Guys: Kindle is the Ticket!

Dayspring said:

Wow. From $0 to $20,000/mo in roughly 9 months (you started in May 2014, right?). Congrats on all the success! How many books would you say you have now? Do you remember how many it took before you saw $3,000/mo?

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Nooo, I started in May 2014 and want to reach 20k/month at the end of this year. I'm currently "just" at 10k/month with exactly 36 books.

I started to write my own non fiction books. About 10 books. Just one of them is really successful with about 2500/month. That's impressive I know but:
a) the proportionality is bad (just 1 of 10)
b) it's really hard work
c) it's not easy to find good non fiction writers and it would be expensive
d) niche and keyword analysis is necessary and that's hard work too.

So I switched to fiction and realised that it's more easy to find writers, it's cheaper, niche and keyword analysis is not so important and I'm able to market mostly every book. I pay $100 for a story and make about $85 in the first 30 days (some books are going better than others but that's the average). So I decided to go this safe way with fiction books. And again: Yes, maybe I could make more money with non fiction books but the proportionality (1/10 had success) was too bad for me. I think it's NOW more important to increase my monthly income steady with fiction books.

BUT: I also know that short storys are nothing for long term success. Maybe it works for one, two or three years and that's the reason why I make a cut at 20-25k/month and use my financial freedom to produce high quality non fiction books. Because at this level I have the time, I have the money etc. to do this. Non fiction books are my plan for long term success because information never get old (mostly). There will always be customers for vegan nutrition, fitness, business (just some stupid examples). You're also able to build other products around your niche (content websites, video courses, smartphone apps, physical products etc.)

My exactly plan is:
- I am currently able to publish 12 books per month with my system (3-4 writers, $1200-1500 investment per month, I'm doing the formatting and correction alone, I'm able to increase my income by 1k/month)
- outsourcing of the correction and formatting to be able to publish 20 books per month (higher investment but also a higher increasing of my income, more time to focus on other things)
- keep on publishing 3 part series + box sets
- creating paperbacks of the box sets
- creating audio books of the box sets
- reaching 20-25k/month at the end of this year
- sell my already running system of workers to a friend (he just has to invest) OR rent my system OR hire a manager OR scale it down BUT I will definitely focus on non fiction
- 2015: making 100k after taxes and increase my income to 25k/month
- 2016: making 250k after taxes and increase my income to 30k/month
- 2017: making 300k and increase my income to 40k/month
- 2018: 400k/year, 50k/month

= Millionaire. Sounds strange I know but I will reach this no matter what happens. And I know there are many other great investments on my way to increase my income faster than 10k/year. New ideas, new products, new income streams, new possibilities to automate processes, new contacts who inspire me and so on.

Success is a mind thing. And if you are able to visualise your dreams you will automatically come closer and closer to your goals. If you already reached your goals in your mind your body (your reality) will follow! A strong personality is everything!

Morgadeshou said:

Gringo, do you have any advice on finding high quality writers for 300-1000$? I have enough capital to produce several books at that level, but not enough to experiment with like 10-20 different writers before I find one good one. Right now I'm paying writers 100 dollars which is easy, but my books will never be as good as yours, and reading what you've said has really made sense to me in terms of trying to produce the best book you possibly can in your niche, so ideally I want to pay more for better writers/illustrators and so fourth, but I dont really have the cash to mess around hiring 10 1000$ ghost writers to just find out that none of them are that good. Just curious as to if you had any screening methods you'd be willing to share, or if you just ended up experimenting with several writers before choosing

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I basically do what Pinger outlines he does, just I pay more per book and proportionately earn more.

Unfortunately and here is the kicker, finding good writers is hit and miss and costs you money upfront to find out if they are good or bad. I have worked in publishing for over 20 years, before Amazon was even invented, so my database is huge and grows. I started that database when I was spending other peoples money when I worked for a publishing house That is what gives me a massive advantage. So it became a no brainer for me to move into KDP and outsource utilising my database. That is also why I have been able to work on JV's with people.

However to try and help...

Your not going to go from a $100 book to a $2000 book overnight. But there are some things you can do to mitigate risk along the way.

I don't think you mean a good writer, I think you mean a good selling writer.

