Kindle E-Publising. Show us the ropes?

[R. S. Leergaard]

http://forums.kindledirectpublishing.com/kdpforums/forumindex.jspa

is this what you're looking for Leergaard?


The Deposed King

Ummm. I'm not sure. 

[superpsycho]

Saw that Admiral’s Gambit was out at Amazon. Was it easier the second time around? Did you do anything different?

[Paynesgrey]

Admiral's Gambit is book two.  Just hit the electron presses today.

[The Deposed King]

Saw that Admiral’s Gambit was out at Amazon. Was it easier the second time around? Did you do anything different?

Much easier the second time around.  Since you can go back and make changes at any time to (in this case) my first book Admiral Who?  I just opened up Admiral Who like I was going to make changes.  And put it side by side with the 'new book' I was starting.  being able to see what I'd done before made things move much faster.  I just copied keywords and catagories, after some contemplation if I wanted to change from catagories,  Adventure/Space Opera to Space Opera/Military Science Fiction, I decided to just keep it the same.  I did modify one key word.  I went with Space Adventure.  Just have to see how it stacks up.

Although that said.  While it was much faster and easier, the part I had trouble with once again was when I uploaded the file.  This time I was using word, .doc, .docx, or .rtf.  didn't matter what I did.  Basically?  The amazon previewer sucks.  It shows indents that don't show up, when they convert your file.  And if I put indents in they double indented.  It was really frustrating.  Plus between converting all my files from .doc to .docx to .rtf, Word auto changed my times new roman to something else.  So when I uploaded the first file on amazon, even though the whole rest of the book was in times new roman except for the frist two sentences, the who look was auto converted into that strange style that snuck into the first two lines during all the copy and paste.

about an hour to two hours after it went live I uploaded the same file only without the funky font on those two lines, and with the indents back in.  So now the file actually looks readable but sadly, my single indent paragraphs have been magically converted into double indent paragraphs.  Not what I was intending at all and very frustrating.  I don't know how to fix it.  I'll just have to play around with it later I guess.

Anyone have any handy hints about how to just get a single indent?  Cause what they show you on the previewer and what they actually put up on amazon for people to buy?  Doesn't always match!!!



The Deposed King

[superpsycho]

Much easier the second time around.  Since you can go back and make changes at any time to (in this case) my first book Admiral Who?  I just opened up Admiral Who like I was going to make changes.  And put it side by side with the 'new book' I was starting.  being able to see what I'd done before made things move much faster.  I just copied keywords and catagories, after some contemplation if I wanted to change from catagories,  Adventure/Space Opera to Space Opera/Military Science Fiction, I decided to just keep it the same.  I did modify one key word.  I went with Space Adventure.  Just have to see how it stacks up.

Although that said.  While it was much faster and easier, the part I had trouble with once again was when I uploaded the file.  This time I was using word, .doc, .docx, or .rtf.  didn't matter what I did.  Basically?  The amazon previewer sucks.  It shows indents that don't show up, when they convert your file.  And if I put indents in they double indented.  It was really frustrating.  Plus between converting all my files from .doc to .docx to .rtf, Word auto changed my times new roman to something else.  So when I uploaded the first file on amazon, even though the whole rest of the book was in times new roman except for the frist two sentences, the who look was auto converted into that strange style that snuck into the first two lines during all the copy and paste.

about an hour to two hours after it went live I uploaded the same file only without the funky font on those two lines, and with the indents back in.  So now the file actually looks readable but sadly, my single indent paragraphs have been magically converted into double indent paragraphs.  Not what I was intending at all and very frustrating.  I don't know how to fix it.  I'll just have to play around with it later I guess.

Anyone have any handy hints about how to just get a single indent?  Cause what they show you on the previewer and what they actually put up on amazon for people to buy?  Doesn't always match!!!



The Deposed King

I'll download the new file later and take a look to see what happened. 
I created a table listing the top 900+ searches on Amazon if you're interested.

[The Deposed King]

Sure I'm interested in seeing the table.

How'd you compile it?



The Deposed King

[superpsycho]

Sure I'm interested in seeing the table.

How'd you compile it?

