Hey look, a new post! I know they’ve been relatively sparse these past few weeks – I’ll explain why in a future post. In the meantime, this guest post is from Location Rebel member Lise Cartwright. If you’ve ever thought of publishing a Kindle book, stop what you’re doing and read this!
Take it away Lise!
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What I learned from launching 3 self published books in 60 days on Amazon…
Before we jump into this massive blog post (sorry Sean!), you’re probably wondering who the heck I am… My name is Lise Cartwright and I’m a direct success story from Location Rebel. Thanks to Sean and the LR community, I quit my job in June 2012 and haven’t looked back.
I’ve spent the last 2.5 years freelancing as a writer and social media consultant. I’ve enjoyed every minute of working for myself, but around December of 2013, I started looking at some other avenues to make money. I don’t like to have my eggs all in the one basket and was beginning to feel a little bit like my basket was getting a tad on the empty side…
So, I jumped straight into the self publishing industry in December 2013, when I self published my first book (which is now on Kindle). I clearly didn’t know enough about self publishing because I didn’t even put the book on Amazon.
Things didn’t click for me until I came across a blog post written by Steve Scott. This man is a machine and is making well over $45,000 USD PER MONTH.
After reading about what Steve was doing, I wanted to know more! I wanted to learn as much as I could about this space, because if you’re going to do something well, you need to learn as much as you can, in my opinion. So I looked at what Pat Flynn, Chris Ducker, Natalie Sisson and Tim Grahl were doing. I learned a lot!
Fast forward to July 2014 when I started my Kindle self publishing journey. I published my first Kindle book in September 2014 and since then, have published a further 5 books on Kindle and 5 on CreateSpace (paperbacks).
But, that’s enough about me! What I want to share with you is the success I’ve been having with launching books on Kindle at $0.99 rather than free and then raising the price, which is a common strategy.
The free strategy is simple:
- Get 5-10 reviews on your live book in Kindle, prior to your launch date
- When you upload your book in KDP, set the price around $6.99 – $9.99
- Set your KDP Select free days (up to 5 days), with the view of launching on a Sunday
- Submit your free book to free submission sites 2-3 days before launch
- Day 1-3 of launch, list your book daily on free Facebook groups, tell your friends and family and everyone else you know to download it!
- Day 4-5 of launch, monitor book rank in the free store, once it hits Top 100 (or as close to that as possible) and holds for a few hours, switch to paid, at $0.99
That’s pretty much the gist of it.
It’s important to have a comparison, so you know in your own mind which strategy you might choose to go for when you launch your Kindle book. Below is the first launch I did following the free strategy above.
Free Launch – No Gym Needed Book
My first ever Kindle book was written during the course I took in July by James Roper and Chandler Bolt, Self Publishing School. The book is called , No Gym Needed: Quick and Simple Workouts for Gals on the Go, and did amazingly well (by my standards), getting over 7,000 downloads during the 3 days it was free.
I just want to point something out here. Downloads refers to the number of books that were given away for free. They do not equate to sales. You don’t get paid for free downloads. Something to remember as you read on…
It reached #35 in the Top 100 Free Kindle Store and was a Best Seller in the two categories I had it listed in – Health & Fitness > Women’s Health and Self Help > Stress Management.
Why does this even matter? If you’re book can reach the Top 100 in the Free Kindle Store, it bodes well for your book once it switches to paid. The key is to stop your promo (manually) once you’re ‘holding’ in the Top 100. During your free promo, your book will move up and down the ranks almost by the hour. Take screenshots as often as you can and monitor your book until you notice it start to move down – this is when you want to switch to paid.
No Gym Needed Metrics
Right now, this book is ranked #11,075 in the overall Paid Kindle Store, which means that on average, I’m making 1-10 sales per day using www.kdpcalculator.com.
By looking at the past 30 days, you can see that I’m actually making more than that.
You’ll notice a couple of spikes (red line), this is from putting the book on sale at $0.99 and also being featured in the Brazilian store by Amazon.
The blue line shows Prime and Kindle Unlimited access – which I get paid for as long as 10% of the first part of the book is read. This can equate for another $500 in income per month, or more.
So this probably seems like a great strategy – and it is.
But, the reason that I’m moving away from this strategy is for a few reasons that I’ll outline for you below.
Why I’m Ditching Free:
- Perceived Value – I noticed that people that bought my book were more engaged with the emails I sent following sign up for the freebie compared with those who accessed the book for free. I want to build a following, so want good engagement, not just people looking for free stuff.
- This is a Business – I want to recoup costs associated with self publishing a book as quickly as possible.
- Building an Author Platform – I want to provide value where possible – by launching at free, while my books can get into many more hands, it doesn’t mean that these same people will take action on what the books are delivering. I want to make a difference through my books. It comes back to perceived value…
Ok, that’s the free strategy covered. The only time this might be worthwhile is if you have absolutely no list at all and you are looking to build a following – then this would be a good option. But it wouldn’t be the option I’d use for any of your next books.
Now, let’s look at a strategy that has been super successful for me. It propelled me from earning $800 per month to $1,000+ per month from my Kindle books.
