Self-Publishing, from $0 to $24,000 per Month

[Funke]

Hey everyone!

I have decided that I need accountability and support, so I'm going public with my goal and hopefully it will have some kind of effect on me, more pressure and motivation.

$24,000 monthly is my goal for F.U. money and I want to have it with the end of this year.
After 2 years of fighting, failing, learning and creating stability inside my brain I got to the point where I "understand" myself and what I should do to produce results.
I tested a lof of things including blowing money on innovation startup, different workshops and trainings, and I was trying different businesses which got me into debt of $10,000.


$800 / month - cost of living right now (all of my bills, including debt payments)
$770 earned last month (February) from books, not including expenses

March should bring me $1000+ with my 21 non-fiction books already published on KDP and Createspace. I should have more freedom with each payment from Amazon that comes from now on. I will also start tracking expenses for the business much more, as I have been a bit of careless with my investments and testing marketing options/courses around me, though I learned a thing or two with each.

My estimation is that 400 books should give me the $24,000 monthly, however I believe that with proper quality, backend, affiliate marketing and list building behind those books, 200 books under multiple pen names should be enough.



As you can see my idea is to go for quantity, with that I always try to find 20/80 marketing solutions and small quality things which matter but don't require much time. I am outsourcing the business as much as I can afford it.

I want to do updates on my progress every week (think fridays) or more often. I also want to set up a blog and publish posts with my progress in different places/groups. I want to explore different non-fiction niches, as well as try some fiction and books for kids. I want to try to translate books to different languages and explore foreign Amazon markets.

Hopefully I will manage to do it all before book business dies and then I will diversify the income with other projects.

Regards,
Tom

 

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[Paulina]

Fingers crossed, you know you have my support

 

[EricZ]

Awesome - you alread earned 770$! That's more than most can say.
Did you earn that all on KDP?
There are some great authors here - ChickenHawk, Aimee, Giroud, check out their threads.
As far as Ebooks go, I have seen two major trends or differences.
1.) Authors that publish books, and series of books, to maximize their income through "just authoring".
2.) More businesslike entrepreneurs where the book is only 1 part of their product palette. Quite often the books is only a lead magnet (free) to funnel the customers to their UPsell - videos or online courses etc.

Could you give us a breakdown of how you got to 770$?

E.

 

[eliquid]

I've been curious about all the self publishing threads on this forum.

It's cool to see you have 21 books done. I'd like to pick some people's brain about this. IDK if I could write 21-50 books and publish them, but I'd like to write maybe 5 and see how they do.

 

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[princephoenix]

I wish you luck my friend, you're well on your way!

 

[snowbank]

My estimation is that 400 books should give me the $24,000 monthly, however I believe that with proper quality, backend, affiliate marketing and list building behind those books, 200 books under multiple pen names should be enough.

why not just write 1, really good book?

Hopefully I will manage to do it all before book business dies

fwiw the book business won't die. the low quality book business will die.

$24,000 monthly is my goal for F.U. money

It's not FU money if the income stream disappears.


Just be careful as the route you're going is the same as throwing up 400+ affiliate sites and spamming them with SEO back when it was "hot" to do so. Just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean it's a good idea. The real money isn't made jumping into what's "hot", it's finding a great opportunity that isn't "hot" yet.

View yourself as an investment manager of your life. Right now you're jumping into a declining stock and going all in.

This doesn't mean it's "wrong", it's whatever is best for you. If that stock has unbelievable dividends and you understand the reason for those high dividends is because of the high probability of the stock going bust, and you're cool with it, then I am rooting for you. Just wanted to take a minute to share my thoughts as I feel many people picture a very different long term result than what the reality of it will be.

 

[Funke]

Did you earn that all on KDP?

KDP and Createspace, 1/4 of book sales are paperbacks. I would like to create audiobooks as well, but I need to research options and costs.

As far as Ebooks go, I have seen two major trends or differences.
1.) Authors that publish books, and series of books, to maximize their income through "just authoring".
2.) More businesslike entrepreneurs where the book is only 1 part of their product palette. Quite often the books is only a lead magnet (free) to funnel the customers to their UPsell - videos or online courses etc.

