I have just published my first short story on Amazon, the story is called fuzzy and it’s fiction. I am proud, not that the story is amazing, but I have finished a story, and I have published it, and now I am ready to continue writing and publishing more stories and books on Kindle.
I want to share my Kindle publishing experience with you.
But first.
Look at this screenshot from a few days ago, this is from the best seller list (of short stories) for the Kindle on Amazon:
No wonder why my Kindle publishing experience has been amazing. Stephen King had the #25 spot for the paid short stories, and I had the #25 spot for the free short stories. It was not about the quality of the writing, it was all about marketing.
Kindle publishing experience – settings
One of the most important parts of my Kindle publishing experience was to understand the format of the book and setting up the book. I wrote the story using Microsoft Word, and in order to get the perfect Kindle format, I had to adjust the settings a little before publishing it.
This is how:
- go to “page layout”
- then “size”
- go to the last option, “more”. It will open “page setup” window.
- Change the size of your pages to 8.5 cm wide x 11.4 cm tall.
- go to the margin tabs
- set them all to 1
- set the font size for normal text to 12 (I used 14 for the title)
I uploaded the book and Amazon converted it to Kindle format in just a few minutes. When it comes to format, the kindle publishing experience was amazingly easy.
Kindle publishing experience – updates and marketing
One of the first things I noticed after I published my short story was a few grammatical mistakes. I discovered them when I received emails from several readers telling me about the mistakes.
The great thing about writing for the Kindle is that when you discover mistakes, you can just edit the book and update it. I had a new version on Amazon in a matter of a few hours.
When it comes to marketing, my Kindle publishing experience has been both amazing and at the same time, I might have done a small mistake.
I discovered that all books on the Kindle have 5 days of free promotions. This means that I can give away my book for free for 5 days. And that’s what I have been doing. This way more people will read it, and they’ll help spread the word if it’s any good. But, the mistake I made (I’m not sure if it’s a mistake yet) is that I could have used the free promotions for one day at a time, or 2 + 2 + 1.
But, I will let you know more about the marketing part of my Kindle publishing experience in a future post.
Do you have any questions about the kindle publishing experience?
Twitter: Fatima_hipolito
Hi sir jens thanks for the link that you post in here I will look that book and buy it..
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Twitter: berget
That’s awesome. The book is free today and tomorrow
Twitter: bdorman264
I should be able to read that bad boy this weekend and I will critique it for you…..yeah, that’s what you need, a critique from me. Are your grammatical mistakes because you are trying to slip Norwegian phrases in there?
In your day to day world, how often are you speaking English?
Good luck with your efforts, pizza night here tonight. Might go w/ the local shop JBurns. It’s all good, right?
Twitter: berget
Sounds great. I’m looking forward to the feedback.
I never speak English, I don’t remember the last time – probable the vacation in Italy in September last year
I had pizza last night, and probably tonight as well
Twitter: growwithstacy
Congratulations on your kindle book, Jens! That’s great that you ranked the same as Mr. King!
I’m using the the KPD Select for the first time myself. I split up my five days over the three month period and I don’t know if there is an advantage of doing that or giving it away for five days in a row. Also that was not a fiction book, I’m working on my first one now. That might make a difference.
Thanks for sharing how to set the dimensions in Word. Does that help the pages to come out the same on the kindle as they do on Word? I uploaded my book from Word also and although it came out looking good the pages didn’t line up like I had hoped.
I’ve been looking into Scrivener and one of the benefits is that you can create your work as a .mobi file (the file that kindle uses). I like that they have a 30 use trial.
Stacy
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Twitter: berget
Hi Stacy,
I’m actually not sure if it looks exactly the same, but it looked good
I have been using scrivener for a while, I’m writing my novel using it. It’s awesome.
Twitter: growwithstacy
I’m glad to hear that! It must be a good because I have yet to hear any writer say that they don’t like it!
