Do you have as many Amazon reviews for your book as you’d like?  As a publisher of over 50 books on Amazon, I can share first hand that there is indeed a direct correlation between the number of reviews a title has and that titles’ book sales.  The more reviews an author has (good or bad), the more you’ll sell. How many reviews?  I recommend getting as many as you can, but a good, realistic goal is 1-2 per month.

So how do you go about getting yourself more reviews?  By issuing a call to action!  Thankfully, Amazon does this automatically on it’s Kindle books with a pop up screen at the end of the Kindle book asking the reader to leave a review (& providing a live link to make it easy for them to do so). Of course that assumes they get to the end of your book.

So I recommend you provide your readers an added incentive to post an honest review earlier in the book.  Perhaps halfway through. Tell them that you would be grateful for their authentic feedback (whether it’s good bad) and that you are willing to provide something in return.  I like to offer either a $10 Amazon gift card, or, if they are an author themselves, I’m happy to return the favor and write them an HONEST review.  I say honest because I’m not going to just give someone a 5-star review because they asked me to. Why? If all of your reviews are only good reviews, then they won’t carry any weight when readers see that all you ever do is give 5-star reviews.

This is yet another good reason why it’s important to have your book available on Kindle.  If your print & kindle editions are properly linked, any reviews left on your Kindle edition will also show up on the listing for your print edition.

Still struggling with getting your book up on Kindle, Nook, or iBooks? Hire us and we’ll take care of the ebook layout and conversion for you – usually with 10 days, and we guarantee you will be pleased with the result (often our clients like the eBooks we create even better than their print edition). I’m proud to share that most of our business today comes via referrals, so you can move forward with confidence because we will do whatever it takes to make you glad you hired us (& thus refer future clients to us).

Dear Author friends,

I received several emails shortly after Amazon announced the KDP Select program.   Everyone was asking me what I thought they should do.  I honestly couldn’t answer because I didn’t know the answer!  But today, I can.  I received an email from a past client that validates how incredibly powerful the KDP Select program can be!  Keep in mind this is a first book, she published it herself (with the help of KindleExpert.com) and is just about to finish her 1 week KDP promotion of offering her Kindle book at a $0.00 price on Amazon (which you get to do only if you sign up for KDP Select).  As of today (3/5/12), in the short time it’s been up (since 3/1/12), she’s had over 30,000 downloads and The Eighth Sea is currently ranked #1 in the historical fiction category and #5 Overall (Free) Kindle books (whoa!).  She’s even outselling Charles Dickens! Time will tell whether or not the explosion in exposure will translate into sales, it’s her only book. And she’ll be putting a price back on her book on 3/8/12).  I’ll report back in a couple months how well her sales have been.

But based on Nancy’s experience – I would give an enthusiastic thumbs up on the KDP Select program.  If you are a talented author, as Nancy is, you can see how much of a boost the KDP Select program gives.  I would not be surprised if she gets calls from NYC literary agents and major publishers.  Not bad for a first time author who just published her first book on Amazon 3 months ago!

I wanted to send out a quick update… this unusual to say the least, but two of the books I just finished converting to Kindle are now among the top .5% of all Kindle books sold. In other words, they’ve broken into the coveted top 5000 spot I often speak of.  This equates to a huge amount of visibility (& profit) to both the authors. Congrats!!

The two titles I am very proud to have worked on are and just published to Kindle that are among the top .5%:

• Fisherman’s Language by Jim Henry
• Feel Younger Now! by Don McGrath, Ph.D.

As of today (2/29/12) – here are their rankings respectively:

Fisherman's Language by Jim Henry

Feel Younger Now! by Don McGrath, Ph.D.

I often tell authors – if you have a single goal, it should be to break into the top .5% of Kindle books. The rewards will be reflected on your commissions report and you’ll be hooked to doing it again.

Do you post links directly to your own book or kindle book on Amazon? If not, you should! But if you are, do your readers a favor and use the Amazon short URL to it.

