There are a lot of opinions from both experts and beginners on how to make money publishing books on Amazon.

There are many who say a lot of marketing or a lot of social media is involved. I have been trying to follow this advice but as an introvert, this is difficult for me and very much outside my comfort zone. So I have also been looking for other experts with differing opinions.

I recently found a book written by Dean Wesley Smith called “Think Like A Publisher.” (Available on Amazon.) Mr Smith has over 400 books on Amazon. The majority of them are traditionally published. In his book, “Think Like A Publisher,” he talks about getting publishing rights back for his vast backlist (books no longer being sold by publisher). He is putting those books, old short stories and new books up on Kindle.

Like everyone else who is talking about making a long-term passive income from books, a level of content quality is assumed. But after that, his opinions differ on the amount of marketing, social media and even length of the books.

In his book, he claims the way to make a comfortable income on Amazon is the same way traditional publishers do, by selling a few copies of a lot of titles. And he claims he’s making a comfortable amount of money off of the books he is indie publishing.

His theory is that unless you get lucky and have a book that, as he puts it, is a “home run,” you will not sell a lot of copies of any one book. So to sell a lot of copies, you need to have a lot of different titles each selling that small amount of copies.

I decided to analyze his books in Kindle.

He has written a lot of traditionally published fan fiction (Star Trek). I ignored those as they have a built in reader base. I also ignored everything that had a price above $4.99 as I assumed those were by traditional publishers. Since he is mainly a fiction writer, I ignore his non-fiction works.

This still left me with a lot of books, I stopped after looking at forty.

What surprised me the most about how he is putting his theory into action is the length of his books. Over thirty of the forty books I analyzed were under 7000 words. Of the six books that had a rank showing they sold at least a few a month, four of the six were under 7000 words.

Mr Smith claims that the only marketing he does is a post on Facebook or a tweet when he publishes, that’s it.

Now, I’m not saying that his methods will work for everyone. I’m not even saying it will work for me. What I am saying is that there is more than one way to create a publishing business on Amazon. And that we each have to find a way that works for us and meshes with our personality and comfort level.

However, having said that, I think there is one point he has that is absolutely true. The more good quality books you have to sell, the more potential money you can make. So unless you are hoping that you can be that one person who hits a home run, don’t stop at the first book you publish. Get as many good books of whatever length into your selling line as quickly and continuously as you can. Then from there decide what methods of marketing work for you.

Since it will be a long time before I have the number of different titles that he has, I will probably end up combining his advice with that some of other experts who suggest more marketing and social media. Maybe I can find a balance between all of them that works for me.

Good luck, I’m off to go work on more books!

I hope you’ve been enjoying your summer. I love that the sun is out so much longer. I get so much more done in the evening when it’s light outside.

I’ve been away for a while doing a lot of book writing. I’ve been writing non-fiction how-to books. And I recently started writing romance novels for and about women over 45. I’m in the middle of my first full length romance novel.

At first I was afraid to try fiction. I hadn’t written any fiction since grade school and that was a long time ago. Then I thought,

“What’s the worse that could happen?”

Well, my worse case scenario was writing something that would be laughed at.

So I went and got some help on how to plot a story and joined a writers’ support group. I wrote a short story and had some people read it.

Surprise of surprises.
Not only did I enjoy writing it but my test readers like it!

Now I didn’t write it great the first, second or even third time. But I kept at it and with help and support, I ended up with a story that I was proud of. (If you’d like to see what it’s about, it’s on Amazon under my pen name, Mia Jasper.)

My experience with writing was a lot about self-confidence and giving myself permission to try something I knew I’d be less that perfect at the first time.

That took my thoughts back here to how so many women are afraid to try things related to technology. A lack of self-confidence and a fear of being less than perfect.

So I wrote a 17-page report titled “Technology Confidence.”

Let me give you a free copy of it. If you put your name and email in the box to the right, I’ll get a copy into your inbox today.

If you think you can’t write a book that makes it into the Amazon Bestseller list, think again!

This little recipe book I published on Amazon Kindle just made it into the #3 spot for Diets on Amazon.

WooHoo!

Where’s your book?

I recently asked CreativeBoomer readers about their future. I’ve been going through the survey results and I’d like to share some with you.

Here was how you answered this question:

These answers were right in line with what I thought. We’ve spent our entire lives learning skills, pushing boundaries and spending time with the ones we care about. Just because we’re over 50 doesn’t mean we’re going to change now!

I’ll share more results from the survey in an upcoming post.

Leave me a comment below if you agree with these results or if they surprise you.

Since many people make incomes online doing affiliate marketing, I wanted to check it out.

Affiliate marketing is where you promote someone else’s product for a 50-75% commission.

I’m taking an intensive ecourse on the subject. Every weeknight at 8pm for 2 ½ weeks. Even thought it’s a lot of time, it’s so worth it in the detailed how-to they are going into.

I have to admit that one of the hardest parts of the course for me was finding a product to sell. There’s a lot of sleazy stuff out there that I couldn’t sell even for a hefty commission.

I did find two products I felt comfortable selling. One is a gardening guide which is pretty straight forward and in line with interests I have.

The other is a fitness program. I’ve wanted to try (yet again) to loose weight. So I decided I could sell this product if I tried it myself. (Darn conscience!)

After everything is set up and running, I’ll let you know how this experiment in affiliate marketing works

This past week, I lost my last grandparent.

My dad’s mother.

