Giving everything I've got into ebook publishing

[Ziva]

Anyway, I suppose it's someone trying to make money, and I suppose people buy it, or don't buy it, but to tell you the truth, I can tell when someone doesn't write themselves. lol It's just very obvious. Maybe I'm just hitting the bad one's I don't know. I just know it's standing out when I read.

Hey Mattie, Thanks for the input. I also have read some TERRIBLE ebooks. I agree, you can tell when non-fiction books have been outsourced and they definitely lack heart and soul.

I only publish fiction. I have outsourced writers who write stories for me and I edit them personally, putting my own energy into them. I add some content, change descriptive wording, and edit for flow. I feel that what I do is way different from someone who is publishing copied and pasted articles in non-fiction niches, trying to appear as "experts".

If you don't mind me asking, what niche do you publish in?

Thanks.

 

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[Mattie]

Right now, Poetry, Relationship guidance, and self-awareness. Thinking about short stories it's been something I've been told to get into by the professor back home from him reading my poetry. I do have a novel, but I'm saving that until I get an editor and haven't figured out whether I want to use crowd funding or submit to a publisher, or self-publish. I figure this just prepares me for the big one. Helps with the fan base, and from being on Hubpages, I know other people liked me because I am a diversified writer. I don't aim for one genre and niche. I try to learn it all, and shift from different writing styles.

 

[Ziva]

I had a productive week with 3 new publications ( 2 new books and one "bundle"). My sales have really escalated in the past week, which has been awesome and really motivating. My results are confirmation for me that my process is working and that I am providing something with these books that people are finding valuable, useful, or entertaining. I do the exact same set of actions for each new ebook, and I will continue to do so to keep getting these great results.

My daily sales (paid units and KU downloads combined) since last Sunday have ranged between 92 and 168 (that was my total for today... woot! new record!). I keep reassessing my goals that I have set because I keep reaching them earlier than anticipated. Not a bad problem to have!.. haha.

In my last post I stated that I wanted to change my daily average goal from 100 per day to 150 sales per day. I am at an average off 109 daily sales so far for the month of October, so I think I will reach my new goal by the end of this month.

I've attached my month to date sales dashboard for you all to check out.

This week I will publish 3 more books and I will get everything set up to start collecting emails for a mailing list, which I have been putting off for too long.

Ready to take on another week!

 

[Mattie]

Are you marketing, or advertising? Or just going by people finding the book on Kindle?

 

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[Ziva]

Are you marketing, or advertising? Or just going by people finding the book on Kindle?

Hi Mattie. No, I don't do any marketing or advertising at all. I just run a free promo on every book shortly after it's published and I have all of my books listed in a section in the back of every book.

 

[HardWorker]

Do you publish all the stories under the same pen name? or different ones? And are the stories in a series or all stand alone?

 

[Ziva]

Do you publish all the stories under the same pen name? or different ones? And are the stories in a series or all stand alone?

Most of the stories are under a single pen name, but I do have a couple under another one. I have two series, one with three books and the other with four. The rest of my books are stand alone.

 

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[Ziva]

The past week has been frought with delays setbacks, and challenges for me. Something peculiar happened on Friday morning when I noticed that close to half of my books lost their excellent keyword rankings, and were either far into several pages of the keyword results or I couldn't find them at all. I emailed KDP and they assured me everything was normal. Very strange.

This disappearance of several of my books from their top spots in keyword searches also coincided with my sales that day and every day since being about half of what they were recently. For example, with KU borrows and paid units combined, on Thursday I had 110 downloads. On Friday I only had 54 and they have ranged between 44 and 67 since then. Bummer...

So, after feeling extremely frustrated and not knowing exactly why this has occurred, I've decided all I can do is keep on keeping on. Another set back i had last week was that all of the writers I had writing stories were delayed in submitting them to me, so I had nothing new to publish last week. However, I now have four ready to be edited and another 3 being written, so I'll have another 3 published this week.

I am seriously at a loss for why my books "disappeared" from the search results. I checked if they were maybe flagged as "adult" and they were not. I'm unhappy with the response I've received from Amazon about this. This is my livelihood and I take it very seriously. If anyone has any clue as to why this might have happened, please let me know. I have my theories, but I really have no clue. As usual, I've posted a screen shot since the beginning of last week so you can check out what's going on.

Anyhow, back to work! I'll continue to keep you posted on my progress.

