Kindle Questions

Rose Anderson

12 years ago

You could look into Kindle singles. They are usually short stories or essays.

Rose

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Alexa Smith

Banned 12 years ago

Originally Posted by makemoney14

I don't want to write huge 10,000 word books

I think Kindle singles, which often sell at $0.99, are typically 5,000 - 10,000 words in length, Alex. 10,000 words is anything but "huge".

1,000 - 2,000 words is "article length", not "book length".

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Vanilla Gorilla

12 years ago

my first book was 10,000

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makemoney14

12 years ago

thanks guys!

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aprilm 12 years ago

I agree...try to submit to Kindle Singles for a book that size. If you don't want to do that, be sure to state in your book's description how many pages it is so people know right off the bat what they are getting. I have a 20 pager that sells quite well.

I personally LOVE buying short stories on Kindle and reading them right before bed. Really that's all I have time to read after a long day's work.

I think there is a market for most anything..... Just be up front with your readers that they are not getting a full length book.
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  GoodFE 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by joseph7384
  
  How do you go about submitting to Kindle singles.
  
  You need to email amazon with a manuscript and they will decide whether or not to accept it. I'm not sure why people are reccommending this because a Kindle single needs to be between 5000 - 30,000 words and it is actually pretty difficult to be accepted.
  
  I can only assume that those reccomending Kindle Single have never actually published one themselves.
  
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Randall Magwood

12 years ago

10,000 word books aren't hard. You could probably post this on Kindle and get good reviews for it. The more positive reviews you get, the better. And a 10,000 word kindle book may possibly reduce refunds as opposed to if you were selling a 1,000 - 2,000 page book.

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GoodFE

12 years ago

If you make the book 1000 words then you will get very few buys and those that do buy the book will probably refund it.

No offense intended but if you are unwilling to write more than 5000 words then Kindle isn't for you.

It's much easier than you think btw, I can normally write a 5000 word, completely original boook in about 4hrs.

It's a huge market if you do it right, a terrible one if you throw up something in the hopes that it sells.

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Tinkerbell

12 years ago

Originally Posted by GoodFE

No offense intended but if you are unwilling to write more than 5000 words then Kindle isn't for you.

I'd just like to point out that my writing partner and I have about thirteen 5,000 word stories selling on Kindle - they do pretty well. Well enough, in fact, I could happily sit and write nothing but 5,000 word stories and publish them if I took a notion.

It isn't necessary to write more than 5,000 words. To say Kindle isn't for anyone who is unwilling to write more is discouraging to someone who is confident they can do at least that much, but doesn't feel they are ready to do more at this time.

To the OP: did you know if you write 5,000 words twenty times, you have 20 chapters worth of story and 20 chapters is a complete, novel-length work? Do the 5,000 words. And do another. Then do another. And another. It's fun! :-)

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GoodFE

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Tinkerbell

I'd just like to point out that my writing partner and I have about thirteen 5,000 word stories selling on Kindle - they do pretty well. Well enough, in fact, I could happily sit and write nothing but 5,000 word stories and publish them if I took a notion.

It isn't necessary to write more than 5,000 words. To say Kindle isn't for anyone who is unwilling to write more is discouraging to someone who is confident they can do at least that much, but doesn't feel they are ready to do more at this time.

To the OP: did you know if you write 5,000 words twenty times, you have 20 chapters worth of story and 20 chapters is a complete, novel-length work? Do the 5,000 words. And do another. Then do another. And another. It's fun! :-)

Well I myself have written 3000 word Kindle books and seen success. My point is that if 5000 seems like a massive number (and the OP wants to do less than half of that) then it would be difficult to find success there.

There is no problem writting short stories but if 5000 seems like a massive number then you would probably struggle to even get 1000.

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Tinkerbell

12 years ago

Originally Posted by GoodFE

Well I myself have written 3000 word Kindle books and seen success. My point is that if 5000 seems like a massive number (and the OP wants to do less than half of that) then it would be difficult to find success there.

There is no problem writting short stories but if 5000 seems like a massive number then you would probably struggle to even get 1000.

I see what you're saying. I was only trying to encourage the OP by saying if you only want to do 2,000 words, that's fine...do it two and a half times, and you have 5,000 words.

Sometimes people see a larger number as impossible until you show them the larger number is simply a smaller number X times. THEN, they can do it. Even those who were sure they couldn't before.