I’m going to share with you what I did and how you can follow these same steps to achieve the same results.
The only cavet is that I’m publishing books every month, which helps in the overall strategy. If you just launch one book, you may not experience the same results. Remember, this is a business for me, and it’s about consistency – Amazon has it’s own algorithms and part of that is giving more ‘weight’ to author’s who are consistenly publishing on a regular basis.
Ok, let’s jump straight into the juicy details!
Paid Launch – Side Hustle Blueprint Book
With Side Hustle Blueprint: How to Make an Extra $1000 in 30 Days Without Leaving Your Day Job, I wanted to try a paid launch. I wanted to test a few theories I’d read for myself.
These included launching a book at $0.99 for 3 weeks and then switching it to permafree (where your book is listed as permanently free on Amazon) for 2 months then switching it back to the full price.
And while on the surface this appeared to have a lot of merit, once I started down this path, someone sagely advised me that why would I switch to permafree and hurt my rankings when I could just play around with the pricing instead?
So following the advice given above, I switched tactics and this is the strategy I followed (amended from a few different sources):
- Soft launch book to my author list, asking for reviews in exchange for a free PDF copy
- Contacted my main newsletter list from Outsourced Freelancing Success with the same offer
- Ask reviewers to leave a live review on my book’s Amazon page on a specific date (allowed 7 days to read and review)
- Dropped book price to $0.99 and submitted the book to 99 cent promo sites (all free)
- Submitted book to a www.buckbooks.net promotion (free submission)
- Left book at $0.99 for 3 weeks
- Increased price to $2.99 and then $3.99 (within a week of each other)
Let’s delve into each of these steps more so you can try this for yourself.
Step 1 – Soft Launch to Author List
As part of my author platform, I’ve been collecting emails for my author list. I do this by placing a link to my author website (www.lisecartwright.com) at the front and back of each of my books.
People who visit that page are presented with the option to join my VIP list to get notifications of new books, discounts and promotions.
So part of step 1 is creating an opt-in for your author list. This could be a free book, audio book etc. Choose something that is relevant to your audience.
Once you have an author list, you can utilise them for your launches.
Here’s what I did (and what you can do too):
- 2 weeks prior to my ‘hard’ launch date, I sent an email to my author list. You can see a copy of this email here
- You’ll see from the email that I asked them if they’d like a free copy of my new book in exchange for a review (or they could pay for the book instead!)
- The caveat was that the review would have to be left on the day of the books ‘hard’ launch date, and that if they couldn’t commit to that, then they couldn’t get a free copy
I had 10 people respond to that email saying that they would be happy to read and review the book.
Step 2 – Get More Reviews
In addition to my author list, I also contacted my main newsletter list on www.outsourcedfreelancingsuccess.com with the same offer – an advanced copy of my new book (for free) in exchange for a review.
This only worked because the Side Hustle Blueprint book was of value to this list. If your book fits in well with any lists you have, then it makes sense to approach them. If it doesn’t, then don’t spam those lists – it’s a quick way to see your email autoresponder service provider close your account.
I also reached out to some Mastermind groups I belonged to and a couple of Facebook groups I belonged to, all with the same ask.
As with the author list, the requirement was to leave a review on a specific date.
There are a couple of variations you can do with this. You could have people leave reviews over a few days, so they weren’t all on the one day. I got people to do this with my second paid launch.
The point is that you need at least 10 reviews to let Amazon know that you’re book is worthwhile and that people are liking it.
Step 3 – Upload Book to KDP
Five days prior to your launch date, upload your book to KDP and set the price at your desired price point. Aim for between $2.99 – $9.99 so you’re earning 70% commission.
DO NOT upload the book any earlier. The reason? You only get featured on the “Hot New Releases” list for the first 30 days of your book going live – you want to make the most of those 30 days. Your 30 days starts from the day you hit publish in the KDP dashboard.
I typically price my books around the $3.99 price point. This is based on word count and number of pages. My books sit around the 25,000 word count which equates to about 100 pages on a Kindle.
If you’re book is bigger than that, you might consider listing at a higher price point.
Step 4 – Drop Price to $0.99
The 3-4 days before your ‘hard’ launch date, drop your books price to $0.99. Submit it to promotion sites that will notify their lists that you’re book is on sale.
The majority of these sites offer a free submission service, but there are paid options as well. Google “kindle promotion sites” and you’ll be presented with a number of options.
I submitted my book to over 15 99 cent promo sites. Keep in mind that a number of these sites require at least 3-7 days notification of a promotion. This is why you want to leave your book at $0.99 for a 3 week duration.
Step 5 – Use a Buck Books Promo
If you haven’t heard of Buck Books, you’re missing out, both as an author and a reader. I came across Buck Books as part of being a member of Pat Flynn’s Facebook group.
Buck Books has an email list that they email daily with 99 cent book (hence ‘Buck Books’) deals across every genre, from non-fiction to fiction.
As an author, you can get your book featured on one of these days for free. All you have to do is ensure that your book is listed at $0.99 when the promotion runs.
