Comments on: Common but Painful Kindle Publishing Mistakes to Avoid that Cost you Money

By: Leslie Truex

Leslie Truex — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 18:10:46 +0000

Although I have a few non-fiction books up, most of my kindle income comes from the 4 fiction books I sell under a pen name. I agree with some of the pitfalls such as the importance of good covers and reviews. But editing is crucial too. As is formatting. I’d go one step further and suggest not having too much front and back matter. I bought an ebook yesterday in which only 33% of the content was the book. The rest was excerpts and sales stuff. Kindle readers tell readers how much (percent) of the book you’ve read, so when you start the book at 10 percent in and finish 40 percent in, readers will feel ripped off. I recommend having nearly nothing as front matter (or put a “start” bookmark) and only a little back matter (i.e. your other books) with a link to your website or other books etc.

By: Anne

Anne — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 18:17:24 +0000

Hi Nicole
Got your book this weekend and enjoying going through it. There is lots of great information from you and all the participants. Looking forward to putting a lot of it into practice.

Thanks for the above post – I have one book published on Amazon and Kindle and am planning on writing a lot more this year. Want to build a system to make it easier though. Any suggestions? The first book took a lot of trial and error and therefore a lot of time to get it published.

By: Kim Phoenix

Kim Phoenix — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 23:12:33 +0000

Like Melissa, I made the mistake of using PLR as is (as was being taught at the time) for two books. My other four books were original. Everything was written under pen names. I was making a nice residual cheque every month. Unfortunately, my account was terminated with a vague reason (I think it was due to using PLR “as is”, but I never did find out for sure), but after lots of emails and phonecalls, I got my account reinstated. Ever since then, I’ve been super paranoid about what I publish, and haven’t gotten the courage to publish there again (plus I’ve been busy with other things). I do, however, plan to start publishing there again in 2013, but I plan to read ALL the guidelines this time. In the meantime, I’ve published elsewhere, and continued to make some passive income that way.

By: Helene Malmsio

Helene Malmsio — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 01:17:35 +0000

Great posting here about the kindle publishing mistakes to avoid. I’m fortunate that the whole thing overwhelmed me from the start so I took the easy way and outsourced my formatting for Kindle and print to Sue F and she has been able to prevent most issues and fix connecting the format pages etc. too.

But book covers were tricky until I started to use Rich P and his cover are very slick and look like ‘the real thing’ not a kindle mock-up like you see so often.

I’m definitely looking for more marketing clout as doing the old FB & Twitter is not enough to crank up the sales volume. Now I’m in the process of releasing a “series” of branded timeless niche books that may help to funnel more sales.

But it takes work and it takes a lot of marketing… which is still a bit of a mystery to me… and putting the books on more platforms than Amazon. The KDP didn’t do much for my books, so I’m increasing the Lulu etc retail display bookcase exposure.

I really want (and need) to ‘get it right’ this time as working hard in IM et al is a world I no longer enjoy, so the books I’m publishing will be my livelihood from now on in my retirement.

I’m doing my best to learn from the pros and their coaching / guides etc.

By: Loretta

Loretta — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 19:15:27 +0000

Some smart lady I know taught me that things don’t have to be perfect to be profitable.

Your first week of having your book out might not have been perfect, but it’s still pretty darn awesome 🙂

By: Mad Guy

Mad Guy — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 18:21:27 +0000

Hey Nicole,

Here’s a virtual hug from me “kido”.

Thanks for your courage in pointing out “the good”, “the bad” and “the ugly”. It shows that you’re human. 🙂

Mad Guy
From Perdido Key

By: Val

Val — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:55:04 +0000

Oh, awesome brief this week. I’m working towards that first kindle book and soaking in info from you and Kelly. The tips in this one article are pretty priceless for us newbies….new book idea for you? lol

By: Nicole

Nicole — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:12:36 +0000

In reply to Sadie Gecke.

Thank you so much, Sadie. 🙂 It sounds like you are quite experienced.

I’m surprised people on Fiverr would expect so much, but then again, it doesn’t surprise me either. lol.

Big hugs.
N

By: Sadie Gecke

Sadie Gecke — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:15:44 +0000

Nicole, Kudos to you for at least 2 reasons, in my book anyway (no pun intended):

1) For writing your blog post about this particular issue;

2) For being so honest about the things you did both write (oops, right) and maybe not so right;

Even though I am a Kindle author first and foremost, I also earn a few bucks on the side formatting Kindle books for people at Fiverr. Quite a few people have bought a gig from me to format the e-books that they used to create their POD (print-on-demand) books into Kindle books.

I much prefer to work with Kindle publishing newbies who don’t have totally unrealistic expectations of how their Kindle book should look. On the other hand, as somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to my own books, I remember how *very* frustrating formatting my first Kindle book was. I spent quite a bit of time with Kindle support staff.

Long story short, I finally took their (oft-repeated) hints and read all of their Kindle terms of service and formatting guidelines – lots of light-bulb moments! So, when I have to deal with a few Kindle divas at Fiverr of all places, I just take several deep breaths and remember that at one time, I was in their shoes.

Reading about the learning curves that many of your blog post guests also had to go through with the whole Kindle process has been sooo cathartic. Thank you all.