Guys: Kindle is the Ticket!

[Tiddlywink19]

It is going to be magical!!

 

[xgnux]

I am thinking about releasing a info product. Like 20.000-30.000 words about some rare pet. My plan was to do it the clickbank way but now i am thinking aboiut doing it through amazon.
The ebook itself is high quality, basicly i bought all books in that niche and wrote a new one from it plus some research online.

Would you go with amazon or better something like clickbank.

Also did anyone here try to rank his amazon bookpage in google. With some decent backlinks it should be pretty easy to rank an amazon page?

 

[Talyn]

Thats crazy high, are they all in the same niche with the same pen name? Perhaps a rival is trying to ruin your account/rankings.

Perhaps... So I'll start to do the same, if it's how it works on the kindle market...

 

[Shaunm]

Perhaps... So I'll start to do the same, if it's how it works on the kindle market...

Is it still going on ?

 

[mahan_eesh]

Anyone tried this and would be interested in sharing thr Stats screenshots or is it becoming another review exchange thread?

 

[Kaliber45]

Anyone tried this and would be interested in sharing thr Stats screenshots or is it becoming another review exchange thread?

Tried what exactly? Kindle publishing itself or Gringo's JV, which has been posted 9345345 times?
If you mean Kindle itself, then here we go:

Not sure if I need to prove it, since it's nothing extraordinary... but, my first book is on its way to making me about 100€ a month (which equals about $120, I guess).
It's not that special, to be honest... it's 15k words long and about dog training (I own a belgian Shepherd).
Book no. 2 and 3 are on their way and if I can scale it up and keep the sales levels of about 1-2 downloads a day per book, 2015 will be a very, very good year.

I am a very sceptical person myself but this stuff definitely works.

 

[Talyn]

Is it still going on ?

Yes... on the .com site the rate is 100% now... on the others 0%...
It's really strange.

But it shows some interesting facts. But I need two people to test my theories (1 with kindle unlimited and 1 without).

If someone is interested, message me

 

[Talyn]

Tried what exactly? Kindle publishing itself or Gringo's JV, which has been posted 9345345 times?
If you mean Kindle itself, then here we go:

Not sure if I need to prove it, since it's nothing extraordinary... but, my first book is on its way to making me about 100€ a month (which equals about $120, I guess).
It's not that special, to be honest... it's 15k words long and about dog training (I own a belgian Shepherd).
Book no. 2 and 3 are on their way and if I can scale it up and keep the sales levels of about 1-2 downloads a day per book, 2015 will be a very, very good year.

I am a very sceptical person myself but this stuff definitely works.

That's nice that a member who achieved some succes with a book wants to share is experience with facts.

Could you tell us more ? Did you worked on a top notch description ? How is the cover ? Did you use your free days on a row or did you split ?

Thanks mate !

 

[Kaliber45]

That's nice that a member who achieved some succes with a book wants to share is experience with facts.

Could you tell us more ? Did you worked on a top notch description ? How is the cover ? Did you use your free days on a row or did you split ?

Thanks mate !

The first and only thing I had in mind, is to provide real value to future customers. This is the only way to make a long-term, sustainable income in my opinion. I didn't care about how long the book was, as long as I could provide quality and the readers could learn something from it. This determines your refund-rate and your ratings. (btw: your refund-rate literally SCREAMS "fraudulent behavior" from your competitors, I would report it 3 times a day if I had to)

But when it comes to selling books in the first place, there are 3 things which actually sell the book. Again, think like a customer.

1: The Cover. It has to be top-notch. Period. No excuses. I licensed a very, very good stock photo ($10) and outsourced it to Fiverr, so I paid a total of just $15. Just mentioning the name "Fiverr" will surely produce some rolling eyes but in this case, it was excellent work. The Designer has thousands of ratings, 4.8 Stars overall. He/She did an outstanding job. I would've paid $50 if necessary but the Cover was just like I had it in mind.


2: The Description.
I made sure to use amazons own font color (orange-ish) for the headline and a clear structure below with bullet points. There should be LOTS and LOTS of info. Put in as much as you can, so your customer knows EXACTLY what he/she gets. Also, make sure to mention what he will gain from buying it. For instance, if you write a book about dog training, let him know that his dog will behave much better (less barking, less begging near the table etc) and will have mastered the basic commands (sit, lay down, etc) if the reader implements the lessons and techniques from your book.
Bottom line is: Let him know what he is getting (and more importantly: actually deliver it!)

3. Have a look inside.
After clicking on the cover and reading through your description, the customer will most likely have a look inside your book. He will read the first couple of pages and decide whether or not he is going to actually buy it.
THESE FIRST PAGES HAVE TO BE PERFECT. It's these pages which make the difference and close the deal.