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Twitter: berget
That’s the same as me. I haven’t heard a single person saying anything other than awesome things about Scrivener
Twitter: ITSergioFelix
Hey Jens,
Well I downloaded your book and made sure it was already on my Kindle but I haven’t read it yet. I know it’s a short read and I’m definitely reading it before next week.
Thanks a LOT for the tips on the Kindle publishing man. I have seen a lot of people publish their own experiences and the weird thing is that it looks like every single person has their own different approaches to publishing for Kindle.
I’ll start with your settings and see what happens from there so thanks again for sharing your working scenario man, take care and have a great weekend!
Sergio
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Twitter: berget
Hey Sergio,
Are you back from the US yet? I’d love to get feedback on the book, especially since it’s my first one.
Are you writing a book too?
Twitter: ITSergioFelix
Will let you know as soon as I’m done with the book Jens!
And no, I’m not writing a book right now but I think I’m going to write a few technical books on wordpress and see if I can monetize those and include a few sign up links as a test.
This for the Spanish speaking market. The English marketplace is already too saturated for me to do this.
Sergio
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Twitter: brpraveen
Jens – Congratulations on your publishing…I will surely read it and let you know my comments on the same.
Your detailed description of this experience is really cool and am sure will be of help to many new writers out there. Glad you could share.
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Twitter: berget
Thank you so much Praveen.
I can’t wait to get your comments. I hope you’ll enjoy it
Twitter: timbo1973
Hey Jens
My wife’s taking the kids out this weekend, so your book is ready and waiting to be read on my iPhone.
Thanks for the tips on Kindle publishing by the way.
I’ve got to say your written English is better than many English people (and I’m English although I’m technically an ex-pat now living in Scotland!).
Have a great weekend Jens.
Tim
Twitter: berget
Hey Tim,
That’s awesome
Thank you so much for your kind words.
Twitter: DLWilsonsWorld
Congratulations on your book, Jens! I appreciate that you shared your experience, giving inspiration to others that are still learning the ropes! I am looking forward to reading it, this weekend!
Twitter: berget
Hi Donna,
That’s awesome. Let me know what you think. I hope you’ll enjoy it
Twitter: Solarbenefits
Hey Jens, that’s amazing. Congrats for your book and for the fact that you’re sharing it free. I believe that you have a greater satisfaction exposing your story to a whole lot more people.
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Twitter: berget
Hey Radu,
Thanks a lot. I did my best writing this book, but it’s my first one, so hopefully you’ll enjoy it
Twitter: thejackb
Jens,
I am really excited for you. I look forward to reading fuzzy this weekend. From what I have seen so far it looks good.
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Twitter: berget
Hi Jack,
Thanks a lot. I hope you’ll enjoy it. I have discovered some spelling mistakes, but hopefully I have found most of them
Congratulations Jens! You really made it. Thanks for the link. I will check your book in Amazon.
Twitter: berget
Thanks a lot.
I hope you’ll enjoy it
Twitter: searchforsoft
I will also download your book on Amazon, congrats for your efforts in publishing one!
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Twitter: berget
Thanks a lot. I hope you’ll enjoy it
Twitter: wonderoftech
Simply awesome. Well done, both in writing the story and publishing it on Amazon. I am very excited for what your future holds, Jens!
Twitter: berget
Thank you so much Carolyn. Your support is awesome.
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Twitter: JulieMyers2
I’m planning to try my hand at a Kindle eBook very soon. It was helpful to hear about your experience and get some tips as I move along this process. Thanks so much for sharing.
Twitter: berget
Hi Julie,
What’s your book about?
Let me know if you have any questions. I’m doing my best to learn as much as possible about publishing the books on kindle (and marketing them).
Twitter: JulieMyers2
Rather than focus on one piece of the marketing pie, I’m planning for it to be around how to put the pieces together for how to get found, how it all works together, especially for small business. I’ll keep an eye out for more of your tips!
