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My First Kindle Book - It's Not That Hard

by oniram
52 replies
After digging for Internet gold for a few years now, I decided to try Kindle self publishing and give up watching crazy IM sales videos. When I started, I wasn't sure if I could format my book or even create a decent cover for it. I read a blog post that said that Kindle will convert a word doc into the correct format.Which meant to me that I didn't need to buy software to convert my doc. I also watched many YT videos that help me design my cover.

It took me about a week of writing a fictional murder mystery of about 8k words (8 pages in word) and about a good hour to find just the right graphic for my cover. I logged in to my new Kindle account feeling a little intimidated with the process. But to my surprise it worked!

I all ways have felt a little intimidated with the conversion process and that held me back from writing a book. I didn't know how to deal with it at the time. Well I happy to share this with those of you who may have wanted to publish your book.

It really is not that hard. I am using Kindle's free 5 day promotion to get the word out there in cyber land. When you take advantage of the free promotion you don't get paid for each free download but you can get some reviews and maybe a good 4 star rating.

I got excited when the free downloads started today. I wanted to share this experience with my blog readers and subscriber.

Can't wait to see how well the books is doing - or maybe how bad, based on the reviews.
#book #ebook #hard #kindle #publish
  • Profile picture of the author CalinDan
    Keep us updated mate, some might be really interested in this.

    You should put out some press releases for promotional purposes. Also, a trailer video posted on YouTube and other similar sites wouldn't hurt; some well chosen keywords can do wonders.

    There are some free services that promote your free book (the first 5 days), for free; you might want to check into that. Every download and review is getting you up those rankings which will result in further sales.

    Good luck with your book mate.

    Regards,
    Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    Congratulations. I released a free inspirational story yesterday and it hit #9 in the Free Motivational section this morning. Wow. Maybe there is something to this Kindle thing, huh?
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    • Profile picture of the author CalinDan
      Originally Posted by travlinguy View Post

      Congratulations. I released a free inspirational story yesterday and it hit #9 in the Free Motivational section this morning. Wow. Maybe there is something to this Kindle thing, huh?
      Kindle is something that everyone should take highly into consideration. If not for it's income stream value, at least for it's branding and 'word-spreading' abilities.

      Congrats on your book, and good luck.

      Cheers!
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    • Profile picture of the author oniram
      Thanks - I am so new at publishing on kindle that I have some "high hope" We'll see...
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  • Profile picture of the author XYZcontent
    It would be great if you could keep us updated on how the free downloads and sales go.

    Great job!
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    • Profile picture of the author oniram
      Originally Posted by XYZcontent View Post

      It would be great if you could keep us updated on how the free downloads and sales go.

      Great job!
      The free downloads started this AM. The Kindle reports show 12 download as of 11:39Am ET
      Before I took advantage of their free promotion It sold 1 when it was approved by Kindle and and 1 borrowed.

      If you want the ASIN number let me know.
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  • Profile picture of the author Vanilla Gorilla
    about to publish my 2nd book this weekend. My advice would be to stick to a niche and build credibility.
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    Do a search on Facebook for free kindle books. Many of those pages allow you to post your free offer. That should bump your downloads.
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  • Profile picture of the author aprilm
    Awesome. Congratulations! Yes, please do keep us posted on your progress. I agree...Kindle rocks. So much easier to make money with it than any other way....IMO
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  • Profile picture of the author distrakt
    Banned
    Congrats on your first kindle! This is on my list too. I took some strategies from izerman and j bold. Similar strategies. Kindle is new and I think its a great market to get in. Hope your book does well man!
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  • Profile picture of the author Webpreneurx
    Originally Posted by oniram View Post


    Can't wait to see how well the books is doing - or maybe how bad, based on the reviews.
    Well done for taking action. Ive got 2 ebooks on Kindle and sell 3-7 a week at a $2.97 price point. Once you start seeing the sales come in or right now why dont you start working on your next book or create a series of ebooks based on the first giving people incentive to buy your next installment
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    • Profile picture of the author oniram
      Originally Posted by Webpreneurx View Post

      Well done for taking action. Ive got 2 ebooks on Kindle and sell 3-7 a week at a $2.97 price point. Once you start seeing the sales come in or right now why dont you start working on your next book or create a series of ebooks based on the first giving people incentive to buy your next installment
      I am working on the next one - But I stopped for a quick breather. I just love checking stats on my first one (lol).
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  • Profile picture of the author Danny Cutts
    Congratulations :-)

