How To Effectively Self-Publish On Amazon KDP (11 Steps Guide For 2020)

Last Updated on August 20, 2020 by Jordan Alexo

You probably have heard about the piles of money some self-publishers are making with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, and dream about the day you can join their ranks. Just imagine relaxing on the beach during a hot sunny day, slowly enjoying your piña colada, while a gentle sea breeze passes through. Gosh, it feels like you are in heaven!

No more day to day grind, hours upon hours working on a job you hate, and often taking crap from your asshole boss or coworkers.

Instead, you are your boss, running a business that makes money non-stop while you sleep, go on vacations like a money machine. Does this sound too good to be true? Well, think again…

 

Still, sounds too good to be true? Well, it’s the reality for many publishers out there, and it could also be yours. Just like you, they started from nowhere and became someone. But, wait, wait, let’s rewind a bit and go back to the beginning.

At this point, you probably don’t even know what the heck is Kindle Publishing? Or why this is one of the best online businesses for beginners?

Well, then you are in the right place! Because today, we are about to dive deep into the land of Kindle fortune. In this, “Self-Publishing Crash course,” you are about to discover…

• The exact strategies I use and many other top publishers to choose highly profitable book titles
• How to craft book titles and descriptions that sell your books more than ice-cream in a hot Summer day
• How to crush your competition by providing the best book content in the market
• How to get irresistible cover designs for an affordable price
• And much more…

What Is The Main Purpose Of This Self-Publishing Guide?

I decided to create this course with two ideas in mind:

• To help newbies publish their first book in Amazon. Yes, this means you should take action upon what you learn here.
• To help you and others make their first money online.

Watch My Kindle Publishing Video Course 2020

 

Frequently Asked Questions About Self-Publishing

I am going to reply to several concerns many newbies have before they dive into KDP. Unfortunately, sometimes these concerns stop them dead on their tracks, such as:

1 – Why Should I Publish Non-Fiction Books?

Why publish only non-fiction books? Why not become the next best selling novelist overshadowing the success of Fifty Shades of Grey? Here are the reasons:

1 – I have a ghostwriter team writing my books. The fact is readers who enjoy reading novels like reading big ass books. The problem with this is lengthier books cost more to produce.

2 – Novels require creative writers, and for this reason, they are more expensive. On the contrary, there is nothing new under the sun with non-fiction books. These writers only need to know how to explain their technical knowledge concisely

3 – The fiction book market is extremely competitive. Every single day, new novels are appearing in the market. So for readers to notice your book over thousands of other ones, it’s an uphill battle. On the other hand, with non-fiction books, there are hundreds of profitable niches. You can enter into one of them and enjoy a delicious slice of the cake.

2 – Do I Need To Write My Books?

No, and yes, it’s up to you! In case you have decent writing skills and prefer to write your books, then go ahead; Or probably, you don’t have enough money to pay for writers, cough, cough. But don’t feel ashamed, I began this way, and eventually, I started making enough money to pay for my first books. Let’s quickly talk about the pros and cons:

Writing Your Books

• Completely free: You only need to have the willingness to write and a KDP account
• Time-consuming: Writing a book may take a month or more
• Hard to quickly scale up your business: In the time it takes for you to write one book, my ghostwriters already wrote three or more books. As you can imagine, I have the potential of making three or more times money than you.
• Writing about boring topics: your preferred hobbies and professional expertise probably aren’t profitable topics. For this reason, you may need to write about things you don’t enjoy and understand; because your customers are the ones who buy your books. A business isn’t about you, but instead, about your customers.

Ghostwriters Team

• Not free: Well, let’s say, nobody likes to work for free
• Saves times: Often, it takes 20 to 30 days for a ghostwriter to write a book.  In the meanwhile, you can use this time to focus on something else.
• Write about any topics: Ghostwriters write about any topic you could imagine.

So the question is, do you have money or not? If yes, then I suggest you order your books from a ghostwriter company. Otherwise, write your books, but the main thing is to start somewhere, rather than wait under a palm tree expecting money to fall out of the sky.

2 – How Much Investment Do I Need For Self-Publishing?

I always tell new publishers to start with at least $1.000. Of course, if you can invest more money then great! I also suggest getting a high-quality online course later down the road or even now, like Audiobook Income Academy (AIA). This course explains everything more in-depth, helping you quickly build a profitable book business.