I am far from being an expert. There are people who are much more experienced than I am... but this is the way I handled things so far and it seems like it is working out for me
Didnt need a free promotion, since it sold straight from day one... but if I would've needed it, I would've used all five days in a row.



A side note: Of course I wanted to use a pen name. Since I wrote a book about dog training in germany, I chose a female pen name... because, in germany, if you just so much as look at your dog in an angry way, they're gonna PETA your ass, so a female pen name would imply a soft and modern education (which it is, actually).
The second thing I did regarding the pen name: I actually googled the different psychological influences of names on everybodys subconscious. I wanted the pen name to look smart and modern and came up with a great one (not sure if I can write the pen name here).
This underlines the importance of psychological factors and "think like a customer" once more, I guess

Hope I could help!

 

[Morgadeshou]

Anyone tried this and would be interested in sharing thr Stats screenshots or is it becoming another review exchange thread?

Yeah I'm another small time publisher and it definitely works, but I dunno if its as lucrative as some of these expert guys make it sound (or at least not for the average person). My first book made about 50 bucks a month, my second 200 a month, a few other also 50 bucks a month. The major problem ive found is that sales tend to die off as competition grows, or demand just dies down over time. So though 200 a month for one book sounds good, it was only happening for like a few months. I'm still working on how to keep all my books at their maximal sales (and if anyone has advice let me know), otherwise yeah I agree, kindle definitely works, its just not like OMG AMAZING, unless you're really pro at it.

 

[vagnerprestige]

yeah i agree with you. there is still money to be made. you can spend $500 on publishing a book and if you make $100 bucks a mpnth for 6 months then you turn a profit. although small.

 

[NemoTheOne]

The first and only thing I had in mind, is to provide real value to future customers. This is the only way to make a long-term, sustainable income in my opinion. I didn't care about how long the book was, as long as I could provide quality and the readers could learn something from it. This determines your refund-rate and your ratings. (btw: your refund-rate literally SCREAMS "fraudulent behavior" from your competitors, I would report it 3 times a day if I had to)

But when it comes to selling books in the first place, there are 3 things which actually sell the book. Again, think like a customer.

1: The Cover. It has to be top-notch. Period. No excuses. I licensed a very, very good stock photo ($10) and outsourced it to Fiverr, so I paid a total of just $15. Just mentioning the name "Fiverr" will surely produce some rolling eyes but in this case, it was excellent work. The Designer has thousands of ratings, 4.8 Stars overall. He/She did an outstanding job. I would've paid $50 if necessary but the Cover was just like I had it in mind.


2: The Description.
I made sure to use amazons own font color (orange-ish) for the headline and a clear structure below with bullet points. There should be LOTS and LOTS of info. Put in as much as you can, so your customer knows EXACTLY what he/she gets. Also, make sure to mention what he will gain from buying it. For instance, if you write a book about dog training, let him know that his dog will behave much better (less barking, less begging near the table etc) and will have mastered the basic commands (sit, lay down, etc) if the reader implements the lessons and techniques from your book.
Bottom line is: Let him know what he is getting (and more importantly: actually deliver it!)

3. Have a look inside.
After clicking on the cover and reading through your description, the customer will most likely have a look inside your book. He will read the first couple of pages and decide whether or not he is going to actually buy it.
THESE FIRST PAGES HAVE TO BE PERFECT. It's these pages which make the difference and close the deal.

I am far from being an expert. There are people who are much more experienced than I am... but this is the way I handled things so far and it seems like it is working out for me
Didnt need a free promotion, since it sold straight from day one... but if I would've needed it, I would've used all five days in a row.



A side note: Of course I wanted to use a pen name. Since I wrote a book about dog training in germany, I chose a female pen name... because, in germany, if you just so much as look at your dog in an angry way, they're gonna PETA your ass, so a female pen name would imply a soft and modern education (which it is, actually).
The second thing I did regarding the pen name: I actually googled the different psychological influences of names on everybodys subconscious. I wanted the pen name to look smart and modern and came up with a great one (not sure if I can write the pen name here).
This underlines the importance of psychological factors and "think like a customer" once more, I guess

Hope I could help!

How did you do the AMAZON font? I tried it via author central and it just defaulted back o regular bold.

Also, I'm still wondering how people get fiction to sell..

 

[Shaunm]

Yes... on the .com site the rate is 100% now... on the others 0%...
It's really strange.

But it shows some interesting facts. But I need two people to test my theories (1 with kindle unlimited and 1 without).

