Saturday 6 July 2019

Getting Started with Book Publishing through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing

getting started with Amazon kindle direct publishing

There are some basic things you need to know about book publishing through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) as a Nigerian who is new to digital publishing. The following questions and answer approach will help you to quickly familiarize yourself with most of these things.


On What it will Cost to Publish My Book through Amazon KDP

On the aspect of Amazon KDP, it will cost you nothing to publish your books through them. As they earn a percentage of each sales of your book just like you will earn royalties which is also a percentage of each sales of your book. These are the basic steps involved in book publishing through Amazon:

  • Write the book
  • Typeset the book in Microsoft Word.
  • Format the book's manuscript to eBook publishing standard. And if you want to publish it as KDP print (paperback) it has to be formatted to KDP print standard too.
  • Design eBook cover for it, and if applicable, a paperback cover too.
  • Create a publishing account with Amazon KDP. Click here to do that now.
  • Login to your account KDP and publish it.

Note that the areas you will need to spend a bit is in formatting your manuscript to Amazon KDP publishing standard and in designing book cover for it. We can offer you affordable services in this respect. If you are interested, check out our Publishing Services page here.


On Target Audience

If you have a particular audience in mind, write your books such that that particular audience expectation will be met. This will determine the choice of words, scenes, and settings you will use in the book. If you are targeting a global audience, that is anyone anywhere in the world should be interested in it, write your books in such a way that the audience you have in mind is a universal one.

On Formatting

Once you have completed the manuscript of your book, you will need to typeset it using Microsoft Word and then format the manuscript to Amazon KDP publishing standard. You can check out our Publishing Services page here if you want us to help format your manuscript.


On Cover Design

You will need to design book cover for your book before going ahead to publish it on Amazon kindle direct publishing. You can a picture you want as part of the cover so that you can create a custom and unique book cover for your book. You can also check out our Publishing Services page here if you want us to help design book cover for your book.


On Free eBook Promotion

You can set your published book’s price to $0 so that interested readers can download it for free during the days you made it free and thereby publicizing your author brand. To do this, click on the "Promote and Advertise" button to the right of the book on your bookshelf. Select the option button on "Free book Promotion" and click the orange button there to start the free promotion by following through the processes to setup the free promotion.


On Countdown Deal Promotion

You can reduce your published book’s price so that interested readers can buy it at a cheaper price during the days you put it on a “Countdown Deal” Promotion and thereby publicizing your author brand while still making some money. To do this, click on the "Promote and Advertise" button to the right of the book on your bookshelf. Select the option button on "Countdown Deal Promotion" and click the orange button there to start the Countdown Deal Promotion by following through the processes to setup the Countdown Deal promotion.

On eBook and Print (Paperback) Editions

The following are things you need to know about book edition as you plan to publish your book through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.

  • There are eBook and Print (Paperback) Editions.
  • Paperback edition is the book format that will be printed and delivered to a buyer just like the textbooks or novels you are used to while the eBook will be delivered electronically to the buyer’s device (Kindle reader or phone).
  • Paperback cover has both front and back while an eBook cover is only a front.
  • It is not compulsory to publish your book in both editions. You can decide to publish it as only an eBook.

On "Kindle Edition Normalized Pages (KENP) Read" Program 

You can enroll your book in the KENP program during the publishing processes on Amazon KDP, by checking the enrollment check box on the third stage of the publishing processes. Does this affect earnings? Yes and No. Yes because it is another way readers buy books i.e those who have Amazon subscription download books enrolled in the KENP program and the authors are paid some few cents per pages read. No because this does not work for all authors or books. For example, most of my sales come from royalties from direct book sales.


On How to be a Best Selling Author

Someone asked me how he can be a "Best Selling" Author and this was my answer: Write a great book, professionally edit it, professionally format it, design a professional cover for it, and promote it using AMS (Amazon Marketing Services) or any other paid book marketing services. Guess what! If you can do these things, you will surely be glad you did.


On ISBN

If you are publishing your book as an eBook or paperback through Amazon, you don't need an ISBN as Amazon KDP will assign its own ASIN number to it in the case of an ebook and both ASIN and free ISBN in the case of a paperback book. It is only if you want to publish it as a paperback book in Nigeria here that you will need one and in that case you can ask a traditional publisher or Liberian where you can get an ISBN for your new book.

On Royalties

As for royalties, you can get 35% or 70% depending of the Llist price of the book. For list price below $2.99 you get 35% but for List price above $2.99 you get 70% but set a price that will encourage prospective buyers to take the risk and hence let it be in accordance to the worth of the book.

On Receiving Your Royalties Payment via Payoneer

You can register and open a US bank account through Payoneer with which you can receive your royalties. For more information on this, read my post on Payoneer here.