Amazon has the highest consumer trust of any company on the web. URL shortening services like Bit.ly are becoming more dangerous and people are reluctant to click on those links.

So guess what? There’s a better way.  You can use Amazon’s own short URL capability.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Find the listing you want to link to on Amazon, for example:

http://www.amazon.com/50-Interviews-Entrepreneurs-Brian-Schwartz/dp/0982290705

Step 2: Copy the # at the end of the URL or the # that appears right after the /dp/

Step 3: Insert the # the follows /dp/ at the end the Amazon Short URL: http://amzn.com/

So using the above example, it would look like this:  http://amzn.com/0982290705

And here’s a link to the Kindle edition of the same book: http://amzn.com/B001ULD5PA

Would you like to add a link directly to your ebook in the iBookstore?

Chances are, if you’ve hired us to do your ebook conversion, you’ve now got your ebook on iTunes in the iBookstore.  So now you want to link directly to it.  The good news is you don’t need a mac accomplish this. Yes, you still need a mac to upload your epub to the iTunes store, but that’s why you hired us, right?

Here’s how you can create a hyperlink directly to your iBook in the iTunes store making it easier for people to purchase your ebook.

Note: If you already know the specific ePub ISBN # of your book, you can skip to Step 4.

Step 1: Login to your Apple iTunes Connect account.

Step 2: Click on ‘Manage Your Books’

Step 3: Click on the title you want to create the hyperlink for and make a note of your ISBN number (this is the ISBN that you specifically designated for your ePub edition)

Step 4: Place your ISBN # at the end the URL: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn

Like this: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9781935689164

Just remember to replace the ISBN # (9781935689164 in the example above) with the ISBN # of the book you want to link to.

That was easy wasn’t it?

About KindleExpert.com:  We assist authors and publishers in getting their content and formatted and setup on the major ebook marketplaces (ie. Apple, Amazon, and B&N). We provide the necessary formats to publish directly to your own accounts to retain 100% of the profits from every sale.  We also create beautiful ebook covers and assist authors with print layout and setup for print-on-demand. If you prefer to DIY route, we offer a Word Template that is formatted for direct publishing to Amazon & BN, as well as POD (Print on Demand.  Dozens of tutorials step you through the process of creating a beautiful ebook without the need for any other software. If you are still writing your book, our template is a tremendous benefit and efficiency booster that can save you the cost of hiring an interior book designer.  Got a question for the Kindle Expert? Join us on one of our upcoming weekly Q&A calls.

Another example of how much Amazon an Kindle are transforming the traditional publishing industry, and how accessible publishing is now; 20% of the top 10 best selling Kindle books of 2011 were self-published!

Back in May of 2011, Darcie Chan (a former Coloradoan) self-published her only novel she had written 5 years ago that was rejected by over a dozen publishers.  There is a great article in the Wall Street Journal on her rise to the top, in it they state “…book publishers are losing ground to independent authors and watching their powerful status as literary gatekeepers wither.“

Also on the best seller list was The Abbey by Chris Culver, another self-published author.

Wondering which Kindle books are the hot sellers right now? Check out the running Top Seller list here. Interesting to note, that given it’s the start of a new year – Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog is currently in the Top 10.

FYI, I’m hosting a weekly Q&A session through the end of February. The first one is this coming Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 4PM MST. While they are intended to be general Q&A (since I get a lot of the same questions on a daily basis), I plan to spend a portion of the time analyzing and discussing the strategies and tactics these and other best selling authors are using to become top sellers in this new evolving era of digital publishing.  Hope you can join us!

Don’t have a data plan on your cell phone?

Want to know a cool work-around of how you can check your email on your Kindle? It works whether you have a wifi or 3G connection.  Check your gmail!

This is from the perspective of using the 3rd Gen (graphite/grey screen) Kindle device (with the built in keyboard).