Twitter: berget
That sounds like a very interesting book, and one that I should read
Let me know when it’s ready.
Twitter: adriennesmith40
Hi Jens,
I’m so very proud of you. You’ve done more then me, people keep telling me I need to publish a Kindle book about my blogging experience. It’s just finding the time to do that but I have downloaded your book. I normally have time on the weekends but as I’ve mentioned, we’re in the process of packing my Mom and this weekend is the big move so my weekends have not been free for five weeks now. But, I promise to read it and promote it as well. I have no doubt it’s fabulous.
Enjoy your week Jens.
~Adrienne
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Twitter: berget
Hi Adrienne,
You should publish a Kindle book about your blogging experience. I will definitively be your first reader
I hope you’ll find the time to read my first story. It won’t be my last, that’s for sure. I’m planning several new books.
Enjoy your week as well.
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Twitter: quickblogtips
Hi Jens – well done.
Ben invites you to read.. Start Your eBook Today
Twitter: berget
That’s awesome.
What’s your ebook about?
Twitter: quickblogtips
I have a few in the pipeline, but the one that’s furthest along is on how to optimise your blog while staying in Google’s good books. It was going to be a blog post, but it started getting quite long – and then I refocused QBT to be much more direct and snappy. So I don’t think it would work as a post anymore
Ben invites you to read.. Start Your eBook Today
Twitter: berget
That would be awesome. I’d be honored to read it.
Twitter: quickblogtips
Hi again Jens
My body font size is 12 and I used the other settings you suggested, and my 40 page eBook is now just over 200 pages. It’s a bit silly because it’s a book of strange comment spam, and even the shorter comments hardly fit on one page.
Does this sound normal? Did your eBook get really big when you changed the settings as per your instructions, above? And is there any way that you know of to view the eBook on a mobile device (e.g. an iPad) without having to publish it first?
Hope you can help
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Twitter: berget
Yes, the book became much bigger inside word, but when I published it, things looked really good
You can preview the book before you publish it. Just start the process and you’ll see the preview inside KDP.
Twitter: wannpublish
This post very informative, am always on the look out for information about publishing on kindle.
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Twitter: nichemonger
Hey Jens,
The first time I used KDP Select I found out about the free promo days as well. All it took was a 24 hour period to take my book to the next level in the paid rankings. The title and the cover did the rest after that first period. I’ve been hovering at around 6 sales a day it seems and the rankings are fluxing but not outrageously. I’m curious if I should even try another promo day since I’m doing okay.
@NicheMonger
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Twitter: berget
Hey Tony,
That’s awesome. I would use all the promo days, because this will take the book to the next level. For instance, you can be giving it away to get more reviews. And (good) reviews and likes on Amazon, will help you in the search engine and the rankings.
Do you have a blog or an email list? If you do, you can write a post about the free promo and email your list. A lot more people will read it and you’re going to get a lot more feedback too.
Each time you hear people publishing their own ebook for the first time, it makes you strive harder to do your own ebook too. Isn’t it? How inspiring. It is also very interesting to know that within 48 hours, it’s possible to have millions of visitors viewing your content. With Kindle self-publishing, each e-book is given its own page within Amazon, along with product options such as ratings and reviews. In addition, Amazon Kindle has now been adapted as an app, which means mobile devices all over the world can now have unlimited access to your content, which equals instant exposure with little to no cost.
Twitter: berget
Yes, a lot of people are currently writing their ebooks. And it’s awesome how easy it is to publish and get the ebooks in front of a lot of people. But, at the same time, it’s very hard to get attention when “everyone” is looking for the attention and people in general have less time and ebooks keeps popping up all over the web
Congratulations! I know it’s not easy to finish a book and actually have it published.
I’ve been thinking about writing and publishing my own for months now but haven’t really gotten around to doing it mainly because I don’t know anything about publishing. Your experience serves as an inspiration.
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