I am going for both. Trying to maximize profits through books and I use them as funnels to build email lists. I have gathered around 150+ emails but haven't send them anything yet, apart from the "magnet".

Could you give us a breakdown of how you got to 770$?

All of those books have been outsourced for $1-$1.25 per 100 words. Same for covers $5-$15 each. I've done most of the marketing myself and then outsourced a few things (and overpayed here and there).
Production cost me around $2600, I got it all back and now it earns

 

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[Funke]

why not just write 1, really good book?

I cannot risk that at the moment. Sadly I have no time and money to spare. I have to do what I know that works and make more of it. In other words, if I would fail with a business idea right now, I would have to do a few steps back with my life which I don't want to do. I sacrificed too much already.

fwiw the book business won't die. the low quality book business will die.

I think it won't die entirely, because you can always find your own customer out there even if the quality is lower than competition. They read a book, they get next one, and next one, and next one on the same topic, and I just need to make sure I am in that chain.
Still I am trying to do my best with the quality. Those books provide real solutions to people's problems and I am constantly learning how to get to those people.

It's not FU money if the income stream disappears.

Yup, I know. That's why in the end it will be diversified with real estate investments and other business projects that will not leverage other platforms as much. I want to milk this cash cow as much as it will be possible and have time freedom and funds to do better.
I have plenty of ideas that can and will go live later on.

Just be careful as the route you're going is the same as throwing up 400+ affiliate sites and spamming them with SEO back when it was "hot" to do so. Just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean it's a good idea. The real money isn't made jumping into what's "hot", it's finding a great opportunity that isn't "hot" yet.

View yourself as an investment manager of your life. Right now you're jumping into a declining stock and going all in.

This doesn't mean it's "wrong", it's whatever is best for you. If that stock has unbelievable dividends and you understand the reason for those high dividends is because of the high probability of the stock going bust, and you're cool with it, then I am rooting for you. Just wanted to take a minute to share my thoughts as I feel many people picture a very different long term result than what the reality of it will be.

I understand your points snowbank and I am happy that you bring that on. I keep it all in my mind and of course I have those feelings that it may suddenly end, even with Amazon getting bigger each year and improving possibilities for indie authors. Amazon can end, Internet can go offline
However, as said before, I cannot risk anymore. What I learned last year is that innovation costs time and money (I have neither), and that I should be doing what already works and let other take the risk for me. At least with my current financial status

I like blue ocean strategies, creating new exciting things that haven't been made yet - I did that and I will be doing all that next year hopefully

PS. I plan on targeting all those people jumping into what's "hot", already made few bucks doing that

 

[Polarbeans]

All of those books have been outsourced for $1-$1.25 per 100 words. Same for covers $5-$15 each.

• Can you give some advice on your outsourcing?
• Where do you look for ghostwriters?
• How is the quality of what you receive?
• How do you plan and outline your book?
• Do you outsource the whole book to 1 writer or do you spread the chapters onto different writers?
• How long is your book which earns the most in terms of revenue?
• How long is your book which earns the least in terms of revenue?
• What is your estimated ROI/book?
• How do you determine a niche to write in?
• How did you decide on non-fiction?

Hopefully I will manage to do it all before book business dies

It wont die. But the market, as it is now, will probably not last. As already pointed out it is a bit like google when people started creating niche-sites. Now the same people create 1 or 2 authority sites. Same is for books.

It is new and hip but when the dust settles readers will be more inclined to buy quality books.

With that in mind you should only write books that offers a long lasting advice or high quality content.

 

[eliquid]

Wanted to pop in here as well for sourcing the ghost writers..

Im thinking you prob used elance, fivver, oDesk, or something. Just wanted to check though.

Also, are pen names OK for non-fiction?

 

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[Sean P]

Congrats on your monthly earnings and kudos to the fact that you have already started and are already in motion with your publishing. I see that you have a bunch of questions above - here's one from me:

Do you carry out any particular form of niche or keyword research to ensure that your book sells good numbers without too much competition?

 

[Funke]

Im thinking you prob used elance, fivver, oDesk, or something. Just wanted to check though.