Just go to the ‘Menu’ from the home screen and choose ‘Experimental.’ You can launch the web browser from there.  Next, go to gmail’s page for mobile devices: http://m.gmail.com

I even used it during a recent trip to Mexico – the international 3G network worked like a charm!

Any website that supports mobile devices is probably going to work well for the Kindle browser.  Often, if a mobile version of a website exists, it’ll appear as http://m.<website>.com – for example: http://m.yahoo.com is one I use a lot.  So even if you are not a gmail user, you still might be able to utilize the ‘experimental’ browser on your Kindle to check your email.

You probably won’t be composing too many emails on your Kindle, but at least you have an option to find out if something important is sitting unread in your inbox.

Greetings Authors,

My friend Jill Lublin (Best Selling Author of Guerrilla Publicity) has graciously offered me a couple of spots to bring a guest to her ‘Crash Course in Publicity’ workshop next week in Colorado Springs.  As my guest, you’ll get to attend for a deeply discounted price of only $197 (the regular price is $997). It’s all day Wednesday in Colorado Springs, Colorado (Dec. 7). See details below, or visit her website for more info.

Additional Details:

When: Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Time: Networking 9:45am Course start 10:00am; End time around 5:30-6:00pm
Where: Center for Powerful Living 635 Southpointe Ct., Suite 220 Colorado Springs, CO, 80906

If you do want to take advantage of this offer and join me, contact Heather at heather@jilllublin.com or call 415-883-5455  and let her know you’d like to register as my friend at the $197 rate that I confirmed with Jill.  There’s only a few slots left and it’s first come, first serve.

Hope to see you there! -Brian

Wondering what work is involved to properly do an ebook conversion?

For the purposes of this article, consider the following: epub refers to any format of epublishing – whether it be mobi for Kindle,  epub for iPad, or epub for any other device.  Incidentally: a mobi file is built on the same foundation of epub file – just a few minor tweaks are required by the Kindle. Both are compressed files that take up little space.  The eReader expands (ie. unzips) the files every time you open a new eBook on your eReader.

While there are very few rules in print layout (other than margins and printer’s requirements which vary), there are many rules in epub layout. Epub is built on HTML standards because all eReaders are essentially stripped down web browsers programmed to display html pages. Thus, some knowledge of html is helpful to get predictable results.

There’s generally a 12 step process involved in doing an ebook conversion, no matter what techniques or tools you use, and at a fundamental level, they all involve the following steps.

Depending on the book and type of file provided, some of these steps may be eliminated, thus the time it takes (& thus the price to do the work) to do a proper ebook conversion will always vary if there’s a proof stage involved.  I mention this because the high volume, low cost conversion shops won’t give the author a digital proof – you will be stuck with whatever they produce for you.   An attention to detail (& understanding of the language of the book you are converting) is paramount.

Here’s the process we go through when we receive a new book file from an author to convert it to a ready-to-publish digital file format. Following a brief consultation with the author regarding possible layout and sequence changes to improve the ebook reader’s experience, we:

1. Strip out any headers/footers/endnotes/footnotes
2. Extract all the raw text from the file (usually a pdf or word doc)
3. Reformat all the content using html to mirror the styles in print (ie. bold, italic, font size, underlines, titles, etc..)
4. Recreate bulleted lists & numbered lists (to be html compatible)
5. Reinsert & hyperlink all endnotes/footnotes
6. Recreate tables or clip them as images from a PDF version
7. Create a metadata file that provides eReaders with information about the book, publisher, & author
8. Format the cover (to fit the full screen of an eReader)
9. Clip & reinsert images or forms (sometimes images will have to be reformatted)
10. Create a hyperlinked table of contents to each chapter and accessible in the navigation function of the eReader
11. Convert html to the epub & mobi formats and validate the file with the ePub checker.
12. Test on each device and make any necessary corrections and deliver a ready-to-publish file to the author.

