Kindle Quality Book Journey

[ju111]

I decided to launch my journey on my current project. Why? Because as I am 41 years old, I know perfectly what prevents me to get success: I am passionate by a lot of stuff, and so I manage several projects at the same time, without ending anyone since several years. So... I looked for a solution for this problem, and I asked to myself: "hey, maybe you just need to be supported? To get feedbacks about your work?". And so, I created this Journey.

I started this book in 2009, I wrote only from time to time, and after a few days I focused on another project. And so on. So as I write a lot currently, I decided to just focus on this project, and to adopt a sequential attitude and not a parallel one to manage my projects.

Current status of my first book:

- Non fiction book
- Personal development mega-niche
- Currently 33000 words.
- Written in french (this is why my english is so bad ) I write quickly and well in French, so it eases the process.

My first goals:

- Produce two volumes: one for the theory, the other one for the practice in my niche
- 70000 words for the first volume (100k would be very good), 10000 words for the other one (it will be mainly some checklists to follow)
- Website to promote it (facebook, adwords) during the launch
- Targeted price: 7/8/9 € for the first one, 2.99€ for the second one.
- Be one of the top-seller

Secondary goals if first goal is achieved

- Hire a translator to translate the books in english
- Promote it accordingly, saying that it is a top-seller in France. I think this is a good idea.

I will update regularly and, progressively, I will share everything.

Wish me good luck guys )

 

[slidings]

Keen to find out how you go with this one, good luck I am also guilty of having too many projects and not finishing any. How are you intending to promote the book?

 

[Gosocials]

Great goal mate.... All the best

 

[ju111]

Thanks for encouraging me.

Update

- So, I am at 44k words. I wrote 11k words in a few days (only evening and week ends).
- I noticed that once the internet searches have been made and that I have a plan in mind, I can write very very quickly almost with no typos. So, for my next book, I will design the whole plan of my book first, perform all the researches, and write the book only after that, I think i will gain A LOT of time.

Note on tools used

- So, i started to use Scrivener, which is excellent especially for fiction book. But I find it too complicated, so I swapped to Jutoh 2, which is good enough for my needs as it is a epub/Kindle-oriented software.
- To draw schemas (I have plenty in my book), I use Sketchboard, which is not free but very good for my use.
- For the various search works on the internet, I use a simple LibreOffice sheet

Further idea

I had an idea in mind, I share it to you. As my book is in the niche "personal development", I may propose to my readers a free support, to analyze their issues and to provide them the relevant support and motivation.

PROS:
- Might be a way to start to build a very targeted list
- Might be a way to know better my readers (age, sex, etc.).

CONS:
- I may be overloaded by the work.
- It can be difficult to track if someone has really bought the book. But I can ask, with an automated email, a buying-proof as soon as someone sends an email to my support address.

Any comment on this idea is welcomed.

Answers to questions

Keen to find out how you go with this one, good luck I am also guilty of having too many projects and not finishing any. How are you intending to promote the book?

Facebook probably as they offer very targeted ads, and may be flyers in specific and targeted locations.

Thanks for reading!

 

[aftershock9]

All the best man Love that you taking action even at the age of 41. Good luck. I'm not french so I won't be able to support and read your book

 

[JamesM83]

Excited to see how this goes, sounds promising

 

[shimi]

Good luck, about support - first build email list - then send them questions, what they want to solve in life etc...

 

[Gallag97]

good luck with your book, I'm sure its gonna be some great work

 

[dbk03]

So, do you have any update for us?

 

[Matix45]

How are you intending to promote the book? I am also guilty of having too many projects and not finishing any. Keen to find out how you go with this one, good luck man.

 

[blackbeans]

How is your journey going so far?

 

[Talyn]

Any update ?
I am also french and in the Kindle business.

 

[GringoMonkey]

Unfortunately for whatever reason, the French don't seem to buy much on Kindle. I had a book translated into French and was, maybe even still is, in the top 10 for my categories, I think it makes me about $50 per month. The point is it is so little I don't bother checking. In fact I think I sell more English language books than French books in France on Kindle!

I am afraid the big online digital book market is for English.

If set up correctly I am sure your book will rank high in France for Kindle, just don't expect to live off the sales. You might have more joy if you also offer it through Createspace as a printed book.