 

[Selfy]

I'm running the same model as you, Ziva, even our time frame and amount of books are similar. Although I have not popped the 100 mark.

Question: how do you evaluate the key word ranking of your books?

Regarding decline. I also had a decline at around the same time. I question if maybe adding more books is not the answer, but something else. Maybe there's a saturation level? Maybe timing releases in multiple niches is that answer?

I do hope you continue this path. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Ziva]

Question: how do you evaluate the key word ranking of your books?

Many of my books are in the first few results for some of their keywords. I take note of these keywords and regularly check to see if they have kept their position in those keyword searches.

My last few weeks have not been very productive. That hit in sales that happened mid-October really took the wind out of my sails and I realize now more than ever that my expectations, attitude, and discipline are the biggest determining factors for my productivity and my success.

My average daily number of downloads since October 16th (when the drop happened) is 53, which is still pretty awesome. I hadn't published anything new until this week. I published one new one a couple of days ago. I am working on editing another two right now, and will have them published in the next few days. I have eight more stories waiting to be edited and published, so those will keep me busy for a while.

Onward and upward!

 

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[Hicks]

hi, any updates? curious to see what happened after the keyword ranking changed. great thread btw.

 

[Ziva]

hi, any updates? curious to see what happened after the keyword ranking changed. great thread btw.

Hey All! I've been MIA for a while from here so I thought I'd post about my progress.

I've been super busy and focused, dedicating all of my open time to this business. I've substantially cutback on the time I put into my other business (slowlane) so I can maximize the potential of my Kindle publishing biz.

I had a setback in October, when my sales drastically dropped overnight. After a few weeks of trying to figure out why, I realized my categories were off and working against me, so I changed them and my sales rebounded. Yay!

Fastforward to now - I'm definitely on track to my goal of selling 200 ebooks per day (approximately $10,000 per month) by the end of December. My average daily downloads for the past week were 154 ebooks.

I'm on my way!

 

[Cybria]

Awesome...this is very inspiring. Will be back to read the rest of your post.

 

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[Polarbeans]

@Ziva Do you mind to post your keyword research method?

This is very inspirational and a great thread with a lot of good tips and tricks!

 

[Peakdesire]

Awesome thread! Your doing great, keep going!

I'm also getting into self-publishing and starting out with non-fiction, I already have a niche selected and I know what book I'm going to publish, now I just need to find me a great writer...

Could you give a few tips for a new self-publisher? Like some things to definitely do and some things to avoid?

Thanks! I will surely follow your progress, it's motivating!

 

[Sean P]

Great thread, keep up the good work!

Your decision to change over from non-fiction to fiction was the turning point for you. I guess writing fiction is much more lucrative than creating non-fiction books. However, those new to publishing may like to create non-fiction books first to get a hang of it and put some books out there before they try their hand at fiction.

 

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[Ziva]

Happy belated New Year everyone! I've been keeping productive with my process and haven't checked in here for a while. Thought I'd post an update.

I reached my goal for Dec.31, 2014! For the month of December I made approximately $10,620 CAD. My goal was to be making $10,000 per month by Dec. 31st. I've attached my sales dashboard.

The best lessons I've learned are to stay commited to process. Also, think big and aim high. Take massive action, more than you think is possible even if you don't feel ready. Also, write down your goals and visit them a couple of times per day along with what specific actions you are taking to reach them.

I'm going to keep continuing on executing my plan and process. 2015 will be a good one!

 

[Deon]

Happy belated New Year everyone! I've been keeping productive with my process and haven't checked in here for a while. Thought I'd post an update.

I reached my goal for Dec.31, 2014! For the month of December I made approximately $10,620 CAD. My goal was to be making $10,000 per month by Dec. 31st. I've attached my sales dashboard.

The best lessons I've learned are to stay commited to process. Also, think big and aim high. Take massive action, more than you think is possible even if you don't feel ready. Also, write down your goals and visit them a couple of times per day along with what specific actions you are taking to reach them.

I'm going to keep continuing on executing my plan and process. 2015 will be a good one!

Awesome! Congrats

 

[Peakdesire]

Happy belated New Year everyone! I've been keeping productive with my process and haven't checked in here for a while. Thought I'd post an update.

I reached my goal for Dec.31, 2014! For the month of December I made approximately $10,620 CAD. My goal was to be making $10,000 per month by Dec. 31st. I've attached my sales dashboard.

The best lessons I've learned are to stay commited to process. Also, think big and aim high. Take massive action, more than you think is possible even if you don't feel ready. Also, write down your goals and visit them a couple of times per day along with what specific actions you are taking to reach them.