Yes, Im using oDesk and Elance, but also I have used writing service outside of those portals.

Also, are pen names OK for non-fiction?

Yes. You need to make sure that one author name specializes in a specific niche. It would be questioned when he/she would write on diet advice, car mechanics, gardening and forex.

Do you carry out any particular form of niche or keyword research to ensure that your book sells good numbers without too much competition?

I always make sure to target keywords that appear in Amazon's search bar when you start to write something there. Then when you see the results, there has to be books that have high Amazon bestsellers ranking. By high I mean the numbers must be as low as possible. (With that it's always good if they don't have too many reviews.) Then you know that people search for it and buy it.

Can you give some advice on your outsourcing?

Always hire people who are highly rated, ask for samples, check if they did not make mistakes in their proposal. Don't risk ghostwriters that have no portfolio.

Where do you look for ghostwriters?

oDesk, elance

How is the quality of what you receive?

It differs a lot. I've made my mistakes and I've had one book where I had to edit it a lot. I rushed it and chose a bad writer. But most of the time I just need to format and adjust a few sentences here and there.

How do you plan and outline your book?

As I have pm'ed you Just check what is there already. Make sure to aim for what people are looking for. Check table of contents and description of books that are already there. Check their negative reviews for what they missed. Search sites like Yahoo Answers or Quora.

Do you outsource the whole book to 1 writer or do you spread the chapters onto different writers?

1 author per book.

• How long is your book which earns the most in terms of revenue?

• How long is your book which earns the least in terms of revenue?

Word count does not matter. It's about the value you provide and marketing efforts. It can have 6 pages of tips that can change lives of many people Or 300 pages of BS

What is your estimated ROI/book?

I will have precise statistics on 15th of April when KDP generates report for March. There is a book that barely got the money back, but there is also one that made 300% already

How did you decide on non-fiction?

I have no idea, I think I believed that people who have problems and want to solve them will be more desperate to buy a solution. But the market is huge and there is plenty of opportunities in any category.

 

[Funke]

Looks like its more AMA than progress thread


Progress:

• Today I am updating all my Digital an Paperback editions with more links to each other. I have had that before but it's getting an update, as well as the message that invites the reader to review the book. (21/21)
• I am adding social media share buttons that can be clicked or tapped to share the book. In front, to be seen and maybe clicked when someone opens it with "Look Inside" feature. And in the back after reader reads it and would like to share it with friends.
• After all of that will be updated, I will go through all descriptions of all 21 books to check if there is something missing.
• Then I will make sure that digital copies are linked with paperbacks, some of them never got linked and looks like I lost a lot of sales because of that, I will message Createspace to do it asap.

 

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[doncruz]

Whats your main marketing strategy?
Any advice, seems Im getting stuck on that. I have 2 books published already. Not sure what way to go.

 

[Rawr]

400 books? You're working hard not smart.

 

[Funke]

400 books? You're working hard not smart.

Its couple of hours per month when automated

Whats your main marketing strategy?
Any advice, seems Im getting stuck on that. I have 2 books published already. Not sure what way to go.

You need to get reviews on them. I'm getting them during KDP free promo, I the promo for 5 days for each new book and I get people to download them for free and review (I have a VA who gets me those reviews).
Also if you manage to get lots of downloads during those 5 days, your book will get higher positions in the catalogue. Make sure you have some kind of lead magnet inside the book to get emails from people.

You can get lots of downloads by posting the book on Facebook groups (I post it in 100+ groups), and by adding it to these sites here: http://www.readersintheknow.com/list-of-book-promotion-sites (many of them will promote your book for free during the promo)

Basically leverage places with lots of readers. I've done it manually at first, later on I hired people on Fiverr to save my time, and right now I'm using this tool which does it after one click http://bit.ly/1FYx6Hl saves both time and money, at least when you have lots of books.

 

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[doncruz]

Wow! Is that what you are using! Can't thank you enough, !
I have been looking for something like this all over the internet.

 

[doncruz]

I want to do updates on my progress every week (think fridays) or more often. I also want to set up a blog and publish posts with my progress in different places/groups. I want to explore different non-fiction niches, as well as try some fiction and books for kids. I want to try to translate books to different languages and explore foreign Amazon markets.

