringing out a juicy can of worms Amanda. I first learned about the kindle business from Ty Cohen He breaks things down to the T and his course is current.

My biggest Kindle tip is to take it seriously. Don't think you can put up some crappy BS book and make a fortune. In addition to writing a killer quality book, you need to market and promote it to help it sell.

There are WAY too many people who think they can publish anything and get rich on the Kindle. It's laughable.

Have you tried promoting your books (or others) with amazon associate affiliate links? It appears to be explicitly allowed and has some interesting potential.

I 110% agree with Amanda in that quality prevails and you should make sure of that. My ebook I outsourced and got created for $40 then ebook cover from fiverr total project cost = $45, total net profit $132.23 - $45 = $87.23 so far from ONE EBOOK on complete autopilot. So all I need to do is scale and create more ebook in this niche. So some more research I can scale it out to another 10-15+ and reach a passive income of around $1k+

Again this is producing high quality short books that solves my customers problems or gives them more information and understanding in that particular area.

where does one find a ghost writer who will produce a quality and complete ebook for 40 bucks?

fantastic thread ! Amanda I would appreciate any feedback you can give. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-need-sel...5966612&sr=8-2

before I found Di Heuser I was struggling like crazy to get this book out there. Di formatted it, wrote sales pages, helped me with competitions and got it on to Kindle and did it so fast and made the process fun... I cant sing her praises high enough

if you want to get your book out there and you want someone to make it easy, fast and enjoyable then get in touch with Di

http://the-nitty-gritty.biz/

The FB ads were difficult to track because I directed them to my Kindle book (which was already getting sales). I did notice an increase in sales but there was no way to determine how much exactly because Kindle's sales reports are terrible and don't give you any information. Edit: I would do the ads again however.

Reviews from Amazon verified purchases are the best. If you want to get some of those, you can send your book to reviewers as a gift. You have to pay for the book but the verified purchase review is worth it. Make sure you're logged in to Amazon and go to your book. Where the 'Add to cart' button usually is, you will see a 'Give as Gift' button. Send this to people and the reviews are verified.

I would add that if you outsource your writing at all, make sure you check it for copies. I also love spreading out my "eggs" my publishing at Barnes & Nobles -Pubit.com site and Smashwords as well. Thanks for sharing!

Kristie from Georgia

I wouldn't mind reaching out to Kindle reader. It sounds like a rather lucrative potential for profit. I like the tip about not using PLR. It definitely is better to "go original."

question...

What is the best way to determine what niches are selling the most on kindle right now?

Another thing that a lot of people seem to overlook is that one of the best things you can do with your Kindle books is to use them to build your brand and reputation. When you create authority and credibility in your market a lot more people will start listening to you and that's when you can offer them higher priced services such as courses and coaching. It could work in most niches.

Thanks everyone for adding up your 2 cents.
really helped a lot.

Great thread! One quick question though. Can I publish kindle ebooks without a kindle? I want to try my luck in kindle publishing too. Problem is, I don't have a kindle. I want to penetrate the romance fiction niche since I've read that it's great niche to try on plus I love writing fictional stories

What a fabulous thread! Thanks for starting it Amanda!

As an editor, I was thrilled to see all the positive comments about the benefits of using an editor. I often find people underestimate the value of hiring a good proofreader and/or editor.

This was a very refreshing thread!

I've just watched 14 videos from a WSO I bought a few months ago and I've fallen in love with Kindle publishing, more so dare I say it than blogging.

I'm just trying to format my first one now. Can't wait to get it up.

continuing the theme here, here's a tip on formatting - formatting is easier than you might think.....it is actually possible in word but I've had variable results. The best way i've found is to use Sigil to write the book and then transfer into Calibre to convert to a .mobi file. Very easy and smart results.

Great thread! keep it alive!!!

Hey guys... interesting discussing. I was hoping people might chime and help me out with my current issue.

Just recently, my assistant and I published 8 high-quality ghostwritten ebooks in the same niche onto Kindle.

The next step in the process for us is getting purchases, reviews, likes, and tags. I am well aware that purchasing reviews is against Amazon TOS - read it plenty of times on this forum. Here's a different question...

- Anybody know if it is against AzonTOS to pay someone on fiverr to buy a book, like it, and tag it but not review it?


Other ways to get reviews...

What are your best methods?

I've heard...

- Ask friends, family, and business partners and give them a free copy (no thanks!)
- Find "professional reviewers" in Amazon's "top reviewers" section and offer them a free copy
- Ask blog owners in your niche to review (and get them to leave a link to your book on the site while they're at it)

All of these sounds tedious and awful. And if you do find people to review, if you give them a free copy, then they're not verified purchasers. Maybe it's something to be outsourced to a Philippine worker to go out and hunt these reviews. Unless anybody has any better ideas....?