Click here to get more information about AIA.

3 –  Do I Need To Build A Website, YouTube Channel, Email Listing?

Nope, for this reason, this is one of the best online businesses for beginners. Since you don’t need to waste months without end learning about: building a website, search engine optimization, paid ads, and one-hundred other things. Instead, your only concern should be to publish books on Amazon proficiently. All the rest is covered, such as the toughest part for most businesses, which is to attract customers.

In this case, you already have millions of hungry customers searching for products on the most reputable eCommerce website in the world.

4 – Can You Quickly Make Money From Self-Publishing?

Yes, after you published a book, you can make your first money online nearly overnight because you already have customers seeking books on Amazon. On the contrary, if you built a website, it would take months until you had your first customers.

5 – How Much Money Can You Make Selling Books On Amazon?

The amount of money you make depends entirely on you. I guess you already know this, but this is a real business and not a quick money scheme. For this reason, it takes time and dedication. An estimate after six or more months of publishing is about $5.000 per month with about 20 or more books.

I already saw all sorts of crazy results, such as publishers making around $8.000 with only four books—other ones, earning more than $10.000 after only 3 or 4 months. I can’t give you an exact estimate because it depends on many factors.

One common aspect among these publishers, they were extremely dedicated. In other words, they were laser-focused on trying to master their Kindle publishing skills. Usually, many newbies splatter their focus all over the place, rather than focusing on one business until they succeed, such as they want to build an eCommerce website, YouTube channel, and learn advertisement.

In the end, they make little money and become the jack of all trades and master of none. My suggestion, you should focus on one business at the time, until you are making a buttload of money, then and only then, you may venture to another one.

How Does Self-Publishing Work?

By enrolling into Kindle Direct Publishing program, it allows you to self-publish books on Amazon. For example:

As you may see, this is a list of book results appearing whenever someone searches, “Yoga for Beginners” in the Kindle store. Assuming you published a related book, then it could appear here listed. If customers found your book, then probably they would buy it. In return, you would earn a 70% royalty for each sale.

So the primary way to make a crazy amount of money is by publishing multiple profitable books.

3 Most Common Book Formats For Self-Publishers

You should squeeze every single penny from each published book. Thus, you should publish each book as an e-book, paperback, and audiobook; This provides three different streams of income from a single book. Although, you will publish your e-books in Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and audiobooks in ACX. Both platforms belong to Amazon.

After a few days of publishing your audiobook, it will get listed on Amazon and Audible.com.

How Much Does It Cost To Self-Publish A Book?

A book cost may vary between $300 to $700. This cost depends on several factors, such as:

1 – Ghostwriter Company: Some companies are more expensive than other ones. Often you pay for every 100 words between $1.5 on the lower end and $3 on the higher end.

2 – Book length: A more lengthy book costs more to produce.

3 – Covers design: You may pay between $5 up to $50 depending on where you get your cover done.

How Long Should Your Non-Fiction Book Be?

The length of your book depends on the niche. For cookbooks and children’s books, you can get away with only 15.000 (about 100 pages) or fewer words. But, for niches, which requires books with more depth like “real estate,” then at least 30.000 words (about 200 pages). Otherwise, you may run the risk of having butt hurt customers complaining about the shortness of your books. Also, this way, you can maximize your profits with audiobooks. For example:

An audiobook only an hour-long makes less money compared to one with 3 hours of content. The price of your audiobook depends on its length, and ACX defines it.

Although short cookbooks and children’s books work well because they sell poorly as audios, did you ever see someone listening to a recipe book? Hmm… probably never! Also, parents often read children’s books as bedtime stories or kids read them. Thus, the content should be simplistic and have compelling images.

STEP 1) How To Create A KDP Account?

1 – Click here to go to KDP

2 – Sign up

3 – Create Your KDP Account

4 – Follow the next steps provided by Amazon.

STEP 2) How To Create an ACX Account?

On this website, you can find people to narrate your book.

What Are The Requirements To Open An Account On ACX?

• You must reside inside of the US, United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland.
• You must be at least 18 years old.
• For more information, click here.

Now, if you don’t reside in one of those countries, then what should you do? You have two solutions:

1- Publish your audiobooks in the Author’s Republic. This platform is a less popular alternative to ACX. In other words, don’t expect to make as much money. But, you may start this way before you decide to pass to the next step.

