Any of you billionaires do Kindle publishing?

Robert M Gouge

Robert M Gouge

Bleh.
Aug 26, 2012
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Trying to finish up my first work in time for the Christmas boom. Not really sure what to expect, but the passive income model of Kindle Direct Publishing is really appealing.

Any of you have any works self-published on Kindle? How they doing? Any insights you can share with a peasant?
 
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It's tougher than it looks. You'll have to market yourself if you're doing fiction, or the info product if that's your model -- extensively. It really only becomes passive income once people start looking for your work, rather than stumbling on it like they will at the start.

If you have lots of traffic streams and online marketing expertise you'll likely have an easier time than I did, but thinking that you're going to capitalize on this Christmas' boom is very unrealistic -- not impossible since I know nothing about you -- but it's not a set-and-forget deal by any means. You need a lot of sales because even great authors sell their books at 2.99 or slightly higher, which means you have to sell LOTS to make significant money. Also you really can't stop at one book because you want to create a snowball effect to really drive up sales and break the top-100 in their ranking system.

Read... extensively and check out the amazon forum and guys like JA Konrath who're successful. There are tons of terrible authors making money, but they don't do it passively.
 
I'm curious about this as well. I've given the Kindle store serious consideration. There are a number of independent genre fiction writers doing quite well there.

I'm willing to bet that a little internet marketing know-how would take you a long way on the Kindle store. You could price your product at that impulse buy $0.99 level, drive traffic to your product, and even if you were just breaking even in terms of conversions, it's quite possible that the sales you generate would trigger Amazon's internal algo, causing them to feature your ebook on the kindle store.

What are you writing, Monsieur Gouge? You tearing it up with NANOWRIMO?
 
IMHopeful said:
It's tougher than it looks. You'll have to market yourself if your doing fiction, or the info product if that's your model -- extensively. It really only becomes passive income once people start looking for your work, rather than stumbling on it like they will at the start.

If you have lots of traffic streams and online marketing expertise you'll likely have an easier time than I did, but thinking that you're going to capitalize on this Christmas' boom is very unrealistic -- not impossible since I know nothing about you -- but it's not a set-and-forget deal by any means. You need a lot of sales because even great authors sell their books at 2.99 or slightly higher, which means you have to sell LOTS to make significant money. Also you really can't stop at one book because you want to create a snowball effect to really drive up sales and break the top-100 in their ranking system.

Read... extensively and check out the amazon forum and guys like JA Konrath who're successful. There are tons of terrible authors making money, but they don't do it passively.
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Yeah, I'm trying to organize an effective marketing campaign to get the ball rolling, once my work is live. I'm not in fiction, as everything I've researched tells me that is the most competitive field by far (even fiction sub niches). Same goes with Erotica, everyone and their brother seems to be attempting to replicate the success of 50 Shades.

I've heard that if you can reach a certain sales threshold (obv this threshold differs from genre to genre), that your book can become self-sustaining, and even grow, without any further marketing.

I've heard many mixed reviews on the KDP Select program, hard to tell what is true and what isn't true. I've heard that the 5 free promo days, where users get to download your work for free, affect if your listing shows up under "Users who bought this also bought..." - Which, if true, seems like a solid play to start siphoning some of the Amazon traffic to help get things going. This seems to be the only real benefit I can see to the KDP Select program, but I'm unsure if free downloads actually affect that listing or not.
 
This post prompted me to read Konrath's newer posts and check my amazon account: A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

The people writing novels strictly to make a buck, and who would never in a million years get a publishing deal offline keep making it harder for the rest of us to get our work out there.

The link I posted is related to some changes that happened late last month where Amazon tightened up their review submission guidelines... it's hard to get reviews and gain momentum without giving the material away.

Networking with guys like Konrath, Blake Crouch, and perhaps other lesser-knowns is the way to go. I've made some friends, but it's a trying process because it's such a new industry -- the top guys get hassled so much, they really don't answer emails and other forms of contact.

Amazon publishing is a full-time niche, and very hard to balance while doing other forms of online marketing.

Definitely start a blog right away and get some traffic flowing to it. Make posts about being a writer and self-pubbing, etc.
 