In fiction good stories sell. I had one writer who was basically a functioning illiterate! But by god she could tell a good story. I just edited it into shape, by paying someone else to rewrite it. You see by taking someone who CANNOT deliver the whole package and piecing it together yourself you get the parts a lot cheaper.

James Patterson is the best selling writer in the world. Read some of his Alex Cross books and they are terribly written, but god they sell. So understand what sells and then turn it into a series.

JV - James Patterson "collaborates" with several authors at once so scales his output that way. I have also worked on JV's with people.

To build a your own fiction writers database ask people for samples of something they have written, read through them and decide:
a)Is it a good story
b)Is it well written.

If it is a) and b) you will pay a lot.

But if you have 1 writer who is a) and one is b) get a) to write the story first draft and b) to rewrite it.

If they are neither a) or b) don't work with them!

To become a successful publisher you have to understand what will sell not necessarily who is the best writer.

I hope that makes sense.

KDP just opened an option to pay for semi-targeted advertising. Anyone going to try it out? Will be interested in getting an idea of ROI from various genres/qualities.

Pinger (or others) - When you hire out for fiction books, how do you choose a genre? Is it based on niches like non-fic or do you just let the GW choose?
Any tips on where you source your GW?

Thanks for all the info given to date!

Ys bu james paterson has a publisher right and also hires ghost writers and not write himself?

nilbog said:

Pinger (or others) - When you hire out for fiction books, how do you choose a genre? Is it based on niches like non-fic or do you just let the GW choose? Any tips on where you source your GW? Thanks for all the info given to date!

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The process I use to create a book is basically broke down as follows:
1. Research genre,keywords etc
2. Design book / storyline
3. Write book
4. Edit book
5. Choose author pseudonym and create website
6. Design cover

Now you need to decide which of those skills you can do and which you need to outsource. This is simply time/skill vs money.

But you have to be realistic with your actual skill level and budget.

Lets say you can do everything yourself except write the book, you will pay a lot less than if you have to outsource everything. The more one person can do the more they will charge you as they save you management time.

There are many freelance sites out there with people offering to undertake this work. It is just trial and error I am afraid until you find someone who can do what you want. But be mindful if someone offers to do all 6 stages outlined for $100 they are probably crap! Depending on the quality level you are looking at you are looking in the hundreds of dollars upto the thousands of dollars for someone to do it all.

Hey Pinger


Do you manufacture printed books then?

ThaT must cost a lot of cash?

@thecons
No, I use Createspace. That's a print on demand service by Amazon. No costs.

@gringo/all
I'm a very creative person but after so much books I have the problem that I have no more ideas for good story concepts. I have not the time. Is there a good source (maybe a website or wso or something) for such story concepts?

Pinger030 said:

@thecons


@gringo/all
I'm a very creative person but after so much books I have the problem that I have no more ideas for good story concepts. I have not the time. Is there a good source (maybe a website or wso or something) for such story concepts?

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well , i have a bunch of ideas

or simply try here ;

http://www.writersdigest.com/prompts

Do you get paid with Paypal?

Does Amazon send books from warehouse or deliver to your house?

Thanks

How you get your books noticed I dont know Pinger

I have a few good ones but I get like 1 or 2 sales a month and my keywords and subjects are very good and my new book series I started for kids, well in 2 weeks not 1 sale

Congrats to Pinger and Gringo for your great results!

I've just launched my third book (book one was quite successul, book two was average) and am really excited to see what happens with it. My first book seemed to hit the ground running with minimal promotion, but my follow up books in the same niche (and using the same keyword techniques) haven't been quite so successful.

I have about 10 books written, but unpublished, and some of them have sat unpublished for months. I'm a perfectionist, and a writer myself, so I like to go through each book in a lot of detail, but I simply haven't had time with other commitments. This is something I need to work on, as when a book is unpublished it isn't earning me a penny. Getting it into good shape and getting it out there is far better than leaving a book unpublished while I aim for perfection. For anyone reading this, it's well worth paying that bit more to get a better quality writer so your books need less work from you. Of the three books I've published, they are all from the same writer, and I am prepared to pay more for her work because I know that when the work is submitted it's 99% ready to be published.