2 – Form a C-Corp LLC (Limited Liability Company) in the US. Although you may form a company in another country, I strongly suggest the US because they have fewer bureaucracies.

Why Not Just Publish Your Audiobooks On Author’s Republic?

Well, Audible.com is like the cream of the crop since it’s the most reputable audiobook platform online. For this reason, you can easily make more money selling your audiobooks there than on the Author’s Republic. But if you are on a tight budget, or you simply want to get your feet wet without sweating your pants off, then jump ahead into Author’s Republic. It’s always better than nothing!

 

STEP 3) How To Find Insanely Profitable Kindle Keywords?

Now things are about to get smoking hot! I’m about to explain my secret method to find money-making keywords (book titles) quickly. The fact is keyword research is one of the most critical steps. It all starts here! If you fail here, then all the rest goes mayhem.

For instance, let’s assume you chose a shitty book title, or you could say one which isn’t profitable, then it’s game over. No matter how fantastic your cover looks, description, content, nobody will purchase your book; because people aren’t seeking this content on Amazon.

 

What Is Kindle Keyword Research?

Amazon has a unique search engine. This system helps customers quickly search for the products they want on the platform.

Afterward, you get a listing of 20 book results in the Kindle Store.

 

You could also refer a keyword as a search term or book title. In the case above, “Yoga for beginners” is what we call a keyword. Other examples: Yoga, Meditation, Martial Arts, Paleo Diet, etc.

A Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is the listing of relevant products that customers are seeking in Amazon. However, the books in this listing are ranking based on an algorithm, which is a formula with several ranking factors secretly kept by Amazon. These factors determine where each book and other items should rank in the SERP. Although publishers don’t understand precisely this formula, we still know one of the most important ranking factors is the number of sales. Thus, the more a book sells, the better it ranks in the SERP.

Do you know what Amazon likes? Money! So, when they notice a product is selling well, they increase its exposure to make it sell even better. In other words, they put this product right in front of their customers’ eyes.

 

I must remind you, most customers often purchase the first 5 to 6 books ranked in the SERP. The majority of people buy the first few visible books listed, in this case: “Yoga for Beginners: Simple Yoga Poses to…”

The rule of thumb is: the lower a book ranks in the results page, the less it usually sells. Besides, customers rarely go to the second, third, etc. page of results. Therefore, books listed on other pages make less or no money.

However, there are exceptions to the rule, as I am about to show in the image below. In this situation, the first ranked book is selling worse than the second one. I know this based in the Paid in Kindle Store. The first book has a ranking of 397k, while the second one, 63k. The lower the ranking, the more a book is selling on Amazon.

But now you maybe think, but Jordan just said, this and that, hush wait! Just look at what happens after a week…

Did you notice the difference? The book ranking before in the second place is now ranking in the first place because it’s outselling the other one.

Not All Kindle Keywords Are Created Equally

As you may probably imagine or not, you have more customers monthly searching for “Yoga For Beginners” compared to “Cannabis.” In other words, if you wrote a book about Cannabis, then there is a high probability it would sell poorly. Also, I don’t suggest publishing a book about Yoga for Beginners. Although a book about this would be profitable, the problem is the massive amount of competition. For this reason, you must choose your battles wisely.

I am about to explain how you can find profitable book titles with lower competition. But first, we must talk about the tools you should have in your arsenal.

What Are The Best Kindle Keyword Tools?

I like to keep things simple and fast, so I use these tools to help me out:

DS Amazon Quick View: This browser application is free, and once installed, it displays below each book its sales rank (Paid in Kindle Store). Just click here to install DS Amazon into your browser.

 

Kindle Spy: I love this tool! This browser application provides all the necessary data in a single compact window.

This information helps you quickly analyze a keyword’s profitability and competitiveness. As you may see, once I click on the small KDSpy button, this window instantly opens up, showing the first 20 book titles, number of pages, book price, estimate monthly sales, estimate monthly revenue, number of reviews, and sales rank.

Oh, let’s not forget the best part, Kindle Spy is only a one-time payment of just $47. Besides, their team is continuously updating their software with new features. If you want to learn more details about this browser app, then check my full guide here.

