Kindle direct publishing presents you with immense opportunities. This article will show you the most effective ways of publishing a book in order to achieve the best results. This is done by looking at the best ways of using the keywords for maximum effect.
We will discuss the various parameters that affect demand and explore how to handle competition in order to stay relevant in the market.
Some people do not understand the meaning and the significance of keywords. Keywords are the possible words the readers search on the Amazon search engine. When a reader does a search for likely books, the Amazon algorithm presents the books in accordance to their keyword relevance. Therefore, if you book is ranked highly by Amazon more people will get access to it. This will increase the number of sales.
When planning to publish your e-books on Kindle, it is important to establish whether the keyword is profitable. This is because, at the end of the day, the e-book is supposed to make you money. You can see if a keyword is profitable.
The sure way to ensure that the keyword is profitable is by establishing whether there is a need in the niche you want to write about. The first step in any business venture is ensuring there is a demand for your product. It is a general rule in business that the higher the demand, the higher the likelihood of sales. If there is no need for the product there, it doesn’t make any sense in going ahead with the production process.
Likewise, when coming up with a book keyword, a writer should find out if there is a need for the information in your book. Doing a simple word of mouth research might have worked in the past. However, in this digital generation, one needs feasible data proving that there is the need for the keyword niche.
This can be done using the help of many a software. A good example is the Kindle spy. This software helps to show you the profitability of a keyword/niches in the Kindle store. How can you tell if a keyword is profitable? The main criteria are that the top 4 books of the niche must have a best-sellers rank (BSR) of under 100,000.
If one of the books is free then you would look at the top 5 books. If 2 of the books are free, then you look at the top 6 books.
But if one of the top 4 books has a BSR over 100,000 then the keyword you selected is not profitable and your book has a greater chance of failure. Of course, this method of selecting profitable keywords is not always 100% accurate. But it is a very good indication if they niche you are interested in for your book will be profitable or not.
Having numerous books out with related keywords is a good way to build authority on Kindle for your author name. This is what many self-publishing authors get wrong. For example, some authors come up with keywords such as making it in agro-farming, starting an SME, and looking for Angel investors. Such keywords are not related in any way. They might be profitable, but they do not help to build the brand of the author.
When you come up with related keyword e-book, they help you in growing your brand as an author. E-books from authorities or strong brand authors make higher sales as compared to e-books from other low authority authors. Therefore, make sure that your keywords are both profitable and in the same niche.
In business, the more competitive your product is, the higher chances you have of making more sales. Likewise, in the Amazon self-publishing platform, you need to establish the competition your book is likely to have. This will help to inform on whether to continue publishing it or to change its keyword.
When you research a keyword, and you find that there has been a lot of new books that have recently been published in that niche – this is a warning that you should not publish another book in the related keyword. The reason for this is that there is a greater competition that you will be competing against. The Amazon algorithm artificially boosts new books which might mean that the niche isn’t a profitable one.
Sometimes after searching the keyword, you may find that other books have many reviews. When other books have many reviews, it might be an indication for you may not want to publish under that keyword because it might be an uphill task to compete with such books.
Another sign that the competition might be stiff is when the other books have been written by an authority in the field. Such books usually have very high reviews and overshadow any other book that is published in that line. For example, publishing a book that has a keyword related to “Rich Dad-Poor Dad’ by Robert Kiyosaki it may turn them away from your book to an established authority.
Other than profitable keywords and simple covers with a matching design, kindle publishing requires a number of things to be fully effective. It is a publishing avenue that hinges solely on you, so you need to make sure that all the right boxes are ticked. Here are more tips on effective kindle publishing:
Every sort of business requires proper competition in order to guarantee growth. Any business without competition means that either the owner is benefiting of a genius idea that they monopolized or the product doesn’t have as much demand to make other people venture into the same business.
With kindle publishing, you have to assess your competition. Being the sole writer in your niche can have its advantages but competition builds an author. If there is stiff competition and you still manage to get downloads and reviews then your content is top notch.
However, do not get too comfortable yet. You need to ensure that your competition has been on the market for some time. Books that are too young on the market ranging from a week or two tend to replenish keywords.
If the keyword you chose to publish your book under gets replenished every week then its profitability is under a huge risk. If all the top ten book were published a week or two weeks ago, that means that the competition is weak. Books that should be within your scope of competition are supposed to have been published a couple of months prior to your book.
