Indie Author's Toolbox: How to create, publish, and market your Kindle book - Softcover

Vulich, Nick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1499281617 ISBN 13: 9781499281613

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014

Synopsis

Selling books on Amazon isn't easy
It's estimated 6,000 new eBooks start out free on Amazon everyday
Your book is just a small fish in a big pond
If you want to sell more books - you need to make a plan

Indie Author’s Toolbox was written for new and experienced authors alike. It’s a guide to optimizing your book for Kindle, but – it doesn’t stop there.

Too many authors look at Kindle as the final destination for their books. They’re so caught up in optimizing their book for Amazon, running KDP Free Days, Countdown Deals, and cycling prices that they forget – Millions of people have never bought a Kindle book, let alone any kind of eBook.

You need to explore other self-publishing platforms that will allow you to maximize revenue from your book.

Here is a sampling of the platforms this book is going to explore

1. Create Space
2. Audible (ACX)
3. Babelcube
4. Smashwords
5. Barnes & Noble
6. Google Play & Google Books
7. Kobo
For you hardcore Amazon addicts, I’m going to share a little information that can help you, too.

There are no secrets

No tricks. No magical incantations you can invoke to sell more books on Amazon, or any other online book site for that matter.

Selling more books is all about how you manage the basics.

It’s about -

1. Writing a good book
2. Selecting a killer title
3. Creating an attention grabbing cover
4. Writing a book description that compels readers to click the buy button
5. Choosing keywords that drive searchers to your book
6. Ensuring your “look inside” sample sells your book

If you can do these six steps well your book is going to sell. Misfire on any of them, and you’re going to have problems.

But, that’s only half the battle

You need to -

. Understand how to select books that will sell best on Amazon
. Learn how to establish your author presence on and off Amazon
. Know how to revive a dead or dying book
If you’re ready to sell more books - both on and off of Amazon

Buy this book
And get started – TODAY!

About this title

About the Author

Short easy to read solutions to your self-publishing problems.

Most of my books can be read in under an hour. The information in them can be put to work immediately to help you sell more books on Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Kobo, and in the iStore.

Book marketing is not a mystery. It does not even have to be difficult.

It is really all about getting started.

Many people I have talked with have this crazy fear about writing a book. They want to put the cart before the horse. The go crazy marketing, blogging, and building a social media presence before they take care of the basics.

That is where my books come in.

They slow you down and walk you hand-in-hand through getting started. They show you how to find a subject that readers want and need, how to optimize your author profile on and off of Amazon, and how to move beyond Amazon to reach entirely new markets.

My goal is to help you over the speed bumps so that you can be more successful from the get-go.

What are you waiting for?

Let Indie Author's Toolbox help you grow your author brand.

From the Back Cover

So You Want to Write a Kindle Book

Have you ever kicked around the idea of writing a Kindle book?

It is ok. You can admit it. Let me share a secret with you. I did not tell my wife, or kids, or anyone I had written my first book until it had sold over 100 copies. The day it hit number two in the eBay category on Amazon, I finally figured what the hell - no better time than now.

Can I share another secret with you? It is a year and a half later, and none have read one of my books yet. I am beginning to think they never will. It does not really matter, though. I have written twenty more short books since then and sold over 10,000 copies on Kindle and another 2400 paperbacks. So I still get the last laugh, there are people out there reading them.

What I am trying to tell you is that if you have got a book in you - let it come out.

Don't worry about what other people think.

If you are really worried about it, you can publish your book under another name while you are testing the waters. Amazon does not care whose name you put on your book.

I recently started two series under different pen names.

It is sort of exciting and even liberating in a way because I can say whatever I want, because nobody is going to know it is me. What I have got to hide, I am not sure. One of my titles is Get Off Your Lazy Fucking Ass and Get a Job Already. Hard to believe, but one of my reviewers started off their review saying "...despite the cursing..."

Here's a thought. Write your book. If you only sell one copy, that is one more than you would have otherwise.

From the Inside Flap

Excerpt: Resuscitating A Dead Book

It is natural for book sales to slow down over time. It is just the way it works.

Summer is a slow time for book sales - period. If your book sales slowdown between May and August you should probably just shrug your shoulders and let it go. Maybe run a Countdown Deal, or feature your book at 99¢ for a few days every month to keep your sales going. If things do not pick up by September, then you may want to attempt more drastic methods to resuscitate your book.