Buck Books is free to submit your book to (for now) and you can do that by visiting this page:
If you’re a reader, you can sign up to the email list here.
You’ll need to plan this promo for at least 7 days in advance of the actual date you want the promo to happen. It is getting more and more popular. The guys at Buck Books are great and will let you know if your proposed date is not doable and offer you other options.
Planning ahead is key.
Step 6 – 3 Weeks at $0.99
As I mentioned above, you want to leave your book at $0.99 for 3 weeks. The main reason for this is that you don’t want all the free promos happening all on the same day. You want to spread the dates around.
I had one week of being featured across the free submission sites and then the Buck Books promo the following week and then I also emailed my own lists the third week letting them know that the sale was coming to an end.
You can also pay for promotions too. I did a couple of these, costing $30 all up across the 3 sites I used.
Another promotional tool I like to use is called ‘Tweet Your Books’ and I used it during my free launch strategy. You can find these service at www.tweetyourbooks.com – I used the 1 day option.
Step 7 – Increase Price
Once your book has been sitting at $0.99 for 3 weeks and it’s climbed the Kindle store paid ranks, it’s time to increase the price.
I increased the price to $2.99 for one week and then increased it to $3.99.
Depending on your niche, this might be what you do. Or your book might be priced higher. Regardless, you should always increase from $0.99 to $2.99 and then increase the price further following that.
By doing this, you’ll ensure that your book stays in the Top 20 Best Sellers within the categories its listed in.
Ok, now that I’ve explained the steps, let’s look at the results of this paid launch and then compare it with the free launch.
Side Hustle Blueprint Results
During the 3 week period it was listed at $0.99 (including the Buck Books promo) I received 1,510 sales, with a gross profit of approx. $550 USD.
It reached #594 in the Top 100 Paid Kindle Store and was a Best Seller in the two categories I had it listed in – Business & Money > Finance and Education & Teaching > Adult & Continuing Education.
I ended up changing the categories during my monthly maintenance checklist and it has been in the Top 5 Best Sellers in Education & Training > Adult & Continuing Education since it was published!
Lets look at the metrics in comparison to the first and second launches:
I think the results speak for themselves. Not only did I sell more books, but the following 30 days I made over $1,000 with my Side Hustle Blueprint book. And the following 30 (December) are on track for the same, just from one book!
Right now the Side Hustle Blueprint book is ranked at #10,756 in the Paid Kindle Store and #1 in Adult & Continuing Education category. So based on the KDP Calculator, I should be getting 1-10 sales per day.
In fact, I’m doing far better than that, as you can see below:
The spikes all coincide with a promotion. The one around the 17/18 November was my birthday promotion and the one around 27/28 November was Black Friday/Thanksgiving.
I want to thank you for reading all the way to the end of this post! I know it’s a lot of information to take in, but I hope the takeaway is that you can make some serious money from Kindle and you can do it quicker if you launch at paid rather than free.
Bio: Lise Cartwright is a self confessed (or is that obsessed?!) shoe fanatic that has found her passion in writing and indie publishing. In 2015 she will be taking on a limited number of coaching students who are looking to have similar successes. If you’d like to know more, visit her site for more details (and get your special gifts!).
Also if you’re serious about self publishing, improving your Kindle sales, and becoming a successful author, the single best resource I know of is Self-Publishing School. It’s where I recommend anyone who is serious about that as a career or side hustle get started, as it’s the most comprehensive training out there.
Check out their free class on writing and launching your own book to see if it’s a good fit for your goals.
Thanks. This certainly seems promising. I haven´t launched any books yet but will surely go for the paid option.
Thanks Anders – good luck!
Thanks for the opportunity to share my story on this Sean!
For those looking for the Buck Books author form, here’s the link (it dropped off the article): http://buckbooks.net/buck-books-promotions/
Cheers
Lise
Thank you so much for this great article! I have 2 e-books in production right now and I’m confident that their launches will go much smoother now!
I’d love to hear how they go Kristin, so make sure you track your metrics and let me know – love hearing from other authors!
Very helpful post, Lise. Thanks.
Thanks Zachary!
Thank you so much for this in-depth post! I’ve been thinking about writing a Kindle book and try to generate some passive income from it. I’ve been reading about it over the last few weeks. This post really helps and, combined with the information on your website, covers the complete process, from niche selection to publishing and promoting the book. If I’d eventually decide to write an ebook, I’ll definitaly use this as a guide!
I’m glad you found it useful Ferdy 🙂
thanks a lot, I am a travel blogger and published a travel guide for Mexico City which is ranking better than the printed copy of Lonely Planet for Mexico City, but I published through an editor now I am about to self publish my second guide to all my readers and email subscribers (+3500) and this is so much helpful. I am going to follow up your steps to see how it goes. Thanks again.
That’s amazing Alejandro – good luck with your new book!
Hi Lise, I’m just a bit confused.. You gave advance free copy and ask them to leave a review. Is it allowed in Amazon to leave a review even if they didn’t purchase the book? Or you gave them free copy for advance reading but they still need to buy the book and leave a review?