Another aspect that you need to carefully consider is the number of reviews. Some books will get 100 reviews or more while others will get a just a respectable number or reviews.
The irony is the latter might actually sell more books than the former. With regard to reviews, all that is needed is a respectable number of reviews so as to not look inferior compared to your books.
Reviews make readers get a glimpse of how your readers felt when reading your books. You do not need to overtake people with many reviews to edge your competition in kindle publishing, just ensure that you get a good number of decent reviews. Reviews obviously take time because people have to read your books first.
If in the same niche, you will find it very hard to compete against a book that was written a couple of years ago. It will undoubtedly have more reviews and will have some mileage as a reference point with regard to that niche.
Another thing you need to be wary of in kindle publishing direct is authoritative figures. There are those types of writers who have written multiple books that are widely successful such as Robert Kiyosaki. Competing against such an author can leave you depressed. In addition, the keywords they use may make it very hard for you to over rank them as well.
I would imagine you already know how to choose a decent cover for kindle publishing. Nonetheless, if other writers in the same niche also have amazing covers backed by a lot of reviews and rated by authoritative figures, then there really is no way you can edge out your competition.
Remember, the essence of Kindle publishing is to enable you to carve out a lane for yourself that will help you market your books on a personal level. The big names and millions of reviews can serve as motivation to do better but do not start competing with them straight away, build yourself slowly but keep an eye out for competition.
Some time ago, having a short book used to be a good strategy for multiple sales and reviews. Lately, that is not the case as there are more and more people who are buying books for the content as opposed to the length. A quality book is supposed to have a minimum of 8,000 words especially if it also has pictures inside.
Pictures are a worthy inclusion into your books for effective kindle publishing. Nonetheless, the pictures are supposed to be relevant. In a natural sense, pictures boost a story more and they tend to stick more to a reader’s mind as opposed to words.
Ensure that the pictures you put in your book are in no way flashy or outrightly irrelevant. Any picture diminishing the quality of your book will drag you down no matter the amount of good content you may have in it.
You can get links to your ethical bribe and gather emails using pictures as well. However, you need to do it in a very clever manner. Put a discreet link, nothing fancy. Remember that the objective here is kindle publishing. Pictures are a common necessity for high-quality books, and to have one, you need to include high-quality pictures as well.
Lately, writers are everywhere on the internet. In fact, there are even websites specially dedicated for writers. Finding a writer is not the best way to go about writing your book. Rather, find a company to do it for you. A company not only guarantees professionalism but as a business, they too will not want to be associated with any mediocre or misleading content.
In addition to finding a good company, ensure that your book has a logical table of content. Either way, a table of content has become a mandatory aspect for every publisher on Amazon. Your table of content not only needs to be logical but easily clickable by users too.
There are readers who look for books that might shed a light on a specific topic but do not wish to read the entire book. If a reader stumbles upon your book, the table of content should be easy to navigate and clearly laid out. Even out of personal experience, I’m sure you will agree that books with an unpremeditated table of content don’t even spark the urge to read them.
Lastly, ensure that your book is divided into chapters. Chapters, of course, have to be there if you are to have a table of content. Needless to say, you have to put a page break at the end of every chapter. Stay within a minimum range of 8,000 words and boost your book quality with good pictures for effective kindle publishing.
If you are looking to make money online, there’s probably no better way to start than with Kindle publishing. It’s relatively easy and low risk to get started compared to other online businesses.
In this post, I’m going to share my top 4 reasons why you should start with Kindle publishing:
Kindle Publishing is especially attractive for starters because of the low barrier to entry. If you’ve been looking for ways to make side income online but are limited on budget, Kindle publishing is for you. Practically anyone can publish as long as you have some creativity, common sense and care about your audience.
For instance, with a measly $300, you can hit the ground running. Or if you write your own book, it will cost you significantly less! Then once your book is up, you start earning right away.
That said, the ideal starter budget for Kindle publishing is about $1500. There are a couple of things you need to get right when you’re starting to guarantee some sales.
Marketing is of utmost importance, and for this, you’re going to need some training. In fact, a big chunk of your startup cash is going to be invested in quality education. This is something that cannot be overlooked, but it is well worth it in the end.