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Sunday 21 January 2018

How Nigerian Authors can Market or Promote their Books


As an independent and digitally published Nigerian author, one thing you need to pay attention to in addition to writing is "how to market your published books. The easiest and also free method that works is the use of Facebook groups. You have to join Facebook groups for book promotion and marketing. Click here to access the list of of Facebook groups that will be of great help to you. Join as many of them as possible.

But you have to get the link or url of your published books first. Once your book is successfully published, you can follow the steps to get its link: To do that, first login to your Amazon publishing account and copy the book's ASIN number and then follow these steps:
  • Login to Amazon AuthoCentral using your Amazon publishing account email and password through this link.
  • From there, click on the link "Add more books".
  • In the search box provided, paste your book's ASIN number there and click the button "GO".
  • Your book will be displayed, click the "This is my book" button under it and it will be added in to your AuthorCentral Author profile in about ten minutes to one hour later.

You can then click on the book there to go to its Amazon sales page. Once you are on its sales page, you will see its link or URL displayed on the browser URL field. Copy it from there and that is the link for your eBook which you can use to promote it on social media or your website or share it with your friends who may want to buy the book.

Note that this link is the eBook's .com URL (That is Amazon USA market). You can then edit it to the URL of the other national markets. For example, you change the .com to .co.uk for UK, .com to .ca for Canada, .com to .com.au for Australia etc.

Just write a small advert copy or just the books description and include the link of the book and then paste it in those groups. Include the fact that it is a new book.

In fact, from these groups, you will see how other authors are doing it and then take a clue from them too.

Other Standard Book marketing Methods

Another viable marketing option is the use of Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) to promote your books. Have a look at Amazon's guide on this here  and KBoards guide on it here.

Some things I think you can do to further market your books are: Creating a vibrant author brand through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. As for the print books, you can use facebook page, and offline marketing through newspapers, speech making, and giving free copies to libraries.

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Saturday 20 January 2018

New Book Project Strategies


As a Nigerian writer who is interested in self-publishing through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, there are things you need to take note of when starting a new book project. Some of these things are as follows.

  • Make sure the book idea fits a worldwide audience (since Amazon market place is suited for this purpose) not only target at Nigerian audience
  • Research the sales potential of the supposed genre of the book idea and see if it is worth it or you will need to optimize it for a different genre. To do this, search for books in that genre or sub-genre in the Amazon store and see how it is fairing in sales through it sales rank.
  • Properly outline the book's chapters and sections/scenes.
  • Research any relevant information.
  • If you have social media followers who are interested in your writing, start building sales momentum for the book by posting your writing progress on your social media outlets to carry them along.
  • Research the nature of the Book cover design and start to work on it too or hire someone who is competent to do it. You can contact us if you need this service through our services page here.
  • Plan and document the launching strategies you will use to promote/market the book. Make sure you used these strategies to give the book a good standing in sales and ranking once it is published. See our earlier post on book marketing here.

WRITING GOALS

It is very important you have writing goal(s). This is because; you will perform better when you have a desired target to attain and also because the more books you have published through amazon kindle direct publishing, the greater the chances of making daily sales since if one title does not sell, another may do. So, always have daily word count targets, monthly word count targets, and number of books to publish annually.

GENRE WRITING TIPS

Although, the techniques involved in creative writing are not constant but varies from period to period, genre to genre, and schools of thought. I will consider this topic from two broad perspectives, that is, fiction and nonfiction writing.

Fiction

The writing of fiction requires the following skills and many others.

  • Sharp and Organized imagination as this involves the creation of scenes that are predominantly abstract.
  • The ability to outline the storyline of the book.
  • The ability to create compelling and expressive characters.
  • The ability to create dialogues that flows.

Nonfiction

The writing of nonfiction requires the following skills and many others.

  • The ability to outline the storyline of the book.
  • Being a good researcher.
  • The ability to organize the products of your research.
  • The ability to creatively write the actual book in a manner that it will be informative, interesting, and give a compelling read.