After the file is delivered, we provide step-by-step tutorials to help the author/publisher upload their books to each of the major marketplaces.

There are variety of tools that can be used to work through the process, and those of us who do this work will favor tools we are comfortable with.

Having an understanding of how html works will help you understand why something looks the way it does on an eReader. Just as a webpage will look different on different browsers, an ebook file (remember, it’s essentially a webpage) will look different on different eReaders.  The best thing we can do is stick with the basic rules of html that are compatible with all ebook readers.

Many authors hire us after they’ve already spent many frustrating hours trying to get their book looking they way they intended it to.  And the vast majority of our business is through referrals, which is why we make sure every author is pleased with the results we produce for them.

Just like anything else, the final result will reflect the experience of the person doing to work.   Because your ebook will be a permanent edition of your book that will never go out of print (and outlive all of us), you owe it to your future readers to have it done right.  When I think about the lifetime royalties that’ll be earned from an authors ebook, spending a little extra to have it done right seems like a smart investment.

If you do want to do this work yourself, you should at least consider using our template. It has been refined through the process of literally hundreds of conversions and testing with each device. I guarantee you’ll get much better results than you would without it.  One of the most recent examples of someone who used our template to create a truly beautiful ebook is Will Craig, who recently published Date with Destiny: Living the Hero’s Journey on Kindle.

There’s also a workshop coming up (I only do these 2-3x/year) in Denver on October 26. if you are up for learning how to do it yourself. Learn more and register at: www.BookToNook.com

Are leaving money on the table with your ebooks?

Become a BN affiliate at Linkshare.com and earn an extra 6% on every nook book sale!

Sign up for the affiliate programs offered by the major ebook marketplaces and earn a extra % of every sale you refer (especially if you are linking to the marketplaces from your own site or Facebook page which I recommend).

All the major marketplaces now offer affiliate programs for authors, publishers, and anyone else who refers a sale (allowing you a way to provide your readers an incentive).  Click on the links below to sign up today and earn more profit from your ebooks!

• Amazon Kindle affiliate program
• BN nook affiliate program (managed by Linkshare)
• iBookstore affiliate program (managed by Linkshare)
• Google Books affiliate program (search by your book title once you have an account)

Did you know that Kindle Expert also has an affiliate program?  You can earn $25 for any client you refer who hires us to help them with their ebook conversion.  To sign up and learn more visit our affiliate page.

Do you need the ability to check if your ePub file passes the ‘epub checker’ validation tool?  Rather than upload your file to one of the various epub checkers on the web, you should install and run it on your own computer.  Why?  Because if you are having any errors after you try to upload your formatted ebook, chances are, it didn’t pass the epub checker.

It’s a bit confusing when you try to follow the fragmented instructions you’ll find around the web. So I wanted to share the exact process I went through to successfully install the ability to validate an epub on my own PC:

1. Download and install Java if it isn’t already on you computer
2. Modify your PATH to enable the ability to run Java from your command line/prompt.  This is exactly how mine appeared (it’ll make sense after you view this tutorial): ;C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin
3. Download ePub checker binary (latest version is 1.2)
4. Unzip the file and place all the files in a root directory on your c: drive (ie. /epub)
5. Put the .epub file you want to check in the same directory (ie. /epub)
6. Run your command prompt application (type command on the start bar)
7. Change directory to /epub (by using the basic command cd until you get to the root directory (c:/) and then type cd epub.
8. To run the epub checker, you will need to yype something similar to this on the command line (it will vary depending on the version of epubcheck and your epub file name): java -jar epubcheck-1.2.jar filename.epub

Here’s a screenshot of how it looks when you have a successful epub check (in this case, the file I am checking is entitled ‘gaddafi.epub’).

Successful epub validation run via the command prompt in Windows 7

If you are still struggling getting it to work, let me know because I plan to post a YouTube video shortly to walk you through the process and will post the link when its available.

