Guys: Kindle is the Ticket!

[Pinger030]

Yes it's more risky than before but you have to see the advantages.

Old system: Almost everyone could be successful without great knowledge and skills. You were able to make money with less effort while you could learn everything about this business and improve your skills. Your income could grow with your knowledge.

New system: You have to provide high quality from the scratch. Extensive knowledge and good skills are absolutely necessary before you ever see some money. That's very risky for a beginner because he has to spend a lot of time and don't know what he can expect while he has the pressure to make money. Additionally he has no big trust in this business because he has never seen results = High risk that a beginner gives up quickly with the first problems/fails.

Coclusion: The market is always growing, new customers are coming but new publishers are staying away. Your advantage is that you're already in this business. You already have much knowledge about this business and what's necessary to be successful with Kindle books. You've made experiences with niches and keywords, perhaps with outsourcing etc. You're miles away from a beginner even if you don't make the big money right now ...but you still have the best chances to become successful! The risk for you/us is very very low in comparison to a newbie.

Success with Kindle is no longer a matter of course and the new system also lowered my income. But changes happens to every business.

 

[NemoTheOne]

Yes it's more risky than before but you have to see the advantages.

Old system: Almost everyone could be successful without great knowledge and skills. You were able to make money with less effort while you could learn everything about this business and improve your skills. Your income could grow with your knowledge.

New system: You have to provide high quality from the scratch. Extensive knowledge and good skills are absolutely necessary before you ever see some money. That's very risky for a beginner because he has to spend a lot of time and don't know what he can expect while he has the pressure to make money. Additionally he has no big trust in this business because he has never seen results = High risk that a beginner gives up quickly with the first problems/fails.

Coclusion: The market is always growing, new customers are coming but new publishers are staying away. Your advantage is that you're already in this business. You already have much knowledge about this business and what's necessary to be successful with Kindle books. You've made experiences with niches and keywords, perhaps with outsourcing etc. You're miles away from a beginner even if you don't make the big money right now ...but you still have the best chances to become successful! The risk for you/us is very very low in comparison to a newbie.

Success with Kindle is no longer a matter of course and the new system also lowered my income. But changes happens to every business.

Pinger how many books do you have out now?

 

[Eiffel]

This is a great thread and I am still reading it(can't read the whole thread in one sitting). I guess it will take me a few days to get done with it.

I am planning to start publishing for Kindle in October. I will stick with fiction as they say fiction pays much more than non-fiction.

What is the best way to get reviews for your book when you are a beginner?

 

[choppi]

This is a great thread and I am still reading it(can't read the whole thread in one sitting). I guess it will take me a few days to get done with it.

I am planning to start publishing for Kindle in October. I will stick with fiction as they say fiction pays much more than non-fiction.

What is the best way to get reviews for your book when you are a beginner?

Ask your friends or buy some at Frr

 

[JadMac]

I disagree...I was making ~1k a month before the update...after the update this decreased drastically...you need a good, chunky and creative book to encourage anyone to read it from beginning to end and therefore get the same amount of money as before and to achieve that costs a lot of time and money. Of course this is good news for readers, but bad news for entrepreneurs.

 

[Pinger030]

Of course this is good news for readers, but bad news for entrepreneurs.

It's also good news for publishers who were ready to publish high quality books during the last year(s). While some people just have done the necessary things to make money ...there are publishers who have done everything possible to publish high quality books. Now everyone gets what he deserves and that's fair.

The new system has also lowered my income but objectively it's fair. The next game change will come!

 

[GringoMonkey]

It's also good news for publishers who were ready to publish high quality books during the last year(s). While some people just have done the necessary things to make money ...there are publishers who have done everything possible to publish high quality books. Now everyone gets what he deserves and that's fair.

The new system has also lowered my income but objectively it's fair. The next game change will come!

It took me a few weeks to get my head around the new publishing system and convert (am still in the process of converting) my old books to a new format to enable me to elongate page count.

But the books I have converted make a lot more money than they did on the old system which paid out a flat rate.

The way to think of it is before Amazon paid a flat rate of circa $1.35 per book, you benefited if your book was crap as it was a flat fee nothing to do with people reading it or not.

Now the more you engage the reader the more you get paid. So Amazon has removed the cap. That is unlimited money per book, provided it engages the reader.

I have found that a lot easier with fiction series and for example expanded one book to 1000 pages, that means if the reader reads it all I get $5.00! Not $1.35. On a bad day that makes me $200, before it did about $50.

Then when the book is at the top of the charts, I expand it again. Say another 500 pages, now it will make me $7.50 per read and so on.

