My Journey with Kindle.

[Diophantus]

I decided to start a new thread that was more tightly focused on my exploits regarding my Kindle publishing. I'm also going to cover in minor detail my efforts at internet marketing with my website. They are connected because I am driving traffic to my site with my related books (as well as link building and your other garden variety SEO).

As of right now, I have published one book. That was on October 5th. I did no outside marketing on it and enrolled in KDP Select. Here are the stats for those of you interested.



If my assumptions are correct about borrows, this means that I have made nearly 20.00 in royalties this month. There was a pretty big gap between the start and now and it appears I have nearly consistently gotten one borrow every day since Oct. 24.

I'm stoked because this was much better than I thought it would be. This was simply one book. Imagine if I had many more!

My revised goal is to get between 50 to 100 books on the market by January 2016. I have one book in the works and almost finished.

One thing I am going to try is use older books (1930's - 1950's) and basically rewrite them. I have a couple of old cookbooks that I'm going to try that with. These books have been in my girlfriend's house for years.

I'm going to continue with my starting niche, and I am also going to branch out into a couple of others as well (such as sci fi and other nonfiction that I find interesting).

So, with the exception of time I have invested exactly $0.00 with this pursuit. I'm learning elements of graphic design as well as GIMP in order to effectively make my own covers. This will save me some money.

Here are the stats so far (again, assuming KU/KOLL units are worth 2.00 apiece, which seems to be the consensus based on what I have read from other threads)

Royalties: 18.00
Expenses: 0.00

Thanks for reading, I'll keep posted

 

[Diophantus]

Okay, I have published my second title a couple days ago. I put it on free promotion for 3 days. I have gotten nearly a hundred downloads so far, but that's about what I expected anyway. I'm still getting a pretty solid 1 borrow per day and I received a sale not too long ago.

so, 2 books down and 98 more to go before Jan. 2016.

est. royalties: 27.00

 

[funkybunker]

Interested in Kindle myself, purely fiction of course but competition is where the money's at. I have a brilliant team of artists so this is a great outlet for them, I'll pop in sometime and see your progress buddy. Stay ambitious but remain flexible...follow the money.

 

[Mindanao]

Good luck with your journey mate. I wish you luck.

 

[FormulaHub]

are you promoting your books outside amazon also, i do have couple of books listed on kdp , i was getting 200 downloads when it was in free promotion period , but now sales are like 1-2 a week. Any tips would be appreciated

 

[Diophantus]

are you promoting your books outside amazon also, i do have couple of books listed on kdp , i was getting 200 downloads when it was in free promotion period , but now sales are like 1-2 a week. Any tips would be appreciated

Truth be told, I'm not too sure. 1 to 2 sales a week is still nice if its consistent. However, in order to make the big boy bucks with that kind of volume you need 100+ books listed. Very doable because I know that people have that, it just takes time.

My latest book got roughly 200 DL's as well, and I got a sale and a borrow the first day of paid promotion. For the past 3 days its been pretty dead, no idea why. I figure it might have to do with my niche. I went in writing about a niche I was familiar with.

I haven't done any sort of outside promotion. I know that if you want to get some good free DL volume, free ebook submission sites are the way to go. That and if you have an active FB, or website you can promote there too.

Borrows are really cool too. If my research has served me well, those are roughly 2.00 apiece. that on top of sales is where it's at. All you have to do is exclusively offer your products on Amazon. They are a fantastic company to do publishing the way they do.

Its just the same as in Academia; Publish or Perish Outsource, write the hell out of your own pet projects, edit and list. keep listing quality product. Set a short and long term goal. My short term is 5 before the year is out and 100 by Jan. 2016. I hope to overshoot that long term goal significantly.

The money is out there man, it really is. I made nearly $30.00 last month with one book. Once you have your 100+ listings out there, it's all gravy. That's what I'm hoping to do.

Maybe then my day job wouldn't make me feel so stressed since it's my only income lol.

 

[Diophantus]

Update: made 2 sales today! It was unexpected but very exciting. That raises my royalties minus KU/KOLL over 10.00.

It motivates me to publish more. Making money on Kindle is possible guys.

I'll keep posted

 

[Diophantus]

Just a quick update: been working on a third book for some time, but in a different educational niche. October was pretty good, with sales and borrows it came out to 18.00 and change. All I spent was time so that was pure profit.

This month has been alright, I'm at about 10 dollars but I haven't worked on it as much as I wanted. I got a refund and that disappointed me a bit but I knew it would happen. I'll keep going I want this to happen.