Before I go on to tell you how to self-publish your e-book successfully on Amazon, I want to tell you a little thing about passive income. Passive income is a kind of income that comes from a task that doesn’t require direct involvement.
There are two major types of passive income:
- The residual income
- The leveraged income
Residual income is income that comes from a task that is done only once while leveraged income is income that comes from promoting other people’s products and services.
I am certain that you are already wondering why I am telling you about passive income instead of how to publish your book on Amazon. Well, the reason is because passive income is very important for people who desire financial success. If you want to be very successful financially, you must have multiple streams of income which must include both active and passive sources of income.
Now, writing a book and publishing it on Amazon is one of the easiest ways to have a passive source of income today. Publishing your own book has never been easier. Before Amazon, if you wanted to publish a book, you would have to go through a whole lot of processes such as writing, editing, finding good publishers and so on but now, you can do it all without stress and most importantly, you do not have to wait for anyone to publish your book for you or spend thousands on marketing; with Amazon, your writing destiny is absolutely in your hands.
Let’s look at some of the factors that make Amazon the best place to publish your books-:
- You earn free referrals for copies sold on Amazon.
- One of the most popular online marketplaces.
- You can publish your book within hours.
- Millions of visitors looking for items to buy.
- Excellent book review system.
- All you need is your keyboard and your brain.
To publish your e-book on Amazon successfully, these are the steps you should follow-:
How to self-publish a Book Successfully on Amazon Kindle
1. Choose a topic or niche to write about
You are free to select any topic to write on. You may consider writing about a topic you are passionate about or something you are very skilled at or you may use keyword research tools to find out what people are interested in reading and then write your book around these topics.
2. Write the book
First, you would have to write a draft. The first draft you would write is a ‘no holds barred’ kind of draft called a ‘vomit draft’ where you would basically write down anything and everything that comes into your head without considering grammar or spelling. When you are done with the initial draft, then you can now review it into a more organized write up.
At this stage, you can call upon trusted friends or associates to read it and provide constructive criticisms or suggestions. The last stage involves getting a professional editor to look at the book and provide professional editing; when you are done with this stage, your book is almost ready.
3. Formatting and Designing
The next stage involves formatting your book to meet up with Amazon required standards. There is software you can use for this known as Calibre. If you feel that formatting it yourself would be too technical for you, you can consider paying people to do it for you.
You shouldn’t forget the cover too. If you want to attract more readers, your book should have an attractive cover which could be done by graphic designers. However, it is important to go through Amazon’s specific guidelines for book covers before designing your cover.
4. Publishing your book
With your content and your cover ready, you are prepared to publish your own E-book ad start making money with it. First you would have sign up with Amazon and fill in some information required to send you your royalties. Then in your account, you should look for the bookshelf page and click on “Add new title”; a form will pop on for you to fill in the necessary details about the book.
You must make sure you include your keywords so that people can easily find your book. Lastly, upload your book as well as the cover and test with Amazon online viewer to be sure your book appears right then save and choose your pricing and royalty rate. You would be notified by Amazon when your book is published.
5. Promoting your book
Well, it’s just not enough to write a book and publish it on Amazon; if you are serious about making money, you need to promote your book. The ways through which you can promote your Amazon Kindle E-book include-:
6 Result Oriented Ways to Promote your Book on Amazon Kindle
- Ask your friends and acquaintances to leave reviews about the book on Amazon
- Announce the release of your e-book to as many people as you possibly can and don’t forget to provide a link for them to buy it.
- Use social media to your advantage. You can spread the word through social media. You can even take advantage of e-mail marketing by including excerpts from your e-book in your e-mails and including a link to where people can buy it.
- Internet forums are also a very good place to promote your e-book.
- Giveaways can also help you to sell more copies of your e-book; people who are able to download and read for free may be kind enough to leave reviews which would encourage other people to buy the books.
- Another strategy that works is the use of affiliates. You can encourage affiliates to spread the word about your e-book in any way that they can and then pay them commission for each sales made.
This guide should provide all the help you need to self-publish your e-book on Amazon but if you still need more help, there’s a kindle publishing guide on Amazon that may give you a more detailed guide on how to self-publish your e-book on Amazon.