Last month, I made the commitment to publish a book a month on Kindle…and in this blog post I’m going to share with you “Why” I made that commitment and why YOU should consider doing it as well.
How to Self Publish a Book on Kindle can be done very easily these days…
The truth is, to self publish an ebook on Kindle all you need is a internet connection, an Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) account, a book cover and a word document (manuscript) and you’re in business!
Of course publishing a book is one thing, making it a success, making sales and getting it to the bestsellers list is another thing completely.
I have 3 books on Amazon right now — Quit your Job and Follow Your Dreams: A 12 Month Guide to Being Joyfully Jobless; I Love Myself When: A Self Esteem Companion for Women Who Forget; and Never Work Again: 6 Secrets to Earning a Play-check Instead of a Pay-Check”.
First, I want you to know that in 2011 I published a book called “How to Make Your First $1000 Online” and a year after I published it I had zero sales! I admit, I had no clue what I was doing back then and I mistakenly thought that publishing a quality book was enough to make some sales on Amazon and get found. That was not the case. I later unpublished that book and decided to do some research and figure things out.
I spent a year trying to figure out how Amazon works and how to get my book to the bestsellers list because I learned that getting on a bestsellers list is the trigger that gets your book on Amazon’s radar! You see, Amazon has a very sophisticated marketing system and the way to get in it, is to become a bestselling author. Sounds like a catch 22, right?
It’s not really. Amazon wants to promote great books, so if a book is on a bestsellers list, then Amazon will start promoting it on a variety of lists such as:
- Hot New Releases (my Quit Your Job and Follow Your Dreams was on this list in the first 30 days after I published it)
- New for You
- Recommendations
- Top Rated (my Quit Your Job and Follow Your Dreams is on this list right now)
- Movers and Shakers
- Customers who bought this item also bought…
- Frequently bought together
- What other items do customers buy after viewing this item
- Based on your browsing history
Additionally, Amazon will take out paid ads on google (pay per click ads) for bestselling books and paid Facebook Ads. They will also promote your bestselling book to their members of Amazon Prime and in many emails and other marketing funnels they have.
So once I spent my year researching Amazon (2012) and figuring this stuff out, I released another book on October 23, 2012, (my birthday) and using my new found knowledge, I had 2,128 downloads of my book in one day, Never Work Again: 6 Secrets to Earning a Play-check Instead of a Pay-Check” and my book was on several bestsellers lists!
I was amazed at the results and I knew had a “system” for getting my books on the bestsellers list and getting Amazon to start promoting them. In 2013, I started a program “Bestselling Author program” and began offering this service for my clients who were very confused on how to do it themselves and would rather have me do it for them. And that’s how my program was born.
So for the past 2 years and 11 months I’ve helped over 3 dozen authors get to the #1 spot on the Amazon bestsellers list and many of them are having great success with their books. For example…
- My client, Nancy Hartwell’s book, Harem Slave, was launched in April 2013 and has remained on the #1 and #2 spot on the bestsellers list for 2 years and counting and her book makes her over $2800 per month now. She’s added 2 more books to the series!
- My client, Diana Cachey’s book, “Love Spirits, was published before we connected and she was having no success with her book. I launched her book in November 2014, and her book is still on the top of the Bestsellers list! Since then, she has added 2 books to the series.
- My client, Adley Stump, a successful musician who was on the hit show “The Voice”, published a book, How they Sell Music, which has been on the bestsellers list on Amazon for months and she is leveraging that book with a marketing program for musicians and making money on the back end of the book.
- My client, Nate Armstrong, a successful real estate investor from the mid-west, launched his book, “Real Estate Gold Rush, which hit several bestsellers lists on Amazon and is still on them. Nate uses his book as a lead generation tool and if he gets a new client or two per month from the book that generates $2000-$20,000 on the back end!
- My client, Suzanne O’Brien, R.N., launched a book, Creating Positive Passings and because of that bestselling book, now has a licensing deal for her end of life Doula training program!
So you see…having a bestselling book is critical to your success regardless of your goals with your book. You need to get on Amazon’s radar so that you can get found and leverage your bestselling book.
Now that I’ve been working on the Amazon Kindle platform for just about 3 years now, I truly believe that the key to huge success on Kindle is continuing to publish MORE books!
So here are my top 3 reasons for publishing a book a month:
- Better Odds — If you purchase one lottery ticket you have a certain number of odds of winning, but if you buy 10 tickets then your odds go up, and if you buy 20 tickets your odds go up even more. The truth of the matter is that you can’t predict which of your books will be a huge success. For example, Steve Scott, who inspired me to publish a book a month has 41 books currently on Amazon! He had one of his best months recently — $40,000 in royalties! Steve didn’t know going into this which of his books would do well; so he just kept publishing books. Some of them took off and some didn’t. For example, one of his books that is doing very well is “Habit Stacking“: (which is an awesome book which I have and I highly suggest you get). That book is selling approximately 15 copies per day with a net royalty to Steve of $2.09 per book, which is about $30 a day x 30 days per month = $940. Now for one book, that’s not bad…but when you multiply that number with his other successful books…that’s how he’s making $30,000 to $40,000 per month on Kindle! You just don’t know which of your books will take off so increase your odds by writing more books.
- Book Eco-System — When you have 41 books on Amazon like Steve Scott does then you really have an eco-system and all of those books are connected to one another. They support each other. Steve mostly writes in the “Habit” genre and all of his books are connected. So when someone purchases one of his books and they see his other 40 books, they are more likely to buy some of those other books. You begin to develop a following of your readers. Also by giving away a free gift in your book (which I highly recommend), you can build an email list through your books and then market your future books to your subscribers.
- Greater Exposure — The more books you have on Amazon the more exposure you have. If you really want to stop being the “best kept secret” in your industry, then you need to get out there in a massive way. And Amazon is a great platform for getting out there and exposing your message to the world in a big way.
So let’s think about the numbers — I can tell you that when I had one book on Amazon, I didn’t make much in royalties, although I was using it more for lead generation, but now I’m motivated with Steve Scott’s success and I believe publishing on Amazon is a great way to create passive income and is a great business model.
I’d love to speak with you about your book if you’d like my help, you can sign up here for a FREE Strategy Session with me: http://bestsellingauthorprogram.com/coaching/
If you would like to listen to the interview I did with my client, Nancy Hartwell, who makes $2800 per month from her one book on Amazon and the secret tool she’s using, you can sign up here for that: http://bestsellingauthorprogram.com/best-seller/
