Showing posts with label amazon KDP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amazon KDP. Show all posts

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.