Minderwinter said:
I'm curious about this as well. I've given the Kindle store serious consideration. There are a number of independent genre fiction writers doing quite well there.

I'm willing to bet that a little internet marketing know-how would take you a long way on the Kindle store. You could price your product at that impulse buy $0.99 level, drive traffic to your product, and even if you were just breaking even in terms of conversions, it's quite possible that the sales you generate would trigger Amazon's internal algo, causing them to feature your ebook on the kindle store.

What are you writing, Monsieur Gouge? You tearing it up with NANOWRIMO?
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I'm big into personal development stuff, so that is what my first work is on.

The research I've done shows that a lot of the fiction writers who are having success are releasing book series. .99c for the first in a series and then legitimate pricing for the remainder of the series. Many seem to claim that this is the only way to go in fiction without extensive outside marketing.

Another thing I'm seeing in the fiction world is people releasing books as episodes. Shorter works but many more of them. (Example: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A410TM4/ref=s9_simh_bw_p351_d4_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=1FQ3B13QQQCFXCEND0Y0&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1413528462&pf_rd_i=1286228011]Star Force: Secession (SF13): Aer-ki Jyr: Amazon.com: Kindle Store[/ame])
 
I'm stepping in this arena within a year or so, but not as a real project, but just a way to monetize a series of fiction novels I'm writing on the side.

I do know someone on this forum who jumped into the game and is doing pretty well in my book (PUN! HAHAHA) but I'll let that person out themselves and talk about it if they choose.
 
Robert M Gouge said:
I've heard many mixed reviews on the KDP Select program, hard to tell what is true and what isn't true. I've heard that the 5 free promo days, where users get to download your work for free, affect if your listing shows up under "Users who bought this also bought..." - Which, if true, seems like a solid play to start siphoning some of the Amazon traffic to help get things going. This seems to be the only real benefit I can see to the KDP Select program, but I'm unsure if free downloads actually affect that listing or not.
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No, that won't help with the "Users who bought...." The free downloads allow you some exposure because you can give the book away and get some non-biased reviews from people. Unfortunately, the benefits are genre dependant. If you have self-help book or something outside fiction, then you might benefit from the free review process. However, fiction is tricky because people are less honest due to the price (free).

Your product needs to be flawless and professional, because Kindle users have learned to sniff out the BS, much like many of us on WF know better than to buy products that promise overnight success.

Like I said though: it's niche/genre dependant. Maybe you have a goose that can lay a golden egg. :D
 
Seriously looked into publishing for Kindle, then I read about the massive cuts Amazon takes unless you severely underprice your books. I was quickly rid of that fantasy.
 
IMHopeful said:
No, that won't help with the "Users who bought...." The free downloads allow you some exposure because you can give the book away and get some non-biased reviews from people. Unfortunately, the benefits are genre dependant. If you have self-help book or something outside fiction, then you might benefit from the free review process. However, fiction is tricky because people are less honest due to the price (free).

Your product needs to be flawless and professional, because Kindle users have learned to sniff out the BS, much like many of us on WF know better than to buy products that promise overnight success.

Like I said though: it's niche/genre dependant. Maybe you have a goose that can lay a golden egg. :D
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That seems to be the latest gripe among indie publishers in the KDP space; That they are giving away tons of books and not getting any reviews. But, obviously, this may be because their work sucks or their genre is too competitive or whatever. Hard to say.

However, many indie publishers probably don't have the first clue about marketing or getting traffic, so the promo could be viable in the hands of someone who knows a little about the online marketing game. The KDP arena is still in it's infancy stages, so it's really hard to derive any meaningful data on anything.

Seems there are actually a lot of sites popping up that derive their content strictly off KDP free promotions. Seems some sites are aggregating the free promos and you get their traffic just by doing a KDP Select free promo (no extra work required). Other sites will list your promo for a fee, etc, etc. I imagine a savvy internet marketer, who coordinates these types of sites in combination with other outside traffic sources, can easily break 10,000-20,000 free downloads in a few days. However, the benefit of such a promo seems hard to quantify (in terms of sales) since free downloads don't seem to have any affect on your paid rankings or your listing in any of the paid searches. The only way I can see to get benefit from a free promo is for reviews, which, understandably, are believed to be a significant element in the Amazon search algo. But, seems free promos have become less and less effective in generating reviews (hey, people are lazy).
 