If someone is interested, message me

Defo sounds like your competition, try unlisting the bookworm the market place for a week or so then re-addit. No idea if it will work but it might give your competition the impression that the book has been deleted.

 

[Talyn]

How did you do the AMAZON font? I tried it via author central and it just defaulted back o regular bold.

Also, I'm still wondering how people get fiction to sell..

The <h2> tag mate.
you have h1 is the biggest, h2 is orangish and h3 smaller in black

 

[Talyn]

Defo sounds like your competition, try unlisting the bookworm the market place for a week or so then re-addit. No idea if it will work but it might give your competition the impression that the book has been deleted.

It starts to slow down, i started to use new pen names for my new book.

 

[Dayspring]

I'd advise you to search on youtube for the following vid:

How much money did I make publishing erotica on kindle.

To see the volume of books required for around 2.1K income. He says he has 211 book. From what I can gather this is what the 'average' writer or outsourcer can probably expect.

I took a look at that guy's videos. Here's why it actually motivated me to tackle Kindle eBook writing:

1) The overwhelming majority of his stories are under 4,000 words. The rest are 4,000 to 5,000. It didn't sound like any of his books actually hit the 5,000 mark (meaning, his longest book by far is 4,999 words or shorter).

2) In the comments of one of his videos, someone asked what he'd be willing to pay an outsourced writer for a story of 5,000 to 7,500 words. His response would be $25-30. That means he's paying less than that per story, since his are all under 5,000 words. We've seen all over this thread that $150 for 15,000 words is tough to find if you want quality writing. This guy wouldn't go as high as $60, which gives you an idea as to how poor the quality of his content is.

3) In another comment, he explains how he filters out bad freelance writers from good ones. He makes a five-story contract that has an escape clause for him. If the first story purchased is bad, he's allowed to end the business agreement without having to buy the other four stores. He then publishes the very poorly written stories anyway. So even by his own poor standards, the bulk of his stories are incredibly bad quality.

4) The way his business model works is to keep making bundles out of the same existing stories. Singles for $0.99, 5-story collections for $2.99, 10-story collections for $3.95, 25-story collections for $4.95 and $5.95 for 50-story collections. This video shows he also has one with a title claiming to offer 101 stories in it, but it doesn't sell well and he doesn't address it. He then makes a ton of combinations of stories and makes more bundle/collections. 211 total books - 101 story books = 110 bundle books. That's clearly over-saturation in the bundle department if your goal is to increase your sales.

5) I'm too bad at math to figure out how many possible combinations of bundles one can make from 101 stories, but to make matters worse, he even admits to making some bundles out of changing the order of existing bundles. In other words, he doesn't even make different bundles with his other stories, he'll just get hyper-lazy and create a few anthologies out of the exact same bundle.This means his tweak on the typical eBook business model is to favor new customers over return customers (which is obviously stupid; you go after both).

6) Despite his business model being focused on creating a massive quantity of low-quality books (as in, minimum 1/day), he still only has 211 total books after 2 years for some reason. The people in this thread who are doing the opposite are matching or exceeding his output of 8/month. That's like opening up a dollar store to compete with a mega-retailer and then not bothering to fully stock it.

7) He lists his larger bundles on KOLL but not all of his smaller ones and he claims to refuse to offer his individual stories on it. His logic is that nobody would opt to purchase his other stories if they can get them for free. Meaning he's choosing to go for 35% commission on a $0.99 book rather than do both that and get the flat $1.33 download commission. There's an argument to be made for going purchase only over purchase+download combined, but he found a way to do that wrong, too.

8) Any book that's not eligible for the 70% royalty, he uploads to other eBook stores. This is smart! However, he stopped with Nook instead of doing every eBook store...

9) He doesn't print anything, so there goes another massive income stream.

10) He doesn't do any form of advertising.

11) He doesn't do email lists. Remember: I said he favors new customers over repeating customers.

12) He phones it in when it comes to making eBook covers. Fiverr workers can match or exceed his quality.

13) Despite calling it all "erotica," he publishes only smut. As has been discussed, smut has a huge possibility of being taken down by Amazon at random (in fact, all the books he suggests you look up HAVE been taken down) and the rest don't sell anywhere nearly as well as erotica books. Meanwhile, the fact that he refers to them as erotica titles means his odds of being taken down are higher than average, as some of his readers are more likely to report his books. (They bought it thinking it was erotica, found out it wasn't.)

14) He doesn't do any keyword or niche research.

15) His proof is for March 2014. March is one of the four lowest months for erotica eBook sales in the year (FYI: erotica does its worst in July and August, while all books typically do poorly during March and April. For books in general, August is actually the second highest in terms of sales, but I'm betting that has something to do with back-to-school so it would become niche specific).

