Tag: Amazon

How I Sold 30,000 eBooks on Amazon’s Kindle July 2014 Edition

30000 books 2014 July How I Sold 30,000 eBooks on Amazon’s Kindle 2014 Edition
by Martin Crosbie
4.7 average rating from 61 reviews
Available from Amazon US and Amazon UK.

In February 2012 Martin Crosbie’s self-published eBook My Temporary Life hit Amazon’s top ten overall bestseller list. Amazon referred to him as one of their 2012 success stories in their year-end press release.

This easy-to-follow guidebook details the specific steps he took to find and connect with his readers. Plus, it describes how to adjust and tweak your strategy as Amazon changes their systems. There are a lot of self-publishing books out there. This is the one you’ve been waiting for.

Newly updated version includes:

  • How to maximize the return from your Kindle Countdown promotion
  • Lists of the current and most effective promotion sites (paid and free)
  • The secret to gain maximum borrows from Kindle Lending Library
  • Earn the most paid sales after running a free promotion.

Kindle Unlimited

KindleUnlimitedYou’d have to have been living under a rock for the past week (or on vacation somewhere where there’s no internet) to have missed Amazon’s big news about its newest feature, Kindle Unlimited.

For the low, low price of $9.99 a month, Amazon.com will let readers download an unlimited number of ebooks and audiobooks from its special Kindle Unlimited store. (Those of you who are forced, by geographical happenstance, into shopping from Amazon’s other storefronts are out of luck. Sorry about that.) And this month, Amazon’s making the service free, so everyone can try it out.

This would seem to be a boon for the voracious reader. One trad-pubbed novel can set you back $9.99 or more, and a single audiobook costs easily twice that. The drawback for readers, though, is that Big 5 books are severely under-represented in the KU store. So people who pick books based on the bestseller lists are going to be disappointed. There are other factors limiting reader interest in KU, but I’d rather talk today about what this means for indie authors. Continue reading “Kindle Unlimited”

Is Amazon Buying Simon and Schuster?

dealHere is something I don’t think many people saw coming. The internet is abuzz with rumors that Amazon is in negotiations to buy big ink publisher Simon and Schuster. The internet is always abuzz with something, and I don’t know whether this is real or not. It may be a stratagem aimed at scaring Hachette off the fence in its negotiations with Amazon. But Passive Guy is also reporting it, so maybe there is something there after all.

Kozlowski (link above) reports:

The publishing industry could be turned onto its head with a recent revelation that Amazon is in talks to purchase big 5 publisher Simon and Schuster. If the deal were to get done, this would give Amazon major distribution to physical bookstores under their own imprint and change the publishing world forever.

Notwithstanding that everything that happens seems to threaten to change the publishing world forever, this does conjure up some pretty dramatic images.

As always, Amazon is not talking. My favorite part of any article about Amazon is always at the end of the article: A spokesperson for Amazon refused to comment. Seriously? I think maybe Amazon is using the title “spokesperson” incorrectly. It would make more sense if they changed the person’s title to stonewaller. A stonewaller for Amazon refused to comment. There. That makes sense.

Anyway, if Amazon really did buy its own big fat pet publisher, that could represent some major upheaval. Will the Bezoids still love indies if they have their own big brand to push? What about Apple? Will Apple respond in kind, scooping up Hachette? Will Random Penguin scramble to buy Barnes & Noble to squeeze its competitors out of the brick and mortar markets? Will Yahoo respond by buying up DC Comics?

Fun times. What are your predictions?

NewsBites: Looking for the Union Label?

NewsBitesIt is time once again for Indies Unlimited to carry out its charge as the champion of truth, the vanquisher of deceit, and the taster of all things bacon. Yes, the NewsBites team of investigative journalists never rests until an opportunity presents itself. No matter how high those mountains, how deep those raging seas, or how hungry those hippos, we will keep more or less steadfastly to our quest to bring you somewhat reliable infotainment. Remember, if you’re not completely satisfied, you can fully refund our money.

And now, here is some news-type stuff we scrounged up and snarked all over: Continue reading “NewsBites: Looking for the Union Label?”