    I have got my feet fairly wet when it comes to kindle publishing and i have a book that I am launching which is non fiction and about 74 pages long :-)

    I really like the kindle business model and how Amazon does a lot of the promoting of the book for you and all you really need to do is SEO the main page :-)

    Keep us all updated on your progress

    Danny
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  • Profile picture of the author Long Beach Nathan
    I'm working on a book for Kindle myself, and hope to have it finished before very long. I do think that in order to have it formatted correctly with a clickable table of contents, it's necessary to use a program to convert it.
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    • Profile picture of the author oniram
      Originally Posted by Long Beach Nathan View Post

      I'm working on a book for Kindle myself, and hope to have it finished before very long. I do think that in order to have it formatted correctly with a clickable table of contents, it's necessary to use a program to convert it.
      Good point - I didn't pace a link in my book. But I might want one. I'll research that one.

      Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author dadhere
    wow, do I know how you feel. I did the same thing and published 2 books a couple months ago.
    To my surprise my girlfriend found a check in the mail for 200 bucks, what an exciting moment that was. That was without promoting it too!

    Keep it up, I am
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Gram
      Originally Posted by dadhere View Post

      wow, do I know how you feel. I did the same thing and published 2 books a couple months ago.
      To my surprise my girlfriend found a check in the mail for 200 bucks, what an exciting moment that was. That was without promoting it too!

      Keep it up, I am
      Since she found the check, did she spend it? lol.
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    • Profile picture of the author oniram
      Originally Posted by dadhere View Post

      wow, do I know how you feel. I did the same thing and published 2 books a couple months ago.
      To my surprise my girlfriend found a check in the mail for 200 bucks, what an exciting moment that was. That was without promoting it too!

      Keep it up, I am
      Thanks - But with my luck I'll be happy to get a few positive reviews from the free download period. So far today there are 38 downloads and no reviews. (4:07 PM ET)
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  • Profile picture of the author seobro
    I down loaded the FREE book you had up and it was awesome. Thank you for such an excellent e-book that I did enjoy. Please do post some more. I think you have great potential as an author and wish you a super success. All the best to you!
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    • Profile picture of the author oniram
      Originally Posted by seobro View Post

      I down loaded the FREE book you had up and it was awesome. Thank you for such an excellent e-book that I did enjoy. Please do post some more. I think you have great potential as an author and wish you a super success. All the best to you!
      Wow Thanks much - My first review here on the WF. I look forward to getting some reviews on my sale page at Kindle

      Thanks seobro I really appreciate it.
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      • Profile picture of the author Greg guitar
        Originally Posted by oniram View Post

        Wow Thanks much - My first review here on the WF. I look forward to getting some reviews on my sale page at Kindle

        Thanks seobro I really appreciate it.
        I suggest asking the reviewer to reword the review so that it doesn't refer to it being free, because nobody wants to pay for what others got for free. Kudos though on the accomplishment, and the great review!
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  • Profile picture of the author TMercT
    Keep us updated! I really want to see what happens, I always wanted to publish a Kindle Book but never got around to do it.
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    • Profile picture of the author oniram
      Originally Posted by TMercT View Post

      Keep us updated! I really want to see what happens, I always wanted to publish a Kindle Book but never got around to do it.
      Ok here is the latest stats as off 5:56 PM ET - Number of free downloads = 40

      No reviews.
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  • Profile picture of the author epublishingtips
    Good for you! While I don't use the free promotion strategy without a second book in a series (and I avoid KDP Select like the plague), it does help to get your name out there if you're new to publishing.

    Best of success to you and if you ever have any questions or need some help with anything from formatting, cover design or anything in between, feel free to shoot me a PM! :-)
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    • Profile picture of the author oniram
      Originally Posted by epublishingtips View Post

      Good for you! While I don't use the free promotion strategy without a second book in a series (and I avoid KDP Select like the plague), it does help to get your name out there if you're new to publishing.

      Best of success to you and if you ever have any questions or need some help with anything from formatting, cover design or anything in between, feel free to shoot me a PM! :-)
      I didn't like it either. I would rather have promoted it my self (if I knew how) But I need to see what the benefits of a free promotions are. So far I think its a way for a newbie like me to get some reviews. Second book is in the works. Want to see how this goes.
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  • Profile picture of the author epublishingtips
    Just be careful not to base your decision to write the next book solely on the number of free copies you've been able to dish out. People will download it just because it's free with no intention of reading it and many of those people would never pay for the second story.