In addition, you need to publish at least two quality books right off the bat. Since it is highly unlikely (but possible) that your first book will be a bestseller.
There’s a bigger chance that one of your books will be a success and if so, you will get buoyed by that success and you can replicate the winning formula to create other books.
Once your book starts earning you money, you can reinvest the money into writing or outsourcing (smartly) high-quality books. With more cash to spend, you can outsource many of the tasks involved so that you focus on creating new ideas and marketing your books. You can outsource the writing, cover design, and pretty much anything else you do to get the book published.
The unique thing about Kindle publishing is that it offers more than one way to earn from a single book. For instance, you can publish the same book on Createspace and also publish an audio version on ACX. That’s one asset with three streams of income.
You can do this for all your books and the money starts to add up quickly.
One thing to note is that you need to scale if you want to make a six-figure income from Kindle publishing. For instance, good, experienced publishers make between $150 to $300 per book per month. You can see how your income can increase quickly.
Bottom line is that it can be done. Remember there’s no limit to how many books you can publish. All you need to do is repeat and refine what works.
This is one of the top-most reasons to start with Kindle publishing. You don’t need any specific skill to get started. You do need a good topic, however, and good marketing know-how, which you can get from a high-quality kindle course.
You also need to learn the basics of how to start publishing on Kindle. There’s a lot of great info online to help you get started. Whatever you choose, here is where you should put your learning emphasis towards:
The best part is that once you have a couple of books published, you become comfortable with the process. You can then refine your methods and increase your success.
Once again the best part of this process is that you do not need to actually be skilled in anything! Not good at writing? Outsource! Not good at graphic design? Outsource! Not good at copywriting? Outsource! Make sure to subscribe to my email list to get my Kindle Publishing Toolbox and get access to all the services I personally use.
There are many ways to earn passive income online. However, since Amazon handles all of the sales and your books get organic traffic from their website – most of the hard work is done for you!
The income from Kindle publishing is pretty much passive once the book is uploaded. You pretty much just sit back and watch Amazon do its magic.
Producing many quality books quickly is the key to scaling up. A premium ghost writer costs up to $1000 per book but you don’t need to spend that much!
All you need to do is spend some time searching Upwork and you will land a decent writer at $1-1.50 per 100 words
The same technique works for cover design and the description parts. Outsource and get the work done fast.
Scan through the Kindle store daily. Browse best sellers in the different categories. You want to develop an eye for design for your own cover designs. The majority of users on Amazon are impulse buyers so learn how to use colors and lettering that grab customer’s attention.
The best part of having a Kindle business is that once it is built up, it doesn’t require a lot of work to upkeep. You can choose to continue releasing books or not, or you can kick back and watch the royalties roll in on the books you already have.
A lot of people who want to start at Kindle Publishing find it hard in making that first step. They don’t know what they should do and how they should do it. As an established author, people have asked me how I managed to make my earnings grow from $3,100 to over $10,000 a month. Here are my top 3 tips to launch a successful book on Kindle.
The first and most important thing to do when you’re planning on launching a successful book on Kindle is to choose a profitable niche.
People won’t be able to find your books if they’re not in a niche where many people are buying and downloading books unless you’re already an established author or an already-established figure. People aren’t going to find your book just by typing the title on Amazon.
That’s not how it works. People find your items or books by typing keywords. So, how do you find a profitable niche?
The first thing you should do is go to Amazon’s Kindle Store. Be sure that “Kindle Store” is selected in the search box; otherwise, you’ll be looking for other items. Once you do this, load up Kindle Spy to make the process much easier…
The second important thing is having a killer cover. What the cover does is it shows perceived value. If the book has a lousy cover, people are not going to view it as being of high value. They are not going to buy it. They’re not going to download it even if it’s free…
When it comes to book covers, the first thing that you need to do is to look at the competition. You may see some good covers and some bad ones. If you want to compete in any niche, you need to have a cover that stands out. Your cover should not blend in or make it look like a copy on one of the covers that are already on the Kindle Store.
The font for the title should be something that is readable. Avoid fancy looking fonts with weird colors that almost blend in with the background. As for the picture, choose the one with the highest resolution as much as possible. The picture should fit whatever niche the book is in.