I'm going to keep continuing on executing my plan and process. 2015 will be a good one!

Holy crap that's awesome! Congratz man.

I have the same goal to reach by december 2015!

 

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[Cyberseraph]

I reached my goal for Dec.31, 2014! For the month of December I made approximately $10,620 CAD. My goal was to be making $10,000 per month by Dec. 31st. I've attached my sales dashboard.

Congratulation to your success! 2015 will be a first six figure year for you

What is the average sales price for your books? And how many books published so far?

 

[Ziva]

Holy crap that's awesome! Congratz man.

I have the same goal to reach by december 2015!

Holy crap that's awesome! Congratz man.

Ahem.... Woman

Thanks!

 

[Ziva]

Congratulation to your success! 2015 will be a first six figure year for you

What is the average sales price for your books? And how many books published so far?

Thanks! 2015 is looking great for you too! My books are all $2.99. I have about 100 books published. Most of my income comes from KU borrows. I'm considering increasing the prices of my books potentially increase borrows. What is your pricing strategy? How many books do you have now? I'm still also considering translating my books into German

 

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[Peakdesire]

Ahem.... Woman

Thanks!

Oh. Sorry

Any tips for new publishers? something you would have done differently from the get go or some tips? Would be greatly appreciated

 

[Ziva]

Hey All,

I thought I'd post an update since it's been a while. February was my best month yet. Using the KU borrow rate from the month prior, I estimate that my income from Kindle publishing for February was $12,500 CAD. My process is getting stronger and more stream-lined and effective. I'm learning more and more what's working and what's not working. Whatever is working I repeat over and over again.

I have been able to completely let go of my "slowlane" business. I still teach a couple of yoga classes per week that I really enjoy, but in no way do I have to teach for financial reasons anymore.

I'm so grateful to @MJ DeMarco for writing Millionaire Fastlane . When I read it for the second time last summer, it was what really ignited a fire in me to seize the opportunity sitting right in front of me and take massive action. I am now grateful everyday for the freedom and space I have in my life now, and the options it has created for myself and my family.

Any tips for new publishers? something you would have done differently from the get go or some tips? Would be greatly appreciated

To answer this question, clear goal setting and writing out exactly what you need to do step by step to achieve that goal has been critical for me. I am now working with goals in 3 month blocks, so the next goal I'm working toward is for March 31st (I set the goal beginning of January). Everyday I decide on critical outcomes for that day that need to be done to bring me closer to my goal. I also write out my goal a few times per day in the present tense, feeling in my body, mind and heart WHY this goal is important to me. I also sacrifice something in the present to reap rewards in the future. For example, this next month I am comitting to 3 hours of uninterrupted work every day in order to reach my goal at the end of the month. This will mean giving up sleeping in or some leisure time to get to where I want to be. My goal for March 31st is to be selling 575 ebooks per day (paid units and KU borrows combined).

I'm thrilled that I'm having a record sales day today! So far I am at 344 downloads today (Paid units and KU borrows combined). Every week I'm inching closer to my goal

 

[Cyberseraph]

February was my best month yet. Using the KU borrow rate from the month prior, I estimate that my income from Kindle publishing for February was $12,500 CAD. My process is getting stronger and more stream-lined and effective. I'm learning more and more what's working and what's not working. Whatever is working I repeat over and over again.

Ziva,
I am so happy for you, congratulations!!!

 

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[Durete]

This is a very inspirational thread.

Concratz to the success ziva,
Few questions:

- How do you choose your writers? Any tips for starters?
- How do you handle legal things such as copyright, ISBN etc.
- How do you handle taxes? Is it income tax, or did you set up a business and is it corporate tax+income tax etc?
- Did you start outsourcing editing?
- I see that you're mainly focussing on KU, have you tried different channels instead of just focussing on Kindle?

Hope to hear from you.

 

[Empire]

Yeh this is such a cool thread!
I really needed to see this because I started self-publishing back in 2012 but never really scaled it properly.
Now, this year I am back with a vengence and just like you I have decided to attack the fiction market in pretty much the same genre as you.

I started a Progress Thread too which you can see here:
Self-Publishing Road To 4 Figures A Month

So far I am having trouble finding good ghostwriters for my books.....that don't charge an arm and a leg!
Unlike you, I do not have experience as a writer so I am not sure I have the skills to "edit" my books as you do with yours.