Despite the 15-point (15!) failing that is his business model, he STILL made $2,100 in the month of March alone. Assuming November to January compensate for the low sales in April, July and August (they always do more than enough for every author in the romance/erotica/smut genres), then we know he's making more than $25,200/year. That may not sound enough, be we know it's much more than that since he says it's his full-time income.

All this tells me that I can write the stories myself (I'm a copywriter by trade and novelist by hobby) and get significantly better results than him. Now THAT is motivating!

 

[Talyn]

After this "assault", after days with 0$ per day, I start again.
I analyzed my sales for the previous months, and I saw that all of my "erotica" books (6 +1 bundle) didn't sell well: 5 sales 7 borrows.

Dayspring> Smug porn is a bit risky, is there a risk that the account be banned ?
I think that choosing the right keywords/description is the most important, but a bit risky too

 

[Dayspring]

After this "assault", after days with 0$ per day, I start again.
I analyzed my sales for the previous months, and I saw that all of my "erotica" books (6 +1 bundle) didn't sell well: 5 sales 7 borrows.

Smug porn is a bit risky, is there a risk that the account be banned ?

I think they do it book by book instead of by account. An account risk would probably only be if you keep getting caught re-uploading a banned book (some people do this by creating a new cover with a new title, but the text is pretty much identical to the previous version) or organizing the creation of fake reviews.

Even editing banned books to comply with the rules apparently isn't worth the time. I know of an author who was making $3,000 to $5,000 a month off 180 3,000-5,000 word short stories. She managed to do this by identifying super niches and flooded them with $2.99 singles and $4.99 three-book bundles. When Amazon came down on her, all of her singles were taken down and so were most of her bundles. Oddly enough, her audio books and printed (through CreasteSpace) books never ran into any problems. She went back and reworked the books (example: "Cum For Bigfoot" became "Moan for Bigfoot" and all her incest books became roommate books) so as to comply with Amazon's demands, but apparently they never get any sales unless someone is actively looking for the previous version of the book.

It's really all Amazon being hypocritical in order to maximize their own profits while not risking any danger to their brand image. That's why they're vague in regards to what's acceptable and don't tell you why your books are struggling if and when they do. For example, there's no way 50 Shades Of Grey meets Amazon's requirements, but it's a famous multi-million-dollar book, so they look the other way.

 

[Dayspring]

This is a question for Pinger and Gringo, but I invite everyone to give their input:

With Kindle Unlimited/KOLL, are people still doing the five-day free promotion thing or do they just go straight into publishing at a set price ($0.99 or $2.99, for example)? If you do go straight into charging money from day 1, do you do it at a reduced price for a while instead?

I'm torn on what to do. One series would be a low-word count ongoing that I would publish once a week, so I plan on doing $0.99 each and then publishing $2.99 anthologies (four stories) and then 10-story anthologies for $3.99 or $4.99 (I'd like $3.99 since that's by far the most successful selling point for eBooks on Amazon, but don't know if that's too many stories for that price or not).

Another genre would be erotica, so I would test out $2.99 each and then $4.99 four-story bundles. If that doesn't work, I'm thinking $0.99 each and $3.99 for six stories, while reducing the $4.99 bundles to $2.99.

What are your thoughts, everyone?

 

[Pinger030]

@Dayspring
I never use the 5 day free promotion because it has a negative effect to the "people who also bought list". Let's say you have a cookbook and you give it away for free. Hundreds of people will download your book but they will also download tons of other free books with other topics than yours. After the promo phase your book is listed in the "people who also bought list" of irrelevant book. But the goal is to get listed in the "people who also bought list" of relevant competitors in your niche. Then you need tons of buys from a relevant competition book to yours to get listed and this can take weeks or months. It's hard to describe but with the 5 day free promotion you connect/get listed in the wrong areas where you can't sell your book. It's like trying to sell a bicycle in a car shop. The "people who also bought list" is very important because: Imagine your book is listed in the "people who also bought list" of a besteller in your niche. This bestseller gets tons of traffic per day und you can grab a part of this traffic. With the 5 day promo you will lose this option for the next time.

If I publish a short story I set a low price of $0.99. Book 2, 3 also for $0.99. The bundle for $2.99. I also have 3 part series where I published the bundle for $2.99 (people don't save money but (for me) it also works).

But never put your bundle in KDP Select because if a person has a KU-Account and wants to read your series he'll just borrow your bundle instead of borrow every separate part of your series.


PS. Update to my journey: Got my first Kindle Allstar bonus last month!