Otherwise, if you prefer not to waste time and immediately download this tool, then click here.

What Is The Sleek Method?

I am about to share with you my formula to find extremely profitable keywords. The main idea is to search for profitable keywords with below-average to average competition. This method is called “The Sleek Method.” I didn’t invent this strategy. Instead, I  learn this from the “Audiobook Income Academy(AIA)” publishing course.

If you are dead serious about this business, and my guess is you are, otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this guide. Just click here to learn more about this online course.

Let’s Start…

Just follow the next steps:

• Open your browser in incognito mode.
• Go to the KDP Best Seller Store and click on “e-books” in the left sidebar.
• Click on non-fiction

---

---

Now you may see a wide variety of different categories or niches from Arts&Photography down to Travel. In each one of these categories, you may find their respective top 100 best sellers. We need to dig these categories to find profitable keywords. But don’t worry, I about to explain how you can do this process.

• Open Audible.com. You should have both windows side-by-side. Later, you are going to need both to analyze your keywords.
• Click Here to get your keyword analyzes spreadsheet. Open this file either using Microsoft Office, or its free alternative, WPS Office

I Don’t Know Where The Hell I Should Start?

Which category (niche) should I choose? Shit, there’s so many of them! Well, you can either start by selecting a preferred category, such as one of your hobbies, business, or career skills. Otherwise, just stick to the categories already proven to make money; this includes:

Top 5 Best Categories (Niches)

• Business & Investing
• Computers & Technology
• Health, Fitness & Dieting
• Self-Help
• Parenting  & Relationships

Scrapping For Keywords

After you chose a niche, now it is time for you to separate gold from the dirt. I picked the self-help category, and here are its top 100 books:

Just scroll down and analyze each book title searching for keywords. Or combine two or more words, which makes sense.

Keywords found: Empath.

Keywords found: Improve memory, minimize stress, increase productivity, and boost happiness. Perhaps, you can produce a book about each keyword.

Keywords found: Self-Acceptance and Fearless Living and probably, Imperfectionist and Perfectionism. I didn’t highlight these keywords because I don’t think customers are searching for them.

Just scroll down and see each books’ title and write down its keywords into your spreadsheet. You should rinse and repeat this process until you have about 100 keywords.

How To Find Average Sales Rank (BSR)?

You want the average sales rank to be around 200.000. If this number is lower then better, this means most books are profitable on the front page of results. Otherwise, if the BSR is beyond 300.000, then just skip to the next keyword.

Go ahead and search for one of your previously scrapped keywords. Afterward, open Kindle Spy and remove books with a 0 sales rank and irrelevant ones, for example, a cookbook appearing on the “Yoga for beginners” results page. For this, click over the small checkbox on the right side of each book’s Sales Rank. Now just copy and paste the “Avg. Sales Rank” into your spreadsheet.

 

So far, so good! This keyword seems profitable since the BSR is below 300k.

How To Find The Number of Books With The Sales Rank Lower Or Equal To 30K?

Just count the number of books below 30k in the SERP. Ideally, this number should be between 3 to 5; This indicates there’s a good possibility of your book hitting a home run.

I count four books below 30k. Afterward, I just write this number into my spreadsheet.

Okay, there is no question in my mind about the profitability of this keyword. So let’s pass to the next step, I’m going to analyze its competitiveness. Note, if the keyword isn’t profitable, then don’t waste time checking the rest. For example, your keyword has an average BSR of 900.000 and zero books with about 30k Paid Rank.

How To Find Nº Audios?

Simply check the number of results listed.

In my case, I have 185 results, and now I write this number into my spreadsheet. This number should be between 1 to 300 results. Although, if you only have 1 to 5 results, this might be because your keyword isn’t profitable. Otherwise, there would be more competition. I mean, you always want to have some competitors but not an overwhelming amount.

How To Find Nº Reviews?

Just count the number of books with 100 or more reviews in Audible.

After scrolling down, I found seven books with 100 or more reviews. For this, I often want to have between 0 to 6. In this case, “Yoga for Beginners” may be too competitive, especially for newbies. A more experienced publisher may stand a chance by smartly publishing the right content, cover,  title, etc.

However, for beginners, simply stick to a lesser competitive keyword.

At this point, we know, “Yoga for beginners” is profitable and has a decent amount of competition.