Now that publishing is no longer a barrier for many of us, it’s worth looking at ways to remove a common barrier that still exists: writing.  Here are some techniques and tools I personally use to help me get words out of my head and closer to being published.  If you have any others you’ve personally found to work well for yourself, please share them in the comments sections below.

1. Get a distraction free word processor. My personal favorite is also free (for the PC) – Zen Edit. On the mac, there are similar program such as WriteRoom & OmmWriter (ipad/mac).

2. Play background sound to focus your mind and inspire you. I love Pandora.  When I’m writing or blogging, I almost always have it running.  Two stations I’d suggest you create for some awe inspiring ‘atmospheric’ music comes from the bands: Manual & Hammock.  For years, I’ve used a brilliant little app called Chatter Blocker to keep my mind on task.  A cool thing you can do with Chatter Blocker is create your own loops.

3. Begin by outlining and gathering thoughts. One key to creating great non-fiction lies in the table of contents.  So be sure you are writing from an outline.  Visual outlining is easily done with any of the many mind mapping tools you can find online.  Be sure you get one that allows you to export the mind map into an outline, and use that as your table of contents.

Here’s a few other tools I use on a regular basis to help me keep my writings organized and into a space where I won’t ever lose them:

• Use Simplenote to never lose another idea. I use simplenote in combination with ZenEdit.  I begin by writing in ZenEdit, and then always save my work to Simplenote.  You can use tagging within Simplenote to organize your writing. I find that my mind often wanders, and simplenote has been a great tool for me to put those on the back burner for now and get back to the topic I’m writing about. The biggest reason I’m such a big fan of Simplenote is because of the seamless integration with the ipad (even when the ipad is offline).
• Stay organized and expand your ideas with index cards. There’s a few virtual index card apps out there, but one that’s been out longer than most is Super Note Card. If you’ve attended any of my workshops, you might be familiar with my 4-up sheet & 8-up sheet brainstorming techniques.  SuperNoteCard is a great tool to expand them further.
• Keep your files safe and secure. One of the common problems new (& sometimes old) authors fall into is in losing their files or getting revisions of their work mixed up.  Like millions of others, I’ve discovered dropbox – and now it’s a technology I feel I can’t live without.

Hope this helps you focus on your writing which is one of the most important things you can do!  My #1 suggestion is that you find a few tools that work for you and stick to them.  Complexity quickly becomes a real issue as you try to add that latest new tool to your arsenal.  And while it’s very tempting because we are always looking for a quicker/better way… resist them and stick with what you already know.

Screenshot taken on 7/18/11

You probably don’t watch these #’s as closely as I do, but I wanted to draw your attention to the fact that Amazon is about to break 1 million titles (ebooks) in the Kindle store.  Are you one the early adopters who’ve managed to get your own book on the Kindle platform? If so, I bet like a lot of us, you are selling more Kindle books than you are in print.  Over 1000 new titles are uploaded everyday to Amazon, therefore, I predict that Amazon will break the 1 million ebooks threshold before the end of this month.

To help celebrate this milestone, we are offering $30 off on our mobi & epub conversion services until there are 1 million titles available for sale at Amazon.  You’ll also receive a comp pass to our next Amazon optimization webinar ($47 value) when you hire us to do your conversion. Mention this deal when you contact us and we’ll knock our fee down by $30, which will make your rate only $299 in most cases (that includes both mobi & epub versions).

There’s never been a better time to jump on board as I’m certain a lot more attention will be on the Kindle once they break a million ebooks, and when they do, be sure your book is available!  We’re here to help, feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

PS: We now offer ebook cover services, as I’ve vetted some extremely talented graphic designers who are eagerly awaiting more work.  Check out some of the recent work at: http://www.kindleexpert.com/covers/

PPS: I also offer a great option for you Do-It-Yourselfer’s – There’s now a template in Microsoft Word or Open Office that allows you to do your own ebook conversions using tools you are already familiar with.  The file can be uploaded directly to Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and I show how a small tweak allows you to create an epub version that you can also upload to Apple, and every other marketplace accepting ePubs.  Using our template will cut your time in HALF as it’s been optimized through the process of over 100 conversions (& literally hundreds of hours of trial & error). It comes with the same level of support from us that many of you have already come to know and love.