Have you decided on what step is next?, you may have too much on your plate.

 

[Funke]

Yeah, this actually is my current problem. But I have done some thinking during last weekend and the holidays and I come up with some answers.


1. I will close my current non-fiction pen name at around ~25 books + bundles of them.

2. Then I will jump into subcategory of romance and try fiction. I don't know anything about it and how to get the best results. I was thinking of some kind of short stories that could build on each other (with a mailing list), and that would get me KU borrows.

3. I will create my site/blog, it will be about me and what I do, so publishing business will be there, but also other projects I participate in. But I will first ask around what other people think about my the concept, probably I will create a topic on this forum. I want to have my own place.

4. I want to create a membership site with my friend and I want to share my publishing knowledge, so maybe I will mix the two and there will be publishing course created ^^

5. I have also started to open a trade daily on forex. I guess I always want to do more than I am able to and then I fail with my estimates and I feel bad with it (still moving forward technically)



There is plenty of things that can be explored in publishing business that it can be overwhelming.
I have lost my focus last week. Updating all of my titles has taken much more time (I could not outsource it) than I expected and I did not feel progress - I was not happy at the end of the day, I did not feel like I have done anything to move forward.

I have to focus more on doing 20 percent of things that bring 80 percent of results Which is sometimes hard when attacked with ideas all the time.

 

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[Funke]

Updating Createspace paperbacks was a problem - they were not selling during the update, so I lost some sales. Metadata (title information) had to be modified by them.

I hope they will maintain their Amazon rankings, by being linked to isbn numbers or kdp titles.

 

[Polarbeans]

I have also started to open a trade daily on forex. I guess I always want to do more than I am able to and then I fail with my estimates and I feel bad with it (still moving forward technically)

or backwards.. I really liked your thread when you started it (ABOUT 10 FREAKING DAYS AGO!!) and now you are saying three things:

1. You are changing into a totally different sub-industry withing publishing
2. You are looking to start a membership site
3. You are starting to engaging in forex trading

Let me address this with the little knowledge that I have.

If you feel like you are getting nowhere with the non-fiction, fine, it might be good to change. After all you have 25 books up and running.

But a membership site? Already? I totally believe in the learn-as-you-go, but since you publishing is about making money, and your membership would teach (course) others to create a publishing company, and you've made $770 or so.
I would NEVER sign up to that membership site. Prove to me you can make $770/day and we can talk about it.

My point is not to be a nay-sayer or turn you down, just a wake up call.

you may have too much on your plate.

Yes, totally.

And then also forex? I've been trading forex. Heck, I've studied it on master level. I suck at it. Forex trading (in the sense to make a full time income) is not something you do on the side to make pocket change (what is really?).

You need to study methods and try strategies that will work. You need MUCH more of a mindset and a psyche to deal with heavy losses in trading. It might seem like a cool thing. It is not. You will make money, you could make a LOT of it in fact. But you will also lose a heck of a lot if you haven't tried it before.

If I were you, I would keep grinding that non-f/fiction niche of yours, start scaling it. See where it gets you in a years time.

Then, in time, you can teach others about how to make money. If you want to teach, there are plenty of other ways to do so, and niches where teaching is more or equally lucrative to making-money-online.

 

[Funke]

I understand your points, thank you for the feedback.

ABOUT 10 FREAKING DAYS AGO!!

I've been with my family half of that time because of the easter holidays. I missed a lot of family meetings for last few months because I was working instead.


1. I've traded on forex before, last year, and there is something in it that I like, probably those green numbers
I have a strategy that gives steady income every month (and it gave for the last few years) so I don't see a reason not to use it (and I did use it before). Its 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening. Still the point with it is to create following on eToro, trading platform where people copy your trades and you get passive profits for it.
You can even trade only for 12 days a year, during nonfarm payrolls and get great profits. It's not a waste of time, I made 20% last friday.


2. The point with membership/course is to monetize my knowledge. I have coached three people already for free and they make steady profits. I've seen people who know less than I do and they teach. I tried many courses to learn something new and there was nothing I could learn from them, yet they still made their profit because there are plenty of authors who have no idea where to start.

