Kindle Publishing Questions

6 replies
Hi Warriors:

Hope everyone is well.

I have some Kindle questions and I hope you can furnish the information. Thank you as always in advance.

When you publish a book and upload it to Kindle do they allow you to update it? Example being you either needed to add more information and or you want to make sure all the books have 100 percent of the titles you have written. Obviously this would be on-going if you wrote more than one.

When I have read about those that have had success with Kindle there are certain types of books that come up. I am curious since I have not seen music on the good list do you feel Rock & Roll books could be worthwhile? It doesn't have to sell 7 trillion but is there enough of a market that it could generate consistent income if you had multiple books in the Rock & Roll genre?

Is the book judged by a cover? If you are paying for the rights to a photo from a band or artist it could prevent the book from being in the black. Having written physical books before I know first hand that a good photo never mind a great one could be a down payment on a car.

Could this be circumvented? For instance if you were to write a book on a band (I'll make up a name) AZZZZZ could paying somebody on the Fiverr to design a cover of a cool guitar or recording studio be good?

Finally (thanks again for affording me the time) how many copies does the average Kindle book sell per month and what is the average royalty per sale?

I have been thinking of Kindle for awhile but it certainly would be a major change from the books previously that are able to be displayed in the living room.

May everyone have a great day.

All the best,
Craig
#kindle #publishing #questions
  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    Originally Posted by Craig Fenton View Post

    Hi Warriors:

    Hope everyone is well.

    I have some Kindle questions and I hope you can furnish the information. Thank you as always in advance.

    When you publish a book and upload it to Kindle do they allow you to update it? Example being you either needed to add more information and or you want to make sure all the books have 100 percent of the titles you have written. Obviously this would be on-going if you wrote more than one.
    Yes, you can find information about that here:

    https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A1KIW2CNWB4717

    When I have read about those that have had success with Kindle there are certain types of books that come up. I am curious since I have not seen music on the good list do you feel Rock & Roll books could be worthwhile? It doesn't have to sell 7 trillion but is there enough of a market that it could generate consistent income if you had multiple books in the Rock & Roll genre?
    What kind of Rock & Roll book? Can you be more specific please? Would it be about a specific band? The history of rock and roll? A certain genre?

    Is the book judged by a cover? If you are paying for the rights to a photo from a band or artist it could prevent the book from being in the black. Having written physical books before I know first hand that a good photo never mind a great one could be a down payment on a car.
    Yes! I've been testing different covers and boy do they make a difference! But that's just ONE piece of the puzzle. You need a bunch of good reviews. The more, the better.

    Could this be circumvented? For instance if you were to write a book on a band (I'll make up a name) AZZZZZ could paying somebody on the Fiverr to design a cover of a cool guitar or recording studio be good?
    Yes, you can do that. There's also some decent Kindle ebook Cover software and services out there. Just do a Google Search for them.

    Finally (thanks again for affording me the time) how many copies does the average Kindle book sell per month and what is the average royalty per sale?
    This is impossible to answer. There really is no "average". It depends on way too many factors.

    It's like asking, "what's the best way to make money?" It's just way to general of a question.

    Remember, your sales will depend on supply verus demand, if your Kindle ebook is a good product, if you have a nice, attention-grabbing cover, how you use your keywords, belonging to a Kindle community or group, writing an attention-grabbing description for your ebook, and how you promote your ebook (I see tons of Kindle authors that have NO marketing funnel, which means the door is still WIDE open).

    I have been thinking of Kindle for awhile but it certainly would be a major change from the books previously that are able to be displayed in the living room.

    May everyone have a great day.

    All the best,
    Craig
    Like any platform out there, writing for the Kindle platform requires a lot of work, diligence, and marketing savvy. Sure, you can completely outsource your works, but you'll still need to quality check your stuff.

    Give it a shot, but before you do, make sure you invest in some Kindle training, that way you'll avoid the mistakes a lot of authors make when they first get started.

    RoD
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    "Your personal philosophy is the greatest determining factor in how your life works out."
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    • Profile picture of the author Craig Fenton
      Hi Rod:

      Thanks for such a quick reply.

      There are stats out there about book sales so there should be something with the average Kindle sales. When I wrote the previous books one of the publishers told me what the average book sold in the USA at he time, the average price point, and average royalty.

      I was thinking about books on specific bands.

      Thank you again and be well always.

      All the best,
      Craig
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Craig, if you believe the various tables out there correlating sales to sales rank, the "average" Kindle book sells less than a copy per month. By the way, if a book doesn't have a sales rank, it means that it has yet to sell a single copy.

        As a pure SWAG, I'd guess the average royalty to be between $2 and $3. Amazon has encouraged pricing in the $2.99 to $9.99 range by paying higher royalties in that range, and the market itself has pushed the majority of sales to the lower part of that range.

        As for the marketability of books about specific bands, go to the Marketplace and find the category containing books similar to the kind you want to do. Look at the best sellers in the category. The most common rule of thumb I've read says that if 3 or more titles have sales ranks of 20,000 or better (meaning a number smaller than 20k - sales rank is like golf, the lower the number the better), it's a fairly popular category.
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        • Profile picture of the author Craig Fenton
          Hi John:

          Thank you for your reply and insight!

          All the best,
          Craig
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          • Profile picture of the author marciayudkin
            When you publish a book and upload it to Kindle do they allow you to update it? Example being you either needed to add more information and or you want to make sure all the books have 100 percent of the titles you have written. Obviously this would be on-going if you wrote more than one.
            You can easily update your Kindle book file as many times as you want.

            However, it's not a good idea to plan to do this, for several reasons.

            One: If you have reviews that mention whether or not the text is up to date and you've updated the text since that review, it gets confusing for people reading the reviews.

            Two: You will quickly get tired of updating your book and be wanting to go on to the next project.

            It's better to plan a book in such a way that you will not need to update it except perhaps every few years to do a major update and call it a new edition.

            Marcia Yudkin
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            Check out Marcia Yudkin's No-Hype Marketing Academy for courses on copywriting, publicity, infomarketing, marketing plans, naming, and branding - not to mention the popular "Marketing for Introverts" course.
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          • Profile picture of the author Craig Fenton
            Hi Marcia:

            Thanks for the reply.

            I didn’t mean as much as adding content to the book but keeping each one updated if more books are written. In other words say book one is on Rock Band 1 and now book two and three come out. I would want to update the section “Other works by Craig Fenton.” This way you have all titles known that are for sale to anyone that purchases any Volume.

            Would updating non-content still be considered as being updated in Amazon’s eyes?

            All the best,
            Craig
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