Great stuff, now you know how the Sleek Method works! Just go ahead and rinse and repeat the same process for all of your scrapped keywords. In the end, select the most profitable ones from your list and pass to the next step.

STEP 4) How To Get A High-Quality Book?

Now it’s time for you to order your first book. Often publishers complain about receiving generic and boring content from their ghostwriters. Yes, sometimes you get poor writers, but in most cases, the publishers are the ones at fault. They are lazy with their outline and provide something broad, leaving the rest up the writer’s imagination, and guess what happens? Well, writers take the lazy route too! So they slap together a book with content freely on the web.

As a result, they publish another generic book and end up with angry customers leaving negative reviews, saying, “- This book is a pile of garbage! I could have easily searched this info online!” or, “- Get a life a**hole!”

For this reason, you must provide a high-quality outline so that writers may produce a book with unique content.

How To Outline A Non-Fiction Book?

The simplest method is to research your competitors’ comments section. Their customers provide everything you need for your books, such as what they didn’t like? Or, liked? What was missing? How their book helped them? Therefore, you don’t need to spend hours researching blogs or forums, etc. Just follow the next steps.

1 – Search for your main keyword in the Kindle store

2 – Choose a book published by an author. You can easily see this by the number of reviews. If a book has beyond 100 reviews, then most likely it belongs to an author. Click on the number of reviews to go to that book’s comment section.

 

3 – You may start by reading the 5-star reviews, then go down to 4, 3, and 2. Often I don’t waste time reading 1-star reviews because most people leaving those usually don’t provide insightful comments. Sometimes, it looks like they just woke up feeling like shit from last night’s hangover or something.

4 – From the 5 to 3-star reviews, you may often see what customers enjoyed, and the required content for your book. Also, sometimes you may find some complaints or what people felt was missing. The 2-star reviews are usually from readers who didn’t enjoy several aspects of that book. Just write down in a blank notepad all these details. The idea is to provide an improved version of this book. Or sometimes, a book solving a more specific problem about this topic.

5 – The amount of information customers leave is outstanding! You should write an outline replying to several factors, such as:

• What are the main problems readers are facing?
• What are the best solutions to their problems?
• What are the things they didn’t enjoy about this book?
• How can I provide a better book?

Do this until you have a notepad full of details for your newest book. I also suggest you check the review section from other popular books.

I also like to open their book preview and check their table of content.

Here I get an idea of the essential information for my book.

STEP 5) How To Order Your First Kindle Book?

The ghostwriter company I prefer to use is “Urban Writers.” This company isn’t the cheapest one on the market. But, the content they produce surpasses other ones I tried in the past. Besides, they are professional and reliably provide your content in time.

Just click here and give them a try. Also make sure to use the following 5% discount coupon code: JA5

Once there, head over to their writing services.

What Package Should You Choose In Urban Writers?

For starters, you want to reduce your initial costs. Thus, I suggest you choose the “Rising Package.” These writers aren’t as skilled as with other packages. However, they still get the job done and provide exceptional content.  I already experimented with different packages and didn’t notice a huge difference except in my pocket. I always use mostly the Rising Package or Urban Package nowadays.

What Length Should Be Your Non-Fiction Book?

On this page, select the number of words you want for your book, depending on your competition and niche. For instance, if your competitors’ books all have 300 or more pages, then probably a book with only 80 pages won’t succeed. Because for a better explanation of their theme, these books require more content.

In some cases, you may get away with a shorter book trying to solve a more specific problem or with a different twist. Although, if you want to maximize your profits with audiobooks, then you must have at least 30.000-word books. Let’s take a closer look…

Shorter book (About 15K): these books make less money as audiobooks. Sometimes, you may receive negative comments from customers complaining about their length. On the other hand, you drastically reduce their costs. A great solution if you are in a tight budget or a beginner wanting to get your feet wet.

Longer books (30K and beyond): these books make more money as audiobooks, and customers usually prefer them. On the negative side, they are more expensive, and if shit hits the fan, you immediately lose more money.

After this, choose the appropriate niche for your book in Urban Writers. The content title should be your main keyword, in my case, “Yoga for beginners,” then add an en enticing subtitle.

