Kindle Publishing Questions Answered (Part 2)

Welcome to the follow-up of the series where I answer your Kindle publishing questions.

(If you missed my first 15 responses, you can check out the article here.)

I originally intended this to be a lengthy, single post, but now it’s turned into something much, much bigger.

Since I’ve received over 200 responses, I’m going to answer every single question that you have about Kindle publishing (no matter how long that takes.)

This group of questions covers a few of my favorite topics: Researching book ideas, building relationships with readers and balancing everything with a blog.

Lots to cover, so let’s dive in…

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]RECAP: 3 Golden Rules of Kindle Publishing[/title]

Before we go over the questions, I want to (again) talk about what I call the “3 Golden Rules” of Kindle publishing.

Every decision I make for my book business is related to one of these rules. Often, this means doing something different than what’s recommended by other Kindle experts. I feel it’s important to understand the “why” behind my responses, so you’ll see that my advice is based on a logical, long-term strategy.

So let’s recap the 3 Golden Rules:

#1. Focus on 80/20 Activities: Spend your time doing the tasks that will have the biggest impact on your business (like writing, research, book design and building an audience) and give minimal (or no) attention to the activities that don’t produce large result.

#2. Build a Catalog Business: Write great books, market the heck out of them during a launch phase and then get started on the next one. In other words, don’t focus too much on the success (or lack thereof) for one particular title.

#3. Help Amazon Sell Your Books: Focus on promoting a book through Amazon and you’ll get a lot of extra exposure on pages like New Releases, Top 100, Customers Also Bought and in targeted email campaigns.

These three rules guide almost every decision in my business. So I recommend that you carefully review each one and see how it fits your current self-publishing efforts.

Okay, let’s get to those questions…

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#1: “How do you find a ‘niche’ for your Kindle books?”[/title]

I know there are lots of Kindle systems that give advice like this: “Find what’s hot right now and write books about these subjects.”

Frankly, I think this is a short-sighted strategy because it doesn’t build an audience. Instead, your “business” is focused on hopping from trend to trend without building a database of repeat customers.

The better, long-term strategy is to pick a single niche and publish multiple books that are marketed to the same group of people. (Golden Rule #2: Build a Catalog Business.)

So, before you worry about “how to find book ideas,” you’ll need to first pick a market that fills three major requirements:

1. Interest: Do you enjoy writing about the topic? Do you have enough ideas for at least five books? Is it something you think about throughout the day?

2. Expertise: While you don’t need a college degree in this subject, you should know enough to help most readers.

3. Profitability: There should be a market on Amazon for your specific niche. Look up your topics, find related books and then check out their best-seller’s ranking (click here to see an example.) If you see at least three books with a ranking of under #20,000, then you know it’s a market that has profit potential.

It’s important to have a merging of all three elements—when a niche is something you enjoy, can teach others how to do and makes money, you’ll find that it’s not hard to consistently publish great books.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#2: “How do you think of good book ideas?”[/title]

Once you’ve found the right niche, identifying great book ideas isn’t that hard. The best piece of advice I can give is to picture your ideal customer and ask: “What type of information would really help this person?”

You can do this with a few simple questions:

1. What does the reader go through on a day-to-day basis?
2. What problems does he or she regularly face?
3. What solution can you provide?

I’d recommend you write down three questions in a prominent place. Refer to it on a daily basis and let your subconscious mind work on possible solutions. You’d be surprised at how many excellent ideas will pop into your head throughout the day. (The trick is to write down each one and follow up on it.)

Honestly, there isn’t a “magical formula” to generating book ideas. I get inspiration at the most random times—often when I’m not working and doing something else instead (like going on a run). That said, you can use a few web tools to spark your creative juices:

1. Amazon: Look at the books in your market to see what topics sell well (using the “#20,000 rule”).

2. Clickbank: Check out the sales letter of information products and look at their bullet points. See what problems and questions people encounter in this niche.

3. AllTop: Enter related keywords and search for blog posts that answer specific questions.

4. Google Keyword Planner (it’s now part of the Adwords program): Enter your keywords and look for phrases that relate specific problems.

Also, don’t underestimate what’s rolling around inside your brain. Most of my recent book ideas started out as a realization or “ah-ha” moment that randomly popped into my head.

