<div class="bbWrapper">Hey all!<br />
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This is a quick tale of the last week of my life which I used to take an idea from my head, create a book out of it, and publish it on the Kindle Store in one week. Before we dive into the fun stuff in this post, I just want to clarify that I didn't invent this process. Rather it's something I pieced together with the help of some quick googling, and a good few posts from the intelligent people of this forum. I achieved a big goal last night, and I have you all to thank for it.<br />
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On February 7th, I decided that I wanted to create something, predominantly, to help my girlfriend. There were a great number of ways that an improved, healthy, driven mindset could benefit her on the regular basis, and I needed some vehicle by which I could help her attain that. I have spent the last six years of my life dedicated to furthering myself into a strong headspace, and thanks to the likes of men like our own MJ, I made it happen for myself. Now - I wanted to replicate that success in her.<br />
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She's not one for my lecturing (it's gotten me in trouble before!) However, she loves to read so I thought - why not a book?<br />
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February 7th, I opened a new account and created my first document with <a href="https://www.mindmup.com/" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener">MindMup</a>, a freemium mind mapping software that can be integrated with Google Drive. I set a timer for two minutes, and I created the outline of what the contents of the book would be - just thinking off the top of my head. This was the first step of the process, and reminded me of a number of tools that I would actually later include in the book itself.<br />
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After I created the outline, I thought that my girlfriend may not be the only one to benefit from this book. After a bit of digging, I found <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/here-is-my-step-by-step-method-to-make-money-on-amazon-kindle.67455/" class="link link--internal">this post</a> from <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/17604/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="17604" data-username="@alpha1987">@alpha1987</a> which detailed the process of finding a niche on Amazon. I was very surprised to find that the phrase "Organize Yourself" headed less that 150 results on the Kindle Store! With this in mind I scribbled down the clunky working title of "Maestro: Organize Yourself Like A Champion" and gave myself a deadline. I knew of Parkinson's Law, and I knew that it would take me the exact amount of time I gave myself to complete this book. With that in mind, I set my deadline for the next week. I would be finished on Valentine's Day.<br />
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Thus began the writing process. Though very early on, I started to get concerned that I wasn't moving fast enough! My typing speed is so slow, and it's very easy for me to lose my train of thought whilst writing. Cue the thought process: <i>there must be a better way!</i> And sure enough, there is. <br />
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I pulled out my phone and opened up the Voice Memos app. I noticed that I had performed better at articulating my thoughts if I was speaking, rather than typing. So I simply spoke the book out into my phone, and deleted a few apps to hold the few hours of audio it would turn out to be. Armed with my outline, I went bubble by bubble by bubble simply giving my two cents on each little topic that I had planned out - every now and then adding another sub-chapter that I had forgotten about earlier!<br />
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Then, post-recording, I had to turn that audio into words. What I had was an audiobook with bad recording quality. What I wanted, was an ebook. Initially I thought of outsourcing the transcription somewhere else, or simply biting and paying for the transcription, then I remembered <i>that's right - I'm a broke college student! </i>If I could've paid for a VA to transcribe my book, I would've bought groceries instead. Then, when there's a will there's a way, someone had turned my attention to VoiceBase - an enterprise transcription software typically used to keep text records of sales calls. And most importantly - they let me host <i>50 hours of audio for free </i>just for signing up! That's a LOT of book I can convert!<br />
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So I went and popped in my audio. The process was quicker than I had expected it to be, with the full transcription being available within the hour. Though what I was given, of course, was a big wall of dry and shapeless text. I spent the better part of the next two days editing. Picking the font I wanted, setting up a table of contents, a dedications page, all of that.<br />
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Then, finally, I was ready to publish! Luckily, I had had unexplored ambitions of writing an ebook last year, and began the process of having Amazon verify my tax information. If you're looking at day one - go ahead and set up your Kindle Direct Publishing (kdp) account first. I set my niches, uploaded my manuscript, gave some keywords and a brief description of the book, and - oh yeah, I need a cover!<br />
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I simply went to Google and started searching for cover designs of some of my favorite books. Quickly popping one into Photoshop, I did enough rudimentary editing to make it my own and display my title, and uploaded it into the Maestro section of my KDP account.<br />
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Then, Amazon took about 60 seconds to sync everything and display to me a preview of what my book would look like - (I forgot to mention - I did all of the editing in Google Drive. Upon completion, simply title your document appropriately and save it as a .docx file, Amazon will convert it to the appropriate filetype for you.) Then I was on to pricing!<br />
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Amazon has two tiers for pricing your ebook: If you wish to earn a 75% commission on sales for your book, it must be priced between $2.99 and $9.99<br />
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Any price outside of that range, and you will default back to a 35% commission standpoint.<br />
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I chose the 35% commission, and am currently selling my book on the Kindle Store for $0.99 This in hopes that it will lead more people to buy early on, and leave some good reviews. After a month or two, I'm going to raise the price up to $3.99 and take the 75% option.<br />
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Now - I'm off to make my book known! My friends are starting to pick it up - often without me having to coerce them to do so. It really is a great feeling that I hope you get to experience for yourself.<br />
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If you have any questions, comments, or hate mail, drop it here! <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-smile2.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" /></div>
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