I won’t go much in detail about how to craft a great subtitle. Although, don’t worry because you may edit yours before you publish your book on Amazon. Still, here are a few hints:

My subtitle: 30 Essential Poses to Help You Relieve Stress and Anxiety Under 15 Minutes

I’m not saying my subtitle is ideal! Since I would need to better research my customers. Anyway, I’d like to point out a few things, such as:

1. I provide a listing, as most readers love them, “30 Essential Poses.”
2. Explain the benefits your customers will obtain from your book, “Relieve Stress and Anxiety.”
3.  Quick exercises, “under 15 minutes”. Most people nowadays have a busy lifestyle, so they don’t have much time. Although I imagine most people have at least 15 minutes per day to practice helpful exercises.
4. I use numbers because readers can more quickly understand, “30 and 15” rather than “Thirty and Fifty.”

 

Add your author name or a pen name. I don’t use my name for my ghostwritten books, since I didn’t write them. I recommend having a different pen name for each niche.

You may want to add a basic book description. A good one should entice readers to buy your book. In my experience, writers aren’t good copywriters. For this reason, they often write a poor description, usually reviewing your book. Instead, it should be a sales pitch. Afterward, simply upload your outline and add to the cart and take the next steps to order your first book.

STEP 6) How To Get A Best Selling Book Description?

Just head over to Fiverr.com. On this website, you may outsource all types of jobs for only $5 or a bit more. Once there, search for “Kindle Description.”

Choose two or more gigs from the listing. I often do this and then select the best description from the bunch. From there on, I start using the same person for my newest books.

Another thing you may do is ask them to provide a more enticing book subtitle; Usually, they do this service for an extra cost. Also, don’t underestimate the cheapness of these gigs. Not always, but some of these copywriters provide highly effective book descriptions.

STEP 7) How To Get A Best Selling Book Cover Design?

I don’t suggest you make your book covers. Only if you have excellent skills using Photoshop and a good understanding of what makes a cover sell effectively, such as: using color contrast, images, choosing the right font family for your title and subtitle.

I instead use the services from either Urban Writers or Fiveer.com.

How To Order A Cover In Urban Writers?

Just follow the next steps inside of Urban Writers.

 

Just fill the necessary information. Now for the type of cover you prefer, you should search for your primary keyword on Amazon.

Afterward, choose two to three covers from the best selling books and use them as examples. One of the reasons these books are selling like hotcakes is due to their cover.

Of course, this isn’t always the situation, and you should be careful! For instance, sometimes authors get away with shitty cover designs and still sell bullocks because they are popular. Although nobody knows you and therefore, you should take advantage of everything from having a great description, titles, content, and cover.

But sometimes you have to be careful because your competitors may have terrible designs. The solution is to search for another niche related keyword and see if you can find better examples.

For instance, the covers for real estate suck peanuts, then see the ones for accounting. Perhaps, you’ll find two or more eye candy designs.

Anyway, choose two to three covers and copy and paste their links into the details on the Urban Writers page. Also, provide a few extra tips, and there you go!

How To Order A Book Cover In Fiver?

Although you may find a cheaper designer in Fiverr, they may also lack quality. Just search for “Kindle Cover” and buy two to three gigs from different designers. From the covers you receive, choose the best one for your book and use the same designer for later covers.

 

STEP 8) How To Get Reviews For Your Kindle Book?

Reviews are critical! Just imagine going to a book without reviews, would you purchase it? Perhaps not! Most readers think the same way; they see a book with 100 reviews and another one without and immediately buy the one with feedback.

See, having a great cover, description, excellent content, and all the nine yards is great! But still, without reviews, your book won’t sell well.

But the question is, how can you get reviews? Well, what you are about to hear isn’t the most pleasant surprise. However, I hope you appreciate my honesty.

The easiest method is to hire someone to this task, aka virtual assistant in “Upwork.” Is this legit? Nope! Is this something to show to your parents to make them proud of you? Hmm… nope!

However, it is what it is, and this is what I do to get reviews. I pay someone to get non-legit book reviews. Your virtual assistant leaves a comment on their book, and the other virtual assistant leaves one in yours. At the moment, I am trying different strategies, but I still consider this one the easiest for beginners. Note, this doesn’t mean your book is garbage! You should always provide the best content possible.

The problem as a beginner is you don’t have an audience of readers ready to eat your books like crackers. For this reason, you should hire someone to get book reviews. Later on, you may start building an email list of subscribers who will leave legit reviews in your newest books.

