You need to have faith in your writing, and believe in your book. If you don't have faith in your book, how do you expects readers to find it persuasive?

Never access your Amazon KDP account through a public computer like in a cyber cafe. It is better you use your personal devices like a smart phone or computer. This is because if Amazon system traced more than one KDP accounts to a particular device, it will be assumed that an individual is operating more than one account which is against Amazon's terms of service and such accounts will all be terminated.

Properly editing and proofreading your book's manuscript is a very important factor in launching and sustaining a successful self-publishing career.

From the beginning of the conception of a book idea, you must consider the target audience and genre of the book.

Always publish your books under two or three different pen names and eventually one of them will really be performing well. You can then put more efforts onto that pen name to get maximum benefits from it.

Self-publishing publishing strategies that works!
http://ebookstrati..co.ke/2017/07/Effective-eBook-Publishing-Strategies.html?m=1

Still on writing: Let your book research ideas remain at that level and it should only act as a guide to you. Hence, never copy and paste any part of it into your book project.

Author brand is one great thing to build as an author. You can create and maintain an author brand in the following ways:

1. Write a series book which will have a unique and professional covers. The covers for each book in the series should be closely knitted such that readers can easily identify them.

2. If you write stand alone books, make sure they are all in the same line of thought and unify them with a unique but similar covers.

How many pages should one write for a short story as a beginner and how many pages would you recommend that audience would like for a normal average story. Please explain using word counts, font size and types in ms word.
Thank you for the thread.

kdon0000:
How many pages should one write for a short story as a beginner and how many pages would you recommend that audience would like for a normal average story. Please explain using word counts, font size and types in ms word.
Thank you for the thread.

This is the standard:

Short Story ............ below 7,500 word count.
Novelette .............. btw 7,500 to 17, 500 word count.
Novella ............... btw 17, 500 to 40, 000 word count.
Novel ...................... over 40, 000 word count.

Stevenbright:

This is the standard:
Short Story ............ below 7,500 word count. Novelette .............. btw 7,500 to 17, 500 word count. Novella ............... btw 17, 500 to 40, 000 word count. Novel ...................... over 40, 000 word count.

thanks

Read books in your genre as that will help you know the taste of readers of the genre and hence improve your writing strategy and quality.

Never reply to a review of your book, no matter how low the rating or how negatively worded.

It is good that even before you publish your first book, you should already established an author brand through these media:

1. Facebook profile

2. Facebook page

3. Twitter handle

4. Goodreads author account

5. Website or Blog.

Some sure ways to cut down investment in your book project as an independent author is to:

1. Learn to write a clean book manuscript with minimal editing requirement.

2. Learn the art of editing your manuscript.

3. Perfect the art of proofreading your manuscript.

These will help to eliminate the need for professional editing.

Tips on Self-publishing books, make some money and become a fulfilled independent author.
http://ebookstrati..is/2016/11/how-to-become-independent-author.html?m=1

These are the basic steps involved in eBook publishing through Amazon:
1. Create a publishing account with Amazon KDP.
2. typeset your book in Microsoft Word.
3. format the book manuscript to eBook publishing standard.
4. design eBook cover for the book.
5. login to your accounts and publish it.
Note that I can offer you affordable services on points 3 and 4.
Also note that the account creation guide I will provide you is free. I also normally guide my clients on the publishing processes and how to promote their books once it is published.

Being an independent author involves a learning curve and it also requires you to promptly act on the feedbacks you get to get better at the game.

According to amazonauthorinsights.com, the real costs of self-publishing are well articulated in the article below:

http://amazonauthorinsights.com/post/160048498205/the-real-costs-of-self-publishing-by-honorée?ref=aai_ts_publish

With a know-how of the fundamental basics of research, niche, and marketing strategies; you will surely have a successful self-publishing career through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.

Self-publishing publishing strategies that works!
http://ebookstrati..com/2017/07/Effective-eBook-Publishing-Strategies.html?m=1

This is a list of Digital and eBook publishing tools that can be of great help to you.
http://ebookstrati..co.ke/2017/02/BookandDigitalPublishingToolsandSoftware.html?m=1

Basic tips on how to prepare and format your manuscript for publishing as an eBook.
http://ebookstrati..co.ke/2016/07/professional-ebook-formatting-and.html?m=1

Write more books, publish more books, and promote your already published books. With these action steps, you will be getting better sales and return on investment.

As a writer/Independent author, it is good to be creative. Hence, from the onset of your book idea, you have to know the target audience, genre, and target keywords/categories.

eBook Cover Design Tips http://ebookstrati..co.ke/2016/07/ebook-cover-design-guide.html?m=1

When contacting Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing customer service team, you have to be calm and diplomatic to always get positive response from them.

Do you know that since Amazon KDP launched it's print beta platform for paperback (print) book publishing in September of 2016, you can now publish your book both as an eBook (Kindle) and Paperback (print) book through KDP instead of going to CreateSpace for paperback publishing.

This means that you can now get all your sales report and payment processing done exclusively through KDP.

The characters and settings ( names and locations) in your novels should be universal and not peculiar to Nigeria alone, so that the book will appeal to a larger audience.

The major secret for increasing your sales on Amazon, is writing and publishing more books!

What is Kindle Edition Normalized Pages (KENP) read?: This is the second way you can earn royalties from Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, the first being direct sales.

If your book enrolled in KDP select program is downloaded by a reader who has a KindleUnlimited Subscription, you get paid per page for the number of pages of the book read by the reader.