    Years ago I learned a valuable lesson in IM that I've carried with me into my self publishing journey. People don't always see value when they see free. They sometimes think if something is free it's a sign that it's lacking quality or that the seller/author just can't push it out any other way.

    Not knocking KDP Select because I know that it's worked for many of my writing buddies but only when they have a large backlist (or a series) and so the free book is basically a loss leader to wet readers' appetites. So, use up a couple of free days - maybe generate a couple of reviews - and then reconsider pushing it back through Select and instead, focus on building up an actual readers base.
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    • Profile picture of the author oniram
      Originally Posted by epublishingtips View Post

      Just be careful not to base your decision to write the next...

      Not knocking KDP Select because I know that it's worked for many of my writing buddies but only when they have a large backlist (or a series) and so the free book is basically a loss leader to wet readers' appetites. So, use up a couple of free days - maybe generate a couple of reviews - and then reconsider pushing it back through Select and instead, focus on building up an actual readers base.
      Point well taken - But I wonder why KDP Select would offer it? Does a free download have any value for the author?
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      • Profile picture of the author epublishingtips
        Absolutely! If you have a decent size backlist or a series, being able to offer a book for free is a fantastic tool in generating interest, landing on the Top 100 Free in your category and just getting your foot in the door.

        If you have one book and only one book though, giving it away for free isn't going to really help you (at least not in my experience) since there's no way to immediately pull in readers who are anxious to read more from you after finishing the free book. There's no 'upsell', basically. The only way I'd offer a single book as free is if I wanted to just exploit the opportunity for free traffic by featuring my website on the front & back matter OR if I wanted to run it free for just a couple of days to build up momentum and switch it to paid after that - just keep it mind that it's not instant so plan your free days carefully.

        Good job getting something out there though. That's the first step and quite often, the hardest one to take!

        Originally Posted by oniram View Post

        Point well taken - But I wonder why KDP Select would offer it? Does a free download have any value for the author?
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        • Profile picture of the author oniram
          Thanks Catherine - I am getting some good advise. I revise down to 2 days free DL and go from their.
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  • Profile picture of the author GuruGuna
    Congratulations! I hope it does well for you. Free feedback in the first five days is going to help you afterwards for sure.

    Let us know your download count tomorrow!
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  • Profile picture of the author iLuvCash
    A great way is too release your download as free and after it get popular start charging. I did this with a couple of releases and made upwards to $150/day.
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  • Profile picture of the author oniram
    epublishingtips Just started to read your new blog and found out about Kindle's book ranking. Didn't know that you can see ranking stats. But I am not sure I can believe it.
    It said that my new book ranked... "The Case Of The Missing..." is currently ranked #3,726 out of over one million books in the Kindle Store" Can that be true or the temporary results of the free donwload?
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  • Profile picture of the author Lynette Crase
    The Author Marketing Club has a free Kindle book submission tool that you can use to submit your book, when it's going free, to the top free submission sites.

    Free Amazon Kindle Book Submission Tool | Author Marketing Club

    This will help your book get more exposure.

    Lynette
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  • Profile picture of the author epublishingtips
    oniram, I just started working on my blog this weekend so it's nowhere near ready and with a ton of books to edit this month, it probably won't be ready until next month. So, the posts aren't entirely complete but when it's done I will have income reports documenting my journey over the last year (I went from $0 to 6-figures in a year), along with practical tips, resources, cover design and much more.

    But it's a work in progress and I've just gotten started so bear with me. :-)

    A ranking of 3,726 is excellent!! (...but yes, free books will often rank higher temporarily.) You will see a quick jump up in rankings once you pull out of free and then hopefully you can sustain a decent ranking after that.
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    Catherine | Tweet me @ epublishingtips
    Indie Author, Mompreneur, Coffee Addict     ++ http://www.ePublishingTips.com
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    • Profile picture of the author oniram
      Originally Posted by epublishingtips View Post

      oniram, I just started working on my blog this weekend so it's nowhere near ready and with a ton of books to edit this month, it probably won't be ready until next month. So, the posts aren't entirely complete but when it's done I will have income reports documenting my journey over the last year (I went from $0 to 6-figures in a year), along with practical tips, resources, cover design and much more.

      But it's a work in progress and I've just gotten started so bear with me. :-)

      A ranking of 3,726 is excellent!! (...but yes, free books will often rank higher temporarily.) You will see a quick jump up in rankings once you pull out of free and then hopefully you can sustain a decent ranking after that.
      So far I like what I've read - I see you can post really fast - I'll keep up on your blog.
      Thanks for helping me.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Ten
    Nice job! I hope that your book is a good investment of time and energy!
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  • Profile picture of the author WinstonTian
    Awesome!

