Last Updated on August 30, 2023 by George Palmer
Books have always easily been one of the few things that have identified modern existence. However, things have changed with the introduction of digital products and the internet: the rise in eBooks.
With the help of Amazon, the Kindle eBook market is flourishing and authors are establishing themselves and earning good passive income.
Anyone can start a new source of income using the internet as long as they put in some active effort.
In as little as 24 hours, you can self-publish your book on Amazon using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and start earning money from it.
Anyone can self-publish a digital book using Kindle publishing and sell it on Amazon.
But…
You can’t just “publish and pray” if you want your Kindle book to be popular and profitable. You must have a plan.
How to Evaluate Your Book Idea
Nobody wants to spend time creating a book that no one will read. Because of this, it’s crucial to evaluate the competition in order to validate your book idea.
Answering the following three questions will help:
• Are there similar books?
• Can you compete?
• Are there enough buyers?
You can find the answers to these questions by:
1: Finding Your Category On Amazon
Find a relevant category on Amazon for your book idea first.
Visit Amazon.com and select the Departments > Kindle E-Readers & Books > Kindle Books link.
Next, click Best Sellers & More in the menu.
Choose the category and subcategory that best match your book’s idea.
It’s important to look into your possible competitors after choosing a subcategory.
2: Checking Your Category’s Top Books
You should go through your list of book ideas if you can’t find any similar books and try again.
If, however, there exist books that are similar to yours, you can move on to the next stage.
3: Checking The Best Seller Rank In Your Category
Knowing how well the books in your category sell can help you decide whether you can compete and know if there are enough possible readers.
On Amazon, you won’t find any exact sales figures, but you can get a good idea of them by looking at their “Best Seller” ranking.
The number of copies sold increases with rank (with #1 being the highest), but it also makes it more difficult to achieve. You must search for categories where the typical top-selling rank is neither too low nor too high.
A category with poor sales volume and an overly competitive market are both undesirable.
How to Prepare Your Book for Success
Even if you create the most brilliant book ever, few people will read it if it isn’t packaged in an appealing way.
1. Make a Catchy, Detailed Book Title
Your book’s success is not dependent on its title. However, a poor title will almost probably stop it from succeeding.
Your main headline should be unique and quick. It should hint at the book’s subject and strike a chord with your readers.
So, consider this:
- What problems would my book help my readers with?
- What beneficial effects will the book have?
- After reading your book, what type of person will the reader be? How will their way of life change?
2. Get an Attention-Grabbing Cover
If the book cover isn’t appealing, it won’t sell.
Potential customers’ first impression of your book is formed by its cover. They’ll conclude it’s not worth their money if it appears poor and cheap.
A decent book cover should have a unique look and a title that is easy to read. You’re best off outsourcing this task to someone else unless you’re a skilled cover designer. You shouldn’t try to save costs with this.
3. Make the inside of your book attractive
In addition to having a good cover, you must format your book well. People will not want to read your book if the material is twisted together, full of grammar errors, or written in a bad font.
You must format your book in a Kindle-friendly file format, such as .epub or .mobi, to avoid this.
After formatting, be sure to proofread the book on a Kindle device (such as the Kindle Fire or any other Kindle reader) or using the Kindle app.
To guarantee that the Kindle app formats your book correctly across several platforms, be sure to verify your formatting on an iPad, Android tablet, and any smartphone.
4. Write a book description that helps you sell
People will read your book description after being drawn to your Amazon sales page by your title and cover.
Your description won’t be enticing enough for readers to hit the buy button if it is lengthy and filled with poor writing.
The most important principle to understand is that, while writing your book description, you shouldn’t consider it like a summary of your book but rather like a sales letter.
Your description should entice potential customers to buy your book rather than simply tell them of its contents.
Pricing your book
What should the book’s pricing be?
Understanding Amazon’s price and royalty choices is necessary before pricing your book.
• You get a 35% royalty on every sale of Kindle books that cost between $0.99 and $2.98.
• You get a 70% royalty on every sale of Kindle books that cost between $2.99 and $9.99.
• If a Kindle book sells for more than $9.99, you get a 35% royalty.
Amazon receives a cut of your sales, but the amount varies depending on the price. Study your competitors and their commission percentages. Find a cost that is suitable for you.
It is advisable to set your price at $0.99 while starting because instead of making a lot of money quickly, the goal here is to create a lot of sales quickly.
Amazon only considers the number of copies sold. If you can sell a lot of .99 copies at first, even when you raise the price, you’ll still profit from some algorithmic momentum.
Also, by setting the book’s price at $0.99, you may use promotional websites to put your book in front of huge audiences when it first launches.
There are websites that advertise books for free. These websites have sizable subscription bases with avid readers, and every one of them will get an email with a link to your book. These readers can significantly boost your early sales.
You can see the list of some of these websites at Kindlepreneur.
Marketing Your eBook
Get your book in front of your target audience if you’re serious about making money with Kindle publishing.
Even the finest eBooks might fizzle out if no one is aware they exist. Do not make the error of delaying your marketing activities till your book is finished.
Don’t count on Amazon to bring in customers even though your book will be available there.
As soon as you self-publish your ebook, start marketing it ASAP!
Tips For Marketing Your Amazon Kindle Ebook
Give out free copies/get reviews
Free things draw crowds, and eBooks are no exception to this rule. If your readers recommend you to their friends, you could gain new clients.
Leverage social media to promote
Create and use accounts on social networking to promote. At the very least, you ought to have a Facebook page, a Twitter account, an Instagram account, or a TikTok account.
Conclusion
Writing, promoting, and selling Kindle eBooks can help you increase your earnings even if you don’t think of yourself as a talented writer.
Many authors with little writing knowledge make a living off their ebooks just because they outsource what they can’t do. Remember that writing is just a small portion of the process. Marketing your work is extremely important.