Any of you billionaires do Kindle publishing?

Building or being part of a community will do wonders for the sale of any product. Have you guys built any sites with value? Maybe a site with a community? Or are they all just MFA sites? If you dont have your own community stop and think about the ones you belong to. Would any of those people support you?

What do the big shots do when the release a new movie or book? They go on a media circuit. They go on Letterman. They do call ins to the top radio shows in each major market. Obviously your new magic penis lengthening exercise book isn't going help you get a spot on Letterman, but there is still a circuit to promote on. If your good enough to write a book, you should be able to write a guest post/excerpt. Find the major bloggers in your niche and contact them. If they have a major following send them some kind of physical gift. I don't sell books but I have links & articles from tv shows & hosts simply by doing what no one else is willing to do.

After your done with your guest posting then you move onto the pod-casting circuit. There are thousands of pod-casts being published everyday. Pod-casters have very loyal followers and the best ones have listeners that will do whatever their respective hosts tell them to do. Just look at a guy like Leo Laporte. When he gives out a site or an app they typically crash the servers. Now I am not saying you should try to get on TWIT. You can find quality shows in just about any niche. These pod-casters are always looking for new content. If your stuff is decent you can easily be interviewed.

If you get out and do a little leg work you cant help but sell your books.
 


Actually from my previous blogging/website owner experience i got mailed quite a few hard copy books to review. These were from publishers - and they had people to do the emailing and requests.

And yes, my previously built up communities with the right demographics were good for leaching into the new ones somewhat.

With digital - you can offer to gift a book, or take the slightly riskier tactic but cheaper tactic and send a .pdf. I did write fiction, and I can tell you the line is looooonnnnnggggg for major reviewers I would be eager to be mentioned by. Less well known sites have shorter lines, and some are quite eager for content... got to start somewhere.

For some reason, Letterman does not return my phone calls though....

And yeah... some bloggers accept a modest payment to skip you up in the line... and sometimes it is worth it. Sometimes the 5K facebook/twitter members they brag about are just other authors or fake. (I know, shocking)


dmnEPC said:
Building or being part of a community will do wonders for the sale of any product. Have you guys built any sites with value? Maybe a site with a community? Or are they all just MFA sites? If you dont have your own community stop and think about the ones you belong to. Would any of those people support you?

What do the big shots do when the release a new movie or book? They go on a media circuit. They go on Letterman. They do call ins to the top radio shows in each major market. Obviously your new magic penis lengthening exercise book isn't going help you get a spot on Letterman, but there is still a circuit to promote on. If your good enough to write a book, you should be able to write a guest post/excerpt. Find the major bloggers in your niche and contact them. If they have a major following send them some kind of physical gift. I don't sell books but I have links & articles from tv shows & hosts simply by doing what no one else is willing to do.

After your done with your guest posting then you move onto the pod-casting circuit. There are thousands of pod-casts being published everyday. Pod-casters have very loyal followers and the best ones have listeners that will do whatever their respective hosts tell them to do. Just look at a guy like Leo Laporte. When he gives out a site or an app they typically crash the servers. Now I am not saying you should try to get on TWIT. You can find quality shows in just about any niche. These pod-casters are always looking for new content. If your stuff is decent you can easily be interviewed.

If you get out and do a little leg work you cant help but sell your books.
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bitsdawg said:
Actually from my previous blogging/website owner experience i got mailed quite a few hard copy books to review. These were from publishers - and they had people to do the emailing and requests.

And yes, my previously built up communities with the right demographics were good for leaching into the new ones somewhat.

With digital - you can offer to gift a book, or take the slightly riskier tactic but cheaper tactic and send a .pdf. I did write fiction, and I can tell you the line is looooonnnnnggggg for major reviewers I would be eager to be mentioned by. Less well known sites have shorter lines, and some are quite eager for content... got to start somewhere.

For some reason, Letterman does not return my phone calls though....

And yeah... some bloggers accept a modest payment to skip you up in the line... and sometimes it is worth it. Sometimes the 5K facebook/twitter members they brag about are just other authors or fake. (I know, shocking)
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If you do go and contact a big player sending the book alone would be what everyone else does. Doing the same thing everyone else is doin is a recipe for mediocracy. What I would do is stalk their blog and figure out what they are into, make sure they are legit, learn everything I can (WF style) Maybe they are huge sports fans so you send some tickets or an autograph, whatever. Maybe they like dolphins, so you send a solid silver dolphin figurine. The more influence the person has the more thought needs to go into it. This doesn't always work. Some people have ethics, but it doesn't mean they can't be bought (better to be influenced).

You have to be different.
 
It is still the case that if you get into an outlet like the New York Times, USA Today, Wall St Journal, etc, it can make your book, and they don’t (so far as I know) review self-published books. But that only happens to about 1% of authors anyway. If you are counting on that for sales, good luck!
 
Anyone doing amazon publishing, PM me. We can shill each other books with stellar reviews.

"5 stars! My penis grew bigger reading this wonderful book. I thought it was a scam but it wasn't! Using holistic, herbal techniques, I was able to enlarge my penis by 2.5 inches. I'm buying this book for my friends this Christmas. Thanks again for publishing this!"
 
amanda11 said:
Anyone doing amazon publishing, PM me. We can shill each other books with stellar reviews.