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GoodFE

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Tinkerbell

I see what you're saying. I was only trying to encourage the OP by saying if you only want to do 2,000 words, that's fine...do it two and a half times, and you have 5,000 words.

Sometimes people see a larger number as impossible until you show them the larger number is simply a smaller number X times. THEN, they can do it. Even those who were sure they couldn't before.

Well I would say to the original poster that it's much easier than he thinks and that if he tries his best then he could make Kindle a huge success.

The thing is that I honestly believe he needs to change that attitude to see success. The lowest you can charge for a book is 0.99c, why would someone buy a book of 1000 words when they could get much better value for money elsewhere.

I would encourage him by saying he should give himself more credit and believe in his abilities as a writer more.

Even worse, if he does see success and decides to upload lots of books of 1000 words, Amazon will block him for 'Providing a Poor Customer Experience'.

I commend you for trying to motivate the OP but we should be realistic with him also. If he uploads a 1000 word book then he will probably not see any sales and then mistakenly believe Kindle is a waste of time, or worse, get banned.

If the OP reads this, I would be happy to give you some tips on Kindle publishing. There is serious money to be made if you just believe in your own ability!

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Paul Gram

12 years ago

One suggestion for you is to download some of the books in the top 10 (both paid and free in different categories) and see what is selling/ranking in terms of book size.

You definitely need enough words for VALUE but you don't necessarily need to write them. You could speak them using Dragon Dictation and then edit or have someone else edit them as well.

Lots of options!

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damor23

11 years ago

I had a look at your page regarding comment surfers luckily for me I am not one but do need a little help. I have wriitten a non - fiction book approx 13000 words. Could you tell me what would that equate to in Kindle pages. It is one thing to create a Word document and another to have it look professional and received well by the customer who has paid good money for a download.

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JohnMcCabe

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Tinkerbell

Ack, I never meant (and wouldn't want the OP to think I meant) to upload 1,000 word stories. My point was if you write 1,000 words five times, you end up with 5,000 words, which is then a viable bit of content for the Kindle marketplace.

Hope this makes my intent clear.

Extending this...

I did a survey of the bookshelves in my own home, and found that between us we had several hundred books spread across topics like romance, westerns and science fiction. I did some word count estimates, and the most common length was between 50,000 and 70,000 words. The average cover price was around $5.

If the OP extended that 1,000 words to 5,000, then repeated that 10-15 times, the resulting length is in the neighborhood of paperbacks that sell, cumulatively, in the millions.

Originally Posted by damor23

I had a look at your page regarding comment surfers luckily for me I am not one but do need a little help. I have wriitten a non - fiction book approx 13000 words. Could you tell me what would that equate to in Kindle pages. It is one thing to create a Word document and another to have it look professional and received well by the customer who has paid good money for a download.

Not being a smart aleck, but the technical answer is 'one'. Part of the KDP process is to convert documents to html, which comes out as a single long page. Since Kindle gives control over font size to the reader, the length in pages will vary with the reader and the screen size of the device.

That said, I submitted a 15 page word doc, and the sales page said the ebook was 23 pages long. FWIW...

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Tinkerbell

12 years ago

Ack, I never meant (and wouldn't want the OP to think I meant) to upload 1,000 word stories. My point was if you write 1,000 words five times, you end up with 5,000 words, which is then a viable bit of content for the Kindle marketplace.

Hope this makes my intent clear.

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GoodFE

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Tinkerbell

Ack, I never meant (and wouldn't want the OP to think I meant) to upload 1,000 word stories. My point was if you write 1,000 words five times, you end up with 5,000 words, which is then a viable bit of content for the Kindle marketplace.

Hope this makes my intent clear.

I'm sorry, I understand what you mean.

I just meant that the OP totally needs to change his attitude and I was being a little harsher about it than you were.

I understand that if you write 1000 words 5 times then you will have 5000. I mean that its a poor starting attitude to only want to write 1000 words and that I would advise totally changing this.

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makemoney14

12 years ago

I don't want to only write 1000 words, I wanted to double check if there was a market for short snappy stories before bedtime.

I realise that this is a business and needs decent content and length. I have thought about outsourcing but I want to give it a shot myself as I believe I can make a decent story that sells. Looking around the 5000 word mark.