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Monday 15 January 2018

Writing and Author Resources for Nigerian Authors


Writing and Self publishing requires specialized and organized knowledge. It is to this end that I created links to Stephen King's writing guides and other great writing resources for convenience and ease of access to aid Nigerian Writers and Authors in their research and writing.
  1. Stephen King’s 20 Tips for Becominga Frighteningly Good Writer  
  2. HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY SELF-PUBLISH A KINDLE EBOOK  
  3. Hugh Howey's Self-Publishing Success Story   
  4. Fiverr Book Formatting Services
  5. Book Writing Tips and Guides 
  6. 10 Ways to Write Damn Good Copy 
  7. Writer’s Block: 27 Ways to Crush It Forever  
  8. Self-publishing publishing strategies that works! 
  9. How To Self-Publish An Ebook 
  10. How to Publish an Ebook: Resources for Authors  
  11. The Three Best eBook Publishing Platforms 
  12. 7 Things the Great Copywriters Wish You Knew 
  13. The 11 Best Books on Writing I’ve Ever Read(Jerry Jenkins)
  14. 15 Top Writing Guides for Novelists
  15. How to Write a Novel: Advice for New Writers
  16. 21 Dumb Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Your First E-book
  17. How to become a Successful Independent Author
  18. Best Book Blogs to Read in 2016
  19. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing: Getting Started
  20. Author Earnings Report
  21. CreateSpace Book Cover Template
  22. CreateSpace Interior Templates
  23. Writing Tools: 60 Formidable Tools & Resources to Improve Your Writing
  24. How To Open U.S Payoneer Bank Account And Receive Online Payments Through Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) 
  25. The real costs of self-publishing (amazonauthorinsights.com)  
  26. how can the average writer make money self publishing ebooks 
  27. Introducing KDP Jumpstart: A Guide to Publishing on Amazon 
  28. 22 lessons from Stephen King on how to be a great writer 
  29. Brain Tracy 20-Step Author Quick Start Guide 
  30. JK Rowling’s 8 Rules of Writing  
  31. Five things to know before publishing your first book 

Thursday 28 December 2017

How Nigerian Authors can Publish their Books through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing


As a Nigerian writer or author who wants to take advantage of digital book publishing by publishing books through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), there are some basic things you need to know. The first being that Amazon KDP platform gives you the opportunity to publish your books in both Kindle (eBook) and Print (paperback) formats which is made available to the whole world through Amazon's national markets.

The next thing is what exactly are the activities involved on getting a book published through Amazon KDP. The following are the basic steps involved in Book publishing through Amazon KDP.

  1. Create a publishing account with Amazon KDP.
  2. Typeset your book in Microsoft Word.
  3. Format the book's manuscript to eBook publishing standard. And if you want to publish it as KDP print (paperback) it has to be formatted to KDP print standard too.
  4. Design eBook cover for the book, and if applicable, a paperback cover too.
  5. Login to your account and publish it.
  6. Note that we can offer you affordable services on points 3 and 4. If you are interested, checkout our services page here.

Another thing that I know will be of great interest to you is the nature of royalties from your books published through Amazon. There are two types of royalties that is 35% and 70% of the list price (the price you set for the book during publishing). For list price below $2.99 you get 35% but for list price above $2.99 you get 70% but make sure you set a price that will encourage prospective buyers to take the risk and hence let it be in accordance to the worth of the book. As for receiving the payment, you use make Payoneer Bank account. See my post on Payoneer here.

Book Publishing Procedures

The most important aspects of book publishing through Amazon KDP are explained below.
  • Login to your KDP account, click on "Kindle eBook" or "Paperback" depending on wether you want to publish an ebook or print book edition, and fill all the forms with the required information. Once you get to the last step where you enter the price, click publish at the bottom of that page to publish the book. Note that as for the print edition, you must first launch the previewer to "Preview" and "Approve" the book.
  • During publishing, you will be required to select two categories for the book. If it is a nonfiction book, click on Nonfiction and then select two categories under nonfiction that the book belongs to and then click the Save button. Make sure that you select appropriate categories that really relates to your book's content, genre, and intended audience.
  • During publishing, you will also be required to fill in keywords or phrases that matches your book in the 7 keywords fields provided. Note that keywords can be a single word or phrases that you think potential readers can use to search for your book on Amazon or the Internet generally. Make sure that you use appropriate keywords that really relates to your book's content and genre.

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How Nigerian Authors Can Get the Best from Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

how nigerian authors can get the best from kdp

Being a writer is a source of joy and creativity just like being a published author is a source of fulfillment and pride. But in all, being an author whose books are selling is the climax.

Thanks to digital publishing and then Amazon the Largest digital publishing platform, an author can now easily monetize his/her craft. The following are five tips that will enable a Nigerian author get the best publishing on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).

  • Write books that has the Potential of Selling: This is the most important factor. Ask yourself the question "Will I be willing to put my money on this book if it were written by another author?" Your answer to this question will help you to have a realistic value/potential of the book. If the book has information or entertainment value that will make you buy it, then others can too.
  • Properly edit and proofread it: This will further enhance its value and chances of success.
  • Properly format the content to Amazon KDP standard and design a professional cover for it: These two components are the packaging aspects of the book product. And you know the importance of packaging in sales conversion. We can offer you affordable services in this repect. If you are interested, checkout our services page here
  • Set a right and reasonable Price for it: qualify the book to know what price to set it at. Don't be greedy by thinking that you are targeting westerners and hence you have to prize high. Those people are as careful in spending as you do. To qualify it, compare it with similar books by other successful authors in your genre.
  • Promotion/Marketing: This is also very important. But as a newly published author, you can successfully use Facebook” book groups” to great advantage in marketing your books for free. Also, once you have made enough sales, you can reinvest it into the business by making use of Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) to promote your books.

