Amazon KDP Journey

[jivvust]

Looks like your sales are picking up, let's see if it's a spike or a new plateau. Might be the keywords took some time to update in Amazon search engine.

 

[johnny_wadd]

Hey nice thread! I have a question though, do you have to format kindle books to amazons specific requirements or can you simply just upload it how you've written it in word?

 

[Fruchtwein]

Looks like your sales are picking up, let's see if it's a spike or a new plateau. Might be the keywords took some time to update in Amazon search engine.

Yes, I read that it could took four or five days to take place for any changes or updates.

Hey nice thread! I have a question though, do you have to format kindle books to amazons specific requirements or can you simply just upload it how you've written it in word?

No, you can upload easily any word file.
There are options for html folders, etc. - but why make it complicate?

Journey:
Amazon made an update of KDP tonight and that hits me (and as I think most of the erotica category).
Yesterday it wasn't possible to choose "erotica" as a category and today you have to pick the recommended age for the book.
In erotica Amazon sets it automatically to 18+. I have no idea how it works now to download a erotica book, but I think there is something about age verification.

I have to see if the people are willing to do this or what happens now.

 

[johnny_wadd]

Danke sehr Fruchtwein!

 

[johnny_wadd]

Another quickie fruchtwein, if I include bullet points in my word file will they show up in my Kindle book? I've heard ppl on other forums say that Kindle has a problem with bullet points, is this still true?

 

[bxxxx]

Another quickie fruchtwein, if I include bullet points in my word file will they show up in my Kindle book? I've heard ppl on other forums say that Kindle has a problem with bullet points, is this still true?

Kindle has some problems with bullet points. They are looking better done in html and not direct in word. I prefer to do them like this (because of formatting):
- item 1
- item 2 ...

The best way is to test it with this tool: amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000765261

 

[PlagiarismsChecker.*]

Are your current accounts using the same check address with the two lost accounts? Do you reuse the book from lost account on new account?

 

[johnny_wadd]

Cheers bxxxx! I will check out the tool.

 

[Fruchtwein]

Danke sehr Fruchtwein!

Klar, gerne!

Are your current accounts using the same check address with the two lost accounts? Do you reuse the book from lost account on new account?

Hi, yes, I am using the same address and same name.
The reuse depends if Amazon deletes the old one or only block the account. With the second, they still can earn money, but you are not allowed to upload new books anymore. After a total delte, you can reuse the books I guess. There are gone from the system.

May is over

[TABLE="class: cms_table_cms_table_cms_table_cms_table_cms_table_cms_table_cms_table_cms_table_grid, width: 500, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]KDP Accounts:[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Ebooks available:[/TD]
[TD]412[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sales (May 2014):[/TD]
[TD]431[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Profit (May 2014):[/TD]
[TD]~885,- USD[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]



As it looks now, it was only a spike.
But still the numbers are better than before. On the 28th of May Amazon introduce the age stuff to KDP.

Now I will see what happens when more and more books are uploaded. I thought of hiring more staff for the uploading process to upscale it. If one worker can upload 30 books a day, five can do 150 books.

 

[jivvust]

A great first month nevertheless, especially if you can scale it up some more before saturating the niche.

 

[Charn]

A great first month nevertheless, especially if you can scale it up some more before saturating the niche.

Saturation is definitely not going to occur with this market. As of right now there are over 126,800 books in the erotica category right now. Shorts are meant to sell a few copies a month, not breakout 50 Shades of Grey success. Spend a few hours writing, fuck editing it, and just pump em out. Load up the smutcannon.

If you have 50 stories but only sell 1 copy of each a month, hell that's $100 if you get $2 royalties on each.

 

[Fruchtwein]

A great first month nevertheless, especially if you can scale it up some more before saturating the niche.

Thank you!

Saturation is definitely not going to occur with this market. As of right now there are over 126,800 books in the erotica category right now. Shorts are meant to sell a few copies a month, not breakout 50 Shades of Grey success. Spend a few hours writing, fuck editing it, and just pump em out. Load up the smutcannon.

If you have 50 stories but only sell 1 copy of each a month, hell that's $100 if you get $2 royalties on each.

I agree. Amazon KDP is far away from saturation at the moment.
My plan is still to have a few thousand books available - it is an easy number game. As you said even if each book only sells one copy per month, with 5,000 books, you make a heavy amount of money. And now imagine some books books are even selling five or ten times a month. Some rare books also 50 or 100 times. But that is more about luck and good title, picture and description and the right upload timing.

I ordered now four laptops (200,- EUR each) and looking for a nice and cheap NAS and will set up an an office in our store room. When everything arrived I will present a picture of it :cow04:.
As I said, one worker can upload 30 books a day, five can do 150. I pay 10,000.- NPR each worker. So 40,000.- more expenses - it is around 430,- USD. I will try it for two or three month. Nothing to loose as I am have now around 900,- USD income. But I will put a calculation of my new expenses online after everything is ready to go.

 

[Charn]

Are you also having writers create more stories, or just working with the amount you started with. Any bundling yet?

Also how many pen names are you working now? Are you dividing your books evenly throughout names? Grouping in niches so readers can check the backlog of books to order more.

 

[Fruchtwein]

Are you also having writers create more stories, or just working with the amount you started with. Any bundling yet?

Also how many pen names are you working now? Are you dividing your books evenly throughout names? Grouping in niches so readers can check the backlog of books to order more.

Yes, he is constantly creating more stories. I think he spends one or two hours each day on this process and can create 100 to 200 stories a week.

I change the pen name every ten or twenty books.
To have some is nice, because when people like the first one, they will check out the author, but also negative reviews can come through to your other books.

Stats:

[TABLE="class: cms_table_cms_table_cms_table_cms_table_cms_table_cms_table_cms_table_cms_table_grid, width: 500, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]KDP Accounts:[/TD]
[TD]1
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]eBooks available:
[/TD]
[TD]449
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sales (Month-to-Date):[/TD]
[TD]89
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Profit (Month-to-Date):
[/TD]
[TD]~180,- USD
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


Nothing new so far.
I am waiting for the computers. They will arrive on Wednesday next week. Is a long way from Germany to Nepal.
Numbers are quite stable at around 30 sales a day.

 

[littlehead]

I can see that your earnings are increasing month after month. Good luck

 

[bxxxx]

 

[Fruchtwein]

 

[johnny_wadd]

I don't know if this has been asked before, but can you insert your 3rd party affiliate links into Kindle books? And another little snippet that I picked up the other day was that Amazon are considering stopping books with a word count less that 2,500 words for quality purposes, is this true???

 

[Fruchtwein]

I don't know if this has been asked before, but can you insert your 3rd party affiliate links into Kindle books? And another little snippet that I picked up the other day was that Amazon are considering stopping books with a word count less that 2,500 words for quality purposes, is this true???

I'm not sure if you are allowed to do this with KDP, but I am doing it with my books.
I put in Amazon affiliate links to my other books and also affiliate links to cam sites. Honestly, at the moment it is no serious amount of money coming from there...

I never heard about this less then 2,500 word stuff. But even if A. is doing it - upload books with more words

Stats:



I made an Excel sheet now for profit calculation and everything else.
Around 400.- USD so far. Still waiting for the computers. They should arrive on Wednesday, the office room is ready and I will meet the guys (and one girl) tomorrow.

 

[yourdady]

hi good luck with your journey plz keep us up to date