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Seriously Considering Kindle... but.

by goindeep
36 replies
Im seriously considering doing some kindle publishing. I love to write, I get paid fairly well already so I have no stresses my only concern is that I have not seen many people making money with.

Serious money.

Maybe they are and maybe they have, I just haven't seen it.

So without a publicist and marketing agency with a ton of cash to get behind you, can you really make a living with kindle?

Please go easy, I'm just not that familiar with kindle.
#kindle
  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    Don't be afraid to put in the work needed to succeed.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nathan251
      Of course you can. The whole point of publishing Kindle books is to enable you to get your book out there without the aid of an agent or publicist or whatever it may be. On top of that, many ebooks sell phenomenally well on Kindle with absolutely zero promotion. If you book is centred around a niche with a lot of demand and not too much competition you can make significant amounts of cash. The flip side is that you'll have to write about stuff that you are not necessarily that interested in.

      Two final points though, if you do your research properly then I'm sure it is possible to write about something you enjoy that will sell. And a little promotion never hurt anyone and it's remarkably easy to promote Kindle books with a wide variety of ways to do it from joining Facebook groups to soliciting friends and family to write reviews to finding free resources online that will promote your book.
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      • Profile picture of the author goindeep
        Thanks.

        I guess what I want to know is if anyone is seriously making a living from kindle publishing. You know someone in the same situations or there abouts as me.

        Regular person, knows a little about online marketing, no real publishing or writing history in books or anything else.
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      • Profile picture of the author Doug Wakefield
        A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Exclusivity

        To be fair, he had a traditional publisher at one point, but is primarily digital now. He even moved everything into kindle to take advantage of the KDP system.

        To make Kindle really work, you are going to need multiple titles. Either multiple fiction titles (ideally series, or linked in some way) or a series of related non-fiction books. Each book links to the others, or at least to your author page.

        The principal behind it is simple. Someone finds your book and tries it out (probably through a freebie promotion.) If they like what they read, they are going to look for more from you. If you have something else, you win. If not, they look for the next book.

        It is much like anything else in IM, if you do things right the process just builds upon its self.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeff Lenney
    Absolutely. I outsource most of my books at $10-$20 each and do quite well. :-)

    You don't have to be an im pro to do this. :-)
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    • Profile picture of the author writeaway
      Originally Posted by eljeffe77 View Post

      Absolutely. I outsource most of my books at $10-$20 each and do quite well. :-)

      You don't have to be an im pro to do this
      Yep. Blackhat kindle publishers get original content for free. Also, the social media traffic to their kindle pages is free too. It's all about creativity.

      Of course, I don't condone such behavior. Paying people to produce content is the ethical way to go. Still, people don't always do the ethical thing. Must have huge balances in the karma bank.
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    • Profile picture of the author goindeep
      Originally Posted by eljeffe77 View Post

      Absolutely. I outsource most of my books at $10-$20 each and do quite well. :-)

      You don't have to be an im pro to do this
      Thanks.

      See that's what im seeing and hearing, but a lot of the guys selling how to kindle packages are also selling other WSO's or they sell other products and do other things online, so, I dont know... maybe im just cynical but that makes me wonder how well they are really doing with their kindle.
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      • Profile picture of the author Jeff Lenney
        Originally Posted by goindeep View Post

        Thanks.

        See that's what im seeing and hearing, but a lot of the guys selling how to kindle packages are also selling other WSO's or they sell other products and do other things online, so, I dont know... maybe im just cynical but that makes me wonder how well they are really doing with their kindle.
        Well, for me personally - I see nothing wrong with teaching what I also do and making more money while doing it.

        Really though, there is plenty of good information - check out the kindle portion of this forum too - it's paid access only - but plenty of good stuff in there too - not just all hype and dollar bills dancing around trying to entice you
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  • Profile picture of the author GobBluthJD
    Check out kboards; there are a lot of people making serious money.
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  • Profile picture of the author JustinDupre
    With the ability to purchase apps, books, etc on the go without the need to reach into a wallet, you have a lot of control in getting people to make a snap decision, spur of the moment buy.

    Look at trends, see what people are searching for. What kind of problems are they having? Are you able to write something that is a solution to that kind of problem. From that point, its a matter of getting the right hook into the right people to get them to buy. Stay away from over-saturated markets and look to find a corner you can pursue that is all your own.
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  • Profile picture of the author GoodFE
    Kindle is the way to go. I started in more or less the same position as you and now I average 6k a month with Kindle. I don't write non-fiction though and it took a few months to build up.

    g'luck
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Gram
    Originally Posted by goindeep View Post

    Im seriously considering doing some kindle publishing. I love to write, I get paid fairly well already so I have no stresses my only concern is that I have not seen many people making money with.