Having said that it would be great if you had any advice to share reagrding your editting process and whether a non-writer like me can follow the same process.

I am very pleased that your hard work is paying off. I think you have the perfect mindset which is something I definately need to work on to help improve my selp-publishing goals.
Great work and thanks for sharing!!

 

[Peakdesire]

Hey All,

I thought I'd post an update since it's been a while. February was my best month yet. Using the KU borrow rate from the month prior, I estimate that my income from Kindle publishing for February was $12,500 CAD. My process is getting stronger and more stream-lined and effective. I'm learning more and more what's working and what's not working. Whatever is working I repeat over and over again.

I have been able to completely let go of my "slowlane" business. I still teach a couple of yoga classes per week that I really enjoy, but in no way do I have to teach for financial reasons anymore.

I'm so grateful to @MJ DeMarco for writing Millionaire Fastlane . When I read it for the second time last summer, it was what really ignited a fire in me to seize the opportunity sitting right in front of me and take massive action. I am now grateful everyday for the freedom and space I have in my life now, and the options it has created for myself and my family.


To answer this question, clear goal setting and writing out exactly what you need to do step by step to achieve that goal has been critical for me. I am now working with goals in 3 month blocks, so the next goal I'm working toward is for March 31st (I set the goal beginning of January). Everyday I decide on critical outcomes for that day that need to be done to bring me closer to my goal. I also write out my goal a few times per day in the present tense, feeling in my body, mind and heart WHY this goal is important to me. I also sacrifice something in the present to reap rewards in the future. For example, this next month I am comitting to 3 hours of uninterrupted work every day in order to reach my goal at the end of the month. This will mean giving up sleeping in or some leisure time to get to where I want to be. My goal for March 31st is to be selling 575 ebooks per day (paid units and KU borrows combined).

I'm thrilled that I'm having a record sales day today! So far I am at 344 downloads today (Paid units and KU borrows combined). Every week I'm inching closer to my goal

Thank you so much!

Check your inbox

 

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[Timbonitus]

Really awesome progress. I have always been interested in writing eBooks but I never put much effort into it. I still do some freelance writing for random clients from time to time, if you need someone to help with the writing, maybe I can help. I wrote a eBook for myself awhile ago, turned out to be around 12,000 words long, fun project, I gave it away to build a list for a month or two, and then scrapped it.

Any tips on eBook research? How long on average are your Kindle books?

 

[Ziva]

It has certainly been a while! I have been really focused on growing my publishing business and related activities the past few months I kind of abandoned this progress thread. I thought I'd return for an update that might encourage and inspire people here who are on their own journey to freedom.

I now consider myself to be financially free. What does that mean to me? That means no longer having to answer to anyone else in anyway with regards to how I spend my time and that the passive income I've created sufficiently covers my financial needs.

As far as income from my publishing goes, I earned around $19,600 in March, $19,200 in April, and around $22,500 in May. It's looking like June will shape up similar to May, hopefully a little more.

However, my income has expanded even more due to opportunities that came up for me to develop a consulting business related to self-publishing, which has increased my income substantially. In June alone I've made around $40,000 or so from this consulting business.

I'm now expanding into another online venture that will be a whole new progress thread. It's amazing how once abundance starts flowing, it continues to expand and new doors are continually opening.

I'm often asked what are the most important factors that contributed to my success. Here are some tips:

• Set specific goals. "I want to make more money" won't get you anywhere. Decide on a specific amount of money you want to be earning per month and by what date (i like 3 month goals) and revisit that goal daily. Write it out at least once a day in the present tense. Get clarity on the process you need to commit to to get to that goal.
• Take inspired action early. Don't wait until everything feels "right". Get busy taking imperfect but massive action and inevitable failing occasionally so you can learn and progress. Be grateful for failures and challenges. They are symptoms of impending success.
• Connect with other like-minded people who are on a similar journey to you. Create a mastermind where you connect with a small group weekly for a video call. Focus on acknowledging successes, brainstorming on how to overcome challenges, and accountability. Even better, find an accountability partner that you can talk to daily for 10 minutes or so and share with each other your gratitudes, successes from the day before, critical outcomes for the current day, and state your goal. Do this everyday and watch what happens. Super powerful stuff!

Thanks to @GlobalWealth for encouraging me to get back to this progress thread. I'll get in the habit of posting here more regularly. Also, please ask me questions you may have about Kindle Publishing, as I want to contribute something of value to this community