Did you know…?
The Kindle has been the best-selling e-reader on the market for the past four years. (source)
Amazon lists over one million titles – not counting copyright-free books. (source)
As of early 2011, Amazon had over 137 million active customers worldwide. (source)
110 of 111 New York Times Bestsellers are in the Kindle Store. (source)
Amazon’s Kindle Store pays out 70% to its Direct-to-Kindle authors. (source)
Since April 2011, for every 100 print books sold on Amazon, it’s sold 105 Kindle books. (source)
So far this year, Amazon has sold more than three times as many Kindle books as last year. (source)
These statistics continue to rise. It begs the question – why aren’t you on Kindle yet? What’s holding you back from your piece of the Kindle pie?
Maybe you’re like Sarah. Sarah and I had a discussion on Facebook the other day, and she had some valid concerns about Kindle books. She said, “The issue is the technical problems of formatting the book properly for the Kindle with TOC, images and tables that are readable, etc. Authors and coaches don’t tend to have that level of technical expertise so they just upload from a Word document and then get reviews saying ‘Don’t buy the Kindle version!’ which is counterproductive to their intentions.” And you know what? She’s absolutely RIGHT!
The #1 primary concern I hear about getting a book on the Kindle, besides writing and selling it, is how to make it look good. Amazon’s direct-to-Kindle “meatgrinder” is a fast, cheap and easy way to get your content uploaded to the Kindle, but often it comes out the other end looking like gibberish. Besides being impossible to read, it generates bad publicity for the author due to negative reviews and unhappy buyers who cannot get their money back for a poorly formatted eBook.
The technology is ever changing, which makes it nearly impossible for the average author to keep up. Kindle books are (currently) MOBI format, which is a fancy term for a giant zip file full of XHTML (think website) files. Any programmer will tell you code loves inserting “junk” code, which causes poor spacing, inserted letters and more formatting issues. The only way to get rid of these issues is to get rid of the “junk” code. And the only way to do that is to invest in an eBook programmer who can read code as well as you read English.
The power of virtual “dust”
Besides formatting issues, the next biggest concern I hear about often is, “What do I put on the Kindle?” Writing a book is hard work, but getting content into Kindle format doesn’t need to be hard. Think about this: If you are in business, were you ever interviewed? Have you interviewed another expert? Have you ever held a teleseminar or webinar? How many audio files do you have sitting on your computer collecting virtual dust?
Those audios can be easily transcribed and sold in Kindle format as expert interview books! They may not become best sellers, but used creatively they can exponentially grow your business, produce qualified leads, increase the size of your list, and most of all, show your audience that you are the go-to expert on your topic. So how does an audio interview get into Kindle format?
Here are 5 Steps to Start Generating Leads (and Income) with Interview-Style Kindle Books:
1. Transcribe the audio. Kindle books are text-based, so you need raw words-on-paper to work with.
2. Format the transcription into more of an “eBook” look with headings, subheadings and a Table of Contents. (Note: you can keep the “interview” style of the book intact, if you’re selling it as an interview book.)
3. Design a killer eBook cover that looks great as a thumbnail image online.
4. Create a PDF of the formatted transcription and send it to an eBook programmer to convert into the required MOBI format.
5. Proof the MOBI format on your Kindle to make sure it looks good, then upload it to Amazon’s Direct-to-Kindle program and start generating leads and increasing your income!
For more including complete Kindle trainings and step-by-step demos of how to convert your book to Kindle format, join The Book Ninja Academy!