I’m about to launch a book and thankfully found this on Sean’s website.
Thanks for your help.
Hi Mark
Yes, Amazon currently allows anyone to leave a review on ANY product on Amazon, not just ebook’s, without purchasing.
To distinguish between someone who has bought the item or not, it will say “verified” under their name.
The aim is to have both types of reviews in place BEFORE you launch your book to the world.
It helps with your Amazon sales rank.
Hope that helps!
Lise
Great article Lise! I have a question for you. I run a family camping website and have a pretty decent following (in the 15,000 range). I am currently working on my first book which is a family camping guide. I am looking at different ways to launch the book and never considered the kindle option. The book is very photo heavy and my first plan was to do a launch on Kickstarter pre-selling a e-book and hardcover book. Just wondering what you think of the Kickstarter strategy, which would be pre-sales of the book before paying for an editor and publishing to cover those associated costs as well as proof of concept that followers would be interested in the book.
Hey Ryan, copied my response from below: – if your book is photo heavy and needs to remain that way, then a Kindle version is still viable, provided it meets the maximum file size of 5MB. Re Kickstarter… for a book, I’d actually recommend going with Publishizer.com – as they are focused solely on books – and the majority of authors using that right now are getting funded. Kickstarter – you could get lost in the ‘noise’.
Hope that helps!
Lise
Hi everyone that’s left comments! Thanks for your support – I’m glad you’re liking the content.
There is a slight glitch on the site right now, so I can’t respond to individual comments – but I’m hoping you all ticked the “notify me of follow up comments via email” box!
Mark Conrad – Amazon allows people to leave reviews on ANY product whether you’ve purchased it or not. They could change in the future as far as Kindle books are concerned, but right now, you can leave a review WITHOUT purchasing. So yes, those that got an advanced, free copy left what is called “unverified reviews” – you can tell if someone has bought your book and left a review because it will say “verified” – hope that helps! Email me direct if you have more questions – [email protected]
Ryan – if your book is photo heavy and needs to remain that way, then a Kindle version is still viable, provided it meets the maximum file size of 5MB. Re Kickstarter… for a book, I’d actually recommend going with Publishizer.com – as they are focused solely on books – and the majority of authors using that right now are getting funded. Kickstarter – you could get lost in the ‘noise’.
Great post Lise. I’m closely following your journey. I launched my first book totally clueless, then found your advice on Location Rebel. I then went back a reengineered a launch folling the advice I could at that stage with some success. Im currently writing my second book and have an outline for my third. I’ll definitely be following your progress as I get closer to launch. (And ps. Your first book is playing a big part in my New Years resolution !!!) Thanks so much for sharing and big congratulations on your progress so far.
Thanks so much for your kind words Sharyn, I really appreciate it!
I’m glad to hear that applying some of my tips helped your book – look forward to seeing the next few!
Take care
Lise
Lise (and Sean)
Good stuff. I love facts and figures and always enjoy reading about other peoples experiments. It is awesome that you do not just take the things I (and others) say at face value but go out there and experiment.
One question I actually have for you is the effectiveness of the Tweet service you used. Did you use link tracking for that to see how many people it actually drove to your website/book page. My past experience has always been that tweet services are too much spam and not very effective. It looks good on paper, but has not produced results (for me)
However, I may not have tried THAT service, so maybe I will see how it goes for the next book.
Hey Steve
Re the Tweet service – you have to provide direct links (as they grab affiliate income just like the other submission sites do) but I did take note of the dates the Tweets went live with this particular site.
I saw a 20% increase in downloads compared with the other days I didn’t use it.
Next time, I will be trying a different service and providing a PrettyLink with their affiliate link so I can track it better!
I figured, for $30 for one day, it was worth the test 🙂
I’m very curious about what 3 paid marketing services you’ve used, particuralry the one from 28th of November. These paid services are known for notorious under delivery, so I’m always looking for the ones that actually work.
Congrats on your results.
Free seems to be less and less effective. At the end of January 2014 I launched my book, got about 5k free downloads and I sold over 700 copies in the following month (at $3). You’ve got almost half more downloads and almost half the sales…
Hey Michal
Thanks for your question. The 28th November was my two No Gym Needed books being included in a promotion for the Brazil store. I was approached by Amazon to have those two books featured during this date, hence the spikes!
So no new paid service there, just Amazon promoting me (with the caveat that I leave those two books in KDP Select for 6 more months – in hindsight, probably a bad move…)
And thanks re results – it’s pretty amazing!
Hi Lise,
It is very nice that you are happy for writing the book and earning money.
Can you please share the link to us to download the pdf file of the book.
Hope to hear from you.
Regards
Hi Tanya
Which book are you referring too? You can find all my books on my Author Page: http://www.outsourcedfreelancingsuccess.com/AuthorPage
Thanks for commenting 🙂
Hi Lise,
It’s a pleasure to having your reply. I have visited that page and after some practice, i definitely order the required one.
Regards,
Great article Lise.