"5 stars! My penis grew bigger reading this wonderful book. I thought it was a scam but it wasn't! Using holistic, herbal techniques, I was able to enlarge my penis by 2.5 inches. I'm buying this book for my friends this Christmas. Thanks again for publishing this!"
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I don't have a penis so I would feel that my reviews would be against Amazon TOS.

Here's a decent article on Problogger about publishing your blog on Amazon for the Kindle. It could be another revenue stream and source of traffic.

I am planning on turning the previous sentence into "Amazing Blogging Secrets" soon to be sold as a WSO.
 
bitsdawg said:
I don't have a penis so I would feel that my reviews would be against Amazon TOS.

Here's a decent article on Problogger about publishing your blog on Amazon for the Kindle. It could be another revenue stream and source of traffic.

I am planning on turning the previous sentence into "Amazing Blogging Secrets" soon to be sold as a WSO.
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Did you forget the link?
 
This is a good list except I really think you should write what you want or are motivated to write and worry about the marketing later. Sometimes saturated genres are good because there are also a lot of marketing and networking opportunities. Besides people who like your kind of book will usually be willing to buy one more.

amanda11 said:
I played around with Kindle publishing for about 2 months so far, and this is what I figured:

1. Stay away from fiction, too many "talented" writers there. Plus, it's a crap shoot.

2. Most books sold on Kindle are fiction (erotic, 50 shades of gay etc)

3. There is still some coins to be made in ever green markets (think weight loss, self improvement, how to give blow jobs etc)

4. Market and keyword research is a must. Blend keywords into your book title, ie: "Lose weight fast for busy moms: melt fat off your stomach without diet or hitting the gym"

5. Format your product description like a sales letter: opening head line, short benefit bullet points, CTA to buy book

6. Likes and tags may boost your ranking but I'm not sure how much

7. Get your friends to write reviews and pay someone on fiverr to like it a thousand times

8. It's a number game - publish more books, get more sales

9. It's possible to scale using shady tactics (no, it's not PLR or public domain work) *cough won't get into this*

I'll report back in 6 months with the numbers.
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Just an FYI, one of my fiction books has been picked up by a small traditional publisher. No bathtubs full of money yet, and things seem to move a low slower in this world than in the IM world we are used to. But I had to try, and it's exciting.

If anybody is looking for ghostwriters, formatters, editors, cover designers, I'm collecting a good list. I am a PM away.
 
What if you used the PC version of Kindle and bought 20 copies of your book a day for a month? You could setup a crap load of VMs and what not so you'd have a bunch of unique computers with each one on it's own proxy.

bitsdawg said:
Just an FYI, one of my fiction books has been picked up by a small traditional publisher. No bathtubs full of money yet, and things seem to move a low slower in this world than in the IM world we are used to. But I had to try, and it's exciting.

If anybody is looking for ghostwriters, formatters, editors, cover designers, I'm collecting a good list. I am a PM away.
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Congratulations! Based on all the posts I just read it looks like you deserve it.
 
crackp0t said:
What if you used the PC version of Kindle and bought 20 copies of your book a day for a month? You could setup a crap load of VMs and what not so you'd have a bunch of unique computers with each one on it's own proxy.
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Not sure if serious.

Just as pure speculation, you'd need different credit cards and and names plus the IPs. I mean you could just try to spend your time and money on a quality product and do some marketing, right?


Congratulations! Based on all the posts I just read it looks like you deserve it.
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We'll see. I am actually ambivalent about a publisher vs. self-publishing. You give up control, knowing what is going on, and a percentage of revenues.

haha. Maybe I do deserve it.
 
bitsdawg said:
Not sure if serious.

Just as pure speculation, you'd need different credit cards and and names plus the IPs. I mean you could just try to spend your time and money on a quality product and do some marketing, right?
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I'd see it as a marketing budget, but you can over come that issue with giftcards / prepaids. I wouldn't imagine it would work if you have a really shitty product though. I got the idea from something else I did that worked well.

bitsdawg said:
We'll see. I am actually ambivalent about a publisher vs. self-publishing. You give up control, knowing what is going on, and a percentage of revenues.

haha. Maybe I do deserve it.
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Rofl, I didn't mean it like that. I'm not an author or writer and I figured that was the end goal. I guess if it ment giving up a lot of creative control that would make it bitter sweet.
 
crackp0t said:
I'd see it as a marketing budget, but you can over come that issue with giftcards / prepaids. I wouldn't imagine it would work if you have a really shitty product though. I got the idea from something else I did that worked well.
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In some categories, you don't need to sell that many to move up in the ranks. Honestly, I'm sure that stuff like this happens all the time, but you'd need a decent product to sustain it. Just troll some popular freelance sites and you'll see what I mean about it happening, just in a different way.

I do some freelance commercial writing, and was looking for job ops, and was pretty surprised at some of the blatant stuff I saw.

On the other hand, a lot of decent books get buried because they aren't marketed well (or at all). There are lots of free/cheap and easy things authors can do that they don't bother/know to do.

Rofl, I didn't mean it like that. I'm not an author or writer and I figured that was the end goal. I guess if it ment giving up a lot of creative control that would make it bitter sweet.
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No offense. I'm just ambivalent. That's all. I took the offer, but it certainly isn't a fast track to a private island or anything. In a way, it's as risky as self-publishing. Maybe it's more risky because you lose control.
 
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