Wednesday 27 December 2017

How Nigerians can Open US Payoneer Bank Account


As a Nigerian author, receiving your books royalties can be an uphill task since Amazon and other book publishing platforms don't accept Nigerian bank accounts but you can open and own U.S bank account as a non-U.S citizen through Payoneer. It is a checking account and hence you are provided with a master card which you can use on any ATM in that accepts master card. This implies that you will no longer wait to accumulate royalties or earnings from your online businesses to a certain threshold before you get paid by cheque. To register and apply for this payment solution now, click here.

How Payoneer U.S bank Account Simplified International Payment

As an author or publisher, freelancer, or an affiliate you can use this service to receive your royalties or earnings from Amazon KDP, Draft2Digital, Google AdSense, Fiverr, Upwork and many others. You can register with Payoneer now if you need an account through the link above.

How to Register and Apply For Payoneer U.S Bank Account

You can apply for the Payoneer Bank account for free through the link at the end of this write up. Once you successfully register, you will receive an email informing you of the approval.

Make sure you use your legal details same with the ones used in your online businesses account. The next email you will receive from them will contain your bank account details like (The name of the Bank, account number, routing number, and your holder name). To register and open the Payoneer bank account, click here and follow the steps below:

  • Go to Payoneer website through the link at the end of this write up.
  • Fill the form provided with the required details.
  • Make sure you use a correct P.O Box mailing address or postal code of your area, house address, email, and phone number.
  • You will receive an approval email and account details through your email soon after registration.
  • In one of the emails you will be informed that your Payoneer card have been shipped through regular mail and the expected period of delivery.
  • From experience, the regular mail delivery is good but not too effective because the expected delivery period will pass sometimes without some people receiving the card. So, in such a case login to your Payoneer account and re-order the card but ask them to ship it through expedited shipping.

How to Submit the Required Documents

After successfully opening the account and while you await the delivery of the card, it is good you login to your Payoneer account using your email and password to submit the verification documents. At the bottom of the page, click on the button that ask you to submit evidence of your online business and identity card. Properly submit these documents.

You can now go to your online business accounts and enter your Payoneer usbank details appropriately. Make sure you select EFT as pay option and checking as type of bank account.


How to Re-order Payoneer Card

If after almost two months of application your card was not delivered by regular mail, then it is good you login to your Payoneer account to re-order it and then let them deliver it through expedited shipping via DHL which will cost you $40 and the card will be delivered to you in few days. The delivery cost will be taken from your Payoneer card and that was why I advised you to enter the account details into your online businesses account so that you will start receiving payments into it.

Note: Once you decides reorder another card in place of your missing or stolen card you will be charged extra $12 on ordering for a replacement. Also, to order your card via expedited shipping once the last regular shipment period is over without getting the card, use the "contact us" button at the bottom of the page and not through the manner you applied for reorder via regular mail shipment.

How to Activate Your Payoneer Card

Once you receive your Payoneer card, the next step is to login to your account and activate it. To do this, follow these steps:

  • Login to your Payoneer account.
  • Click on the "Activate" tab at the top of the dashboard.
  • Enter the card number in the field provided for it.
  • Enter your chosen PIN in the field provided for it.
  • Confirm the PIN by entering it again in the next field.
  • Click the ok button.

Note that in case you ordered more than once before the card was Delivered, you must select the appropriate card having the 16 digit number on the one delivered to you during the activation process.

Your Payoneer card is now activated and ready for use. This image shows the successful activation confirmation message.

How to Check Account Balance or Use/ Withdraw Cash

You can check your account balance by login toyour Payoneer account or through ATM as you go to shop online with your money. You can withdraw your fund in your local currency from any ATM that accepts master card worldwide or you shop online with your money and then sell off the product if you need the cash.

How to Refer Friends To Payoneer And Get $25 Reward

Refer people to use Payoneer and both of you will get a $25 reward once the person have received a total of $1000 through his account. To register and apply for this payment solution now, click here.

How to Enter Your Payoneer usBank Account Details into Your Amazon KDP Account

The procedures for entering your Payoneer bank account details into your KDP account are described below and note that this procedure is similar to adding your Payoneer bank account to other online platforms that accepts it:

  • Login to your KDP account.
  • Scroll down to just after the tax interview and click on the "Add Bank'' link.
  • Select the country from the list which is US since Payoneer bank account is a US account.
  • Enter the bank name, account number, routing number, your name as the holder in the fields provided for them and select checking as the type of account. This will automatically be added to all the national market places.
  • Click on the + sign in front of each market place to confirm that EFT payment option is selected and also set the currency of your choice.