Specifically, there are two ways to this:

1. Think of obstacles you’ve overcome: Did you overcome a major obstacle related to your niche? Odds are other people have a similar experience. Simply write down a step-by-step process of how you overcame this problem and you’ll have a book that people love.

2. Use your subconscious mind: Often, inspiration come from the most random places. One idea connects to another and then you’ll suddenly have a profitable book idea. Make sure to write down every thought you have—even if it sounds lame. Perhaps this thought will lead to something great.

At this point, I’ve published 38 books and the above are the only tools I’ve used to generate ideas. This is good news for you…it means you don’t have to invest in any sort of expensive keyword software. Just think of problems in your niche and provide helpful solutions. That’s all you need to form the foundation of a successful book business.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#3: “How important is the ‘#20,000 rule?’”[/title]

Like I mentioned before, I often use what I call the “#20,000 rule” for determining the profitability of book.

You can use Amazon’s best seller ranking to guesstimate a book’s average daily sales. And when you break down the numbers, a #20,000 ranking means a book averages five sales a day, which is a $10 daily profit (at the $2.99 price point) or about $300 in monthly profits.

For me, $300 per book, each month, is a decent starting point for an idea. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s good enough to be part of my catalog business (Golden Rule #2).

Now, the problem with the “#20,000 rule” is many people think it’s written in stone. The truth is I often throw this rule out the window and write books that don’t look initially profitable. What truly matters is writing books that best serves your audience. So even if a book doesn’t look like a potential winner, sometimes it makes sense to go ahead and write it anyway.

EXAMPLE:

I made this choice when publishing Email Marketing Blueprint & Outsourcing Mastery. I did the “#20,000 test” for both books and realized that neither was potentially profitable. Yet I went ahead and wrote them anyway because I felt both are topics are important for readers to learn.

The funny thing? Both turned out to be important parts of my book catalog. While they’re not selling thousands of copies of each month, they’re both well-received by readers and generate a decent amount of profit each month.

The point here is to treat the #20,000 rule like a guideline, not like a mandatory requirement. In fact, a better rule is to know your audience and write the kind of books that make them happy.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#4: “How do you write books that people like?”[/title]

In the first part of the series (question #6), I said that the “secret” to getting lots of reviews is to write books that people actually like. I’ll admit it’s a frustrating answer because there are many authors who really hard on their books, yet they don’t a high number of reviews in return. So another possible solution to the “review problem” is to think about the type of books that you write. Basically you have two options:

Option 1. Write a Massive Resource Book

This is when the author attempts to write the ultimate book on a broad topic. They try to cover every possible situation, answer every question and include tons of links. For instance, there are many books that claim to be the ultimate resource on Kindle publishing.

Option 2. Write a Specialized Book

A specialized book doesn’t try to answer every question. Instead, it identifies a single problem and provides a very detailed solution. The goal here is to start with one problem that the reader faces, then go into step-by-step detail on what to do.

Which option do I recommend?

Without a doubt, I feel that publishing specialized books generates more sales and reviews than publishing a massive resource book. At the $2.99 price (Golden Rule #3), you provide an insane amount of value by answering every possible question about a single problem.

Remember, when it comes to nonfiction, readers like detailed information. Most would much rather get a 15,000 word book that tackles a specific issue, instead of a 20,000 word book that gives the basics, but leaves them with many unanswered questions.

Keep this advice in mind as you build your catalog business. When you find that a book is getting really long (like over 20,000 words), it’s tempting to “skimp” on certain important points. My recommendation is to split it in two and spend time providing a detailed solution for each problem. Readers will like the detailed content, which ultimately means more reviews and more sales.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#5: “What’s the best long-term strategy for increasing sales?”[/title]

I consider myself to be very fortunate because I started listening to the Self Publishing Podcast when I first began my Kindle business.

The one long-term strategy they discuss (over and over) is to simply write more books. (By the way, I highly recommend checking out their latest book: Write. Publish. Repeat..)

I’ll admit that “write more books” is frustrating advice. It requires hard work and a commitment to publishing on a regular basis. But, I’ve discovered that my net income always increases whenever I launch a new book. And that’s why I feel this strategy is far superior to the latest-greatest-super-ninja-Kindle-generating-sales-machine product that’s being pitched on the Warrior Forum.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#6: “So, why is ‘write more books’ the best strategy?”[/title]

There is a logic progression on why consistent publishing is your best long-term strategy. It works like this:

1. Each book has its own KDP Select contract. That means it can be given away for free (5 out of every 90 days) or it can be deeply discounted through the Countdown Deal program. Both strategies provide extra visibility to your overall book catalog.