If you have worked with me, you already know how important keywords are when setting up your book on any of the marketplaces.  Keywords determine how often your book shows up in each marketplace, so it’s vital that you take time and choose wisely!  This is one of the major reasons I advise my clients to avoid using 3rd party aggregators.

Amazon allows you to use up to 512 characters for your keywords,  so be sure to make full use of all the space they provide to fill your listing with relevant keywords.  Barnes & Noble only allows you to use up to 100 characters for your keywords, so be extra careful with that limited space they provide.

Here’s where you list your keywords in the back-end of your Kindle book listing:

There are two great tools I recommend you become familiar with as you get seek out relevant keywords; Google Insights & Netspeak.  There’s tons of great resources around the web on how to use Google Insights & Google will show you how when you visit their site. Netspeak.org on the other hand has little documentation to go off, so I created this video walk-through to show you how I use NetSpeak to come up with keyword ideas for the titles I setup:

Let me know if you need my help in optimizing your marketplace (Amazon,BN,Apple,etc.) listing for you, I do charge a very small fee, but I’m confident that the resulting increased book sales will provide a quick return on investment (ROI).  Alternatively, you can attend our next webinar and learn to do it yourself.

I wanted to address a very common problem I see occurring a majority of the time with my clients.

What do you do when the digital version of your book isn’t being associated with the physical version of your book?  And why is this a big deal?

• If you have any reviews and/or tags on your print edition, when the two are linked, the same reviews and tags will be reflected on both listings.
• Because someone who finds your physical book on Amazon may pass on it because they don’t see a ‘read it on your kindle now’ option!
• Because the default search at Amazon and BN is still for physical books… and print books still get the greatest visibility for keywords entered from the default search bar.

So how to fix the problem?

One important caveat: Be sure the titles on both editions (physical & ebook) are an exact match (title & description) – Amazon won’t link the two unless the titles are an exact match. If they aren’t a match, than first edit your title in your Kindle bookshelf (it will take 24 hours for the new title to take effect).  Once you are certain both titles match, here’s the process you will need to follow to get the problem fixed:

1. Check to see if your print edition reveals that your book is also available on Kindle (in the example below, it is not).
2. Make a note of your ISBN # (print edition).
3. Make a note of your ASIN # (kindle edition).
4. Notify Amazon of the correction through the contact us tab (available after you log in to your KDP account. You will need to provide Amazon KDP support with both the ASIN # of your Kindle book & the ISBN # of your printed book. The ASIN is your unique identification number that Amazon uses to catalog your title.

Here’s a graphical step-by-step:

Step 1: Confirm if the print & kindle editions are already linked (In this example, they are not)

Step 2: Make a note of your ISBN # for your print edition

Step 3: Locate & Write down your ASIN # for your Kindle edition

Step 4: Go to the Contact Us page from your KDP backend

Step 5: Provide the Title, ISBN # & ASIN to Amazon so they can correct the problem

Hope that helps you get the issue resolved if you are one of the many authors dealing with this issue.  If you haven’t yet hired us to help you with your ebook conversion (to Kindle, Nook, Ipad, Sony Reader, Google Books, etc..) feel free to contact us to find out more.  We also now provide MS Word and Open Office templates (optimized for the marketplaces) if you prefer to do the conversion yourself.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to address the National Speakers Association last week, and I’ll be giving Part 2 next month that will dive deeper into the marketing side of what we do at 50 Interviews.  Hope you enjoy it and I welcome your feedback. FYI, it’s about an hour long. You can hear the audio and the slides advance automatically when you hit the ‘play’ button:

Many of you who’ve hired us to convert your title to a Kindle-ready format will benefit from knowing how to send the .mobi file we provide directly to your own Kindle.