Although both my grandfathers died when I was a child, both my grandmothers lived well into their 90s.  You might say, “Ann you’re 50, you’re lucky you had your grandmothers in your life that long.” And I know you’d be right. But that doesn’t lessen the loss.

I was very close to my dad’s mom. I lived with her for a few years when I graduated from college. I went to stay with her for a few months when I got a job in her state. I stayed for 4 years.

She became a close friend. After I moved away and got a cell phone, I’d often call her on my commute home so we could chat. I will sorely miss her practicality and unconditional love.

Her death also got me thinking. I have watch both my parents lose their mothers in the space of the last year. And I’ve realized that no matter how old you are or what you’ve made of your life …

Home is where your mom is.

Have you heard of The Secret or the Law of Attraction?

It’s the theory that your thoughts affect not only your actions but also how opportunities appear in your life. It is the basis of the book and movie, The Secret.

According to Wikipedia:

 Also according to Wikipedia, The Secret is largely influenced by Wallace Wattles’ 1910 book The Science of Getting Rich, which the author, Rhonda Byrne, received from her daughter during a time of personal trauma in 2004.

 Since so much of what you can achieved is based on what you believe you can achieve, I thought this subject was worth looking at. 

 If you’ve been curious about this…

Here is the original 1910 book,

The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace Wattles in both PDF and audio.
Click here for the PDF.

The audio verion is below.

(If you listen to the audio, skip the Preface and go right to Chapter 1. The Preface is very dry and boring.)

Did you get an iPad for Christmas?

 You can buy books through iTunes. But my favorite way is to use the Kindle App for iPad. You can find this app in the app store. The Kindle app is for books bought through Amazon in the Kindle format.

If you like to read ebooks that you’ve gotten as PDFs, a great reader app is Upad. This ereader app is especially good if you like to highlight books as you read. I do this a lot with business books.

A great way to transfer these PDF ebooks to your iPad is with an app called Dropbox. Dropbox gives you a free 2GB file folder on the internet. You download the Dropbox app onto your iPad. You also load the program onto your PC. Anything (books, music, pictures) you want on your iPad, drag and drop those files into the Dropbox folder on your PC. They will automatically sync to your iPad through the Wi-Fi.

Next time you turn your iPad on and open Dropbox, it will sync. You can either open the files there, or in the top right corner there is an option to open it in another program (like Upad.)

The 2GB storage folder is the free account. Anything bigger you’ll have to pay for. I usually empty the Dropbox folder on my PC after the transfer so I keep using the same 2GBs.

I’ve always been a PC user. When I bought my iPad about a year ago, I had to play with it a lot to figure out how to do things on it. I thought by now I knew how to use it. Then I stumbled onto this series of iPad tutorial videos. This is the tutorial series that should have come with your tablet.

Even if you’ve had your iPad for a while, this is worth watching to find out what you didn’t know!

The first video starts slow covering basic buttons and commands, Just as you’re about to turn it off and go else where, he shows you something that makes you think “Wow, I didn’t know it could do that.”

Click here to see Apple iPad Tutorial Part 1-4

If you find these helpful, leave me a message in the comments. Let me know what new tricks you learned.

 A report came out last week by Zmags.com about shopping on the internet. Despite how marketers keep aiming at Millennials, this report showed that the average internet using consumer was a 40-something woman.

Back up a minute here in case you missed that… the AVERAGE was a 40-something woman.

That means that HALF were women OVER 40-something!

I have an iPad I pull out and read whenever I’m sitting waiting. I’ve had 20-somethings and 30-somethings start asking me about it.

Oh, is that the iPad? I’m thinking of getting one. Do you like it?

Yes, I love it! and the point here is that at 50, I can treat myself to things like an iPad. I may not know how to use every part of it but I have it, I love it and I use it.

And that’s just the type of information that this report is finding out. That 50+ women and the internet are becoming very well aquainted.

Women our age are getting more and more connected as we see the convenience and yes, the fun of using smart phones and tablets on the internet

And as I mentioned in a previous post, we are the fastest growing age group on Facebook.

Below is a cute graphic that sums up the report.

Do you think they’re finally starting to get the hint? Leave me a comment with your thoughts.

Do you remember being asked that question when you were growing up? It was often followed by an arched eyebrow and “young lady”.

Just who do you think you are, young lady?

And almost always it was asked when you were trying to break out of the box, think outside the box or do something out of the ordinary. Well, I’m going to ask you that question because I actually do want you to break out of the box, think outside the box or do something out of the ordinary.

Just who do you think you are? How would you truthfully answer that question?

Would you answer with your job description, such as:

I’m a doctor/lawyer/housewife/beautician/engineer.

Or would you answer the question with your role in life, such as:

I’m a wife/mother/daughter.

But even if you automatically answer the question that way, is that really the only role that defines you?

For me: I’ve got a good corporate, professional job. So do I answer with that job description even if it no longer satisfies my soul?

I can’t. I did answer the question that way in the past but not any more. It is not who I think I am.

As a way to answer that question and to find something that does satisfy my soul, I’ve been learning how to create an online business. I’ve been studying and researching and doing. And this is where the thinking outside the box comes in:

Lately, I’ve actually started to think of myself as an entrepreneur.

Kind of cool how that just snuck up on me! Many people believe that mindset is everything. Where the mind and subconscious go, the rest follows.

Just who do I think I am? I’m an entrepreneur!

Just who do you think you are?