How Long Does a Kindle Book Review Have to Be

Over the last two years one of the biggest trends I've seen, is people having success self-publishing books on Kindle. I have friends that are making v figures monthly, by edifice their small-scale publishing empire.

There's a good run a risk you've been interested in writing a volume of your own, so I enlisted Noam Lightstone to share with you his experience, and in detail share his 10 biggest Kindle mistakes that he made when publishing his first book.

If you lot're thinking of writing a book for Kindle, or fifty-fifty if you already have, have some time and read through this to ensure you set yourself up for the best take a chance of success!

Accept it away, Noam!

—

I have ever been a writer, ever since I was a kid. And fifty-fifty in school, the formatting, teasing out, and creation of a 400 page thesis got me going. Well, OK it likewise drove me a bit crazy but y'all can't have the good without the bad…

So I decided to write my commencement book, Mastery Of The Mind , back in September for my web log, Light Fashion Of Thinking . My promise was that I'd sell just i copy and somewhen, make $100 a month. If I did that I'd be floored.

The results were FAR beyond my expectations:

Breaching top 1000 of ALL books in Kindle store, dual #1 bestseller status in two categories, and likewise breaching top twenty books in Self-Help.

Being #10 in Cocky-Assist category – beating out heavy weights Stephen Covey, Eckart Tolle, and Dale Carnegie.

Launch And Commencement Month Stats:

• Commencement calendar month copies sold: Nearly 2000 (1812)
• First calendar month acquirement: ~ $3K USD
• During kickoff week: Broke top 100 in Canada, top 1000 in US (of all books in Kindle store)
• Triple #ane bestseller in Canada during commencement calendar month
• Dual #1 bestseller in U.s. during first month

You tin bank check out the book here

Just after taking months to write the book and delaying my publishing for so long (ah the fears of the entrepreneur!), when I look dorsum I realize I made A LOT of mistakes.

There are cracking guides effectually that get into the mechanics of writing a book for Amazon and the Kindle Store. They cover topics like keyword research, category selection and so on. Some great posts sit here at Location Rebel past Dave and Tristan King . I'll also share some more resources at the terminate of the article.

Only what I wanted to particular here in this article are the things I didn't practice so well. These are things I volition better on for my next book.

My hope that if you choose to write a volume and/or publish it with Amazon and Kindle Directly Publishing, yous will be saved hours of stress and tears from my mistakes and I give you action steps to address each mistake and so you tin can tackle them as you write..

So here they are:

1) My Biggest Kindle Mistake: Non Writing My Book in Scrivener from the Start

My friend had told me about Scrivener and I think he first heard about it from Tim Ferriss. It's an alternative yous should use compared to Word. Why? Give-and-take for large documents is slow, unruly, and can crash. Also, your book file can become corrupt – Say goodbye to all your difficult work if you don't have a back up! I'm not kidding. Hours of writing tin can disappear.

I know Sean had this happen to his website, but it tin can happen for books too!

Scrivener is fabricated for screenplays and large amounts of text.

I simply started writing with it merely didn't really know how to utilise the program. Certain, making chapters and sections is great, but information technology's actually much more powerful.

Y'all tin can automatically add together in with a few keystrokes:

• Affiliate numbering
• Paragraph indents and spacing
• Top of the page chapter titles
• Fancy images separating capacity
• Etc.

So non only did I waste material time on formatting which the software can practise automatically… But I exported a Discussion version to my editor, who made comments/changes to information technology, which I then had to transcribe BACK into Scrivener, where I had to manually enter in carriage returns and everything.

Going back, I would have kept everything localized in Scrivener and saved myself hours of annoyance and stress. Scrivener also immensely helped when formatting the book for submission to Amazon's Createspace programme, which helps you turn your eastward-books into paperbacks with a few clicks.

Scrivener can even automatically export a very nicely formatted version off for directly Kindle publishing (MOBI file), whereas in Discussion I believe you must use code to do then. I don't think I even have to go into why formatting a 100-150 page volume with code to get everything to await right can only downright suck.

Action STEP: Buy a license for Scrivener and download it now.

Scrivener costs well-nigh $50 or less, merely for the fourth dimension information technology saves in formatting, outsourcing, and hair pulling… it'southward worth it. Take hold of information technology from the Literature and Latte site (I don't make any money off this link, I just think it's an awesome program).

two) Don't use tables in the book if possible.

Kindle sucks for displaying tables. They go messed upwards, jumbled, and split on to different pages… especially on mobiles.

If I would include a table now in a book, I'd probably utilise an image instead unless the table was extremely simple. Or meliorate nonetheless, I'd just apply plainly text if at all possible.