 

[jadezoole]

Well, I really like this journey, let me join with my story.

I started to write a quality book in eSports niche at the end of 2014, I am not a native English speaker but I never bothered to launch the book in other languages, maybe if I would speak Chinese.
I finished the paperback book in October 2015 approx 33.000 words.
The translation took approx. 8 month (it could be shorter with a fast translator, but I wanted quality), the edition was really quick so in May 2016 finally launched the book on Amazon. Cover and website were already finished for the lunch, thanks to the time while the translation was in progress.
After the release in a month, I launched the Kindle version at price 9.99 (later it seems that it is too high for an ebook, I lowered 4.99, which is still pricey amongst e-books) with a 70% royalty payout on KDP.

My marketing repertoire:
- One page website (later I made a blog section in addition)
- Facebook, Twitter later Instagram
- Followliker for Twitter and Instagram for accounts progress (now about 9.000 followers on Twitter, 1.800 on Instagram)
- 2 Press releases
- Guest post service on high PR websites (found on BHW) (I'm working with 30 keywords now in my niche)
- Manual backlinks with a standalone article about the book (book and ebook lists etc.)
- Auto backlinks with GSA SER (approx. 14.000 backlinks)
- 2 independent book award entry
(I highlighted the list items that has good impact)

Results
- Approx 160 EUR in revenue (both Kindle and paperback on Amazon), 10-15 sales a month (which seems really low to me)

Today
I have very limited revenue from the book, even if I feel the book itself is a great one, with a lot of good stuff for the readers.
I think I miss something in the marketing steps, maybe it is the result that I was newbie in several things.

Anyway, I am very grateful for this forum and the forum members, because I learned a lot from the people here. THANK YOU BHW!

 

[Talyn]

Well, I really like this journey, let me join with my story.

I started to write a quality book in eSports niche at the end of 2014, I am not a native English speaker but I never bothered to launch the book in other languages, maybe if I would speak Chinese.
I finished the paperback book in October 2015 approx 33.000 words.
The translation took approx. 8 month (it could be shorter with a fast translator, but I wanted quality), the edition was really quick so in May 2016 finally launched the book on Amazon. Cover and website were already finished for the lunch, thanks to the time while the translation was in progress.
After the release in a month, I launched the Kindle version at price 9.99 (later it seems that it is too high for an ebook, I lowered 4.99, which is still pricey amongst e-books) with a 70% royalty payout on KDP.

My marketing repertoire:
- One page website (later I made a blog section in addition)
- Facebook, Twitter later Instagram
- Followliker for Twitter and Instagram for accounts progress (now about 9.000 followers on Twitter, 1.800 on Instagram)
- 2 Press releases
- Guest post service on high PR websites (found on BHW) (I'm working with 30 keywords now in my niche)
- Manual backlinks with a standalone article about the book (book and ebook lists etc.)
- Auto backlinks with GSA SER (approx. 14.000 backlinks)
- 2 independent book award entry
(I highlighted the list items that has good impact)

Results
- Approx 160 EUR in revenue (both Kindle and paperback on Amazon), 10-15 sales a month (which seems really low to me)

Today
I have very limited revenue from the book, even if I feel the book itself is a great one, with a lot of good stuff for the readers.
I think I miss something in the marketing steps, maybe it is the result that I was newbie in several things.

Anyway, I am very grateful for this forum and the forum members, because I learned a lot from the people here. THANK YOU BHW!

Hello !
It's not clear for me, did you publish it in English or in another language ?

In my opinion you missed two steps:
- ARC reviews
- Published your book through createspace, put your kindle book on pre-order, ask your ARC team to publish their reviews.

Some hints to go further:
- Rewrite your commercial blurb to make it look like more commercial
- Buy highly targeted facebook ads, that works like a charm if there is a leader book well known in your niche. An ad "liked BesellerBookName, try YourBookName!"

But I don't want to hijack op's topic

 

[nanohits]

Kindle is an interesting journey, I will be interested in seeing how you go as there is heavy competition in this area.

 

[jadezoole]

Any update? I think a lot of member interested in this journey.

 

[jadezoole]

Hello !
It's not clear for me, did you publish it in English or in another language ?

In my opinion you missed two steps:
- ARC reviews
- Published your book through createspace, put your kindle book on pre-order, ask your ARC team to publish their reviews.