It is actually easier to make money longer term by having 1 successful book and expanding it, rather than before you got a flat rate so had to keep launching new books and make them all successful.

To really cream it do both!

Understand the rule change, adapt and you will make a lot more money, provided what you create is what the reader wants.

 

[Morgadeshou]

Can you give us any tips on good ways to expand books to increase your page count? Ive tried a few things but amazon is pretty wise to a lot of tricks. I guess you could just be writing more but that's actual work that I'd probably just be better off making new books with.

 

[GringoMonkey]

Can you give us any tips on good ways to expand books to increase your page count? Ive tried a few things but amazon is pretty wise to a lot of tricks. I guess you could just be writing more but that's actual work that I'd probably just be better off making new books with.

How you expand the book really depends on what the book is about and if it retains the readers interest. It is easier with fiction.

But in general now, as you are paid by page read, you are better off with 1x 500 page book than 10x 50 page books as you can concentrate on ranking and expanding that rather than having to rank 10 books.

If you are not sure write your 50 page book, accept it won't make a lot of money on KDP to start with, see how many page reads it is getting / it's ranking then if it is doing ok expand. If it is what the readers want, every time you double the pages up, you should double your income from that book.

 

[jdawg1991]

sounds like a great system will give this a try!

 

[propguy80]

Thanks for the advice OP.

 

[marksx]

Ok guys... This is my first post in this topic. I read the whole topic which took me a few days. At first i was very happy but soon i realised that the OP started this in 2013, now we are almost in 2016. As i saw while reading here, lots of things have changed especially the fact that it's a supra saturated market now. People from Odesk have bigger prices too. I'm still amazed by the high quality advices from this topic, some people would charge money for this information.

My question is: Is it still posibile for me to start now (12.10.2015)? I was very excited because i have drawing and photoshop skills and i could add those in my books. I'm waiting for your advices guys! Thank you.

 

[blackbeans]

To get more pages read under the new system, you should also write your book where you 'PRE-SELL' upcoming sections.

This can be in the form of plot elements if you write fiction.

In my case, I pre-sell steps/tips/components that are at later stages of the book.

When they reach those parts of the book, you have pre-sold them to other later stages.

Basically, you keep pushing them forward until they read the WHOLE book.

In non-fiction, the secret to this is writing illustrative 'mini-stories' that hit a personal nerve.

You have to get them EMOTIONALLY INVESTED in reading the book.

 

[brosy]

Ok guys... This is my first post in this topic. I read the whole topic which took me a few days. At first i was very happy but soon i realised that the OP started this in 2013, now we are almost in 2016. As i saw while reading here, lots of things have changed especially the fact that it's a supra saturated market now. People from Odesk have bigger prices too. I'm still amazed by the high quality advices from this topic, some people would charge money for this information.

My question is: Is it still posibile for me to start now (12.10.2015)? I was very excited because i have drawing and photoshop skills and i could add those in my books. I'm waiting for your advices guys! Thank you.

The answer to your question is yes, you can start now and still make good money on kindle. Although, it may seem that the market is super-saturated as you said but new books are coming out everyday and authors/publishers are still making money. What is happening is that, as new better quality books are released, the existing low quality books are being pushed down the list. Kindle has just about 3.7 million books while physical books on amazon are over 27 million, so we haven't come close to the saturation point yet.
As a beginner, I'll advice you to start with nonfiction. Do diligent research to find profitable keywords that you can create medium size, good quality books on, and you are good to go.

 

[marksx]

Thank you so much guys! I now have a boost of confidence and i'll start to work on my new book today. Honestly i don't really understand how to do the keyword research but i'll read more about this.

 

[Fats0420]

Can someone please Pm me. I am totally confused when trying to figure out how payments and royalties work. I've been away for a while. Just trying to jump back in the game.

 

[GringoMonkey]

Things seemed to have slowed down a lot on BHW about Kindle.

Are people struggling to make money after the KDP changes in July?

 

[blogbd1]

Hi, I am from a non US country, while opening kdp account it asks for Tax number. I dont have a US tax number as I dont live i US. Can anyone suggest what should I do? Thanks

 

[GringoMonkey]

Hi, I am from a non US country, while opening kdp account it asks for Tax number. I dont have a US tax number as I dont live i US. Can anyone suggest what should I do? Thanks

You can either attempt to apply for a non-resident tax ID at the IRS (good luck with that by the way!) or if you do not input a tax id Amazon will withhold 30% of your income.

 

[kekmaw]

Or register a company in your country will fix that as you get a number, atleast thats what I got in my country.