Although anyone can get their book on Amazon, there’s undeniable kudos in being a published author. The kudos is greater, however, for those who can say I’m a bestselling author.
I’m going to detail every step of my creation and marketing processes for my Amazon bestseller (See? Sounds good!) Build a Brand, Create Products and Earn Passive Income so you can replicate.
The creation process
Most of the creation process I gleaned from various experts in the field.
1. Idea
The book was conceived in a very special way. I was asked to speak at the 4 Hour Work-Week meetup group here in London by my friend Deepak Tailor. In order to warm up for the occasion I accepted an invitation from another friend, Kanu Kaushal, to speak in front of a smaller group on the same subject.
But first I had to think of an idea. A lot of people pick low-competition categories in Amazon and reverse engineer a title with popular keywords but this was different.
I just tried to provide value. I sat down and thought of the most valuable information I could give to the entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs who attended such events.
2. Plan
So I fleshed out a mind map. It went something like this:
- Introduction (I was a dogsbody and now I make a living online which includes £3500/month passive income)
- Blogging (what it is, why you should do it, how to do it)
- Email marketing (what it is, why you should do it, how to do it)
- Introduction to intimate content
- Podcasting (what it is, why you should do it, how to do it)
- Self publishing (what it is, why you should do it, how to do it)
- Online teaching with video (what it is, why you should do it, how to do it)
- Conclusion
I’ve never been one for lengthy planning…
3. Research
After you plan and before you write, you research. Make sure that all the facts or figures you’ll need during the writing process are ready at your fingertips so you aren’t distracted.
4. Write
With your plan and research done, you write. Be really strict with yourself. Make sure you write a certain amount of words first thing each day (750 words, 1,000 words, for some, 2,000 words). Whatever word count is right for you, stick to it daily.
Don’t let anything stop the writing process. This period is described as “the word vomit” by Paul Jarvis.
Write, write and write. Don’t edit. Don’t worry, Don’t stop to look something up you forgot in the research phase, add a “to come” note to yourself. Just write!
5. Edit
This is when the magic happens – I love this part! In the first read through you will hopefully trim about 20-30% of the fat. You’ll be amazed at how rubbish your first draft was and how much better you’re making it.
Repeat this process again. And then repeat again, the third time reading it out. Finally, send the text to a good text editor from Elance or oDesk.
6. Format
Now my text is finished, I convert the Word document to Kindle Mobi with Sigil and convert the Word document to a CreateSpace PDF with InDesign.
I have my two final products ready. This is where my two worst friends Self Doubt and Impostor Syndrome have a party inside my head saying, “no one’s going to buy this crap!” However, I upload the Mobi at kdp.amazon.com and the paperback PDF at CreateSpace.
Unfortunately, writing and publishing a book isn’t enough. The success is entirely dependent on marketing, unless your name happens to be Steven King.
The Marketing Process
In truth the marketing process starts as soon as the creation process starts.
1. Ask for feedback
As soon as you have an idea for a book, ask people (email list, Facebook friends, family, author friends) what they think. Everyone will chime in with an opinion. This is priceless market research and great marketing.
I ask people about the content, title and cover of the book – all are as important as each other. The feedback you get is fascinating.
I usually do this in the places where I hangout online, like Pat’s First Kindle Book Facebook group.
2. Give out free PDFs
I give out free PDFs of the book to the people who were especially involved in the feedback process. These people who have closely identified with the project and they are the best people to ask for an Amazon review later on.
3. Publish
I initially publish the Kindle at $0.99. This isn’t the “hold the front page” launch moment. You have to wait a few days for Amazon to link up the Kindle with the CreateSpace paperback. Once that happens you’re ready to roll.
4. Initial mailout
I send an email to my subscribers, saying something like:
Although the book is only $0.99, it will be free in a week’s time. So you don’t have to buy it now. But if you can’t wait and you’d like to buy it (and review it) now – I’d be extremely grateful.
People will buy it at $0.99 even though they know it will be free in a week’s time (people are cool like that!)
This initial mailout to my list is important for the following reasons:
- It informs my email list of a forthcoming free gift
- It gets some sales immediately after publishing (which looks good to Amazon’s internal algorithm)
- It gets some initial reviews (you’ll notice above I mentioned reviews)
Apart from the initial mailout to my subscriber list, I don’t do any promotion after publishing at $0.99. I save it all for the free days…
5. Ask for reviews
Start asking people who you gave the free PDF to in step 2 for reviews.
5. Free days
If you enrol your new Kindle book on KDP Select when you upload at kdp.amazon.com, you’re entitled to some special Amazon marketing tools. For example, you can do a Countdown Deal on your book (offering it at a cheaper price for a short period of time which counts down) and you can have a Free Book Promotion (allowing your book to be downloaded for free for a few days).
I always schedule five days of Free Book Promotion a couple of weeks after publishing. The two weeks gives me time to register the details at free book sites.