To avoid copying what’s already in the store, try searching for new ideas by looking at different niches. If your niche is “dog training”, you can search for a niche like “running”. Choose a couple of covers that stand out, something that you like so much. A good cover should have a nice title that is very easy to read, high-quality graphics, and different from anything else you’d see in your niche.
You can then go to iStock or Shutterstock and look for a picture that would go along with the cover that you have chosen. You don’t have to worry about the quality because most of the photos there are of high quality. What you should focus on is to look for a photo that will fit your niche. Once you’re done choosing the photo, the next thing to do is go to sites like Fiverr and look for someone who will do the Kindle cover for you.
The last thing is not so much what you should do, but what you shouldn’t do, and that is to submit your free books to free promo websites. Now, I know this goes against a lot of what’s been said out there and what other Kindle gurus are saying. But as far as my experience goes, I haven’t used any free promo website in
But as far as my experience goes, I haven’t used any free promo websites in a long time. Ever since I stopped, my free promo days have never been better!
When it comes to setting up the price, start off your book at 99 cents. You also have to get reviews for it. How many reviews do you want it to get collected before you put your book on the free promo? Usually, I say about 5, which is the bare minimum.
You can go higher than that if you want. Anything less than that, people will think that your book is a piece of junk. Remember that it’s all about perceived value. How you go about getting those reviews is up to you.
If your book doesn’t sell at all during the free promo period, then you have a problem. You have some issues you need to work out. Look into your niche and your cover. Maybe your book doesn’t have enough reviews. If you don’t get any downloads, and even if you get a lot, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s doing well.
There are many ways to earn passive income online. However, since Amazon handles all of the sales and your books get organic traffic from their website – most of the hard work is done for you!
The income from Kindle publishing is pretty much passive once the book is uploaded. You pretty much just sit back and watch Amazon do its magic.
Producing many quality books quickly is the key to scaling up. A premium ghost writer costs up to $1000 per book but you don’t need to spend that much!
All you need to do is spend some time searching Upwork and you will land a decent writer at $1-1.50 per 100 words
The same technique works for cover design and the description parts. Outsource and get the work done fast.
Scan through the Kindle store daily. Browse best sellers in the different categories. You want to develop an eye for design for your own cover designs. The majority of users on Amazon are impulse buyers so learn how to use colors and lettering that grab customer’s attention.
The best part of having a Kindle business is that once it is built up, it doesn’t require a lot of work to upkeep. You can choose to continue releasing books or not, or you can kick back and watch the royalties roll in on the books you already have.
Kindle Spy is the only software to help find profitable niches is on the Amazon Kindle Store. I highly recommend this software. You only have to pay a one-time free of $97
After downloading it to your browser, you can use it whenever you want to look up information that you need in selecting profitable niches. It’s a very useful tool. I use it all the time and it’s well worth it.
Now, try to look up a keyword, say, “paleo”. This is a very profitable niche so I suggest you take a look at it. If you see, for example, that the first book is 154 reviews and the second one is, even more, it’s a very competitive niche to be in.
If the first couple of books have over a hundred reviews, and some have over a thousand reviews–that’s going to be really hard to rank in. But don’t worry, this is just to give you an idea of what makes a profitable niche and how to find it.
So this is where Kindle Spy comes in.
You can use this software to confirm that “Paleo” is a profitable niche. You need to look at the sales rank or a Kindle bestseller’s rank. Keep this in mind, the lower the number, the better it is. Your goal here is to find niches that don’t have a lot of books but the books have a low.
Keep this in mind, the lower the number, the better it is. Your goal here is to find niches that don’t have a lot of books but the books have a low bestseller rank. If you find a niche that has many books under 100,000, then the niche is very profitable.
There is currently no coupon code that works in 2017 because Kindle Spy has recently reduced its price from $97 to $47 – which is already the lowest promotional price I have seen.
Here’s how I use Kindle Spy for finding profitable niches:
When you are in preparing to publish your e-book, keyword research is one of the most important things you can do. Sometimes you can have a bad book with a bad cover and still sell well just because you are in a hot niche.
Likewise, you can spend a lot of time and money on a high-quality book, but if you chose the wrong niche it will sell poorly.
Publishing on Kindle has immense potential. With Amazon’s giant free search engine, you have instant access to millions of potential buyers.
There’s simply no better time to start a self-publishing business than now.
E-book sales are in billions yearly and have been rising steadily. Get started now and claim your share of the pie.
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