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GoodFE

12 years ago

Originally Posted by makemoney14

I don't want to only write 1000 words, I wanted to double check if there was a market for short snappy stories before bedtime.

I realise that this is a business and needs decent content and length. I have thought about outsourcing but I want to give it a shot myself as I believe I can make a decent story that sells. Looking around the 5000 word mark.

Well I guess if you are aiming for short bedtime stories geared towards kids then it might work. I say you should check out the top 100 in the genre and get an idea of the word count.

I would still be careful though because you might get blocked for doing that, if you do it too much I mean.

The only reason I wouldn't recommend short stories like this is because the minimum you can charge is 0.99c and there are many books at the price with hundreds of pages. 1000 words would be about 3 pages when converted to Kindle format and you would probably get a lot of returns.

If you do want to try it then maybe include some pictures to the book, flesh it out a bit and get the page count higher!

Best of luck, I'm glad you believe in your ability. Keep that attitude and you will find success!

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Joanne Reid

12 years ago

It's tempting to write a short book just to get it up there in the Kindle market. I wrote a novel that is 335 pages and it sells okay and I have little shortie up there (11 pages) that hardly stirs up dust. Of course, it's not fiction and it could be the topic. I've seen some people grumble about paying 99 cents for a few pages and while this may seem like a great deal, when you can get an entire full-length book for the same price, it is easy to understand why they grumble.

The other thing I hear people say is that they are upset at the really bad editing in self-published Kindle books. They want a good read, even for 99 cents.

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Caden

12 years ago

It seems like you want to write either short stories or reports. Look at the bestsellers in Kindle to see what's selling, and check their pricing too so you'll know how to price your books. One tip I can give you is that fiction sells more than non fiction.

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LilBlackDress 11 years ago

Just to note as mentioned it is tough to get into Kindle Singles. Yes you can submit but many of the authors there know somebody, got invited, are famous...

Here is a good article that kind of gives you a glimpse into the Kindle Singles world: Exclusive: How Much Do Kindle Singles Authors Make?
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Guru_Marketing

11 years ago

Originally Posted by makemoney14

Hi Warriors,

I understand that Kindle is a huge market right now to tap into. I am wanting to start writing my own ebooks for Kindle but find myself going round in circles.

I don't want to write huge 10,000 word books more 1000 - 2000 words, is there a market for stories this length?

Which niches work well? Are there any recent WSO products which you think would help me now.

Thanks,
Alex

Well, I have books on Kindle that are 10 pages long (in a MS Word Document). They aren't part of Kindle Singles. Just regular KDP books. Most of the topics that sell well are recipes/cooking and erotica. That's for sure!

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Vitus

11 years ago

How about you compile 10-20 of these stories and then turn them into chapters...

supposedly people only read 6 minutes per night (something like that), so having each article as a chapter with a cliffhanger to the next would make people addicted to read them.

The dude who sold the most books ever (forgot his name, lol) figured that out and works that way.

The key is the cliffhanger, the hook, the open end that leads into the next chapter.

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marciayudkin 11 years ago

The dude who sold the most books ever (forgot his name, lol) figured that out and works that way.

You must be referring to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books, which is the biggest selling book series of all time.

However, although they do have short chapters, they do not have cliffhangers. Instead, they do extensive reader testing to see which stories evoke the greatest and most positive reader response. Only then do those winning stories get published.

For them, it's a winning formula but not one easily imitated on a shoestring or without a network of readers willing to read and rate a lot of stories.

Marcia Yudkin
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- J Bold 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by marciayudkin
  
  You must be referring to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books, which is the biggest selling book series of all time.
  
  While your post was very enlightening, I think he must not be referring to that.
  
  He wasn't talking about a series of books which are written by multiple contributors with no cliffhanger endings to chapters. Chicken Soup books are non fiction, of course, and it sounds like he's talking about fiction.
  
  He was probably talking about some "dude" who wrote books with cliffhanger endings (to his chapters and even to the ends of his books, I believe) who at least at one time had sold the most books on Kindle, or had the book with the most Kindle sales or something like that.
  
  Sounds more like he was talking about books with actual cliffhanger endings and are fiction, which sound like the John Locke books.
  
  He broke many sales records on Kindle sales, as I'm sure you know, and it sounds like Vitus was talking about him.
  
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