The Deposed King

The data is from their tag cloud on their site. It's the last post on the amazon kindle e-publishing thread on the other site.

[The Deposed King]

After looking at your list I have a question.  If I already have say Adventure in one of my two Catagories slots on amazon.  Should I also have it in my 7 keyword options?  Or should I be trying for a different one?


Thanks,


The Deposed King

[superpsycho]

After looking at your list I have a question.  If I already have say Adventure in one of my two Catagories slots on amazon.  Should I also have it in my 7 keyword options?  Or should I be trying for a different one?
Thanks,

The Deposed King

I would suspect it would be worthwhile. From what you said before, you couldn't search on Admiral Who until you listed it as a keyword. Which seems strange. It does take time for a new entry to register though. Until we know more about their code I'd just select the best keywords you can come up with, that people use most often and fits your book. Of course if sales begin to slow, you might try a different set of keywords that fit, if you can.
 
Is there a word that is in your categories that you don't have as a keyword for Admiral Who? Try searching on that word and see if the book is listed in the search results.

I did some quick tests and "Spineward Sectors" and "Wachter" searches listed your book. So I'd focus on keywords not found in the other meta tag entries. I'll do some more tests and post the results on the other site.

Here's a short list of what Amazon seems to use for tags relative to it's searches amazon keywords

[dresdenrocks]

Hi!

I just wanted to say THANKS!  I read your advice about going through the self-publishing route.  I will admit that sometimes computers work with me the same as they do with Harry.  Or, I'm a bit dim.     (You can decide).  I never did get the whole Kindle process working. 

But, that said, there was a lot of useful information in the whole self-publishing aspects.  The doctor said my eyesight should restore itself, eventually, after reading through all the legalese.

In the end, I went with Smashwords.  I got two books up and running as of yesterday and I've already gotten a few sales.  So, um, I guess I'm an professional author.  Gah, what a thought.  But, there was an unsuspecting populations lying there and I just pounced.

Anyway, thanks for the advice.  I just wanted you to know it was both useful and appreciated.

[The Deposed King]

Hi!

I just wanted to say THANKS!  I read your advice about going through the self-publishing route.  I will admit that sometimes computers work with me the same as they do with Harry.  Or, I'm a bit dim.     (You can decide).  I never did get the whole Kindle process working. 

But, that said, there was a lot of useful information in the whole self-publishing aspects.  The doctor said my eyesight should restore itself, eventually, after reading through all the legalese.

In the end, I went with Smashwords.  I got two books up and running as of yesterday and I've already gotten a few sales.  So, um, I guess I'm an professional author.  Gah, what a thought.  But, there was an unsuspecting populations lying there and I just pounced.

Anyway, thanks for the advice.  I just wanted you to know it was both useful and appreciated.

Congratulations!  Put up a link sometime so we can all see it.


have a blast!


The Deposed King

[dresdenrocks]

Okay...you asked for it.

Here are the links to the books, so any of you be so inclined.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/282162
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/283445

[The Deposed King]

Just an update.  We've started using e-pub files for uploading to amazon for the formatting issues and it now takes me about 15 minutes to upload the text and image files and fill in all the keywords, title spaces, price, etc on my books.

I'm up to 5 novels and 2 novellas.  With hopefully another novel out end of this month, beginning of next!




The Deposed King

[trboturtle]

Whithout getting into much detail, what sort of income are you seeing from your novels?

Craig

[The Deposed King]

Whithout getting into much detail, what sort of income are you seeing from your novels?

Craig

I made about 10k off of my first two books during last year.  Because of pricing I made 6/7th's of that from book 2.

About a 5 grand spike over the first two-2.5 months and then its down to residuals on the ongoing series.  Everything in the series is pumped up when a new book comes out.  It can die down to one or two books a day when nothing fresh in the series has come out in a few months but launch a new one and everything pumps up.  5+ sales per day.  I've had as high as 9-13 a day per back listed book for a month and then its the slow couple month decline down to nothing again whereupon everything bumps back with the next new release.

However my new fantasy book never got over 20's a day for sales.  So it really all depends on your reader base.



The Deposed King