Another, “Published My First Book on Kindle” Story
The hardest part of getting anything published; for me anyway, is getting it written. Ensuring I’ve had a good, healthy breakfast I’ll get my workspace ready sometime around mid-morning. A fresh soft drink sits on the counter to my left, my glasses and notepad to my right at the ready. The dog has been fed, watered and walked. Phone is turned off.
Ok, the computer screen could use a good cleaning. That only took a few minutes. I guess before I sit back down I ought to go ahead and put a load of clothes in the washer. All right, now ready to begin writing, I sit and stare at the blank screen with my fingertips ready on the…the A, S, D, F, J, K, L and ; symbol…had to stop and look under each finger to see where they were at rest.
I reach for my drink and realize the ice has melted and watered it down. After refreshing my drink with new ice, it is time to fix a snack. Now I am good and ready to start writing. The sun is shining brightly this morning as the outside temperature rises through the sixties…almost like spring. Once all the windows were open to let in the fresh air I was finally ready to start writing.
What shall I write? Hmm, wonder if there’s something else I could or should be doing right now? No, I need to concentrate….write what you know…hmm, what do I know well enough to write about and in what way can I write it to make someone actually want to read it? Just start typing…
Well, it took about a week of steady writing but I came up with a plan, got it down on e-paper, reviewed and edited it and then what?
Already having an Amazon.com account I browsed their publishing information. The first information I found and read was “CreateSpace” which is site designed to get your book in print and distributed to millions of readers. Great. But why would anyone want to pay for my little self-help book? And if so, how much could I charge?
With a little more research, I began reading about Kindle on Amazon.com and decided this was one of the hottest things going in today’s technological climate. Reading further I discovered information on Amazon Prime which is allows Kindle users to stream thousands of digital media for a small annual fee.
Seems to me with this program, readers who have already signed up for the service will be able to “borrow” my book for free yet I will still be paid through Amazon. Sounds like a nifty idea to me. The more times my book is borrowed will increase my share of the six million dollars Amazon has set up to share amongst all contributors.
On their main page, a well-produced video illustrates how easy it is to publish my little story. It gives real time step-by-step instructions and made the actual process that much smoother for me.
Prior to uploading the book’s information, obvious fields needed to be entered on Amazon’s secure site such as tax information and other personal data. Those fields completed brought me back to my “Bookshelf” which lists any books I have published or drafts waiting to be published. There were none. I selected “Add a title” and well, added a title.
Fields for “contributors” like the author, editor or photographer came next with simple explanations available. Some of the fields were optional, as well. I included my name as the author and Amazon.com as the publisher.
My plan to use a photograph found during a “Google” search didn’t work out. Copying and pasting the photo into my photo editing software was easy enough and making it look like a line drawing instead of a photo turned out nicely as well. However since I had not taken the photo and after a little research about copyright protection decided that it would be much safer if I just used a photo I had taken in the past. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to use but with a little imagination and great photo editing software…I like it better after all. And I can’t be sued. I uploaded it in the applicable field.
The book’s copy was written in Microsoft Word and uploaded without a hitch. The Amazon/Kindle program converted my copy to their criteria automatically and I was able to review everything before hitting the publishing “button.”
Though I had signed up for Amazon Prime allowing my book to be borrowed, it will also be available for sale on amazon.com and they have a couple of different payment programs available. I selected the 70% option. Worldwide pricing can be completed by selecting the option box in each listed zone.
It took less than eight hours for my little book to find its way into Amazon's sale listings and it looks pretty darn good saying so myself. Will anyone read it? Don't know but at least it is out there and available.