This is the promotion I do during the free days (this is about all the promotion I ever do for the book) this puts the book on a trajectory that will, hopefully, result in a bestseller:
- Inform the various free book sites of my forthcoming free book (do this a few days before)
- Email the people I sent the free PDF to in Step 2 and ask them to share it with their audience (with a click-to-tweet) and remind them that a review would be nice
- Promote the book on several Facebook groups that are specifically for free book promotions (read their rules first)
- Mention the book on Pat’s First Kindle Book Facebook group (Remember! When you do this you have to also mention one tip, tool or strategy that has helped you in self-publishing)
- Go back to the Facebook groups and other places where I shared ideas about the book in Step 1, tell them the book is free and remind them how I’d love them forever if they’d leave a review
On the subject of reviews, remember that a review that is a “Verified Purchase” review is worth more than a review that isn’t. So if some people have read your PDF and want to leave a review, remind them that it’s best that they download the free Kindle first before they leave a review.
6. Second mailout
Still during the free day period, I mail my subscribers to tell them (as promised) that the book is now free.
I think it’s great to provide your subscribers with a free Kindle every now and then. I find people really appreciate this and you may even introduce people to the wonderful world of Kindle reading and writing.
7. The last free day
This is a trick I picked up from Nick Loper at SideHustleNation.com (great poddy there). Your free days will stop at 12 midnight PST on the last day when north America and Europe are in bed.
So stop the free promotion early at 12 noon PST on the last day. This will automatically move your book from the free lists on Amazon to the paid lists and, for a very short window, your free downloads are counted as sales. So you’re likely to be quite high up the paid bestseller charts the moment the free promotion stops. And you want that to happen when people are awake and browsing on Amazon.
As you can see in my best sellers rankings above, you can find yourself in a prominent position after the promotion.
8. After the free days
After the free days, the price goes back to $0.99 (the same price before the free days). This ensures the initial high ranking isn’t over in a matter of hours. There’s nothing more to do now: put your feet put, check the sales and start writing the next book.
9. Two weeks later
As every Kindler knows, Amazon pays you roughly 70% royalty on Kindles priced between $2.99 and $9.99 but 30% on all other prices. So, I like to get the price up to $2.99 – and I do this a couple of weeks after the free days.
As you can see from the sales chart above, the price increase causes sales to drop but the overall profit will increase because of the more generous royalty.
And, despite the price increase, my book has been hovering around the number one spot in an Amazon books category (Books > Internet & Web Culture > Blogging and Blogs) for the last few weeks.
You can do it
There’s no excuse! You can become an Amazon bestseller. Make the writing process a communication between you and your audience. Use Amazon’s sales tools and leverage your email list to be “top of the pops” in self-publishing.
Further reading
- Scott Britton‘s free day marketing tactics to net 41,000 downloads on OKdork
- Nick Loper‘s book launch or listen to this podcast
- Michal Stawicki’s book launch autopsy and ways to promote on Facebook
Thanks for the shout Rob, and congrats on your launch! I’m brainstorming some new Kindle ideas as we speak — such a fun platform. If you ever need any editing help, that’s been another one of my side hustles lately 🙂
Hey Nick thanks for popping by. It’s funny I was just listening to you interview Doug Cunnington on the way home and I listened to you with Spencer Haws last night. Great couple of shows.
Thanks, it wasn’t as impressive or as profitable as your launch but it just shows what a fantastic hustle Kindle is. It’s relatively straightforward, grows your brand and makes money.
The beauty of your last idea, for me, was that it name checked a lot of people and tools that had a vested interest in promoting it. I’ve been trying to think of something else like that. 🙂
Really, you’re doing editing? I’ll get in touch with you on that one.
Hey Rob, Nice to hear how your process works and see your appreciation for Pat’s first kindle fb group. I did the exact other process. I found a very small niche which I am very fond of and created my book to go there. It’s been in the top ten since it was published and is now #1. But I have to create a lot more digital content to be able to have a full-time passive income. “See” you on fb.
BTW, my first 3 books are about keeping a personal journal which I’ve done for decades.
Hello Judy, nice to see you here. It’s interesting to hear about your process as well. And great to see so many folks from Pat’s First Kindle FB group as well. That group has helped me so much, it’s really amazing.
Yes, we do have to create more digital content in order to have a sustainable passive income. But it does get easier the more you do. 🙂
Thanks for popping by. So interesting to find out more about you.
Rob – I love your stuff – but I read it despite your very basic formatting. I must admit I’m surprised you are using Sigil – because without decent bullet points, or a table of contents I thought it was just dumped into Word. The TOC really is a must have for non-fiction- and I had thought that Amazon now insisted on it for all books.
Hi Lis, great to see you here from Pat’s group as well! I had no idea you’d seen my books. wow! It’s interesting what you say about formatting. I thought that Kindles should have as little formatting as possible so the reader can choose the font, size, etc. I’d be interested to hear your formatting techniques as I have to admit this is something I’ve struggled with. Sigil creates an HTML TOC as well as an “ePub” TOC really easily.