Kindle previewer - delete it and then re-install it. You will probably find that will solve the problem.

it should look good with excellent formatting.......mine always look good and far superior to any that I tried to format with Word.

Really great to see enthusiasm for good copyediting as well as editing. A project for someone with time: charge a penny apiece to correct misuse of "its" and "it's" on website copy. You could own a small country in a year! Amanda, you make a good mentor just through this thread.

Hi Amanda,

I’m interested in the idea of press releases and I just wanted to ask you a few questions:

I presume you publish your books under pen names. Does that mean when you write a press release, you also include a fictional bio of the author?

I also remember reading that you don’t spend any money on promotion, so I assume that includes sending out the press releases? I’ve never tried/written a press release before, so I’m a complete novice in that respect. From the small amount of info I’ve read regarding these, I’ve heard the services of: WebWire.com and PRWeb.com as being recommended, although they are both not free. Would you have any advice or recommendations in that respect?

Also, when you send your books to blogs for review, would you again include a fictional bio about the author?

I think I’ll try both of these methods for my next book as well as incorporating the other great suggestions in this thread.


Many thanks for sharing this valuable information.


Giles

it's only available on US site .....not available on UK site (yet)

Great advice from Amanda and everyone else who has chipped in so far...

I have managed to generate some consistent passive income from my Kindle eBook (I only have one published, and it's a memoir...not non-fiction).

My tips:

1) I agree with Amanda and the others who have suggested writing and distributing a press release when you publish a new Kindle eBook. This is one of the best ways to snag some great publicity!

2) If you're on a tight budget for cover design, spend some time finding a good graphic designer on Fiverr and ALWAYS communicate with them first to make sure they can make a cover which will be the right dimensions for Kindle and ALWAYS offer to order their gig 2+ times (the more the better) if you want high quality. This has worked well for me, at least.

3) If you want reviews, reach out to book bloggers who review books in your genre or niche. You'll be surprised by how many say yes to checking out your book and it's a great way to increase the visibility of your eBook in search engines. Start by doing a quick Google search for something like "Paranormal Romance eBook Reviews," or whatever your topic is.

4) Be active in social media and focus on book communities like GoodReads. I highly recommend investing in a few print copies so that you can do a free book giveaway on GR. I did two of them for my book and each time I had about 1,000 members enter my contest. Almost every winner posted a thoughtful review on GR and the other contestants added my book to their "to read" lists.

5) Get a website and devote it to your author platform. Make sure your contact info is visible all over the web and be easy to get in touch with. Subscribe to a site like radioguestlist.com and keep an eye out for radio and podcast guest opportunities that seem like a good fit for your book. When you notice one, write a brief email pitch to the producer/host and see if you can book an interview. Always request an mp3 of the interview so you can upload the file to your own site and link to the source. These are great additions to your site's "Press/Media Coverage" page.

6) Be sure to add your eBook to the right categories when you upload it to Kindle (always choose more than one!) and don't forget to add appropriate tags to your listing as well. Ask your friends, family and the people who agree to review your book to add the same tags as well.

7) Price your first eBook low ($1.99 was the starting price I charged for mine) and once you have established yourself and have some reviews, then raise the price a bit (I changed mine to $4.99 after several months).

8) If you have a large blog audience, consider adding it to Kindle as a subscription for your readers who want to receive your updates on their Kindle devices.

9) Create a Squidoo lens that will act as a hub for all of your author-related content. Add your Kindle eBooks using the Amazon module, link to your reviews and add an enticing snippet for each one, add an "About Me" module, etc.

10) Keep track of the "Popular Highlights" that are displayed on your Kindle eBook's product page. These are passages from your book that Kindle users have highlighted and saved, which means that people dig what you are saying. Take these and add them to GoodReads as quotes (after you have created an author profile and listed your titles, of course). Tons of sites pull quotes from the GR database, and this has resulted in tons of people on Twitter and Facebook posting/tweeting my quotes. I've even spotted them on several sites which are devoted to quotes.

Best of luck!

Thanks for the tips. I tried uploading my first book for Kindle and upon uploading the book cover, I got a shock!

The thumbnail preview looks horribly blur. I tested the jpg image in Photoshop and it looks sharp even when shrunk to thumbnail format.

What could have gone wrong? Can't seem to find any information on this.

Thanks dseisner

Any veteran Kindle publisher can advise? Kind of stuck here not knowing what to do with the book cover. They are supposedly designed by graphic designers who design Kindle covers...hmmm

My ebook cover is 960 x 1280. Tried another one that is 600 x 800. Both don't look good for the thumbnails when I upload them.

