₦airaland Forum

dreamxhaser:
Evb2000 and others here I need your opinion.

Discovered a new niche last year when it was about 900 results. Now I came back to check and there are about 1000 results.

The 3 best sellers in the niche have a BSR rank of

1. 1,275
2. 1,285
3. 5,082

One of those books was published October last year while the other was July.

Do you think it’s a good niche to dive into?

Although A niche with 1000 books or even 2000 books is still considered a good niche. However, my concern is the BSR of the highest selling books. Those BSRs are indications the books ain't selling much but due to the limited competition on the niche, a few sales can give the a best seller ranking on that niche. My rule of thumb is BSR of 150 or less is considered a good selling book. The lesser, the better.

So, in my opinion, it is not a good niche.

1. Giving my life to Christ. It ended my rudderless sorjourn in life.
2. Taking the bull by the horn to do the hard things that changed my finances.
3. Traveling out of Nigeria before jakpa became insanely expensive
4. My CCNA and AWS certifications (still on it), learning so many things i never knew.
5. Getting a really good laptop.

FxExpo:
Boss ingramspark is telling me that my country Nigeria does not support e-signature is there anyway I can pass that part I wanted to also give them a try

Unfortunately No. Bcus if u succeed in bypassing it, they may still terminate the account down the road. They are not as "lenient" as amazon kdp. Ingramspark does not accept people trying to open an account from Nigeria.

goldenval:
Congrats boss, I'm secretly learning a lot from you especially how you detailed every step on your journey to Canada and I'm glad you have reached a mile stone of $7000 earnings a month and I know by June will cross over $10000 a month.

Are you on Twitter?

Lol! It wasn't $7k a month o. If you know how ams calculate sales, they add everything (gross sales) instead showing my profit (net sales). So that $7000 is gross, not net.

Tomman:
In response to the bolded part, how well exactly do you actually do on KDP? I continue to be amazed at the fact that, despite all the endless conversation going on in this thread, nobody has been able to provide a single example of a black/Nigerian person actually making significant income on the platform (or any other American-owned online platform for that matter).

I don't understand the angle you are coming from. People have different publishing goals and they are doing great. Ofcourse, as Nigerians, living in Nigeria, we can't compete with most American Authors, but there are Nigerian authors in the US doing well by virtue of the fact that they can walk into any media house and advertise their books. However, you don't expect an author in Nigeria to compete with the likes J.K Rowlings or Dan Brown? Because we don't have the budget and exposure to market your books like they do. Besides, they are brand names and building a brand takes years of hardwork.

Now, let's bring it back home. Success is relative, what you feel is sucess may not be success to the other person. Some authors just need book royalties to put food on their table, while others want to build a brand. However, there are many "successful" self-publishers that I know and others that I know are Nigerians but not close to doing $1k, $2k, $6k, $7k and $10k a month. Like, I said, success is relative. But don't expect to churn out poor quality books with AI and be successful. Don't expect to be successful without a good budget for marketing your books.

Bring it back to the question on how well i am doing? I am not a guru neither will i claim to be so successful because I am still a work-in-progress. But the little i have gotten from publishing, i have documented in my diary. If not for anything, I can afford to fund my MSc program and take care of my living expensis while schooling in the west, which I give all the glory to God.

https://www.nairaland.com/6884099/sponsoring-myself-study-canada-sept

Phantom042:
Do you mentor people? Like a paid class?

No. I am very busy with school work. Combining it with KDP is a lot of stress already.

SonofElElyonRet:
Good morning. I'm trying to do the 5 days free promotion. My book is due for this.. when i click the button it briefly shows the page then reverts back to previous page... why is this ?

Who is advising you guys to do a free promotion for your books? It is a recipe for disaster. The only reason you should give out any of your book(s) free of charge, is when you are using it as a lead magnet. That is, you are either using it to promote another book(s) in a series (or have the link to the other book within the one you are giving out free) or you are exchanging it for their email address to build your email list.

This is all you get, when you guys keep listening or buying all these mushroom courses online that repeat this non-sense. Never give any of your book(s) out for free not for a day. The algorithm has since left that style of promotion. I have stopped putting my books to on select. If the topic is good, the serious ones will buy.

dreamxhaser:
Thank you so much

One more question on my mind. Especially for you and evb2000

Do you think AI will replace KDP Authors in the future? I plan to do this for as long as I can. But I've been wondering if AI will destroy the business in like 4-5 years. Because I have the feeling that if AI becomes good enough, people will just generate their books with AI instead of buying from KDP.