Just in the interest of transparency, I’m the promotions gatekeeper at Buck Books, but I’m not commenting to tout the free promos we offer to authors, although Lise, and many others have done amazingly with the promotion service.
I fully agree that a free period might not always be the way to go for a book launch, unless:
– You’re main focus in visibility and lead capture, which can be substantial if you give your book away. In fact, making it perm-free might be the perfect strategy for you, if generating an email subscriber list and selling products and service on the back end is your strategy.
– Free also works for authors without their own audience base, where they are looking to get some reviews before the book goes to paid status. Additionally, it is much easier to ask for honest reviews if someone can download the book for free.
Other than that, free doesn’t have a lot of value, and as Lise mentions, perceived value is important. People tend to actually read something they have paid for, and free is often equated as CRAP, even if that is not the case.
It takes a long time to build an email list big enough to create an epic launch for your book, which is why the Buck Books promotion service is a great way to get a helping hand, at least until you have started list building effectively.
On a personal level, I have had some great success with my kindle books, making $1000 in the first month of launch, that falling back over time, but still providing, what is now, a truly passive income, awesome for those looking to create a freedom business.
Create something valuable, make it look nice, and the world is your oyster. Just avoid the cookie-cutter kindle book schemes, where people provide nothing of value, just regurgitation of the same old junk.
Other than that, self publishing to Amazon is a great way to build authority, create an email list, make some money, and become a better writer and publisher. It’s all good.
-S
Thanks for offering more perspective on the Free strategy Steve! I’m definitely ‘in love’ with Buck Books and credit you guys with much of my last two book’s success in terms of sales!
Long may it last 🙂
I also second your comment about not publishing or creating cookie-cutter books – there are already too many crappy books on Kindle, quality is what will reign supreme at the end of the day!
Cheers
Lise
This is an excellent post, thank you so much! I am now launching my first book out of Kindle Select. I already have 150 people on my launch team who got a review copy in exchange for reviewing the book on launch day.
I will then proceed exactly as you suggest. I will launch at $3.99, then I will decrease the price to $0.99 for 3 weeks and spread the news around all those promo sites and then I will raise the price to $3.99.
Btw, I am also launching a new book every 30 days.
Hi Alinka, thanks for your kind words!
Good luck, just make sure to test everything, what works for one person doesn’t always work for another. Which is why I’m constanting testing different strategies!
That’s fantastic re launching a book every 30 days, it’s definitely a key to being successful on Amazon and other ebook platforms.
I’m currently in the middle of a challenge to write and publish 7 books in 7 weeks! On week two and half way through the 2nd book.
Cheers
Lise
very helpful articles. Is there anybody who can work with me/help me in relaunch of my books
Hi Alta
You’re welcome. In terms of relaunching your book, it depends on what you want to do. I work a number of clients to get their books published and to best seller status within their categories.
Happy to chat further. My best email is [email protected].
Cheers
Lise
Hi Lisa, this post is epic – really, really great! You have really nailed the “Kindle” business model approach. And you have made it despite the huge competition. As we moved into 2015, there were some 3.1 million titles on Kindle. Competition is huge. Therefore, very well done! — Because of this immense level of competition, I have researched close to 1 million book data points across 28 main, 350+ sub- and 2000+ sub-sub book categories on Kindle. There are niches that people believe are attractive, but do not sell at all and/or come with a huge level of competition. Few others have extreme high sales, AND low competition. I really do not want to spam this post, but – believe me – I really want to let people know what I learned, because it will be of great help to anyone interested in replicating your success. Identifying the high selling/low competition Kindle sub-sub-categories as described in this short tutorial video http://k-lytics.com/ebook-market-strategy-maps/ can really increase the odds of success. I would be happy to share some of my research learnings with you and the community.
Alex Newton
CEO & Founder
K-lytics.com
ebook market intelligence for success
Hi, although I’m sure this is really good I don’t have an author/list of subscribers can you recommend a strategy for people who don’t have an email list and are just starting out seems this is not for beginners but more established people who have a tribe.
Many thanks
Hey Dave
If you don’t have a list, then you’re best strategy is to enrol your book into KDP Select and launch you’re book for free, if you’re looking to build your email list.
It is by far the quickest way to build your email list. In fact, if you were looking to write a series of books, I’d even recommend making one of them permafree, using that as the book that drives people to your email list 😉
Hope that helps!
Lise
Hi Lisa, I am a bit confused about step 3 upload to KDP – you say five days prior to launch date upload to KDP my question is do i hit the publish button now on this step?
Then step 4: the 3-4 days prior to hard launch – is step 3 uploading to KDP not the hard launch?
What step is the hard launch?
I would be grateful if you can let me know
Thanks
Hey again Dave
Yes, you hit publish, because you need the book to be live on Amazon so people can leave reviews and so that you can check that there aren’t any issues with your book file across multiple devices.
No, step 3 is not the hard launch, you’re ‘hard launch’ is the first date that you tell the world that your book is available, whether that’s via the promotion sites, via a list etc.
So your hard launch is just after step 4, once you’ve dropped the books price to $0.99.