Clear writing is good writing, and nothing kills a book like jumbled, unruly text.

Activeness STEP: Preview or Remove All Tables

If y'all insist on using tables in your volume, preview ALL tables in your book on multiple platforms to ensure that everything is OK. Or even amend, remove all the tables in your book and apply plain text, or consider using actual images of tables instead (screenshots from a word processor).

Learn How to Make Your Get-go $1,000 Freelance Writing (in xxx Days or Less)

Join over 40,000 people who have taken our vi office freelance writing class. Sign up below and let's do this together.

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3) Ask people who get your avant-garde copies to SAY that they got advanced copies if/when they submit reviews.

"Get advanced copies" is all over the Kindle blogosphere as advice. Information technology makes sense – One of the first things I personally look for (and I'thousand sure yous do too) when purchasing new stuff is what other people accept said well-nigh it.

Social proof works.

But what NEEDS to be done, especially as a first-fourth dimension author, is making sure that these people EXPLICITLY SAY IN THEIR REVIEWS THAT THEY GOT Avant-garde COPIES .

After sending out around 200 copies around 2 months before release, I got a lot of slap-up, positive reviews during my launch.

Simply I didn't ask people to note that they got these copies in accelerate.

A day subsequently release, it looked similar 10-12 people bought my 200+ folio book, read it, did exercises that could take weeks to exercise, and said that the volume really helped them in their lives.

…And what happened is a lot of people called my reviews faux .

I responded to one of these comments, and people seemed to get the idea/it didn't seem to affect sales much. People even responded proverb " Thanks for clarifying! ", but who knows.

It caused a HUGE amount of stress for me.

I don't blame people for calling me out, I'd call BS likewise. At that place's a lot of crap in the Kindle store these days and then people at present act as watchdogs and are very careful about fake things floating around – they want people to be aware. This is good, merely over again, it tin really hurt yous if you don't address it.

It'south quite possible even at present that people don't read the reviews and come across my responses, passing my volume upward. They just run across "Fake Reviews", say "**** it", and movement on.

So save yourself the stress – ship out your advanced copies, merely make sure people say in their reviews that the copies were sent way before publication.

Tons of authors transport out avant-garde copies and there'southward nada wrong with it, you just need to exist honest with your potential buyers.

ACTION STEP: Email everyone who received an advance copy, and TELL them to land that they received it early in their review.

When sending out advanced copies to friends, family, and your mailing list, EXPLICITLY write in your e-mail and bring people'due south attention to the fact that they should mention that they got an advanced re-create of the volume earlier the publication engagement in their reviews.

This is an entirely preventable problem that I learned the difficult way.

four) The outset week later on publishing will consist of 12+ hr days. Get comfortable.

I didn't expect to exist so busy afterward publishing my book.

In fact, I recall a lot of location independent entrepreneurs mis-judge the amount of piece of work that goes into a product launch. I really wrote a report for you on 5 ways you tin salvage your stress and power upwardly your progress , specially as yous travel the world. You can grab that at the terminate of the commodity if you're interested!

I thought information technology'd exist just clicking the "Save and Publish" button, and waiting to run into sales come in. Certain, I was partly obsessive and excited (who wouldn't be??) and I did have some setup to exercise every bit a first-fourth dimension author, simply there's a lot of work that goes effectually publishing.

You should expect to be:

• Doing final checks and edits.
• Responding to blog/book questions.
• Posting on your web log as per usual.
• Sharing content and making conversations on social media.
• Writing guest posts on relevant blogs.
• Generating buzz.
• Running/co-ordinating marketing campaigns.
• Checking sales metrics and stats.
• And more than.

I didn't realize all this would come at once, but it happens and you volition be super decorated. Look information technology, and don't program any parties during this time… until later release when you can celebrate :).

ACTION Footstep: Look the piece of work, stock upward on Ramen noodles.

Likewise: Make certain you're on top of your productivity game and have a adept system and so you don't burn out .

v) Know the International rules for Amazon's Audiobook Creation Exchange

Submitting your Kindle book for straight translation into an audiobook using Amazon's Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) service is Merely available to residents of US/U.k.. Make sure yous enter proper tax info to relieve yourself money!

I wasted A LOT of fourth dimension contemplating doing an ACX version of my book.

Is the royalty deal worth it?

Can I brand a better product somewhere else for cheaper?

Is it OK being locked in for 7 years?

…Only to read subsequently upon trying to sign up that ACX is simply available to residents of the United states of america/Uk. That leaves me as a Canadian, out. Knowing this beforehand would have saved me hours of deliberation and inquiry.