I have focused on non-fiction as good information is good information, and as a non-fiction writer I can edit this myself. However, fiction is definitely getting my attention recently, simply because the possibilities and potential is far greater. The one problem is that I don't have a clue about fiction! I don't know how to write it, edit it, and I don't have any unique ideas.

For Gringo and Pinger who do well from non-fiction, how involved are you in the creating a story outline? Do you come up with the outline yourself, or do you hire a writer and let them come up with ideas?

Thanks guys

Pinger030 - You have hit the nail on the head here about ideas. The ideas are worth way more than doing the writing. That's a big reason why I spend all my time coming up with series concepts, else I get bogged down in production. I think of it more like I come up with the KFC colonels secret recipe and the branding and then I pay someone else to actually make the chicken As to getting the ideas use the exact same methods you have already outlined to research if a book is profitable only do it to analyse best selling "ideas".

dennis_797 - As outlined above I spend pretty much all my time testing out concepts I come up with. I made a post on a previous page - here it is again:

The process I use to create a book is basically broke down as follows:
1. Research genre,keywords etc
2. Design book / storyline
3. Write book
4. Edit book
5. Choose author pseudonym and create website
6. Design cover

Now you need to decide which of those skills you can do and which you need to outsource. This is simply time/skill vs money.

But you have to be realistic with your actual skill level and budget.

Lets say you can do everything yourself except write the book, you will pay a lot less than if you have to outsource everything. The more one person can do the more they will charge you as they save you management time.

There are many freelance sites out there with people offering to undertake this work. It is just trial and error I am afraid until you find someone who can do what you want. But be mindful if someone offers to do all 6 stages outlined for $100 they are probably crap! Depending on the quality level you are looking at you are looking in the hundreds of dollars upto the thousands of dollars for someone to do it all.

Do you guys have any books in the 'end of the world' genre?

I feel it will be heavily flooded with books but it's something I enjoy reading.

I'm thinking about writing a 500 - 1000 word outline and giving it to a ghost writer to flesh out/finish.

I may also try the same with erotica as I'm sure it is a genre that will never die, but I'm not sure yet.

Thinking about spending $100 - $300 on this first book. Hopefully the first of a series. 10,000 - 15,000 words.


Also seriously looking at doing a cookbook. Say order 100 - 150 recipes, but also attempt to build the pen name up with a website that I'll keep updating. Trying to build a list and sometimes put some affiliate links in blog posts.

Hmm, really hope I can make this work, haha.

Pinger030
You outsourced the writing, right? So you can outsource the plot outlines as well.
of-course research first, other way, they can write you something with zero potencial.

Outsourcing writing for Kindle, who'd have thunk it. Great info.

I have just read some bad stories about Createspace manufacturing

Enuf54 said:

Do you guys have any books in the 'end of the world' genre?

I feel it will be heavily flooded with books but it's something I enjoy reading.

I'm thinking about writing a 500 - 1000 word outline and giving it to a ghost writer to flesh out/finish.

I may also try the same with erotica as I'm sure it is a genre that will never die, but I'm not sure yet.

Thinking about spending $100 - $300 on this first book. Hopefully the first of a series. 10,000 - 15,000 words.


Also seriously looking at doing a cookbook. Say order 100 - 150 recipes, but also attempt to build the pen name up with a website that I'll keep updating. Trying to build a list and sometimes put some affiliate links in blog posts.

Hmm, really hope I can make this work, haha.

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May I suggest you focus on one idea, produce that book test it out and if it works spin it into a series.

If it does not work or once that series is easy to manage, then move onto your next idea.

As managing multiple ideas at once is very difficult to do unless you are experienced at doing it.

I think I will go the fiction route for now.

Sticking to one idea has been my biggest set back in the IM world. Alwas starting new projects and never sticking it out. I've read the whole thread and I'm going to try to stick to this and make it work.

Hi Gringo, thanks for your response.

I've read that you outsource different pieces of the puzzle, and you essentially collaborate everything together. That seems like a good system!

Is creating the story idea/outline something you create yourself, or is this something you outsource too? Having never written fiction, I have no idea how to "plan" a good story, and I don't know how much detail an outline would require. Any tips on this? If you do outsource it, what is the going rate for a good outline? It seems step 2 is the one step missing from my non-fiction system, and it's the one I'm least knowledgable about!

Thanks, you and Pinger are both inspirations!