Cheers
Lise
Thanks Lisa. Another thing in terms of reviews in steps 1 and 2 the book has not been published yet so are you saying in these steps you ask people to do reviews once I have published to KDP or is their a way they can review on Amazon before publishing the book? I see you can pre launch the book on KDP before publishing so I didn’t know if steps 1&2 had something to do with this. Thanks so much for answering my questions I really appreciate it!
Dave
Hey Dave, it’s Lise not Lisa, two completely different names 😉
If you read over Step 1 again, you’ll see that I actually ask them to leave a review on the book on the launch day, so the book is published on Amazon.
In Step 2, when you reach out to others to leave a review, you’re asking them to leave a review during the 5 days prior to your launch date, when you’ve uploaded the book to KDP and published it and are checking it to make sure there are no issues etc.
Amazon allows you to leave a review on any product (including books) without having to purchase it first, and thats what you’re doing here.
So, to recap:
1. Ask for reviews 2 weeks prior to your launch date, by providing a free PDF version of the book
2. Have people leave reviews on your book once you’ve got it live on Amazon
3. Have people leave reviews on your book on launch day as well
Hope that makes sense.
Cheers
Lise
Thanks Lise and apologies for getting your name wrong. You have been really helpful and I am just about to upload my next book. In terms of reviews you say I need some unverified and some verified. The ones that are verified purchased reviews how long between someone buying the book and them reviewing it should it be? i heard amazon don’t like it when a book is purchased and a review is done quickly is that true? Thats the last question thanks again. Dave
Hey Dave, so in terms of verified reviews, someone should aim to leave that within 7 days of receiving your book.
So anyone that you’re asking to download your book, ask them to leave a review within a couple of days, making sure that they at least skim through the book 25% or more. If they don’t do that, then it’s likely that their review will not ‘stick’, ie, Amazon will remove it.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Lise
How inspiring! I am overwhelmed by all of this information and the potential to self-publish. Before reading this blog post it never even crossed my mind! Would you find a fiction novel to be as successful as the informative books you have published? I wrote a novel years ago but was so frazzled by the process of editors and publishers that I gave up on it, but this gives me new hope! I’m very thankful, as I’m sure many of the readers of this blog are to have your trade secrets! Thanks for sharing.
Hi Nicole!
My friend, Steve Windsor, is a mad fiction writer and is having some good success with similar strategies, although you do need to focus more on your genre and keywords with fiction, the marketing side of things can work well if you find the right sites to submit it too (genre is key).
Dust off the keyboard and get that thing done!
do I have to submit the book to kdp select when following the paid method you outlined?
Hi Vincent
Thanks for your question. No, you do not have to enrol in KDP select if you’re following the paid method, in fact, I’d avoid KDP select if you’re writing non-fiction, in my opinion, it’s no longer worth in due to the changes made to Kindle Unlimited – I’ve pulled all my books out of KDP select bar 3.
If you’re not enrolling in KDP select, make sure you are taking advantage of wider distribution though, such as Kobo, iBooks, Google Play etc. http://www.draft2digital.com can submit your book to all these plus more if you don’t want to go direct.
Cheers
Lise
Thank you Lise! This was the exact question I had as well. Whether or not to go with KDP select if I’m using the $.99 launch!
Thank you Lise for a wonderful share.
It seems that the risk you took in December 2013 paid out very well. After reading your article, I am in hope that good earning can be made by sitting at home and writing books when I have free time, and get it published on Kindle. This means I do not have to leave my job after all, if I am lucky enough, to get some extra income.
Is there a significance to leaving the book at .99 for three weeks vs. two or one? I was thinking of just doing two weeks but wasn’t sure if that would mess something up.
Hi Ethan, you can leave your book at $0.99 for just one week or two, it’s up to you. Since I’ve written this article, I generally leave the book at $0.99 for one week and then increase the prices from there!
Cheers
Lise
Hey Lise,
Great article. Incredible how much data you used! One update that might help though is that the KDPCalculator.com site is no longer worked (stopped working in Feb/March). However, for purposes of continuity, you might want to change the link to here, which is a Sales Rank Calculator that does the same thing: http://kindlepreneur.com/amazon-kdp-sales-rank-calculator/
Cheers and amazing job!
Hey Dave, yeah I saw that wasn’t working. This is Sean’s blog so I’m unable to update that link, but thanks for sharing your one, I’ve used it a few times myself!!
Cheers
Lise
Hey guys, here is an exciting new video on how to cope with the increased level of competition on Kindle (There are 3,000,000 English Kindle titles now out there…)
This is an approach for finding book market niches with high sales but low level of competition:
http://k-lytics.com/ebook-market-strategy-maps/
Happy publishing!
Hey Lisa,
I actually read Chandler’s book Book Launch and noticed that he mentioned your book and the success you experienced. Congrats BTW!
