Amazon Kindle Publishing - To Outsource or Not To Outsource

[java]

Is Odesk and freelancer inexpensive?

You won't find a decent and affordable fiction writer there.

 

[GringoMonkey]

Hi,

This is an interesting topic.

I started selling my books on Kindle around the turn of the year (about 4 months back).

I am now hitting about $7,500 per month in revenue.

What I did was write the first books myself, see which ones sold and then outsourced them.

So I spend most of my time now testing new ideas and then outsourcing and editing the books I know will sell.

Therefore I strongly suggest if you believe you have the skills to do so, write your own books, choose a variety of genres, see which sell and scale those up by outsourcing.

 

[java]

Hi,

This is an interesting topic.

I started selling my books on Kindle around the turn of the year (about 4 months back).

I am now hitting about $7,500 per month in revenue.

What I did was write the first books myself, see which ones sold and then outsourced them.

So I spend most of my time now testing new ideas and then outsourcing and editing the books I know will sell.

Therefore I strongly suggest if you believe you have the skills to do so, write your own books, choose a variety of genres, see which sell and scale those up by outsourcing.

Fiction or non?

 

[venetia]

Hi,

This is an interesting topic.

I started selling my books on Kindle around the turn of the year (about 4 months back).

I am now hitting about $7,500 per month in revenue.

What I did was write the first books myself, see which ones sold and then outsourced them.

So I spend most of my time now testing new ideas and then outsourcing and editing the books I know will sell.

Therefore I strongly suggest if you believe you have the skills to do so, write your own books, choose a variety of genres, see which sell and scale those up by outsourcing.

How many books do you have published to make that money each month? I like your idea of doing it yourself to get started & think the OP would do well to try it out.

 

[NemoTheOne]

Hi,

This is an interesting topic.

I started selling my books on Kindle around the turn of the year (about 4 months back).

I am now hitting about $7,500 per month in revenue.

What I did was write the first books myself, see which ones sold and then outsourced them.

So I spend most of my time now testing new ideas and then outsourcing and editing the books I know will sell.

Therefore I strongly suggest if you believe you have the skills to do so, write your own books, choose a variety of genres, see which sell and scale those up by outsourcing.

How many books do you have published to make that money each month? I like your idea of doing it yourself to get started & think the OP would do well to try it out.

I like that idea, too. It seems like a good balance of utilizing your writing skills, whilst at the same time maximizing output once you see what 'sells', and/or what you're good at writing

That is quite a large revenue for just a 4 month project. My question is, just as the above asked - how many books do you have out.

However, more importantly what is your price range. I've seen schools of thought, regardless of outsourcing or not, that the $2.99 books sell better than the $6.99 books. However, a $2.99 book can be seen as 'shite' under the old adage, 'you get what you pay for'.

I'm sure that can also be said for outsourcing.

I have decided, though, that I'm going to take my time with my 1st ebook working at about 50,000 words. There's not doubt I have the skill. To me, it's just a matter of how to properly outsource.

I'm suppose most 30-35 page books would sell for $2.99 whilst the larger ones could sell at $6.99 etc.

 

[GringoMonkey]

To answer the questions people have posted...

1. I write both fiction and non fiction.

2. The biggest tip I can give is learn to fail fast...
in other words write a quick, but decent book of say 8000 words. Sell it at $0.99. If people buy that then they will buy larger books in the same genre, which you can charge more for. If it doesn't sell well, I move onto the next.

3. I charge 0.99 for my starter books (I never put them in the KDP select program). I want to see if they sell, not if I can give them away. Then when that does ok, I know the niche/topic and write a larger book that I sell for $2.99.

4. All my sales really come from about 45 books.

 

[java]

To answer the questions people have posted...
3. I charge 0.99 for my starter books (I never put them in the KDP select program). I want to see if they sell, not if I can give them away. Then when that does ok, I know the niche/topic and write a larger book that I sell for $2.99.

So your highest priced book is at $2.99?

 

[GringoMonkey]

I have one at $9.99 but I have found that $2.99 sells the best.

 

[NemoTheOne]

To answer the questions people have posted...

1. I write both fiction and non fiction.

2. The biggest tip I can give is learn to fail fast...
in other words write a quick, but decent book of say 8000 words. Sell it at $0.99. If people buy that then they will buy larger books in the same genre, which you can charge more for. If it doesn't sell well, I move onto the next.

3. I charge 0.99 for my starter books (I never put them in the KDP select program). I want to see if they sell, not if I can give them away. Then when that does ok, I know the niche/topic and write a larger book that I sell for $2.99.

4. All my sales really come from about 45 books.

So you wrote 45 books in 4 months and are now at $7,500/month. I'm assuming that came from alot of outsourcing/rewrites, then?
At .99 doesn't Amazon keep 70% of the profits?

Elance is also good for finding decent writers, yes?

 

[GringoMonkey]

The best thing I can say is you need to find your own system and one that you can easily scale.

Everything you need is here on BHW.

What works for me will not necessarily work for you.

I test at $0.99 and then scale at $2.99 so I keep 70% of the profits on all but my tests.

My core point is test and fail fast. Else you will spend months writing one book, it wont sell most probably because it was in an area that people didn't want/need another book in and then you will loose heart.

To make money in publishing your best bet is to view it as a publisher not an author.

 

[NemoTheOne]

Thanks for all of your great input, Gringo.
This is a great resource for some Kindle insights.

 

[Carepolice]

I started out writing all of my own content. I think it's a great approach when you're testing the waters. The best advice i can offer you is to research thoroughly before settling on a topic and to work hard at building your following. There's a night and day difference between publishers who link readers back to a central hub where they promote their own mailing list and other products and publishers who simply hope for the best and continue to release new books.

 

[publishordie]

Wow wish I'd read this thread a week ago. I just paid some freelancers to get some short stories done without testing as Gringo suggests. Great thread!