I wrote a book – but it’s very out of date – basically I go Word- word2cleanhtml.com and then edit the resulting HTML. Use heading and create the TOC in word (without page #’s obviously) – and then clean up the HTML – check out Paul Savette’s eBook for the definitive guide -though he’s more hardcore than me doing the whole thing manualy.
Once I have the MOBI I use calibre to convert – it’s usually totally clean by then – but they have just introduced and irritating error around numbered lists.
I tried word2cleanhtml.com and I found it didn’t do a brilliant job every time so I thought it was better to do it myself with Sigil. It only takes me 10 minutes and that’s if it’s a complicated book with images. Here’s a video and an article I did about creating ePubs with Sigil.
Maybe you’ve seen one of my earlier Kindles that did have bad formatting. The last one should have been OK. 🙂
Good strategy laid out by you. I like the idea of writing something daily. In this way, you have lots of material ready either for your book or for your blog.
Lots of people are trying to do this the blogging way where they find low competition keywords and then get an ebook out. But even if there is a lot of competition and if the book is good, it will sell.
Thanks for these tips.
Hello Shalu, thanks for commenting again. Yes, the one thing I’m bad about is spotting a low-competition niche and writing for it. I start the other way round and start with the subject that I want to write about. I’ve got a lot to learn.
I don’t do the daily writing habit yet but I’m hoping to soon.
Rob, I don’t know how you get so much done. You must ever sleep! Thanks for another great article.
I don’t know why people keep saying this to me! I’m the laziest bum in the world! I usually get up at 10.30am 🙂 Hope you’re well, Louise.
Hello again, I agree that getting a daily writing practice going is key to creating a full-time content business. I am also struggling to get back into a good routine after a disrupted summer. Happy autumn everyone. If you haven’t joined Pat’s first book, fb group, do so. I also am quite grateful for that group for answering questions and providing lots of encouragement. See you there. Judy
Haha, yes, lets get back into daily writing! See you there, Judy 🙂
What if you don’t have an email list? Will these strategies still work?
Thanks
A list certainly helps. You can communicate with an audience via various social groups online and drum up interest and sales that way. But email lists guarantee sales. And they guarantee sales on a specify day, which is useful.
Even if you’re just starting out, I would offer people the first chapter or some other gift for free in return for an email address. You can do this cheaply and easily by setting up a WordPress website with a MailChimp form and email list. Even 100 emails is something.
How long did it take you to build a list and how did you do it? Also I’m from London do you have any more mastermind groups coming up?
I’m just about to move away from London, at least for the time being, I’m sorry! I started to build the list over 4 or 5 years ago with a free e-book to give away.
As long as you’re giving away something for free in return for the address and you’re providing valuable content to get people to see the offer, you’ll collect email addresses. Slowly at first. But after a while you’ll start to get the hang of it. You don’t need many to be able to make sales.
Cheers Rob
Thanks a lot Rob for including my articles in further reading section!
I love what you do in #4 step. That’s exactly how it should be done and it builds the bond between you and your subscribers.
As to #2 I actually give away RTF version and ask my beta readers to mark, comment and correct the sections they love/ hate/ don’t understand..
Hey, pleasure, Michal, I learned a lot from those articles. Great idea about the RTF allowing beta readers to comment. Even more engagement – love it!
Hi Rob
I like the fact that all your posts are always full of valuable info. You don’t hold back and we can feel it, and appreciate a lot.
I recognize the name of 2 mutual friends 😉 (your worst friends mentioned), what’s good is that they don’t block you!
Looking forward to put some of your tips in practice.
Talk soon & Take Care
Patricia
Hey Patricia, thank you for your kind words. I guess we all have those two mutual worst friends 🙂 – are you thinking of writing a Kindle? That would be an excellent idea!
very interesting and informative as always. no plans to go into publishing, but gets me thinking about how I could earn money from different channels.
Hey, Louie, glad you found it interesting. Maybe one day you’ll consider self-publishing. You never know! 🙂
This is great Rob. I started publishing books on Kindle last year and have found it to be great in various ways. Totally agree with you on the power of giving your book away for free and soliciting reviews.
Thanks, Victoria, I agree, Kindle is great in various ways. 🙂
Hi Bob,
Thanks for the post I been looking for someone with some great insight in starting with Kindle I know for sure I need to go back to your site to go over the details again.
I do agree with with regarding the free giveaway it builds a better relationship with your subscribers.
So Rob thanks again have a great day.
Warm regards,
Antonio Matos
Hey Antonio, I hope this post helped and there are plenty of other articles here on Kindle that might help as well. 🙂
Hey Rob, going to follow this strategy you did closely but I have a more un-related question though, were you 100% relaxed when you had to do public speaking at that event?
I’ve always had problems doing live speaking and it’s something I want to do more in the future (different projects) but can’t find how to do it.
I am aware that practice makes perfect but man, that’s scary stuff!
Sergio
Hey Sergio, no I don’t think I was 10% relaxed. I’ve done several speaking gigs since and I’m always nervous – and it shows. But it makes you so much better at speaking on video and has numerous other benefits that you’ve just got to do it.