How To Hire a Virtual Assistant In Upwork?

Just sign up for a new account in Upwork.com.

Post a new job in Upwork’s dashboard and follow the next described steps:

You may use the following job title or a similar one. I don’t explain the details of my job, but the right virtual assistants will understand the requirements.

Once you post your job, soon you’ll receive candidates. Here’s what you should ask them.

• How much for each review? It should be about $1.5 per review.
• Check their profile and see if they have similar jobs completed. Also, their success rate is essential.
• Be careful, and don’t believe everything they tell you. Often virtual assistants want you to think they are the best thing since sliced bread. Thus, you should adequately analyze their profile and not take their word.

For more information about how much to pay your virtual assistants, click here.

How Many Book Reviews Do I Need?

In terms of getting reviews, you have two steps.

• Paid Reviews: Once you publish your book, you should set your price at $0.99. I suggest your virtual assistant get between 20 to 25 reviews. You should maintain this price for the next 3 to 5 days and then pass to the free promotion. But before, ask your virtual assistant if he has completed the review swaps.
• Free Reviews: Enroll your book in the KDP program and schedule the 5-day free book promotion. On this step, your virtual assistant should obtain about 20 or more reviews.

In most cases, a total of 40 to 50 reviews is usually enough.

STEP 9) How To Publish A Kindle Book On Amazon?

Enter into your Kindle Publishing account and click on “Kindle e-book.”

Book title: should be your primary keyword.

Subtitle: is the title briefly explaining the content of your book.

Series Information: This is only required if you are planning to make a book series.

Author: is your pen name or author-name

Contributors: this may be your pen name, author name or any other book contributors

Description: is your book description. Possibly, the one you got from Fiverr or another source.

What Are These Keywords Blank Spaces?

You can optimize your book for other relevant keywords. Just follow the next steps:

Step 1) Go to Amazon and write in the search box your main keyword and other relevant ones. As you may see below, I get new keyword ideas from things customers are searching on Amazon. In case, you don’t see any suggestion appearing then add a space after your main keyword (Yoga )

Also, use relevant keywords. In my case, this could be meditation, breathing, etc.

Another way to find keywords is by writing down the name of the most popular authors. Often readers search for their name whenever they want to purchase their book. As a result, your manuscript may appear listed there too.

Step 2) Write all these keywords into the blank sections. Try to fill the maximum number of characters and all of the seven spaces. Example:

What Kindle Book Categories Should I Choose?

Just choose the most logical categories for your book, and use the same options as shown below, then pass to the second page. Although, if you have a children’s book, then adjust these options accordingly.

How To Upload Your Kindle Book?

At this point, you should be on the second page of the publishing process. On this page, you need to upload all your content. I select “Digital Rights Management,” this allows readers to lend my book to other people. I find this an excellent way for readers to spread my book around freely.

Afterward, simply upload your e-book manuscript, this should be the file you received from your ghostwriters. Below, choose the second option so that you may upload your book cover.

I recommend for you to launch the book preview and go from one page to another to see if everything is formatted correctly. In case something is looking funny, then go back to your text editor and fix the problem. If you don’t know how to format your book, then watch this video here.

If everything looks great, then pass to the last page.

What Is The Best Price For A Kindle Book?

Enroll your book on KDP Select, this way you may later use the 5-day free promotion. The rest of the options are pretty straightforward. Also, make sure to choose the 35% royalty option, so you may initially price your book at $0.99. You should leave this price for the next 3 to 5 days, while your virtual assistant gets the necessary reviews. After this, set the royalty to 70% and increase the book’s price to $2.99. Usually, this is the standard price for most e-books.

Once done, then it’s time to publish your first book! Congratulations, you have done it! But wait, we still need to release our paperback.

STEP 10) How To Self Publish A Paperback On Amazon?

Once you go back to your Kindle dashboard, choose the second option, “paperback.”

Perhaps, the only option you must alter is the categories. Same as before, pick the correct ones for your book then pass to the next page.

On the next page, you want to select a free ISBN provided by Amazon. An ISBAN is an identification number for your paperback. Based on this number, bookshops, etc. can more easily find your book. Often you need to pay for an ISBAN, which may cost around 20 dollars or more. Here are the print options, I prefer to use:

About the trim size, you may either select 5×8 or 6×9. These book measurements are the standard ones.