As experts what do you think?

Well, I can't predict the future but your concern is very valid and there is a possibility. Most big companies are reducing their workforce and replacing them with AI. I was recently invited for a beta test to narrate some of my books into audiobooks by AI. Men! If they had not told me it was AI, i won't believe. It sounds so natural. This simply means, audiobook narrators would soon be out of business.

So, there is a possibility to train their AI to write highly in-demand titles and authors may be sidelined. I honestly pray this won't be the case.

Tunni:
I’m not allowed for acx but I’m allowed for Ingramspark

Please go ahead with the ingramspark. Get an ISBN, it is worth publishing there. The competition is not like kdp. And they distribute to over 20,000 retail outlets.

SuperOnyi:



Thank you sir but sir, what do you think of my plan for the children's book?

It is a highly competitive niche and requires a lot of ads. Not to discourage you. Throw in one or two books there and observe. Remember, children's book require a lot of illustrations. Do you have that skill? If no, can u afford outsourcing? These are the questions u should ask urself b4 jumping into that niche.

Tunni:
I’m currently in China

Find out if u are allowed to open acx and ingramspark from China b4 proceeding so ur acct don't get terminated.

SuperOnyi:



Good morning sir.

Sir, what about those of us without any money for ads? I was thinking of creating children books with illustrations, do you think they are profitable?

Though I don't have the equipment for that, I plan to draw everything on a plain white paper then use water color before going to a photography shop to take a photo of the drawing; then edit it on canva. Please what do you think? Are there any tips you're willing to share with me?

I really want to start making money in this business before it gets more hard, please help me out. Thank you.

Start small $50 - $100 and gradually increase ur ads budget as sales grow. Organic visibility is dying if not dead already.

Tunni:
Hello evb2000,

I couldn’t send you a message on your thread, please the question I’ll like to ask is how do I get a narrator for audiobooks?

Secondly is it advisable to buy ISBN on ingramspark Or I should use the free one allocated?

Which country are you based?

Tunni:
Thank you sir

Hi, saw you want to contact me by mail. You can drop you question here and I will answer for the benefit of others.

faceland:
9m is too much to use 100%

I would convert 7m to dollars and use 2m to start a Media Company like Sahara Reporters & Adeola Fayehun. Different interest groups will privately contact you and bribe to portray them in positive light or remove critical content about them.

It also pays for itself with ads. People make $10k per video on YouTube. I would like to make a comedy show where you tell the news in entertaining ways like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart but Nigerian. I am sure we can make $10k a video in 3 months time and with a budget of less than 2m (management).

Una go just open mouth waaaah, dey talk rubbish abi naa, type rubbish. No be only $10k. Naa $1m.

Deadline for submission of CV is 20th January, 2024. Note: This position is opened for residents of Benin City, Edo State alone.

SuperOnyi:



God bless you, bro.


I don't have a domiciliary account as I currently use grey.co but I'm hoping that once I master this business, I'm getting one in preparation for the mission ahead.

Grey pays almost at black market rate. Depending on your income, you can buy USD at the black market rate for safe keeping.

dreamxhaser:
Also, I have another question @ evb2000

Sorry if I am disturbing you, but you are too scarce that's why I want to use this opportunity to ask as much as I can before you disappear😅

Going through your diary (as my daily motivation) I noticed you were able to publish multiple high-content books in a month. Please how were you able to achieve such feet, like to publish 30k words alone is no joke oooo.

Is it pure discipline and determination? Or there is some strategy you use?

If you have a goal and time is against you. You will cut down on sleep and work your ass off. When a process is yielding result, especially results you have spent years looking for, you will double down on that process.

SuperOnyi:



Bro, thanks for the advice on your thread. Do you advise leaving the money we receive from Amazon in foreign currencies like dollar and euro? The plan is to destroy poverty and japa by God's grace.

Pls leave your money in USD. Forget abt the rumour that dom accts would be converted to naira. If they try it, the Zimbabwan dollar would be stronger than the naira. It would be the last straw. They won't be so foolish to take that route no matter how desperate they are.

What I did while I was saving up for my japa was to leave bulk of the funds in my dom acct and have some USD at home. Those days accessing USD was a pain in the ass. So, I kept some at home and kept the bulk in the bank as P.O.F. Because it is the one at the bank that the Visa Officer recognizes as Proof of Funds.

But you need to be disciplined with the cash you are saving at home. A wooden or metal safe (piggy bank) will also help.