Along with that, Amazon withholds revenue enhancement unless you prove your state will tax you lot/enter this as revenue enhancement info. For Canadians, enter the non-U.s. tax number in Amazon equally your SIN (social insurance number) . Y'all volition run into Amazon report that it now holds 0% of earnings.

You should be aware that if yous are outside of the United states of america, Amazon tin withhold xxx%+ of all revenue on your volume sales unless you enter in your tax information correctly. Check you country's rules and workarounds through Google.

ACTION STEPS

• Depending on your country of citizenship, only consider using ACX if you are from the US or UK.
• If you lot are, cheque out ACX here .
• Make full in your revenue enhancement data and exemption form, which tin be found by logging into your Kindle Direct Publishing here , navigating to X's account (X is your name), and checking the Revenue enhancement Information section. See the paradigm below .
• Read more than well-nigh Amazon KDP's revenue enhancement policy here .

How to get to the Tax Information section so you can enter you revenue enhancement info for your KDP account.

6) Hire an editor… and no, your friends and/or family unit don't count.

OK, not a error I made but I was close to making information technology. Information technology's so important I had to include information technology in this list. I was contemplating if hiring an editor was really worth the money.

" I'm a skillful author ", I said. " Practice I really need to beat out $150-200 for an editor? ".

He caught and then many mistakes that without a doubt at present, I know it was totally worth it. Upon seeing his revisions I was SHOCKED at how many typos and errors I idea I had went over.

Many people advocate passing your manuscript to your friends and family. I mean, costless crowdsourcing, correct?

Simply I'm sorry, they don't count. Not merely are they probably super busy, just they're inherently biased.

ACTION STEPS

• Pay someone completely outside of your social circumvolve who has edited a volume before, is experienced in writing, and knows what to look for to make your volume as best equally it can be for release.
• Survey your Mastermind groups, beau authors, or other entrepreneurs for practiced re-create editors that they have used. This is how I constitute mine!
• If that fails, post a chore on Upwork asking for an editor. Or better yet, try one of these job boards. Requite the approximate word/page count of your volume and the subject matter.
• Look out for price in the offers you receive. A good price point for an offer is 0.3 cents/discussion.

seven) Don't write the book you simply feel similar writing.

Only because you want to write about taming monkeys doesn't hateful people volition buy information technology.

Do market research and testing to find out what is trending and selling. Cross-bank check that with what you are passionate about and take noesis in. Find something that is on both lists.

At beginning, I began writing Mastery Of The Listen because it was something I wanted to write. But, I also knew it could assist a lot of people. Along the manner and through some inquiry, I tailored the content after seeing more of what people wanted and were buying on the Amazon store.

Combine passion with market demand. You lot can write the book y'all want to write out of thin air when you are super famous ;).

ACTION STEPS

1. Make a listing of everything y'all are passionate about. What do you lot know about? What could yous write for ages and ages about? Is it music, cocky-comeback, cooking, chicken farming?
2. Search the Amazon Kindle store bestsellers list here , finding the category on the left side of the page that nearly suits some each your ideas you'd like to look into.
3. Look for any patterns or trends: mutual themes among books, words, colours, imagery… Anything.
4. Run into if you can correlate anything on the 2 lists-this might not exist equally like shooting fish in a barrel or direct as you think. For example: There was a tendency of a lot of addiction books and footstep-by-pace guides when I published. Habits are part of my book, but I made sure to push button that office in my sales clarification. Some people include things like this in their volume title or sub-title also to really depict attention to it or use specific keywords.

8) For Your Time, Write a Shorter Book.

I similar to write a lot.

But writing a lot doesn't mean that it's good or necessary. Curtailed writing is better if information technology gets the task done. As they say in copywriting, write the shortest corporeality you lot tin can to persuasively get the information across. I might accept spent hours on pages for nothing if the book didn't actually succeed.

As a test of getting into the Kindle world, I'd recommend someone write a shorter book offset to learn how KDP works, play effectually with the details in the shop, and get a feel for the environment. Then, yous could write larger ones subsequently.

Steve Scott, a machine at producing Kindle books, said in 1 of his manufactures (paraphrasing) that he doesn't empathize why people want to write such large books. Not merely tin you diversify your portfolio of books and increase sales by splitting them upwards, but large books can exist daunting for people to read. They are more likely to grab something short.

And then first, start with a brusque book and consider e'er trying to continue it reasonably brusk. Your get-go book might be 50-100 pages. Your subsequent books might run 100-150 pages.