You are changing into a totally different sub-industry withing publishing

Not changing, expanding I want to know more, I want to test more, and to be more efficient.


Again thank you for the feedback, thats what I hoped when creating this thread (a food for thought, reality checks).
If in any point of time I will feel more passion towards something else, I will do it. But right now the main goal is still the main goal and will/should take 80% of my worktime.


Edit: Also I think people here will benefit when I provide real results and comparison between my fiction and non-fiction experiences

 

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[Rawr]

http://ellecasey.com/who-wins-in-the-race-to-the-bottom/



A RACE TO THE BOTTOM
Last, I’m going to send out a dire warning to the entire book-reading community. I hope I’m wrong about all of this, but I’m pretty sure I’m not. I’ve been an indie author for almost 3 years now, with several bestsellers and lots of time spent studying the numbers. I see lots of changes coming very fast that I think will end up hurting us all, writers and readers alike.

Amazon, a company I love to work with and respect very highly, has engaged in a race to the bottom of ebook pricing with several other online retailers and subscription service providers. As a result of their campaign to offer the lowest prices anywhere, the average price of books has gradually gone lower and lower, to the point now that many readers expect all books to be 99¢ or free.

Is this good for readers? On the surface, sure. It’s awesome. You can now buy ten books instead of just one. What could possibly be wrong with that? Well, let me tell you…

Have you noticed that the quality of the books has gone down while the quantity has gone up? Because I sure have. And I’ll tell you why I think that’s happening, and why it’s happening at a very accelerated pace right now:

Amazon has this new deal, where if an author joins their subscription service with a 99¢ book, and someone who subscribes to that service downloads that book, the author will earn $2.00 in royalties.

Say whaaaat? Yes, it’s true. You’ll have to ask the number-crunchers how this equates into a good idea financially for Amazon (who incidentally sells a lot more than just books, so if you save money on books, I guess you have more money to buy other products from Amazon, right? — so they don’t necessarily lose out) but for now, let’s just forget their profitability. Let’s look at the authors involved.

If you’re a writer of quality material, you’re generally not writing 99¢ books, unless they’re just serials or short-stories or on a special promotion (like first book in a series, or temporary sale to increase readership). A good writer can get $4.99 or more for her work without too much trouble, and that’s a fair price: $4.99 for many hours of entertainment is way cheaper than a 2-hour movie.

But a writer who can’t write well or who is happy writing little short stories can churn out all kinds of stuff at 99¢ and then make a killing with this new Amazon deal. All they need is a download, not even a full reading of the book!

Did you know that great authors, people with thousands of genuine 5-star reviews, are talking about taking full novels and breaking them up into pieces and selling them at 99¢ per piece so they can continue to earn a fair royalty? Yeah. That’s how bad it’s gotten. Authors who want to continue to be authors have to be survivors too. When Amazon does something like this, we have to adapt, and unfortunately, everyone loses (everyone but Amazon, actually).

So what kind of material are YOU seeing online? Have you seen quality go down and quantity go up? Do you find it harder and harder to find books you like? If you answered YES, well, you’re not alone. That’s all about the race to the bottom.

Think about it: If you pay 99¢ or less for a book and it sucks, you don’t get too bent out of shape over it. You move on. But if you pay $4.99 for a book and it sucks, well, you definitely have something to say about that. So when books are priced higher, writers have to respond by either upping their game and writing quality material or stopping writing altogether. Bad writing at $4.99 is not a sustainable model. Bad writing at 99¢ is. We’re seeing that now, thanks to Amazon.

So I’m asking you this: which is better for the readers? A glut of crappy books that may or may not be worth what you pay for them, or a system of pay that rewards good writing and punishes bad writing?

I’m no finance wizard, but I AM a voracious reader, and I can tell you right now I’d rather spend $5 on one awesome book than 99¢, 5 times on 5 crappy books that pay some not-so-talented writers $10. Call me crazy.