2.Inside each book is an offer (or two) for a related book. When a book gets that extra visibility, it will also generate additional sales on your other titles. (This could even have a snowball effect if you’re promoting different titles throughout your catalog.)

3. You can grow your email list by offering a free piece of content inside each book. When it’s offered for free or as part of a Countdown Deal, you’ll get even more subscribers. This can also have a snowball effect because you’ll use the email list to promote each future book, which builds on the overall results of each one.

4. Even when a book isn’t on sale or for free, it still acts as an entry point into your catalog business. When your books are spread out all over the place (in different categories, “customer also bought” recommendations and keywords) you’ll increase the chance that new readers will discover your brand.

 5. You are not depending on the success or failure of a single title. If one tanks during a launch or gets a few negative reviews, your overall sales numbers won’t plummet.

I’ve focused on Kindle publishing for 16 months now and I can honestly say that the best long-term sales strategy is to continuously produce more content.

For instance, at the risk of sounding like I’m tooting my own horn, I now have two separate book catalogs that rank in the top 20 of Amazon’s overall Business & Investing categories. It seems like there’s always a new author that shoots to the top of this list for a few days, but usually he or she will drop off this list because they’re not publishing on a consistent basis. Really, the only reason I’ve stayed on this list for a long time is because I have a lot of titles to offer potential readers.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#7: “How do you balance blogging with writing Kindle books?”[/title]

Lately, I’ve talked a lot about blogging and how it can help you build an authority business (check out my case study for more on this.) I feel that blogging can help support your books, but it’s not the easiest thing to do if you have limited time. So to find that “balance” here are a few strategies you could implement:

1. Publish (only) one or two blog posts each week.
2. Make sure each article thoroughly covers one specific topic or strategy.
3. Write the occasional post (like every two weeks) that defines an important concept in your niche.
4. Link to this article (and others like it) in your Kindle book to increase value to the reader.
5. Repurpose the best blog content for your Kindle book—even if you have to re-write the whole thing.
6. Test book ideas by writing a basic post on it and see how readers respond.
7. Create a series of posts that can act as a catalyst for readers to check out your blog. (I do this with my “30 Day Habit Challenge” series)

Having a blog and catalog of Kindle books requires a lot of writing—I won’t lie to you about that. But, you can save a little bit of time by being strategic with your content. When writing anything, think of how it can be re-used to grow your overall brand.

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]#8: “How long does it take to make the ‘big bucks’ from Kindle publishing?”[/title]

Honestly, it’s impossible to answer this question. Unlike the gurus who promise “instant Kindle gold,” I believe that self-publishing requires dedication and hard work. It isn’t a magic, push-button system where you hire a low-quality writer for $200, purchase a $5 Fiverr cover and then watch the “fat stacks” grow. So, it’s simply not possible to give an accurate timeline of when you’ll make decent money.

Really, your success depends on number of key factors:

1. How many words per day can you produce? (More is better.)
2. The profitability of the niche you select (see question #1.)
3. The size and level of engagement you have with an email list.
4. How are you building your brand outside of Amazon?
5. The overall presentation of your Kindle books.

The truth is:

[quote type=”medium” align=”left”] Your Kindle growth is directly related to how much you’re willing to bust your ass and hustle. {Tweet This!} [/quote]

If you take three months between each book and then “market” it with a $5 Fiverr cover, then you probably can’t compete with the publishers who work hard and invest time/money in the quality of their presentation.

I do apologize for the harshness of the above paragraph, but it seems like many people think that there is some “secret” that successful Kindle authors keep to themselves. All they really do is: Publish consistently, use each book as a learning experience and adjust their marketing strategies along the way. That’s how you make the “big bucks.”

[title color=”green-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”verdana” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-2em”]Have Any Kindle Publishing Questions?[/title]

I still have a lot of unanswered questions to cover, so don’t worry if I haven’t covered yours yet. I promise to go over each one in full detail in the weeks to come.

If you haven’t asked a question, then here’s your chance.

In the comment section below, feel free to respond to this post and ask any question that you have about Kindle publishing.

Take Action. Get Results.