Could it be because of the image file size? I read somewhere that the recommended image size is no more than 127KB.

I just filled in the contact form inside kdp.amazon.com and it automatically sends your message with your contact details.

I sent them a photo and it took a day to get a message back. I then had to go back into "edit your details" and click the "save and publish" button. After that it uploaded quickly.

Add a photo to one of your websites and send them the link. You can't add an attachment.

Bookmarking this whole thread to check it out later. I'm tired and need sleep, but it looks like a lot of good info.

I'm really sorry if this was asked already, I'm too tired to go through it all and find out, but with Kindle publishing, do you do a lot of marketing for your ebooks like you do with anything else? Or do you find that you get a lot of organic sales simply by putting them on the site?

I'm really interested in Kindle publishing. Not for myself, as much as for my girlfriend's dad. He started publishing his fantasy novels on there that he started writing 30 years ago. I'd love to get him a big spike in sales, but I don't want to go spending money to send him traffic.

I thought about posting on Reddit or something about his books, figured that might get him a spike in sales. Honestly, he doesn't care about the money at all, he's just super happy to know strangers are reading and enjoying his work.

Thanks for the tips Amanda.. but I still think that Kindle market is too big,it's hard to earn if there is big competition..

Thanks for the advice Amanda, I have noticed the same thing with pricing that sales sometimes increase as you move your prices up. When I started I did some non-fiction stuff and priced it at .99cents because I had just read John Lockes book. But after I moved the price up to 2.99 the sales actually picked up.

Hi!

First of all, thank you Amanda. I just searched for Kindle in WF and this thread attracted me most.

I'm currently editing a PLR so I could sell an ebook in a related site. I do have basic IM skills.

With about 50% of the PLR already edited, I still am not convinced that I have a good framework or flow of the ebook. I think it's pretty cluttered as of today.

After reading this thread though, I'm thinking of rewriting it taking out that PLR portion and concentrate on releasing in Kindle no matter what it takes.

Should I go for a self-published ebook in one of my websites and spend at least $200 for Solo ads to market it or redo the ebook such that 100% of the content is mine - but this may take another 30 days to complete simply because I have a day job. This is my first ebook venture.

By the way Amanda, is 500 pcs of ebook sold in Kindle not a very high number to dream of?

Pls. advise.

Fantastic advice, especially regarding the little things like grammar. People are so picky over spellings in their Kindle books that even one could lead to a bad reviews, believe it or not.

For me, most important aspect is the niche you chose. There are a few absolute gems on Kindle...

Chris

I still see some people thinking of using PLR in their Ebooks...don't do it! That's a great way to get banned from Amazon and it just doesn't work.

I would add that if you plan to get review copies, time it for when you have the free promo going so you don't have to pay for the "gifts." I gifted about a dozen copies on this book for reviews, and I think one person actually reviewed it. Money well wasted! So next time, I'm only seeking review copy readers when I have it already set to $0.

Thanks Amanda, perfect. Does the PLR advice go for master resell stuff. I just bought master resale rights for quite a lot of stuff . One of them is called the successful entrepreneur and I noticed that there are 3 people selling that book on Amazon, same cover ,same content but all claiming it as their own

Amanda, Thanks for the posts. Any good products you would recommend to help market a memoir? My uncle just finished a transcript of his memoir on his life as an activist minister, and son of Armenian genocide survivors. I plan to create a website, plus get set up on Amazon to sell it as an Ebook, Kindle book, and paperback. Any products you have or know about? Thanks John R.

Being a good writer is PHENOMENALLY important for any publishing...should do some experimentation blogging or doing short stories and see how ppl reply

Thanks All, really good advice

This is a great thread with lots of loads of useful tips. Thanks!

Time to write that book I think!

How do you actually create the e-book format? Do you use a specific software ?
Thank you

I have a couple of books on kindle and have websites that relate to them and help drive sales. I use my affiliate links to promote the books and get some nice extra money from the affiliate side.

My question is: I had some custom banners made for my books ( basically the book cover with more info such as "available on amazon", "Free with Amazon prime" etc.) will this cause me any problems using my affiliate links with these?

Someone mentioned cookie stuffing and I don't really know much about the affiliate side of things or no if this would be considered cookie stuffing since the banner is clearly for the product?

I don't want to take any risk. I'm not worried about losing my affiliate stuff but don't want to risk my KDP acct. and books. Are my affiliate account and my KDP acct. linked? If there was any risk I would probably never do any affiliate links at all because my books are much more important.

Does anyone have an update on whether giving books as a gift still works for verified reviews?

Wow, Amanda what comprehensive help for Kindle publishing, i have a few ideas knocking around my head but think with your help now is the time to strike. Absoloutely fantastic! Thanks

Great Tips, Thanks mate!