One extra tip, don’t over-complicate this process. Sometimes new self-publishers get caught up on irrelevant aspects, such as:

• What is the best trim size? What font family should I use for my book? Does Arial font have copyrights?

Over the years, I saw countless publishers wasting their time with pointless details.

Don’t complicate things, just publish your book! After all, you must have books in the market to make money online.

Now make sure you have your book and cover formatted for paperback before you upload their files.

How To Format A Paperback?

Fortunately, I made a guide explaining how you can format your e-book to paperback. Just click below to watch my video.

In case you don’t want to waste time formatting your book, then hire someone in Fiveer.  Just search for “format paperback and choose one of the gigs.

 

I don’t suggest you format your cover if you don’t have experience with Photoshop. In case you order your cover from Urban Writers, then they should provide a Kindle and its respective paperback. Otherwise, if you got it on Fiverr, usually, you may get the paperback cover done from the same seller. On the other hand, you may search for “paperback cover” and choose one of the listed Gigs.

Once you have both files ready, then simply upload them into Amazon and launch the preview. Check all the pages and see if everything looks fine and dandy to publish.

What Is The Best Price For A Paperback?

I suggest at least $16.95 depending on the length of your book. If your book is longer, then you may increase its price to $19.95. Often one of the problems with most publishers is they price their book inexpensively. As a result, customers associate this with low-quality content, and publishers leave money on the table for others to grab. Usually, paperbacks make more money than e-books and audiobooks.

Thus, don’t price your book at $7 or $9, because you will only make about $1 to $2 in return.

Furthermore, select the expanded distribution. This way, your book will reach more readers by being distributed through bookstores, online retailers, libraries, and academic institutions. Once done, then just publish your paperback, and congratulations! After about 24 to 48 hours, if everything is alright, then your book will appear inside of the Amazon book store.

STEP 11) How Can You Get Your Book Narrated On ACX?

You must head over to ACX, which we briefly spoke about before. Once you log in, click on projects, and assert more titles.

Search for your book title or author name and select your book from the listing of results.

Choose someone to narrate and produce my audiobook option from the window popup.

Quickly read the ACX posting agreements and skip to the next page. On this page, read your book description, add your pen name or author name at “Print Copyright Owner and Audio Copyright Owner,” then the “Print Copyright Year.”

Select the best options for the type of narrators’ voice you prefer for your audiobook.

Often I had some additional comments explaining how my niche is exceptionally profitable.

Also, upload a script, this should be 2 to 3 pages of your book, then skip to the next step.

Add the book’s word count, set the territory to “world,” also exclusive distribution Audible, Amazon, and Itunes for a 40% royalty. This option increases your earnings on Amazon platforms. However, you can’t publish your audiobooks in other places. If you’d like to post them somewhere else, then select the second option.

Which option should you choose?

Pay for production: I suggest this option for profitable audiobook niches, such as self-help, business, spirituality, etc. As a result, you earn 40% royalties per sale. However, you must pay your narrator upfront.

Royalty Share: If you don’t have money, then select this option; Or, for non-profitable niches like cookbooks, some children’s non-fiction books, etc. Most readers won’t listen to these audiobooks, so paying upfront may be a waste of money. Whenever you sell an audiobook, you split your royalties with your narrator.

 

Just post your job, and after a few hours, you will start receiving your first auditions. From there, hire the narrator with the best voice.

 

 

I Want To Learn More About Kindle Publishing?

Darn! I admit that was a long-ass post, and I only touched the surface. You still have much to learn, young publisher. But hopefully, this guide has motivated you to take action. Perhaps even sparked a little dream of you one day achieving the high heavens of $10.000 per month.

But probably you are wondering, where can I learn more? How can I speed up my results like they were on steroids? And not spend months and months experiencing agonizing failures after failures. Okay, here’s the solution to enroll in Audiobook Income Academy (AIA). This video course has hours upon hours of great content. It explains all the nuances, tips, and tricks about the publishing business. Also, you can connect with like-minded individuals in their secret Facebook group. Some of these publishers are still beginners, while others are veterans earning more than $10.000 per month.

Just click here to learn more about AIA.

If you got any questions feel free to leave it right below. Thanks for reading.