Guys: Kindle is the Ticket!

[nekminute]

Just thought I'd give a wee update on my first Kindle ebook so far... seems very promising:

I've had 2 paid downloads at 3.99 that happened before my promo went live. Promo has now been up for 12 hours and have received around 300 free downloads so far; am #4 in the motivational category and around #800 in the Kindle store overall.

Hopefully I can build enough buzz so that the book makes me 4-5 paid sales per day at the end of the promo.

I've already got some more books in the works as well. Aiming to have my 2nd up by tonight (NZ time) and my 3rd within the next 72 hours.

 

[aldoraine]

That's impressive! How many words is it?

 

[nekminute]

11,000 (approximately) with a few images thrown in for good measure. I'm a freelance writer by trade anyway, so writing is a passion of mine. I can easily churn out 5000 quality words in a day.

 

[cazzina]

Update: Got my first erotica novel up since yesterday, got two paid downloads on the first day and today 56 free downloads so far (today is day of the 5 free days).

I'm a little worried that people will write bad reviews because I think my book is kinda short. I have almost 20,000 words but I still think that's nothing compared to a normal book.

 

[amIdreaming]

20000 words? how many pages is that?
there are plenty of successful kindle books with only 30+ pages

 

[cazzina]

In Word my story has almost 30 pages.
The book is currently on #151 of the Kindle free Ebooks list (I'm not writing for the English speaking market). We'll see how it goes.

Now I'm not sure what to write next, another erotica, or something about diet loss..
A while ago I content locked the diet and workout plans of a specific celebrity niche.. could I turn that into a book or would Kindle ban me for that? I researched those diet and workout plans via Google, blogs and stuff, so all the information you can find online.

 

[blackfatcat]

I think with Amazon the rule of thumb is that if you can find it for free anywhere else online then it breaches their TOS by publishing the duplicate content on Kindle.

 

[cazzina]

I think with Amazon the rule of thumb is that if you can find it for free anywhere else online then it breaches their TOS by publishing the duplicate content on Kindle.

But I mean if I write a book about 'how to get killer abs' it's also information you can basically find online..

 

[cazzina]

I actually have another question- Where can I see my rankings in subcategories like erotica etc.?
I can only see my ranking among the "Top 100 free Kindle books".
When I uploaded my book I couldn't choose a category like 'erotica' or so- I was able to choose 2 categories like 'female authors' but that's it.. the available categories didn't contain erotic, romance or so. I don't know if that's because I'm not publishing on the English speaking market.

 

[GobBluthJD]

But I mean if I write a book about 'how to get killer abs' it's also information you can basically find online..

But if you write a book called 'how to get killer abs', you're writing it in your own words, in theory. You're not just copying and pasting word for word from material that is already online. Obviously you're going to have some of the same ideas as other books or material that are out there, but there's a huge difference between writing something new in a niche with lots of offerings already, and just copying and pasting.

Amazon promotes the 1st, and will hunt down the 2nd.

 

[Tirade]

Do you have all of your Kindle books published under one Amazon account, or do you spread the books across multiple Amazon accounts?

Thanks for this thread. It's great to see BHW contribute quality content.

 

[jxg1727]

Do you have all of your Kindle books published under one Amazon account, or do you spread the books across multiple Amazon accounts?

Thanks for this thread. It's great to see BHW contribute quality content.

from what I read you can use different pen names on one amazon account

 

[jxg1727]

Amazon promotes the 1st, and will hunt down the 2nd.

Hey Gob for a book in the health niche would a ebook of let's say 5k words be suitable ? Or what's your experience with selling low word/page count books ? Do longer ones seem to sell better ?

 

[GobBluthJD]

Do you have all of your Kindle books published under one Amazon account, or do you spread the books across multiple Amazon accounts?

Thanks for this thread. It's great to see BHW contribute quality content.

All under one amazon account, with multiple pen names. Only if you're doing something shady (and I guess that's possible, since this is BHW), would you need multiple amazon accounts.

 

[GobBluthJD]

Hey Gob for a book in the health niche would a ebook of let's say 5k words be suitable ? Or what's your experience with selling low word/page count books ? Do longer ones seem to sell better ?

That's pretty short, unless you're selling it for $0.99.

For something 5k and under, I only charge $2.99 if it's erotica. That stuff sells no matter the price point.

 

[Nogginthenog]

What a great thread!

I'm guessing here, but I would imagine, especially starting out and doing it yourself if you were looking to minimize investment, non fiction is much quicker to produce than fiction, unless you are already a fiction writer of course.

 

[cazzina]

This morning I woke up and my book is on #4 of free Kindle books with more than 600 downloads today so far!
I think that's a great result.. should I continue the 5 free days of my book anyway? Today is just day 2.

And it still doesn't show any position in a category (just in 'Kindle free books')- How can I change that?

 

[cazzina]

And Gob (or anyon else), I got another question- Is it allowed to lie about yourself as an author?
Let's say I write a book in the fitness niche and say that I'm a 33 years old fitness coach with two kids, although I'm 25
in reality without any kids and work in something completly different hahah.. Is Amazon able to find that out and maybe even ban you?

 

[GobBluthJD]

And Gob (or anyon else), I got another question- Is it allowed to lie about yourself as an author?
Let's say I write a book in the fitness niche and say that I'm a 33 years old fitness coach with two kids, although I'm 25
in reality without any kids and work in something completly different hahah.. Is Amazon able to find that out and maybe even ban you?

I doubt it. I mean, unless you were writing a book on medical advice and claiming to be a doctor, then you may be getting close to trouble. But all pen names are partial lies at least. One of my most successful pen names is a 40 year old mother of 2 who writes erotica at night after her kids go to bed. That couldn't be further from who I actually am, but that's the beauty of pen names.

Just don't make outrageous claims (medical advice, legal advice, etc) and you should be fine.

 

[mwgllc]

Anyone have a good list of sites to post your free downloads (for both adult and non-adult books)???