    I have a student who made over 5 figures with Amazon Kindle...

    The key lies with your book title, cover, excerpt and social
    proof! (because that's what they see! lol)

    And of course, onsite reviews are very, very important.

    But of course, if you turn your book infectiously good to read,
    it's going to spur word-of-mouth marketing. Look at what
    happened to 50 shades of grey...

    Winston Tian
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  • Profile picture of the author rackspace
    interesting idea. best of luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nicholas H
    Good job mate!

    A suggestion for all of you about creating/converting E-Books, use Open Office. Just search It on Google. It's also free and has all the goodies you need to make an E-book
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  • Profile picture of the author Greg guitar
    Hey Oniram,

    I am pretty much in the same boat; have to figure out marketing; in my case for someone elses book that I partnered with. I also need reviews. If you want to trade, I'd love to read and review yours in exchange for you doing the same for me.

    I should warn you; it's an erotic book by a woman, very much a woman's point of view, definitely not pornographic, but not for kids either. It is quite humorous.

    Anyway, let me know if that interests you.

    Good luck either way!
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  • Profile picture of the author GoodFE
    Good job but be a little careful with free promotions. I put my first book on free promotion for a day, it got 350 dls and ranked 970 in free books but no reviews and since has sold very few copies. I think free promotion is best utilized when you have a series of books and you make one free to promote the others.

    Keep it up though! I've been doing this for 3 weeks, I made 200 dollars in my first two weeks, mainly due to two books and I've made 100 dollars this week despite not actually publishing anything in almost 10 days.

    Stick with it friend, if you stick with it then I have no doubt that you will find success

    (and yes it is so addictive to keep checking your stats!)
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  • Profile picture of the author oniram
    Today's download stats - DL 72 - With a rank of 2,488 (for free DL) No sure where this is leading to or what the real benefits are using KDP Select free promotions. I guess I won't really know until the free DL are over and its up for sale again.
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Gram
      Originally Posted by oniram View Post

      Today's download stats - DL 72 - With a rank of 2,488 (for free DL) No sure where this is leading to or what the real benefits are using KDP Select free promotions. I guess I won't really know until the free DL are over and its up for sale again.
      In my opinion, the true power of setting your book free for a few days is when you already have a few other "paid" books published and ready for your readers at the same time.

      I've seen many people offer their book free and go as high as #1 in the free store only to drop completely off the map in a few days and then permanently.

      If you get some good reviews out of it, that will help but if I were you, I'd save some of those free days for when you have another paid book published.

      Once you do have a few books, make sure to interlink them with a clickable link so you are marketing them from within each book...assuming you are writing for the same genre.
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      • Profile picture of the author oniram
        Originally Posted by Paul Gram View Post

        In my opinion, the true power of setting your book free for a few days is when you already have a few other "paid" books published and ready for your readers at the same time.

        I've seen many people offer their book free and go as high as #1 in the free store only to drop completely off the map in a few days and then permanently.

        If you get some good reviews out of it, that will help but if I were you, I'd save some of those free days for when you have another paid book published.

        Once you do have a few books, make sure to interlink them with a clickable link so you are marketing them from within each book...assuming you are writing for the same genre.
        Well a few folks have recommended this course, so I'll start some experimenting with pricing the first book. See how that goes. It sells for 2.99 I'll wait awhile see what happens. If it doesn't result in sale I'll move to the more popular 0.99 book.

        Note to the followers of this thread: A big thank you to you all for your advise and support.
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  • Profile picture of the author JeremiahSay
    I'd always wanted to do kindle but was doubting the beneficial return of it. Ironically, i'm somehow motivated by this thread to do it again

    You can also increase more eyeballs by asking kindle review's website to write a short review about your kindle. Some websites requires you to provide them written review though. It's a perfect example for a win-win situation. Website owners will have additional unique content to post onto their website, kindle publisher will have more eyeballs to their work.

    Please keep us updated on the process.

    Jeremiah

    P.S. I'm so excited already
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  • Profile picture of the author FrankWhite
    Congratulations on your book. This is really inspiring. I am looking forward to seeing more of your stats. Could you also send the ASIN?
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    • Profile picture of the author oniram
      Originally Posted by FrankWhite View Post

      Congratulations on your book. This is really inspiring. I am looking forward to seeing more of your stats. Could you also send the ASIN?
      Yes, ASIN: B009OVDKYO It's been quite a journey so far and a lot of fun.

      Thanks
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