Here’s the process I use that is quick & simple:

1. You will actually attach the mobi or doc file and email it to the email address associated with your Kindle device. In order to find out what your unique email address is, log into your Amazon account at: http://www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle

2. Next, add your own email address (ie. name@domain.com) as an ‘approved sender’ to your Kindle device (you only have to do this one time for each email address you plan to use).

3. Email yourself the .mobi or .doc file you want on your Kindle to: [yourid]@free.kindle.com (free) or [yourid]@kindle.com (small fee).  You don’t need to put anything in the subject or body – just attached the file.

4. Wait 2-5 minutes and sync your Kindle (hit the Menu button from your home screen) over WIFI (if using @free.kindle.com) or over 3G (if you sent it to @kindle.com).

5. If you need more help or want to know how to transfer the file using the USB cable that came with your Kindle, there’s more help on how to do so at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200505520

Enjoy your Kindle!  -Brian Schwartz, www.KindleExpert.com

I know many of you will want to upload a new version of your book to Amazon Kindle on occasion after you’ve made some improvements, done some additional editing, or simply added new content.

Doing so is fairly simple. Below are three screen shots that provide a step-by-step walk through on how to upload a revision to an existing title via the Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) platform.

STEP 1: Login to your KDP account

STEP 2: Upload your new file

STEP 3: Set pricing, save & publish!

Hope that helps! If you do need our help fixing a file you’ve already created, we’d be happy to assist further. Simply submit the file you’ve been struggling with and we’ll get back to you with a price of what’ll take to fix it (in most cases, we’ve been able to provide fixes to the file for the most nagging issues for under a hundred bucks).

KindleExpert.com provides fast, high quality digital conversions for Kindle, Nook, iPad, and more to authors & publishers.  To date, we’ve helped more than a hundred authors publish their books to the digital marketplaces for a low one-time fee… allowing the author to retain 100% of their royalties.

I’ve been having some interesting conversations with a few of you lately, and I felt compelled to share.

Have you considered what happens when an author dies?  What happens to their book and who gets the royalties?  Is there a way for an author to insure that the royalties for his/her book will go to his heirs after he/she dies?

The issue with many authors who only have print versions of their book and handle the distribution directly is that sadly when they die, unless someone in the family steps in to pick up the ball, the book dies too.  There’s few things in this world as sad as the dreaded ‘out of print’ or ‘currently unavailable’ listing on Amazon (especially when the listing has positive reviews!):

The evolution and availability of eBooks change this scenario. In fact, eBooks will most definitely outlive the author, and likely every generation of that author that follows.  Unless there is some unforeseen catastrophic event that wipes out every server, every backup, and eliminates the marketplaces that makes your title available, consider that an ebook will quite literally never die!

Since you see now that your book in digital form will live on indefinitely, isn’t it important to you as the author make sure that it’s the absolute best representation of you, the author?  Take the time & make the investment to insure your ebook is set it correctly and that royalties flow directly to a bank account your survivors will have access to.

It’s unlikely that big 5 marketplaces for eBooks (Amazon, BN, Apple, Sony, & Google) are going out of business anytime soon. Considering that many of my clients are generating $40-50/month in profit from their book sales, the return over the long haul from these marketplaces is significant.  Wouldn’t you like to be sure those monthly payments are getting paid to those you love the most after you pass on?

You can hire KindleExpert.com to assist you with your digital layout & conversion.  Our value extends far beyond just providing you with properly formatted files. We stand behind every conversion until the author is pleased with the result. You get step-by-step tutorials that show you how to publish directly to each marketplace. Every client also receives a personalized marketing map that reveals proven strategies to help gain you greater visibility and sell more ebooks.  They are the same strategies we are using at 50 Interviews to generate over $500/month in profit from our Kindle sales alone.