Activeness STEPS

1. Make up one's mind the rough topic of your book via footstep/mistake #vii.
2. Set a time goal (write 30 minutes a day) or a word count goal (500 give-and-take a solar day) and stick to it to write your book.
3. Aim for a sub 100 page book. Or, if your book becomes large, attempt thinking nearly how you could divide it into a serial.

ix) Wait the haters. Not everyone is going to like you or your volume.

While I knew non everyone would like my book, my ego definitely got bruised when I started seeing some hate flight my way.

My infant of viii+ months was ripped to shreds by some people who didn't even read information technology .

…Exactly, practice yous run across the trouble?

Constructive or pointed criticism, e.g., such equally commenting on the content, is ane matter. Just if you don't read my book, I'thou going to express mirth at you. Some people but similar to make dissonance on the internet.

Only even the well-formed criticism does sting a chip.

You'd love for your work to be loved by everyone, but that just doesn't happen with fine art – and even non-fiction books are art.

Some people will dear what you stand up for and what yous do. Some people will remember you are pompous and annoying, and that's just life.

ACTION STEPS

• Read the article 1000 true fans . Write for them, cater to them, and leave the haters behind.
• If you're feeling down or want to set up yourself for dealing with criticism (YOU WILL Become Information technology NO Matter WHAT), check out Tim Ferriss' article/video on applied tips for dealing with haters . This is over a decade quondam, merely still very relevant. t really helped me when I got downwards on my start negative review.

10) It's hard piece of work and yeah it'due south coin, but have fun with it.

Equally an anxiety-prone type-A personality, I love achievement, goals, success, etc. I as well desire to be successful ASAP. in my business organisation and for everything to go well.

In fact, sometimes you might ask yourself – does condign a location independent entrepreneur cause more stress and anxiety than it solves while y'all're sitting in an office cubicle ?

Ane mistake I always get caught upward in for many areas of my life, is remembering to have fun and exist happy while I'k chasing down the next thing.

Creating something from nothing is crazy.

Making money for my thoughts is awesome.

Helping thousands of people is great.

Seeing my success cascade (with guest posts like this, increased e-mail sign ups, and more than) is really inspiring.

As Steve Jobs said:

" People say you have to take a lot of passion for what you lot're doing and it's totally true. And the reason is because it's so hard that if you don't, any rational person would give up. It'due south actually hard. And you have to do it over a sustained period of time. So if you don't love information technology, if you lot're not having fun doing it, you don't really honey it, yous're going to give upward. "

Everything Is A Learning Process – Don't Wait Perfection

For me, I had an astonishing book release. But if you click here and cheque out the store now , you can see that my ranking has dropped. I all the same make sales, merely naught like I did before.

This is office of the learning process for me: OK, I can launch well. I'm beside myself with the results. Now, how practice I piece of work on sustaining those sales? What can I learn for the next book? How can I amend?

According to every mentor or friend I have who are doing well in Kindle, the best way to increase sales on ALL books is to write a new book…, and it's extremely difficult to proceed sales as loftier as they were in the first few months (unless yous're someone like Tony Robbins…).

But hey, for a starting time-fourth dimension volume, I'm pretty much beside myself still because of the results.

At present, fourth dimension to get dorsum to writing!

As you effort to build your kindle business or any business, make money, go travel, explore in life… Yes set your goals, celebrate the victories, keep trying to fix issues…

…but also just enjoy the procedure of learning.

It'south And so hard as a type-A personality to realize this at times, particularly when you are just itching to quit that 9-5 and become a nomad, but trust me: Having fun in whatsoever you're doing, seeing the small successes, and learning will mean a whole lot more than on your death bed compared to frowning, being super serious, and trying to force something to work.

Good luck! And have questions about launching your first book on Kindle? Ask away in the comments! I'll do my all-time to respond to every single question.

Here are more than self-publishing manufactures if y'all're looking to write a volume of your ain.

Sean Ogle

Sean Ogle is the Founder of Location Insubordinate where he has spent the terminal 12+ years didactics people how to build online businesses that give them the liberty to do more of the things they similar to do in life. When he's non in the coffee shops of Portland, or the beaches of Bali, he'due south probably sneaking into some other high-class establishment where he virtually certainly doesn't belong.

Learn How to Brand Your Starting time $1,000 Freelance Writing (in xxx Days or Less)

Join over forty,000 people who have taken our 6 part freelance writing form. Sign upward below and let's do this together.

By entering your email address you lot agree to receive emails from Location Insubordinate. We'll respect your privacy and you lot can unsubscribe at whatsoever time.

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