Have you changed the content of one of your published books and want to let readers know? I’ve done it a few times. I published the first edition of my self-publishing guidebook: How I Sold 30,000 eBooks On Amazon’s Kindle – An Easy-To-Follow Self-Publishing Guidebook in 2013. My goal when writing this book was to provide up-to-date information on how to produce a professional product and connect with readers. As the self-publishing world changed, I’ve updated the content fairly regularly. The 2016 edition is now live and I just stepped out of the “emailing back-and-forth with Amazon” world. Here’s what happened. Continue reading “How to Notify Amazon Buyers about New Content in Your eBook”
Tag: Amazon KDP
KDP Error Messages: The Sky Is Not Falling
You have probably already heard about the latest sky-is-falling report involving KDP. An online publication (which shall remain nameless, as it’s well-known for publishing unsubstantiated clickbait, but whose initials are Good Ereader) struck fear into the hearts of many indie authors last week, when it announced that starting February 3rd, Amazon would begin pulling from sale any eBooks reported to have typos or formatting issues. Continue reading “KDP Error Messages: The Sky Is Not Falling”
How to Make a Book Perma-Free on Amazon
I was inspired by IU’s administrators when they came up with the nifty concept of First Chapters, a sampler collection of the first chapters of 22 minion novels. I thought this was a great way to take some new books for a test drive, especially since I can usually make up my mind about a book within the first few pages. So, duly inspired and with the admin’s blessing, I created my own version, composed of the first chapters of my twelve (to date) novels. Not wanting to steal IU’s thunder with a similar name, I chose A Novel Idea for mine. Not terribly original, but it seemed to fit.
My plan was to make this eBook perma-free so readers anytime, anywhere, could take my first chapters out for a spin and see how they liked them.
There are several avenues to getting eBooks online, and of course Amazon is the 500-pound gorilla, so it gets the most bananas for the buck. However, when uploading a book to KDP, you do not get the option of choosing perma-free for a price. In order to accomplish this, you have to do a little end-around that behemoth primate. Here’s what I did. Continue reading “How to Make a Book Perma-Free on Amazon”
Kindle Scout
Amazon, in its continuing quest to come up with innovative ways for us to sell books, has created a program called Kindle Scout. Think of it as a cross between the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards and regular ol’ KDP. As with KDP, you upload your book and cover image (with a few tweaks to your info that I’ll get to in a sec), and the Zon puts it up on their site for you. But as with the ABNA, there’s a crowdsourcing component, and a prize at the end – in this case, a $1,500, five-year contract with the Zon’s new Kindle Press.
Say what you will about it, but I think Amazon’s heart is in the right place with this one. Two of the hardest things for an indie author to do are to get noticed in the Zon’s giant slush pile and to grow your fan base. Kindle Scout is all about helping you market your work. Continue reading “Kindle Scout”