Guys: Kindle is the Ticket!

[Rainy_Noir]

MisterTwister - Perhaps is the marketing you've been doing? When you found someone on odesk for the promotions... what work did you specify? Did you look for a pr person or was it strictly just marketing/promo? Sounds like that could well be worth it... but would rather something a little more targeted than just a blanket tweet from someone on Fiverr, you know?

 

[MisterTwister]

I used a US based data entry/facebook expert. The guy over delivered and now I have a databse of over 200 sites to promote future books. I actually paid him a bonus.

Free downloads are now at over 1,700 in 13hrs and the book is ranked #174 on Kindle amazon.com.

I need to know if I should continue the promotion for the full 5 days?

What kind of sales rates are people getting once the promotion has ended - is there a % as a guide?

I do hope the promotion leads to sales.

 

[GobBluthJD]

What kind of sales rates are people getting once the promotion has ended - is there a % as a guide?

I do hope the promotion leads to sales.

I've heard somewhere in the neighborhood of sales of 10% of your free downloads. I've found that to be more or less true - not perfect, but it's a good guidepost.

 

[cazzina]

Gob, can you also give an update? How many books do you have up now and how many sales do you make more or less per day?

I started less than 3 weeks ago and my income is growing, but I'm kinda worried that my books will only make money for a while, let's say weeks or maximum a few months.

 

[GobBluthJD]

Gob, can you also give an update? How many books do you have up now and how many sales do you make more or less per day?

I started less than 3 weeks ago and my income is growing, but I'm kinda worried that my books will only make money for a while, let's say weeks or maximum a few months.

Let's see, I just uploaded two more today, and have contracts with outsourcers currently going for about 5 different series at various stages....but published, already on Amazon, as of this minute, I have....102 books (just went back and counted..wow, that's a lot).

Of course, some sell terrible, 1 a day, and some sell great, 20 a day or so. Prices range from $0.99 to $6.99. Sales are growing each month, and the past 2 months I've earned more through books than I do at my day job, so that's excellent.

I haven't seen a trend of sales dying out. But then again, I'm focusing on series and building a few select pen names, so each time I release a new book under that pen name, the other books tend to get re-discovered and boost sales across the board.

 

[cazzina]

102 books? Wow! That means probably that you're making more than 10,000$ per month.
I'm at 5 books now, but producing new ones all the time. I try to upload 2-3 per week.
I also use pen names and I have details in the author central, but I don't have a blog or anything else. Hope my books keep selling as well.

 

[Rainy_Noir]

GobBluthJD - Thanks for taking the time to help with Noob questions.. I've always enjoyed writing... so when I first saw this, I was really hoping it would be something awesome... and it has been. So thanks a bunch for that!

I recently picked up a copy of How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months... and while the first half is nothing more than the guy boasting, he does have some merritt at the back. Anyways, he talks about having your own author site and using twitter.

Currently, I have 3 books up (two in the same series) and another 5 due for next week.

 

[aldoraine]

Could I pay you for the 200 site database?

 

[GobBluthJD]

Currently, I have 3 books up (two in the same series) and another 5 due for next week.

Congrats. It's all about taking action and just continuing to produce quality content, again and again. Eventually you'll reach a point where it's self-sustaining and then anything after that is pure profit.

 

[MisterTwister]

Hey guys I have had some requests for my databse and odesk contact. I want to try a second title in a different niche to test if this was just chance or good marketing.

Book is now ranks #2 for free romantic suspense, #43 in free kindle store, #17 romance, #10 contemporary romance and is well over 5000 free downloads in the USA (Launched 38 hours ago)

In the UK it just took off this evening was slow to start #2 for romantic suspense, #10 romance and #12 contemporary romance with 1200 downloads.

Not many sales on second book and 7 paperback copies sold.

No additional reviews yet which I find strange although its a novel so might take a bit time to read.

 

[epicwrite]

This is not the 1st post about selling eBooks on amazon. I will give it a shot.

 

[cazzina]

question- my mother read two of my novels and wants to write a review. i thought why not, she has her own amazon account for years already etc. BUT everytime i visit my parents i use their wifi with my laptop, also checked my kindle account etc. from their wifi.

if my mother now writes a review from her account and computer but from the same wifi as i sometimes use for my computer, could
amazon ban me for that?

 

[GobBluthJD]

question- my mother read two of my novels and wants to write a review. i thought why not, she has her own amazon account for years already etc. BUT everytime i visit my parents i use their wifi with my laptop, also checked my kindle account etc. from their wifi.

if my mother now writes a review from her account and computer but from the same wifi as i sometimes use for my computer, could
amazon ban me for that?

No. Lots of people in the same house, same coffeeshop, same building, whatever, use the same wifi. If they have separate accounts, Amazon doesn't care.

 

[youtalkmedia]

I have been putting up one short ~1k word stories every day for the last couple days. I have gotten about 138 free downloads in the first 3 days of my first book, three others went on free promo today with 38 free, 18 free, 6 free.

I think the reason for them being low is that they do not have covers. (I am getting a cover made for them now).

Is that a good amount of free downloads? I have not gotten any reviews on the books, (good or bad).

 

[GobBluthJD]

I have been putting up one short ~1k word stories every day for the last couple days. I have gotten about 138 free downloads in the first 3 days of my first book, three others went on free promo today with 38 free, 18 free, 6 free.

I think the reason for them being low is that they do not have covers. (I am getting a cover made for them now).

Is that a good amount of free downloads? I have not gotten any reviews on the books, (good or bad).

Don't put them up without covers. That's just asking people to not take you seriously. And after the free period, don't expect a lot of purchases - 1k words is way too short for even $0.99

 

[youtalkmedia]

Don't put them up without covers. That's just asking people to not take you seriously. And after the free period, don't expect a lot of purchases - 1k words is way too short for even $0.99

My very first book, (out side of any series) sold only 14 copies so far this month for 99c, it was 1.3k words long and has no cover. Most of the books in my niche are around the same length as my book, (bed time stories) so I am not too worried about it being too short as I am about it looking more attractive for kids. (One of my new books without a cover sold before the free promo even started).

I saw you talking about a permanently free book, how do you do that? I wouldn't mind having my first book to each series permanently free.

 

[GobBluthJD]

Ahh okay, yea, Children's books I suppose are the exception to the 1k rule - although covers are VERY important for kid's books (you want kid's to see the covers and go MOMMY, buy me that!)

To make a book perma-free, you have to (1) not have it enrolled in Select, and (2) have it listed for free on another site (Smashwords, Kobo, Nook, etc). Amazon periodically does price-checking, because they will always match the lowest price that your book is listed on any other site. Through some fluke, if you have it listed for free on another site, Amazon will drop the price to $0.00 as well, making it perma-free.

 

[aldoraine]

That's good to know. Especially if you want to promote a site to build a following.

 

[cazzina]

If you publish a series, trilogy of books or so, do you plan that in advance?
Or is it more like, you see one book is doing very well, so you write a second and third part of it?

I'm wondering how you can name the book then or create the cover if you're not sure yet if it's going to be a series or a single book. Do you publish for example the first book without publishing the other ones (that follow maybe weeks later) and call it "Title Bla Bla - Part 1" or "Title Bla Bla- The Bla Bla Trilogy"?

 

[youtalkmedia]

Someone said here to write a shorter book first to test the waters, have that one cheap, and see how many people buy it. If you see a lot of interest (You can even add a "Please review and ask for the next book if you enjoyed this" page) then you can write a second longer one that will cost more.