I just published my first book to the Kindle store, following the book’s guidelines as closely as possible. I really put a lot of effort into launch (intense marketing, professional cover, good category selection, etc.) I really went the distance. In fact, I don’t think their is much more I could have done. Unfortunately my promo is almost finished and although I ranked #1 in my specific categories, the highest I ever reached in the free kindle store was in the mid 600s. I am worried because my promo is about to end and I don’t think I have a enough momentum to convert my free downloads to sales.
Is there an element of luck to this? I have examined my competition (books that have ranked higher than mine) and I believe my book should be just as attractive to potential downloaders. Do you know if my success (currently 700 in free kindle store) is enough to gain monetary sales off my book? What steps could I take, at this point, to ensure the best outcome?
I could really benefit from advice. I have read so many success stories about self-publishing and I cannot understand why my book didn’t accumulate as many downloads or perform as well as other books that have followed this process.
Thank you so much for your help!
Best,
Sal
Hi Sal
Thanks for your kind words, I appreciate it.
Regarding your book… without knowing the niche, it is difficult to comment, however 700 in free Kindle store is still very good and once you switch to paid, as long as you have further promotions scheduled, you will see momentum.
The thing with Kindle and Amazon is that you need to keep momentum going for a good two weeks and then continue to promote your book every day, whether with a tweet, sharing it in a Facebook group, promoting it on a relevant reddit etc.
Give yourself 30 days, if you don’t see success, then you need to review your categories and keywords, check your book description and see whats happening.
Did you use Kindle Spy to check your categories? Merchant Words for keywords?
You can find out more at http://www.authorbasics.com <– this is a new website that I've started with another author friend of mine. Loads of free information over there, including a launch timeline and our promo list (under products). All free access.
Cheers
Lise
Thank you so much, Lise!
Hi, Lise. I cannot help it. You share a very valuable information and I want to thank you for sharing without inhibitions. You inspired me to pursue one of my dreams and that is to publish a book even if it’s starts with Kindle. I already created one and hopefully I can create more. Bless you! — Connie =D
Hi Connie, thanks so much for your kind words. You can create as many books as you can write 😉
I wish you all the best
Lise
Similar to ranking on the first page of google with website content, ranking well in the Kindle Store allows your content to get discovered long after you put in initial marketing effort. That’s why optimizing for keyword and category ranking is the way to go.
Hi, Lise. I was wondering if you have any ideas about how you would change this method when launching subsequent books in a fiction series. In my case, the books are not standalone books, so I’m not sure that it makes sense to promote the latest book (aside from using my mailing list and reaching out to existing fans). Would you still launch at 99 cents? Any other ideas?
Hi Kate
I wouldn’t change this when launching subsequent books at all, whether they are in a series or not.
I treat each book launch as it’s own individual launch… but you could capitalize on your launch by incorporating your other books in the series, making sure to link to them in the back of your book, perhaps providing them at $0.99 for new readers as well (requires you to NOT be enrolled in KDP select) etc.
It ALWAYS makes sense to promote your latest book, it’s the fastest way to get it into the hands of others. Definitely still use your mailing list and existing fans to kick things off, but you should still launch your book the same way you would any other book 🙂
Good luck!
Thanks, Lise. I guess I ought to give your method a try and see what happens. 🙂
Hi Lise,
I am so pleased I tripped across this article tonight! Absolutely precisely what I was looking for!
I am about to publish the kindle version of my wee daughter’s book (she is selling it for charity) and am feeling a bit lost. This post leaves me feeling a lot more informed.
I have a few questions:
1) would 1 or 2 weeks free be enough? As it has a Christmas theme, we only have 4 weeks really to sell it this year!
2) Is there an easy way to get reviews of print books on amazon? I keep begging people, but remarkably, hardly anyone I know has an amazon account, and they don’ let you leave a review until you have purchased something. I don’t feel right asking friends to purchase it too!
3)Has completely left my head! Oh well, 2 questions is better than none!
Thanks again for your helpful advice!
PS. In case you are interested you can learn more about her book at
http://www.Maxime-Alexandra.com ( website is rough – still putting it up and running into image upload issues!) but I understand if you want to delete this out of the comment if you publish it:)
Hi Cheryl
Thanks for your comments.
In answer to your questions:
1. You can’t have your book free for longer than 5 days when enrolled in the Kindle Select program. You get 5 free days every 90 days. Use them wisely!
2. Getting reviews can be a challenge when you’re starting out, I’d recommend looking for review groups on Facebook and seeking assistance this way.
What I would recommend is that you get the book into promotion sites during the free days. There is an extensive list over at my new site Author Basics, and you can grab it for free here: https://authorbasics.com/writing-tool/free-bargain-book-marketing-sites/
Make sure that in the back of the book you ask people to leave a review if they enjoyed the book, just having the ‘ask’ in there prompts people to do so!
Good luck with the launch 🙂
Hi Lise,
Thank you so much for your helpful advice! It is more appreciated than you realize:)
And what an incredible resource you shared…I feel almost capable of doing all of this for the first time!
Thank you so much again…you are truly my new guru…I hope you don’t mind:)
How do you actually go about stopping a free book promo. People talk about doing it but there are no details on how to actually do it.
