Selling My First Book via Amazon

I'm now reading (and think it's not a waste of time in terms of setting up a book so that it does more than maybe sort of get read):
Book The Business: How To Make BIG MONEY With Your Book Without Even Selling A Single Copy



This is a Dan Kennedy with Adam Witty production, so it's like a lot of Kennedy stuff. But that's hardly a strike against it.


The only odd thing in the book is that the title sells "without selling a copy" and yet they keep on talking about bookstores ...



Anyway, I'm almost halfway through and think anyone who wants a backend to their book ought to read it.
 


charlie.simm said:
Last year, I finally decided to start working on my first book and it will probably be finished within 2-3 months. It's not about making monies online btw.
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... yeah, not quite.

I'm not active on WF nowadays (also, I changed my Skype ID quite a while ago, PM me if you want to stay in touch and don't have the new one) but don't want to let this thread die. It contains some awesome advice and if there's at least a bit of interest, I'm willing to post updates about what I've been doing every once in a while.

First of all, I've grossly underestimated the amount of time it takes to write a good book. This thread was started a year ago and my book is still not finished. I've implemented a *lot* of changes and the perfectionist in me just won't let me publish something I'm not happy with.

However, this time I really am close.

The final chapter is almost finished, I've done quite a bit of editing (whenever I was suffering from writer's block, I dedicated the time I'd normally spend writing to editing) and all in all, I finally have an "almost there" feeling.

Ok, so as far as the editing process is concerned, here's the approach I've chosen:

1) I edited the book myself, one chapter at a time until I decided this is as good as it's going to get

2) Next, I contacted a bunch of editors via email and asked them if they're willing to take a look at *one* of my chapters (again, just one chapter, not the entire book) so as to provide writing style-related feedback. Ended up sending a chapter to a handful of editors and for the most part, the feedback was positive. Got some interesting suggestions and all in all, this method is a reasonably good way to get some cheap-ish initial feedback. All of this cost me low to mid 3 figures, more than worth it IMO.

3) After the book is finished, I'll be sending everything to one good editor. As some of you correctly pointed out, editing your own book can only get you so far, you're bound to miss stuff no matter how thorough you (think you) are

Ok, enough about editing.

I want to also refer to the foreword a bit. At one point, I decided it would be great to have an awesome foreword and managed to find the perfect person. He's a very respected/successful dude but the type of guy who didn't lose his humility. He loves sharing, talking about his mistakes in a no bs manner and stuff like that.

How did I convince him to write the foreword? Well, I... asked. That's pretty much it. I sent him an email, explained why I'd be thrilled if he were to write the foreword and he agreed. If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that a lot of times and in a lot of situations, all you have to do is ask.

What else? Oh, I decided to also offer an audiobook version. James Altucher made this recommendation in one of his posts and his reasoning makes sense. I contacted a bunch of voiceover artists and managed to negotiate the price down quite a bit. If you need a narrator for an entire book, people will be willing to offer aggressive discounts. If I would have had to pay the retail price then quite frankly, it wouldn't have been an amazing deal. But now, for mid three figures, I'll have a reasonably good audiobook.

Alright, so I wrote about the editing process, about the foreword and about my decision to also have an audiobook version.

I'll also refer to the "official" book website. It's almost finished and I decided to also feature a nice animated video on the homepage. Something like what I've used for MegaSites.com. The video will explain what the book is all about, why I've decided to write it and stuff like that. The website + cover + video will cost me less than $1k (high 3 figs but still, less than $1k), not bad.

I don't want to end this post without writing some marketing-related updates:

1) The same guys who will create the homepage video will work on a mini-documentary series for me. Short animated videos, each will address a very specific topic in a funny/clever (I hope) manner. If the series will be at least kinda-sorta successful, I'll publish more

2) Even before the book is live, I'm trying to secure as many interviews (written, podcast as well as video interviews) as I can and want to also have several great guest posting opportunities lined up

3) Needless to say, I'll be asking everyone I know to buy the book and leave a nice review. If you have an Amazon account (preferably an active one) and want to help, PM me for my Skype ID and let's talk. I'll gladly return the favor whenever I can. IMO, it's a good idea to put together a list of people who are going to help now rather than after the book is live. Basically, for every hour I dedicate to writing/editing, I want to dedicate one hour to figuring out how exactly I'm going to sell the book

That's it for now.

If you have any suggestions, feel free to contribute.
 
I've been copy/pasting the Gru thread into a Word Doc each update, which I intend to release under 'fiction' here in the Uk.

Probably also turn it into a screenplay and sell it to a production company in Soho.
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Since I last posted that reply in this thread I'm doing well with Amazon and the other book sites under multiple author names. Let me know if you guys have any questions on setting it up. Over 100 books.
 
Ok, for some nonspeculative advice: If you want to sell books, you higher a professional to sell your book. I believe James Altucher used Ryan Holiday. He also had existing contacts in place.

The math is very simple.

Single author blogs that will review your shit * their subscribers * conversion rate

This is all that matters and everything else is a waste of time if you don't have this.

You use this to rank your shit on amazon as high as possible all at once at launch. Many people give away the kindle on amazon for a week or two for this reason.

Those high sales prime the amazon ranking system to ensure your book gets recommended through amazon in the future.

You pay ~10k to a dude who will get you those single author blog reviews, but it only works if your shit is good, interesting to those bloggers, and relevant to their subscribers.