After a while, Amazon starts shaking up categories and begins to feature newer books. They don't want their inventory to get stale, and they understand readers prefer newer books. If you're willing to do a little work, you can make this change work for you too. The trick is to bring out a new edition of your book. Revise your book. Add new information. Write a new introduction that summarizes updates in the field since your book was first published.

If you write fiction, open your bag of tricks and add new content to your book. How about appending an alternate ending; providing a character outline; or including additional chapters that bring more depth to one of your minor characters.

Once you have made these changes update your book cover and description to reflect that you have new and revised content available. In the KDP dashboard list this version of your book as the second edition, and change the publication date, so it shows the date of your revision. In effect, you are releasing a new book, without all the extra work.

The following case study talks about how I revised and rebranded several of my eBay guides last fall.

Case Study

What do you do when the subject you write about is constantly changing?

Do you sidestep the issues of pricing, fees, and changing policies? Do you concentrate on the basics, because you're afraid to give specific advice that will date your book? Do you dive head first into the fray, and give specifics knowing the information you give will be outdated in six months or a year?

That was the dilemma I found myself in last November. Most of my eBay guides were becoming dated. They still sold well and ranked in the top ten or twenty books in their category. But, I noticed a lot of new books being published in my niche. They did the same thing. They danced around the issue of fees and policy updates.

I gave it a lot of thought. Many of my reviews said readers wanted to know more about what it costs to sell on eBay. They wanted to know about how eBay's new and changing policies affected their business, and what the changes meant for them going forward.

Over the period of a month, I revised four of my books. I rewrote at least twenty percent of each book, added a new introduction, and had new covers designed for each of them. One of the books I totally rebranded. I gave it a new title, changed the contents around, and rewrote major portions of it.

That one went on to become my bestselling books, eBay 2014.

Another one of my books really worried me.

eBay Unleashed had always sold well. I rebranded it with a new cover and made minor changes inside to reflect eBay's new policies, but no major changes. The first two months the revised version was out sales dropped by over twenty-five percent. I do not know how many times I was tempted to roll all of the revisions back, but I did not. From hindsight, I can look back and be glad I waited it out. Sales bounced back, and it is a consistent money-maker, bringing in $800 to $1,000 per month in royalties.

I do not think any of them would be selling this well if I had not taken a chance and revised them.

What else can you do to resuscitate a dead book? Many times a few minor changes can help your book sell more copies. The trick to increasing sales is to monitor your sales, and determine when sales first started dropping off. Sometimes it can mean a competing book entered your niche, and readers are buying it rather than your book. If this is the case, you need to examine that book and determine why it is selling better.

Does it have a better title? Is the description more enticing? Maybe the content is more up-to-date than yours?

Be honest with yourself. If the problem is a new book in your category, the best thing to do might be to do nothing. Over the last three years I've watched dozens of new books jump ahead of mine in the eBay category. Most of them run their course in a month or less, and slip back down the charts. If the problem is more persistent, take a look at the description for both books. Sometimes if you tweak your description just a little, you can make your book seem more attractive to readers.

Other times, your price may be the problem. When I first started selling my books on Kindle I was able to price them at $4.87. As the eBay category became more crowded I was forced to drop my prices to $2.99 to remain competitive. At one point a number of authors in my category decided to slug it out, and priced their books at 99¢, hoping to reach the number one spot on the charts. I decided to stay out of that battle, and let them give their books away for nothing. I didn't want to be a bestseller that bad.

Sometimes it may be just the opposite problem. If all the other books in your category are priced between $5.99 and $9.99, and yours is selling for $2.99, readers are going to ask themselves what's wrong with your book. Try raising the price a few dollars. That might be all it takes to get your sales going again.

Change your title, or cover. Here are another secret big publishers use.

Have several versions of your cover made up when you publish your book. Run the first cover for two weeks. If sales are not what you expect, switch it out. See if a different cover sells more books. Sometimes a slightly different background color can increase sales. Other times, an entirely different cover can boost lagging book sales.

The same thing goes for your title. A bad title can tank your sales. I named one of my booksMy eBay Sales Suck: How to really make money selling on eBay. It did ok. Most months it sold sixty to one hundred copies, but I always thought it could do better. After a giving it much thought, I changed the title to eBay 2014: Why you are not selling anything on eBay and what you can do about it. Since that change, it sells close to two hundred copies every month.

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1499281617
• ISBN 13: 9781499281613
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 183