    Serious money.

    Maybe they are and maybe they have, I just haven't seen it.

    So without a publicist and marketing agency with a ton of cash to get behind you, can you really make a living with kindle?

    Please go easy, I'm just not that familiar with kindle.
    You definitely can but most people either do it wrong or they don't maximize it. It's not enough to publish an amazing book, you need to build an author brand and market yourself properly to have the best chance of making great money on the Kindle.

    Very few people do this though, because it's not easy and takes lots of time and effort. It IS possible though!
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  • Profile picture of the author Elvis Michael
    Give it a good and realistic shot, Goindeep. I've found most Kindle WSOs are very good in nature.

    Gather your thoughts and familiarize yourself with basic publishing procedures.
    Sit down and analyze either your passion or something that may be in demand.
    Write these things down, one step at a time.
    Once you're comfortable with the chosen subject, publish it and see how it goes. Market it if you feel the need.

    If it doesn't sell very well, that just means you are one step closer to succeeding as it allows you to acknowledge potential mistakes. Try it again as a bigger and better author the second time around, and I assure you that your efforts will ultimately pay off.
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    • Profile picture of the author goindeep
      Im wondering also what makes a killer book sell and what doesnt. Seems lots of people are having success but that their success is slightly diluted purely because of the volume they are in competition with.

      I mean the numbers are staggering.

      But then again, I shouldn't be so pessimistic as it is this way with most other businesses.
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  • Profile picture of the author GobBluthJD
    Originally Posted by soerengelder View Post

    Just watch my video and youll get the advantages of publishing on kindle.
    Note: Your site has really bad English. If you expect to drive people to your site, you should at least have correct English. Otherwise it looks completely unprofessional.
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    • Profile picture of the author TinkBD
      It is my personal opinion that a lot of Fiction sub-genres offer more evergreen opportunities that many non-fiction genres.

      Here are some fiction success stories...

      Self-Publishing Success Stories
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  • Profile picture of the author TycoonRob
    I think it's very possible to earn a living on Kindle, but you really have to keep up with the changes that happen all the time. It's really no different than IM - keeping up with the Penguins and Pandas, etc. The marketplace is changing all the time and things that worked last year don't work as well this year, etc. But if you can write and keep at it, I think you could definitely do this full-time. I do it part-time (if that) and I've had $1800 paydays, although that has come down just a bit lately. Still, I'm writing and publishing more books. Just keep publishing good stuff that people want and the money will come.
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  • Profile picture of the author curationsoft
    if you love what you are doing and the passion is there, do not hesitate, just go for it!
    good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author jbsmith
    The decision of whether to go print, ebook (selling on your own sites using Clickbank, Paypal, 2 Checkout, Ejunkie, etc...) versus Kindle should be made once you decide on the market and information angle you will hit the market with.

    Do you really believe that top information product producers sit around and ponder should I produce a Kindle Ebook as their FIRST question?

    No - they determine a killer market, niche topic and angle to approach the market and THEN they ask - what is the best strategy for releasing information into this market...it may look something like:

    1. My market would really want a physical version of my book - I have a market just like this where more than half my sales are print books, they are desperate and want something in their hands

    2. My market wants highly specialized information and my angle is to sell them an ebook, an accompanying workbook and audio version for $97 instead of the dozens of $17-$27 ebooks that already exist out there. So I'm going to offer this from my own site through Clickbank (as an example)

    3. My market is rather wide - my strategy will be to release a "mini" version of my infoproduct to generate paying customer leads to which I will market my list and additional "back-end" products and services - using Kindle as a massive lead generator as well as earning some up-front income

    Obviously, you see that my suggestion is to view your desire to produce ebooks and infoproducts as a real business - know your market, know your strategy to tackle that market and you will be able to answer questions around format with context.

    Jeff
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    • Profile picture of the author goindeep
      I was coming at it more form the angle that I enjoy writing, I have a unique style, have great ideas, so it was more of an idea I wanted to explore, but like anything that take sup my time, I would prefer that it is profitable for me that something I do which takes me away from my friends and family is as least very profitable.

      From the numbers im seeing there is definitely money to be made in kindle publishing but there are also many people not making much.

      So this begs the question for someone like me. What is the risk?

      It would depend several factors. Are we talking fiction if so then its something creative that is being sold, how much are people willing to pay and how much and for how long? If its non-fiction, how good is the information, how much will people pay, how many and for how long?

      Say if I decide to write it myself and only pay for cover design = $100 im still looking at $300 per yer on average. Id need to make 200 of these books per year to earn decent living.

