How To Publish A Best Seller On Amazon - Understanding The KDP Program
How To Publish A Best Seller On Amazon - Understanding The KDP Program by Nicholas Black.
Nicholas gives a strategic plan to help you launch your self published eBook. This eBook is about a marketing strategy to promote your eBook, it is not about actually the writing process. He reminds us several times and plugs in his How To Write A Fiction Novel in 30 Days or Less! every now and then a few other of his eBooks. He is careful as not to get overly redundant and explains how one of his marketing strategies is to create interest in your other works that are published. It did get to the point at the end that I was almost annoyed, but not quite.
In the beginning he gives great statistics that help you get an idea of each of his eBooks and how successful each is, not was because they are still available for purchase. He has one eBook which generate between $1100 - $1500 in revenue each month. He states he has another one that generates between $10 - $20 and he has many that are in between those parameters.
I found it unnecessary for him to publish in his book a course syllabus. I am reading, getting all his statistics; going with the flow. I always wanted to get an idea of the amount of revenue and to see one author have such a wide range from eBook to eBook puts a lot in perspective to me and also tells me; keep writing, keep publishing, and then bang a course syllabus. I think maybe it would have better as a table of contents, oh wait in his course syllabus he has it separated in chapters also. I get annoyed when my reading flow is interrupted. I prefer smooth reading throughout an eBook or any book in that matter.
I completely appreciated the Amazon statistics and research regarding how eBooks are taking the world by a storm. EBooks are here to stay and it does not mean the printed books will go away forever, it just means eBooks are easier to take with you, easier to manage, less clutter, and more competitively priced than printed books. I personally do not have a budget for printed books at this time. I love printed books, love holding them, reading them, turning the pages and have printed books that I will never get rid off. But at this time I just don't have the extra money to purchase books and I have been an avid reader my whole life. EBooks is my answer, I have downloaded in the last year more than 900 eBooks that I have not had to pay for. Everything from cookbooks, poetry, classics, and from unknown authors who self published that years ago I would not have had the opportunity to read their words, their thoughts, their inspirations and dreams. I would have greatly missed out.
Nicholas dissects the KDP program and puts it in laymen terms for all of us to learn and understand. He explains from real experience why and when you should give your eBook away for free. I love his "don't get complicated" attitude track your downloads on pen and paper and see if these free eBook days are working for you and then check the next couple of days after that; is there an increase in sales or at least some sales after the free eBook promotions?
He guides you how to prepare your document (eBook) for Kindle and explains the Kindle format. He then also explains all the other formats for other types of eReaders which I actually found very interesting. I am a history geek and do like to know how things progressed and came about and he also states how one company is currently talking to another so things still might change. I feel this is important for any self publishing author because you need to know the different formats that are out there to get your eBook out to the masses. What is the point of having an eBook if you can not get it out to the masses because of formatting issues?
We have all heard of Google keywords, Google Adwords, and using those searches. I love how he also breaks down how to do a search and how to decipher what you get in order to make it useful for the writer. I did my first keyword search today, thanks to Nicholas. Which means I am going to go back and review all my tags for my hubs. I like, "Wow, I should have really done this before, it is easy, and I can see were it increases your chances showing up in searches."
He also mentions going to the actual Amazon website and looking at successful books and seeing what tags people are actually searching on Amazon when they search for eBooks. He is the first one that has mentioned this in all the eBooks I have read regarding self publishing. It makes sense, yes Google keywords are great but even better, what are actual Amazon customers searching?
His pricing strategy is pretty much aligning to quite a few other authors. Definitely worth the read. But what I do like is how he breaks down some of the numbers and the math to explain his point of view. Many authors just tell you but do not do the break down for you.
Nicholas hand walks you through the uploading to Amazon and I know many will find this section quite helpful. I like how he mentions that yes, he has even made mistakes before, don't panic, go in there and fix it as soon as you can. What else can you do? He also gives his opinions on the lending program on Amazon and reasoning as to why he supports it.
He clearly states that publishing your eBook is the easy part, then comes "The Morning After" and what strategies he found useful with his own eBooks. I found this section informative and was grateful when he forewarned and stated he was going to give some links now that are helpful. He formatted his links in a way that I did not find graphically annoying, as some of you know, I do not like to read through a long list of website links during my morning reading time.
He gives suggestions on how you can get some of those 8-10 first reviews that he feels are quite detrimental to the success of publishing an eBook. I am not a fan of Twitter or Facebook but I am quickly learning that these are useful tools that can help an author when used properly. He lists a few websites that are in existence just to promote eBooks. It makes complete sense to submit your eBook to them while you are doing a free download promotion to help get your name and your title out there during your promotion. I will be checking out those links and finding out requirements before doing any launching for me personal eBook. He also goes over the subject of a Press Release, how to write one, how to get help online to write one, and real important what not to do.
Even though I found a few what I felt were "fluffers" in this book, I gave it a 5 star because it is very informative. This is an eBook that I actually wish I had in print. Yes, this good. He even suggests a marketing timeline which he uses to launch his eBooks. I believe any author wanting, or thinking about, or even already self published an eBook should find this eBook quite useful.
I was lucky enough to get it in one of his free download promotions.
About The Author:
Nicholas Black has had several eBooks that he has published by himself and a couple with other authors. In the process he has self publishing he has noted down and researched a few strategies to help any author promote and launch their eBook. He shares what has worked for him, what has not, and also shares what to him is unclear whether it was useful or not.
By saying he has had several eBooks self published I mean he has written 15 novels and 5 how-to books.