If you don't want to spend any cash up front, or your shit isn't that good, you need to go get those single author bloggers yourself by reaching out to them without being too spammy. Easier said than done.

Ideally you should have your own list of 100k subscribers and you use that to attract an agent which will attract a traditional publisher.
 
fatmoocow said:
If you don't want to spend any cash up front, or your shit isn't that good, you need to go get those single author bloggers yourself by reaching out to them without being too spammy. Easier said than done.

Ideally you should have your own list of 100k subscribers and you use that to attract an agent which will attract a traditional publisher
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I don't have 100k subscribers, however I do have a small-ish but decent audience and a reasonably large list of friends/contacts who are willing to help me out initially by buying/reviewing the book on Amazon.

The plan for the first few days after the launch is this:

1) Have as many initial Amazon reviews as possible. I'll basically ask a lot of people to buy the book on Amazon and leave me a review, then give them their money back via PayPal later on. They help me out and receive a free copy of the book, I get some nice reviews. Win-win, reasonably low costs. Realistically speaking and based exclusively on how things currently stand, I'm expecting 50-100 such reviews

2) I'll reach out to lots of bloggers/website owners myself. I agree, this is easier said than done but I already have some interviews/guest posting opportunities lined up (not major publications by any means but still, decent exposure) and all in all, I think I'll do ok
 
My book has been published for two years now and is often in the top 50 for its category.

I haven't written more because I use it in the opposite direction than most people do with self published Kindle books.

When I try to monetize my knowledge, I point to the "Hey, I even wrote a book about it." and ...
KABLAM!

I get guru status in the eyes of my visitors.

It doesn't matter that it is a self published Kindle book. Most people equate it with being a bonafide published author.

A big thing that helped the quality of my book is that I gave it away for free as a PDF to others working in the same field (computer forensics) many of whom had collaborated with me on problems in the past and they gave me corrections and advice that made it a much better book when I did publish it.

So don't forget that you don't just try to drive people to the book, use the book to get people's trust for other things that you want them to buy or join or look at.
 
Didn't read anything but the thread title.

We do about 6K-10K per mo/ in passive book revenue from Amazon sales.

Formula is this:
* Create, manage, distribute book via Createspace + Kindle version **
* Do all the usual stuff for Amazon (SYLT and Listmania lists, or whatever they're called now)
* Drip reviews on it over a couple months (4 and 5 star)
* Pay Fiverr to "Yes" all the 5 star reviews and "No" all the 3ers and down

Of course, if your book is shit, nobody will buy it anyway, but we've had some decent success and put some effort in to our pubs (have 5 total).

Good luck

** Be sure to allow global distribution in Createspace.. this allows your title to sell in other regions.. we get Amazon checks in weird currencies from all over the planet on a monthly basis, and it makes up about 20% of total sales.
 
drave said:
due respect, fuck traditional publishers.
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This.

Our titles sell from $24 - $49 per copy (trade pubs).

We were offered a royalty of around $3 per copy from a "traditional" publisher. As our own publisher, we receive about 50% of the purchase price - up to $24 per copy sold.

I doubt we'd be making much more with the "reach" of a traditional pub (but who knows.. maybe we fucked up).

Also, we collect another $10K-12K per quarter from content licenses on this material through services like EBSCO and Books24x7 ... a traditional pub would never let that revenue flow down to the author.
 
not to cross reference, but if you boys are looking for good stocks to short, publishing houses are a solid bet.
 
elgordo said:
This.

Our titles sell from $24 - $49 per copy (trade pubs).

We were offered a royalty of around $3 per copy from a "traditional" publisher. As our own publisher, we receive about 50% of the purchase price - up to $24 per copy sold.

I doubt we'd be making much more with the "reach" of a traditional pub (but who knows.. maybe we fucked up).

Also, we collect another $10K-12K per quarter from content licenses on this material through services like EBSCO and Books24x7 ... a traditional pub would never let that revenue flow down to the author.
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do you require exclusive rights to market titles?
 
drave said:
do you require exclusive rights to market titles?
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Not necessarily, but you don't need me. You can easily optimize your title to sell on your own..

The only outside resource you'd really need is a good designer. You can even create your own publishing imprint and ISBNs easily through Bowkers.

We have a pretty specific trade niche
 
Time for another quick update:

1) The book will be finished once I write the final conclusions and the editing part is also pretty much done. I do however want to send it to at least one other person (probably two) for some additional proofreading to play it safe. Not line editing or anything overly complex, just another pair of eyes.

2) The book is not related to making money online but it will be VERY relevant to anyone who earns a living on the Internet. Guest posts will be an important part of my marketing strategy, so if any of you guys own a reasonably popular site/blog related to anything from freelancing, SEO, affiliate marketing or Internet marketing to even bitcoin stuff or online stock trading, PM me. Maybe we can arrange a guest post, an interview or something else. Again, only websites/blogs read by people who make money online in one way or another.

3) The book will be huge, so the paperpack version might end up having to be pretty expensive. The manuscript currently has 332 regular Word pages (Times New Roman, font size 12). However, after making the document CreateSpace-ready (the size of the paperback will be 6x9, the standard choice for nonfiction based on my research), the number of pages will go up quite a bit. This is because less content will fit on a 6x9 page than on the standard Word pages I've referred to. I already removed lots of stuff which wasn't let's say vital, don't want to eliminate anything else.
 
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