I’m going to (finally) finish this piece by saying that I LOVE AMAZON. Without Amazon, I wouldn’t be living as a writer. Amazon has changed not only my life but the book-reading experience forever, and mostly in a very good way. And the people who work there are always coming up with new things to improve the customer experience. Sometimes they get it really right, and sometimes they get it really wrong, but at least they’re trying.

But, it’s important to remember that Amazon is not a person; it’s a business — a business struggling to remain profitable. Amazon knows that to be the #1 online retailer, it needs sales. Sales of ANYTHING, not just books. So if books become a loss-leader for them, where they basically give them away for free or it costs them money to “sell” them, but consumers spend more time on the site and buy more things, they’ll do that. I think this race to the bottom is a very short-sighted plan, causing good writers to disappear, but hey, like I said, I’m no finance wiz. All I know is that as my income drops, I have to come up with a plan for myself and my readers that will keep me writing and them buying my books."

 

[Charnell]

Amazon has this new deal, where if an author joins their subscription service with a 99¢ book, and someone who subscribes to that service downloads that book, the author will earn $2.00 in royalties.

I know you are linking to a blog post, but I'm super curious where I can sign up for that $2 royalty on a $.99 book.

Everything in that post was spot on, minus those two slip-ups which ruin credibility. I know exactly what she's talking about (borrows), but they haven't been $2 since like...May of last year, before Kindle Unlimited was released.

 

[doncruz]

A RACE TO THE BOTTOM???

It all boils down to adaptation, that little word has lots of implications, we are living in a very unique time in history
and every aspect of our lives its been impacted by how fast technology is changing.

So either we adapt or die trying to keep living as if nothing has changed.
Same thing for business, were is the vinyl disc? kodak? and many others who didnt see it coming?.
Mp3´s, Netflix, drones, digital cameras, 3d printing, holographic tv, How old is Amazon itself?
Self pubbers are not only embracing change, but riding it.

 

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[Polarbeans]

I’m no finance wizard, but I AM a voracious reader, and I can tell you right now I’d rather spend $5 on one awesome book than 99¢, 5 times on 5 crappy books that pay some not-so-talented writers $10. Call me crazy.

Neither are you nor your post crazy. It make perfect sense to me. From my stand point Amazon, and online publishing is facing a consolidation in a near future.

--- Why do I think this?
Amazon and many other publishing platforms has long been around and provided a no-entry for aspiring indie writers who yearn for fame and virtue. But exactly as @Rawr mentions this is not something that can go on forever.

A consolidation means that big players capture larger portions of a market, or even the majority of the market to make it more difficult for smaller players to get in. Hence increasing the "no-entry." This will result in an increasing number of writers who will go out of business faster due to the fact that they do not produce good enough quality to sustain a proper business (they where riding the money train).

A consolidation happens if a market is saturated, however books, or scripts has been around for thousands of years and is unlikely to go away, ever. But poor quality has never been sustainable. If you think about it. Can you mention a famous book from the past that is absolutely crap or regurgitated bullshit? A pretty hard task to do. The majority of what is remembered through history is quality work. Not saying always positive, but quality in a sense that it was of high performance with the intentions it had.

• So, if you are an established business on Amazon or another publishing platform, you are probably looking at a solidification of your business. I.e. if you put in the time you might look at a more stable business for yourself in a near future.
• If you know you publish poor content, perhaps this is the time to think about where you want to be in the future. If the market consolidates and the demand for volume disappears you might find yourself out of business.

This happens because of market trends and cycles between those that consolidated out of the market place and are moving on to the next opportunity. It will eventually be harder for new players to enter the market as the needs for entry will rise and those who already have market shares will solidify their positions and push away smaller players. As with any market.

--- The next big thing
When the market consolidates, a lot of actors on the market usually look for the next big thing. The next wild west. It does not mean it is a new hot idea. Just a way to look at a current market in a different way. ‘losers’ in the economic market swing over to a different channel.

There will be a lot of money to be made from online publishing in many years to come, even though it will experience a consolidation and a swing to other hotter markets from time to time (it goes in cycles). It will endure.

However, poor quality DOES NOT survive a market consolidation, or a downward cycle. When online publishing cycle down, poor quality will be filtered out at a rapid rate and it will crush those in for the quick buck.