This is quite helpful, thanks for sharing these inside tips.

Great tips Amanda.

I recommend that authors do their keyword research before publishing to help cement the right tags, description wording and if possible, the title/subtitle. Keep in mind that sometimes there are different words used for the same thing between the USA/UK/Australia/etc such as the word 'Coupons' vs. 'Vouchers'.

Awesome post Amanda. Glad to see you've had success selling Kindle books. If you don't mind me asking, how much have you made through Kindle to date?

Those are definitely some good tips. Also, I appreciate the clarification on the difference between an editor and a proofreader. Alot of people seem to think they're one and the same.

My 99th Kindle ebook just got published, it's "live". Whew!

Original content. No PLR. No public domain. Just original content, baby!

30 pages each. $1.99 each. Goin' on vacation the next 7 days! Bye!

Can anyone recommend a really really good Kindle training course? I am absolutely new to kindle and I have a project I would like to try. So I need a course that will cover everything I will need to know from planning a ebook to writing style, formating, marketing, amazon need to know rules and regulations, best practices, editing tips, outsourcing, and everything else I didn't mention but need to know to be successful.
Thanks

Hi Amanda this sounds really cool

Hi Amanda,
this sounds really cool

Would it be possible to get an idea of the income that you all are generating? I have
a manual/cd set that I made a few years ago on stock trading, its really informative for the beginning trader. I would put that in book form for publishing if the income potential is there. Thanks for any help that you may provide.

Quote:

"When you talk about these prices are you talking about the final price on Amazon that includes the tax or the price you set it at in your account when you publish it?"

Tax is not included in the price you set. When Amazon starts collecting sales tax, Amazon will add it during check-out.

The best tip I can give is this:
a) develop a circle of fellow publishers. Let's face it. Reviews are hard to come by. If you have a support network of other indie publishers to get over that hump - you'll go along way! Plus, it's more fun
b) develop a real following. If you have just 500 "true" readers who buy whatever you sell - focus on getting them on your own mailing list (think it's a coincidence Azon doesn't share customer contact data - no it isn't)
c) you tools like SimilarSiteSearch.com - The Best Place To Find Similar Websites to see what other sites, authors, etc you readers are interested in. Go there, research and hunt down more readers.

As I said the best advice I can give is to develop a support network because this will take you a long way.

Good luck!

Does anyone have an update whether you can still get reviews by gifting the book to people, or reviews from people who get your book during free promotion days?

I've gifted a couple of my books and been told I was given reviews but they aren't showing up.

I've got 4 books on kindle now and they are selling pretty decent even though I haven't done any marketing yet. I wanted to wait until I got several books done. All of my books are in the non-fiction sailing genre.

Fwiw i just published my newest book Blue Moons Don't Come Cheap , and it's free this weekend.

I have a couple of more books I'm working on and once their done I plan to start doing some marketing before Christmas. Anyone have any good marketing techniques for your books?

If you are writing a bunch of Kindle books then my tip is:
- Create your own Kindle template
- Create your own promotional text templates

It can be a bit of a pain figuring out what does/doesn't work for formatting on the Kindle device. Things like using bullet points, tabs, or pics in line with text can totally kill how it looks on the Kindle reader. Just keep in mind that:
a) The Kindle device allows readers to change the font size
b) Pics should be above or below text to keep them in the right place
c) ALWAYS use the Kindle Preview function when publishing to see how it looks on a Kindle device

Like Amanda mentioned, press releases are a great way of promoting your book.
Other methods that I have found extremely effective are:
- Always create a landing page (great for providing info pre-launch and capturing emails)
- Also publish on CreateSpace (paperback version) since many book reviewers will only accept hard copies
- Run a (free) book giveaway on Goodreads.com to get more publicity and reviews
- Take the time to create a good author bio and always include a picture
- The KDP Select giveaways are a great way to get backlinks to your listing, since there are heaps of blogs that love listing the freebies and your link still remains after the giveaway ends.

I have heaps more tips, templates and examples for any authors struggling with the promotion side of Kindle in my book:
The Self Publishers Guide to Book Marketing: Step...
Alternately, you can PM me if you have any questions and I will try and help you out

Hi Amanda. Thanks for the share. I want to produce a kids picture book pre-school age. Do you have any advice on whether i should include the copy as part of the illustrations - you know, hand drawn letters style. Or is it best to have separate copy text?
I am a noob to all this too. Not even sure what size jpegs i need for full size page illustrations. KIndle HD handles 2080px widths right? But then the file sizes would be huge. Sad that there is so little info out there and too many conflicting answers.
If you can help, much appreciated thanks!