Some hints to go further:
- Rewrite your commercial blurb to make it look like more commercial
- Buy highly targeted facebook ads, that works like a charm if there is a leader book well known in your niche. An ad "liked BesellerBookName, try YourBookName!"

But I don't want to hijack op's topic

Yes, the language of the book is English (US).

ARC reviews - I agree, I missed that part

Thank you for your advice!

 

[ju111]

Ok, a lot of time has passed, sorry for that. I ve been busied with my real job and with another personal project.
I restarted the project since december and it is now not far to be finished. Here is an update.

Ebooks content

- So, I am at 58K words for the Tome 1 (the theory) of my ebook.
- 6k words for the Tome 2 (the training program). It will be quickly (today I think) increased over 10k words at least.

My overall plan

It has changed a bit.

• I will sell a "package" of Tome 1 + Tome 2 + an Excel Logbook + an access to a private mailing list with customized advice and support (officially). The goal is to build an interactive mailing list while selling my book.
• Customized website dedicated to the books
  
• Targeted price: 39$ at the start, and I will lower the price progressively depending of the results.
  
• Traffic: Facebook ads that I tested last month for another project to train myself.

As my niche is highly targeted but competitive, I think Facebook ads are perfectly fitted for the job, i will be able to target precisely the potential leads.

What i have done in december

- Book covers (more on this below)
- Website (not finished yet, but the design is almost finished)
- Read a lot of documents, from articles to scientific studies for my book.
- Writing and still learning Jutoh 2 (to format the book correctly).
- Invented and designed (in 10 minutes lol) a logo for my fake publishing company. I am sure that seeing this on the cover will trick users ("ah, it is a serious book really published by an establised publisher i buy it").

One of the main issue I had was to build the bibliography. I have ~50 references in my book to external papers, and I want to format them correctly so the ebook will appear as "serious" and "documented" (eg no bullshit like all ebooks in the personal development area ). It took some time to enter all these references in the internal database of Jutoh, but I plan to use this documentation as a marketing advantage.

Another one was to build the training book. As it is a method containing more than 80 progressive exercices splitted in various thematics, it should remain logic and coherent, so I just passed all my week-end on this.

Note on tools used

- Jutoh of course. Not perfect (especially on a HIDPI screen GRRR), but unfortunately, no other choice currently.
- I made the covers with myecovermaker.com => Great tool and not too expansive. It can make 2D and a lot of various 3D covers. I am very happy with the result and on my design. It tooks me only 3 hours to get a good result that i would have not been able to obtain with the Gimp.
- For the website, of course Wordpress/Woocommerce, with a very customizable theme (paid one) and Paypal gateway.
- For the mailing list, I plan to use PHPList. I like to keep the control on everything
- I will invest in a small VPS to host the website, and PHPList.
- For the SMTP part which can be tricky, I tested recently for another project "Mailinabox" in a LXC container. Works fine, and it configures DKIM SPF and all this stuff automatically.

I still need to:

• assess how to include a form on my site with PHPList as a backend, but it should not be too difficult.
• Find a plugin to watermark my PDF files.

Next steps
- Finish the writing of the ebooks (+proof read) and the website
- Install the server / finalize the mailing + PDF protection architecture
- Prepare the FB ads
- See which information is requested for an ISBN number (can we lie for the author name and publisher name?)
- See how I can print the ebook easily without stocks. I want my exemplary as it should be a very good feeling to have in hands its own book

B-Plan
If the standalone website is not working, i will put the ebooks on the Kindle marketplace and reduce the price to a normal one, this is the second stage of the rocket.

Comments are welcomed, thanks a lot!

 

[ju111]

PROUD OF ME!

Just a message from the heart after 4 hours of intensive work. I have just finished the Tome 2 of my book, and it seems very great comparing to the competition. What a good feeling.

Tome 1: 60k words
Tome 2: 12K words.

And a very solid structure. and good ideas. I will not regret anything if it will be a commercial fail, I gave everything I had to write these ebooks. I ll keep you updated when everything will be online, maybe with the link, I don't know yet.

The most important part is to be proud, and to want to print the books for myself as I have absolutely no shame to sell them. And if I win money with it... well. I think that I deserve it.