There is a period where people are fighting for the opportunity on the new channel, which means opportunities open up on the old channel.

Need a real life example? Search for:
Lehman Brothers
Enron

--- Cost of Poor Quality

"Quality is never an accident, it is always the result of an intelligent effort"​

A manufacturing company had annual sales of $250 million. Its quality department calculated the total cost of repair, rework, scrap, service calls, warranty claims and write-offs from obsolete finished goods. This aggregated cost, called Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ), amounted to 20% of their annual sales. A 20% COPQ implied that during one day of each five-day workweek, the entire company spent its time and effort making scrap, which represented a loss of approximately $ 100,000 per day.

Once a quality problem has been identified, the first step is to initiate an investigation and to properly identify the root cause of the problem. After the root cause has been identified, you create a Corrective Action. In this case it can mean to fire a poor writer, invest more money in better book covers etc.

By the way, you do have metrics in your business, yes?
​

--- Consolidation and the consumer
Consolidation, is something very good. In fact it's like washing your dirty hands to see them become clean and nice.

It is needed. It brings health to a market and the economy. Out with the crap and make way for new and fresh. The consumer is the biggest winner in long-term. Because those with good customer support and service, a health price level and good quality will stay and strengthen their positions. A customer can trust in their seller if it stick around through a consolidation because this means the business can survive "bad times."

--- Your business (should) be your future

In order to compete you have to be more strategic about how you approach your customers, how you treat them, and in the quality and pricing of your products. What this means for someone who is an Amazon entrepreneur is that you can’t just tinker around and treat this as a side project anymore. If you want to compete on a channel that has consolidated, you have to take it seriously, run it like a real business, and think like a real company, otherwise you will get consolidated out.

--- How to best prepare for a consolidation

• Know your market. Who are the leaders, where do they play and how well?
• Know your organization, strengths and weaknesses.
• Be prepared to look for new market shares.
• Know the customers in your category. What are their values? What are they asking for, and what are their emerging needs?
• Can you offer supporting products to your existing ones?
• What are the growth opportunities?
• What are the costs/benefits?

These are just some bullets to illustrate. As you can tell this is pretty straight forward and common sense. Measure what you do, act upon it, be proactive and you'll be fine.

 

[Polarbeans]

I've traded on forex before

I draw the wrong conclusion. Sorry you got me

2. The point with membership/course is to monetize my knowledge. I have coached three people already for free and they make steady profits. I've seen people who know less than I do and they teach. I tried many courses to learn something new and there was nothing I could learn from them, yet they still made their profit because there are plenty of authors who have no idea where to start.

Sure thing, as long as your intention is not to teach them how to pump out hundreds of short books..but quality.

Not changing, expanding

I like the way you think! well put

 

[Funke]

Update! Amazon has published reports.

Here is my number for March: +$1162,77 (KDP + CS) 21 books

I think April may also be over $1000, going well even tho I have had some paperbacks unpublished for a few days because of the updates.



As for the progress:

- I have ordered 5 fiction romance short stories and 1 non-fiction book.
I wanted to do 20 books per month, but I cannot afford that sadly, so I do what I can for now, and use my time elsewhere.

- I have also started bundling books that I have into 2s. Created two bundles two days ago and already 2 copies has been sold without any promotion. When I do a free promo and get some reviews it should be a nice additional value for the same writing work.

- I have ressurected (with my friend) a project from previous year, http://qlore.com/ a search engine.

- I have done A LOT of brainstorming. This sucks because I don't feel well when I spent time on thinking and I do not see physical results, but this thinking time is as important as other actions, as it can save a lot of time. Still I cannot sometimes accept it as being important. I want to move faster.

 

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[Mattie]

I read one book that just dark right ticked me off. Speaking of taking chapters out of books, they just stopped the story right in the middle of the book and and gave it free and said buy the rest of the story. I didn't buy it, because why should I keep buying and buying to finish one story. It pushes you to go to the books of more value that the whole story is there.

 

[Charnell]

gave it free and said buy the rest of the story.

So did you read a sample/preview/demo that was disguised as a story, or a sample/preview/demo that was given for free to see if you were interested in finishing?