Amazon Kindle - What would you suggest?

Thanks mizambar for the feedback. I will certainly be monitoring sales and deciding, based on the data, what is doing well and trying to understand why.

As far as the pace of releasing books goes, I've basically released 4 in the first 21 days of this month. My first main target is to get 100 books on Kindle making say $20 each per month. There will obviously be some that do better and some worse but that is the average I'm aiming for.

The whole process would be made a lot easier by using ghost writers but that works out expensive (until of course I can see a measurable ROI and am then comfortable to invest).

The countdown suggestion is definitely one I will look at.

What I was thinking of was perhaps a strategy outside of Kindle but in addition to using Kindle Select. Any thoughts on that anyone?

I do have a list and a membership site but am very keen to rapidly expand my Kindle portfolio and maximize it's profitability.

I see two avenues, I think:

1) More books (numbers game)
2) Maximize the return on each book - even outside of Kindle. (being in Kindle Select I would obviously have to direct any outside business to my existing Kindle link).

Any and all thoughts on the subject welcome.

Thanks Art - I've made sure there's a link to my blog that appears in the preview of my books. That way, even if they don't buy, they go to my blog, sign up for my free software and I capture their email.

So, you reckon multiple free promotions (every 90 days) does good. I wonder how big that effect is on pushing your books up the ranks?

Thanks for the feedback - this is really valuable stuff

I do agree that I'm trying different subjects at the moment so that's a fair point. One of my areas of expertise is IM and of course, I wanted to share one of my successes in the Exposed! Make Money With Simple Software book.

I have just finished a sister book to the South African one which I'm just waiting to be approved - one will cross promote the other. So, I do take on board what you say about a series. Thanks.

Hmmm, now the covers. It was a deliberate ploy on my part to make the covers quite plain. When you see my books listed on a page with others, they do stand out. If anyone else has a view on my covers I'd be real interested to hear it. Maybe my thinking was wrong on that one. let's see.

You've been a great help and given me some food for thought - thanks

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One tip for making your books stand out from the crowd...

Record an audio of you reading the intro and first chapter, upload to soundcloud, bookmark the soundcloud link, and then share it as a "FREE mp3 book sample" to your lists and social media.

We are doing this for our clients as well as our own titles....it stands out more and is more engaging then simply giving out pdf samples.

Hope this helps,
Jerry K
Perissos Media
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Thanks travlinguy, appreciate the feedback. I do take on board what you say and I can, of course, see your point.

The style in which I wrote the book was intended to be pretty much conversational and I have had a lot of feedback to say that it was appreciated in that it made a potentially difficult to understand subject easy to digest.

I guess the style is particularly suited to my South Africa books but I'll certainly give it some further thought with respect to other book types.

Thanks for the input - it all helps

Thanks for the suggestion as regards rafflecopter.com. I thought I'd heard of most promotional methods but I have to admit - that's a new one on me! I'll certainly look further into it. Thanks!

Noted and thanks for the feedback

I have to (respectfully) disagree here. Yes, if you have a well-established brand, it might make sense to publish on different platforms. But if you're still struggling to build a brand and gain traction, then your best bet is to stick with KDP Select and leverage all that they offer -- with the understanding that you are putting all your eggs into Amazon's basket.

While the power of free promos has diminished, Countdown Deals can have an amazing impact on your numbers. Not only will you get that initial burst of sales (which always average more than what you'd make in a week), there's typically a period of 2 to 4 weeks where your books get more visibility and lots of sales at the higher price point ($2.99+).

Now, if you have a lot of books (12 or more) in the same niche, you can have a perpetual Countdown Deal for one of your books. That's a heck of a lot of visibility on your entire book catalog.

Honestly, since Amazon rolled out Countdown Deals, my overall numbers have more than doubled (it helps to also consistently publish new stuff). You'll lose out on this benefit if you move to other platforms, where you haven't built a brand.

Thanks for the suggestion, I do see where you are coming from. However, being as I'm in the early stages of development (read embryonic) with my Kindle books (see I even call them Kindle books), I'm happier to stay there for the time being.

As I build up more experience, it would make sense to at least weigh up the implications of going further afield.

As a side note, I was amazed at some of the numbers those guys were quoting over on the thread - some serious revenue being generated

That's a fair point and certainly one to be considered when you've built a serious reputation on Kindle.

My price point is $2.99 but for that you don't get a 250 page epic, you get something that does what it says on the tin. BTW all the research I've done indicates that this is a reasonable price point for me right now (apart from free promotions of course).

Some people find it distressing (read impossible) to give something away for free, it's just not in their make up. However, on Kindle it does serve a very real purpose.

I've previously sold affiliate products for round the $3,000 mark and picked up $750 in commission, so a price point of $2.99 with a $2.08 royalty may seem a little thin at first glance but ... if you sell 10,000/ month?

AND it's a continuity income to boot!