Hi Tim
In order to stop your free book promo, you would log into your KDP Dashboard and then to the right hand side of the book you’re wanting to stop the promo on, you’d click on the KDP select details.
You’ll see your free promotion dates in there, you would simply click on “stop” to manually end the free promotion.
Hope that makes sense. You would need to be stopping the free promo before the actual end date (of your promo) for it to work.
Lise,
WOW! Great post. I am launching a book soon and I wanted to let you know I am following the advice here. I was going to launch my book for free per Nick Loper’s advice, but after reading your post I think that the .99 cent price point might be the better way to start. I think that perceived value is huge.
One question, would you recommend any paid book promos? I have a buck books promo that is going to run during launch, and I have several other ones lined up, but wanted to see what you though about that? Is there anything wrong with paying for multiple promotions?
Thanks!
-Jordan
Hey Jordan
Nick’s advice is solid too, it really comes down to two things:
1. How big your current email list is
2. What your objective is for the book
If you don’t have a big email list, then the free launch is the way to go, because it puts your book into many hands plus there are a ton of free promotional options for free books.
In terms of paid promos, Buck Books is your best bet, which you have, and then I’d schedule two or three either side of your BB promotion to ensure you’ve got consistent traffic.
Nothing wrong with multiple promotions, just aim to have them starting on different days so you can track them. Amazon and the other platforms don’t provide you any information on where your traffic is coming from 🙁
Good luck!
Lise
Hey all –
I am sorry, because I feel it falls on me to be the bearer of some bad news here, but this material is a bit outdated. This may have worked at one time, but they don’t anymore. In face, it’s gotten pretty hard to make any money at all on Kindle.
Amazon has seen how many people were flooding its marketplace ad has decided to change its rules. Now, the ranking you get for a free book does not transfer over when you make your book a paid book. This changes the game dramatically. And yet, people don’t seem to be informed of this.
Hordes of new books are still flooding the Amazon marketplace, and masses of people continue to be shocked at why their Kindle books aren’t making them a $1k a month, or for that matter, a single dollar. Most books (and I’m not exaggerating), don’t even make a single sale. I have over 8 books up on Amazon right now. Some of them have over forty reviews. Trust me that’s good… and you’d be surprised… some of them don’t make a single sale in a month. If you don’t find that discouraging, then be my guest and put your book out there.
Strategies like this may have been good at one time, but now, the name of the game has narrowed down primarily to “promotion”. If you’re anything less than 100% serious about promoting your books (and if they’re anything less than 100% in quality), you’re just wasting your time.
Expect to put hours of hard work in, just as you would any other job that pays you. Think about it… the reason you probably read this article was because the idea of making easy money sounded appealing. Guess what… that same idea appeals to all of us. And if it really was as easy as it sounded (or as easy as it used to be), we’d all be millionaires.
I truly wish the writer of this article would update its information. And, that others would do the same, who are simply trying to increase traffic to their blogs by talking about Kindle like it’s still a get-rich-money-hole”, because due to this dishonesty, the marketplace continues to be filled even more by people trying to get rich, putting valueless material out into the market, and then quitting once they realize how difficult it is. When they quit, they leave behind the clutter they tried to sell, which only makes the playing field even worse for those of us who are really approaching this in a more serious, long-term way.
Hi Caleb
While I understand your viewpoint and can certainly agree with some of it, I am not promoting writing and publishing ebooks as a “get-rich-money-hole” as you so eloquently put it.
I have written over 20+ books and my personal experience has been a positive one, because I put in a lot of effort and follow specific strategies, namely the ones outlined above in the article. Most of which I learned directly from guys like Steve Scott, Nick Stephenson, Joanna Penn and Self-Publishing School.
A free launch is still a viable option, but you need to do a lot of legwork upfront to ensure your promotions get it out into the hands of many people.
There are many reasons why a book doesn’t do well on Amazon:
1. It doesn’t fit the platform
2. The book is crap (or the cover sucks)
3. No effort was put into marketing it
4. No effort was put into continuing to market it after the launch
As I clearly state in this article, this was based on my personal experience, and I don’t recommend a free launch if you’ve already got a solid list and a way to get your book into many hands when you launch.
I think it comes down to each personal author’s goals and objectives for their book. As long as you’re clear on what those are, then you can decide the best course to take based on those objectives.
I’m sorry that you seem to be having a bad experience, but you should get your facts straight before pointing fingers. I know what I’m talking about because I’m actually doing what I say!
I am not dishonest and I don’t put “valueless material out into the market” – I take my author business very seriously.
Anyone getting into self-publishing should do the same and those that don’t, will quickly exit stage left, Amazon and the other platforms will see to that.
Surely, the increase might be influenced by the time of year?
The lead up to Christmas traditionally sees an increase in sales of Kindle books
Hi Roy, yes, the time of year does help with Kindle sales, which is why you want to make the most of different holidays and events throughout the year.
The point of this article though was to show what can be done during a launch and I was a completely new author to the Amazon marketplace at the time. If you can launch your book right, then you can take advantage of the time of the year as well.
Good luck with your own book launches 🙂