      Am I wrong?
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      • Profile picture of the author TinkBD
        Originally Posted by goindeep View Post


        It would depend several factors. Are we talking fiction if so then its something creative that is being sold, how much are people willing to pay and how much and for how long?
        The key here is to choose a popular sub-genre and meet the readers' expectations...

        That combination can earn beyond your wildest dreams... IF you can accomplish it. ;-)

        For instance, C. J. Lyons sold over 100k BOOKS/month (that's books, not dollars) from July 2012 to Nov 2012. If I recall, most of hers are priced in the 3.99 - 4.99 range... I expect that sales continued beyond Nov, but I don't know for a fact.

        SPP 032 – How to Sell a Metric Crap-Ton of Books, with CJ Lyons

        Personally I think that Fiction has the potential to be long lived... depending on a lot of factors of course, but still... ;-)
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        • Profile picture of the author goindeep
          Yeah i'm reading a lot of that Tink. The problem I find is that its the same as IM in it's hey day.

          They find a poster boy or girl and sell their programs based on that.

          The facts as far as I know them are that most full time kindle authors make 10K per year.

          Because fiction is a subjective product at the end of the day.

          I guess its no different to selling art or music.

          My biggest problem is the people selling the systems and courses telling people they can become millionaires doing this.

          But that's OK I guess for me anyway.
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          • Profile picture of the author goindeep
            OK sooooo...

            A few days later I have decided that getting into kindle for money is not a good idea.

            Sorry to anyone selling a WSO or any other kindle product. No doubt your product is good, but this is just my opinion when looking at kindle as a source of passive income.

            After days of reading articles, posts, watching videos, starting conversations with people already publishing, joining their community and doing plenty of reading it's clear to me kindle is probably one of the hardest ways to build an online passive business.

            The percentage of people that are actually successful to the point where they earn great money and only work a short amount of time is really low.

            Many of the people I talked to are not earning anything more than maybe $500 a month. This is after putting in many days, weeks, months and some years to complete their projects.

            Others are earning OK incomes, some I spoke to where doing 1-2K per month.

            The problem with that is they are writing all day, every day. When they are not writing they are actively promoting and networking for their books.

            There was only a small amount of information I could gather on people successfully doing 5K plus per month with Kindle. Some 10K, others 20, 30 and even 50K per month. These where rare.

            However... what I found was these people where either signed with a publishing company or had written a 5 star book and just gotten lucky.

            It seems the only people doing really well monetarily from kindle is Amazon itself.

            For me its all about passive income and what I found is that there is nothing passive about kindle. Some of their top authors are blogging, tweeting, and writing all day and all night to stay on top of their little kindle mountains.

            It is also fair to say that some authors, in fact most of them dont know how to promote their own books which could be a good factor for Internet Marketers *WINK, WINK -HINT, HINT*

            If you would like to write a book for the sake of writing a book, go for it. If you would like to write a book or several of them with the aim of becoming a kindle millionaire, do your research, think about, speak to others and then re-consider.

            The last thing you want to do is pour your heart and soul into a book and then not have it sell. This sort of thing can be akin to self mutilation or at least psychological torment.

            Just my opinion.

            Thanks and all the best.
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            • Profile picture of the author hsbinmarket
              Dear goindeep,
              I think u should seriously GO in DEEP.

              U will find ur path.

              thanks
              -hasib
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            • Profile picture of the author cashcow
              Originally Posted by goindeep View Post

              OK sooooo...

              A few days later I have decided that getting into kindle for money is not a good idea.

              Sorry to anyone selling a WSO or any other kindle product. No doubt your product is good, but this is just my opinion when looking at kindle as a source of passive income.

              After days of reading articles, posts, watching videos, starting conversations with people already publishing, joining their community and doing plenty of reading it's clear to me kindle is probably one of the hardest ways to build an online passive business.

              The percentage of people that are actually successful to the point where they earn great money and only work a short amount of time is really low.

              Many of the people I talked to are not earning anything more than maybe $500 a month. This is after putting in many days, weeks, months and some years to complete their projects.

              Others are earning OK incomes, some I spoke to where doing 1-2K per month.

              The problem with that is they are writing all day, every day. When they are not writing they are actively promoting and networking for their books.

              There was only a small amount of information I could gather on people successfully doing 5K plus per month with Kindle. Some 10K, others 20, 30 and even 50K per month. These where rare.

              However... what I found was these people where either signed with a publishing company or had written a 5 star book and just gotten lucky.

              It seems the only people doing really well monetarily from kindle is Amazon itself.

              For me its all about passive income and what I found is that there is nothing passive about kindle. Some of their top authors are blogging, tweeting, and writing all day and all night to stay on top of their little kindle mountains.