I published a book on Kindle about 2 weeks ago.

Zero sales and zero downloads so far. It's a book on small biz marketing strategies. I haven't done shit to promote it.

I put it there just so I can say "Author of"...

But, it goes to show it's not passive. I actually put a lot into the book too. But again, it's mainly just for positioning purposes. I'll get around to promoting it soon.
 
scottspfd82 said:
I published a book on Kindle about 2 weeks ago.

Zero sales and zero downloads so far. It's a book on small biz marketing strategies. I haven't done shit to promote it.

I put it there just so I can say "Author of"...

But, it goes to show it's not passive. I actually put a lot into the book too. But again, it's mainly just for positioning purposes. I'll get around to promoting it soon.
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Have/Are you planning on doing KDP Select and doing a few free promo days?
 
There was an article about a lot of people submitting plagiarized shit so they have tighten up... But I think you may be able to make some coin from public domain works... or recipes and such
 
blogspotter said:
There was an article about a lot of people submitting plagiarized shit so they have tighten up... But I think you may be able to make some coin from public domain works... or recipes and such
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They've really cracked down on duplicate work and PLR content. Which, I think, is good for the KDP system.

Even though most writers are publishing their own stuff, from what I've seen, it seems very hit or miss. In some of the indie publishing communities, people report instances where their books just take off (with no marketing and for no apparent rhyme or reason), while others are lucky to make 5 sales a year.
 
OK, I'll out myself because Hobster and Guerrilla are gentlemen and won't.

I have been in the program less than 2 months, worked it pretty hard (not full time), and made about $1k. I learned things that should help this keep growing. Passive income - meh - like any affiliate marketing is (NOT). It takes time and skill - but it can be a good opportunity if you learn to work it and throw some money at at.

You guys are mostly repeating stuff commonly posted on blogs and forums - and that is fine - but you have to read a lot and experiment to find out real tidbits.

Yeah, I do have thoughts about KDP Select - from reading and personal experience - and at the risk of censure I will direct you to a post. :)

Should You Join KDP Select When You Self Publish On Amazon? « Publish Myself
 
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productionhead said:
inb4 amazon kindle publishing bizopp
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That's the point. I got sort of moitvated to try it because I got a slew of emails about that very thing. I did not purchase the top-secret system, but I did start reading about it on places like kindleboards, etc.

The problem with the biz-ops is they are making it look easy - like IM is, right? Some of these guys are encouraging people to publish garbage or PLR stuff, and this is hurting everybody.

If you do have good IM skills, you should be able to catch on how to work the system pretty quickly. If you start making sales, Amazon rewards you with internal promotion which is golden. But you cant just expect to put either crap or great stuff up and have it start selling itself. That's like expecting to win the lottery.

And yeah - spend a few bucks on a good cover, proof-reader, etc. Word of mouth advertising and good real reviews can provide the momentum you need.
 
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productionhead said:
inb4 amazon kindle publishing bizopp
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Kindle Domination- How I made $16788 last month from Kindle Direct Publishing.. Offering only 10 copies for the low price of $47 ( After 10 copies it will be sold for $147)

bitsdawg said:
OK, I'll out myself because Hobster and Guerrilla are gentlemen and won't.

I have been in the program less than 2 months, worked it pretty hard (not full time), and made about $1k. I learned things that should help this keep growing. Passive income - meh - like any affiliate marketing is (NOT). It takes time and skill - but it can be a good opportunity if you learn to work it and throw some money at at.

You guys are mostly repeating stuff commonly posted on blogs and forums - and that is fine - but you have to read a lot and experiment to find out real tidbits.

Yeah, I do have thoughts about KDP Select - from reading and personal experience - and at the risk of censure I will direct you to a post. :)

Should You Join KDP Select When You Self Publish On Amazon? « Publish Myself
Click to expand...



You doing fiction writing?
 
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