              It is also fair to say that some authors, in fact most of them dont know how to promote their own books which could be a good factor for Internet Marketers *WINK, WINK -HINT, HINT*

              If you would like to write a book for the sake of writing a book, go for it. If you would like to write a book or several of them with the aim of becoming a kindle millionaire, do your research, think about, speak to others and then re-consider.

              The last thing you want to do is pour your heart and soul into a book and then not have it sell. This sort of thing can be akin to self mutilation or at least psychological torment.

              Just my opinion.

              Thanks and all the best.
              I think you are making a smart decision for you. Because publishing books is a long term endeavor. You're not going to make a ton of money with just one book.

              As stated above, You need to have a good plan, author platform etc...

              It takes time and dedication and it sounds like you already have a way of earning money that you like and weren't looking for something that was going to take time and effort.

              The only thing is that if you love writing, you might just set aside an hour or half hour a day to put into creating books and the associated author platform. It would take you longer to build up and you'd have to sacrifice some of your time with family and friends but in the long run it could gain you more time with family and friends because you would have a passive income stream that would free you from the daily work you need to do. Just a thought.

              Most of the people that are making a lot of money, do spend lots of time at it and the fiction authors have lots of books to keep sales going.
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  • Profile picture of the author samjaynz
    Isn't the whole point of Kindle that anybody can do it and potentially strike big? From what I've read while researching Kindle as an e-biz model, if you can deliver high quality writing and plenty of it then you should be successful.

    I know a guy who's creaming it from writing kindle books that link a squeeze page; from there he sells high priced Clickbank products and reinvests some profit back into promoting his Kindle titles.

    As someone who loves writing but is getting sick of SEO, link building, and social media I'm tempted to start "Kindling" as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Joshster
    It seems like you have talked yourself into failing without even trying.
    Because if you do not take a good shot at it...one thing is for sure and that is that you will not succeed.

    Recommend you check out the Bryan Kumar's private Kindle forum here on WF. Much better value than any WSO on Kindle!

    Also I recently read an excellent book on writing fast that I would recommend: 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and...2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and...

    If you have the talent to write, I say go for it big time!
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  • Profile picture of the author Mindz
    Faceplams " Fiction is easier to write on kindle ".

    Write a series and link each book and in each book have a way to join your squeeze page and also during your five day promo period on KDP select program PUSH AND PROMOTE YOUR hardest then and bam wait for results, and write the next one!

    Also Tink Has some excellent information!
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  • Profile picture of the author Stefan Pylarinos
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    • Profile picture of the author goindeep
      Originally Posted by Stefan Pylarinos View Post

      I went from $300/mo to $4000/mo on Kindle within 3 months, and now make over $6k/mo on it. I only spend no more than 4 hours a week on it, as I outsource the writing, covers, and marketing of the books. I rank all my books for specific keywords and they do really well. Kindle is a great way to make money - much easier than all the other stuff I was doing before. And I've also published my own book that I wrote, which I promote on my blog, which is also another great stream of income. Kindle is a great way to get started making money online!
      So to get a return of 6K per month, how many books, how much money invested (incl marketing, promotions) and how much time invested in total?
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  • Profile picture of the author lisakynan
    I would say if you know nothing at all about marketing, there is no way you are going to make a living off one book.

    I would say you need to invest in your education a bit more before pursuing it.

    There are lots and lots of ways that "good writers" can make money without publishing a novel
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  • Profile picture of the author ParkerArrow
    The Kindle authoring community is different from the IM community you might be accustomed to here at Warrior. Here, many of us do things to earn money. It's reason enough.

    At Kindle, people write books for the intrinsic value - the writing and the books themselves.

    Ideally, you would apply both types of intelligence for the greatest success.
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  • Profile picture of the author FostinWD
    My only issue is how and where to outsource.. .I'd love to jump in the bandwagon...
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    • Profile picture of the author TycoonRob
      Originally Posted by FostinWD View Post

      My only issue is how and where to outsource.. .I'd love to jump in the bandwagon...
      I've found that oDesk works best for me for outsourcing. I've found some FANTASTIC writers there for great prices.
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    • Profile picture of the author GobBluthJD
      Originally Posted by FostinWD View Post

      My only issue is how and where to outsource.. .I'd love to jump in the bandwagon...
      Elance - High quality workers, highest prices
      oDesk - Mixed bag of workers, lowest prices
      Freelancer - I've never had luck there
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  • Profile picture of the author Mindz
    True... As a fiction artist... I have short stories, plots, outlines, and even full novels written. It's just easy for me to write fiction stories. Any genre actually... So in order to make real money from it you have to be somewhat passionate and have a catalog or build... Great advice from the other posters as well.
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