₦airaland Forum

Kingokanu: @ MK82:

I have some questions:

1. I outsourced some content writing for my ebooks, so i got the authors to give my their autobiography and hand over full copyrights of those contents to me. Since you suggested using pen names, how will can I edit my copyright page to work with a pen named author?

2. I came across an article that says one can submit his or her ebooks to multiple ebook stores apart from kindle: barnes and noble (nook), sony reader, google reader, ibook store/ i tunes...etc.

do you have any experience in that aspect?

1. whether your book is outsourced or self-written, you are free to choose any pen name you want to use. That name will appear as author and in the copyright. Freelancers know that they have no claim to the work once you have paid them.
2. Your books will be submitted to most of those places if you register with smashwords.com. From what other indie publishers say, do not expect too much sales. Amazon Kindle store is still the king. I plan to upload some of my books to smashwords in January to test the market.
PS. any book you want to publish in other stores must not be enrolled for kdp select.

GatJokez: How about writing a children's book? Has anyone published children ebooks on Kindle? Any thoughts, advice, ideas would be appreciated. I started with an idea that is in the works and think would be lots of fun for children ages 4-7.

I have actually considered putting up a couple of children's books because many books are doing well in that category. I think you'll do well if you have a catchy story/theme and colorful drawings and images.
Check out kindleboards.com I think I have seen topics about children's books there.

darmochy1: I've finally uploaded my book today and awaiting its approval. Thank you OP for opening my eyes to how I can easily monetize my writing skill. God bless You.

hamlak: Hi Friends, i have published book number 2 today. The 3rd one should be there in 2 days time.
For the 1st book, i put it on on KDP Select and during the 3 days of free promotion, it was downloaded 188 times.
Well not like the experience of other people who said they got thousands, but I am happy I have started the journey.

My plan is to get out 5 books within this month. I am not bothered about sales because i know it will come. Just now
i checked and i have made my first sale of my 1st ebook priced at $2.99. I am glad. This happened with 2 books on
my bookshelf. I know i will have more with the 5 books planned this month.

mk82 thanks for this thread. It made me take action and now that I have started, i am not going to stop until i get 100
books in one acct, then I start a second one with my wife's name. Thanks and God bless you.

Will keep the house posted on my progress. I hope this would motivate those still sitting on the fence.

[quote author=Appliedmaths.]@MK, sire my journey has began ooo. I had to change the cover of my book, they said it would take 24 hours before it'll change still waiting, although the new cover reflects on my dashboard already. BTW it's a christian book, the free promo download isn't encouraging @ all(16) in a day after I unpublished and republished the same book the same day to make little modifications. Currently working on my normal fiction and non-fiction +ASUU don almost call us back to school, Exam things. This is my kindle update.[/quote]I am happy for everyone who has taken action. Once you start, you can only get better. You will soon start having bestsellers in your accounts if you persevere. Do proper research and produce quality books. Learn from your mistakes and correct your books as many times as possible. ...don't forget to ask questions when you are stuck.

[quote author=Appliedmaths.]Same over here, but I'm not surprised though. I wrote 4,800 words and it produced 20 kindle pages. @MK, my 1st book just got published *gave it a 3days lending promo* Thanks man, would keep you posted.[/quote]

Bestlyf: How comes my book is just 18 pages when its more than 4700 words. I just don't understand.

If you have 4700 words for a regular book, it should be close to 30 pages. By regular, I mean written in form of a novel. if you are writing recipes, this same number of words can give you 50 pages.
The arrangement of your work must be considered.
I leave one line between my paragraphs and I also insert a page break after each chapter/subchapter.
Images also increase page count.

darmochy1: Thank you mk82. I sent u a mail asking for assistance in downloading d kindle previewer for PC. I'm eagerly waiting for ur response sir. Txs once again

I didn't see your mail. use the gmail in my profile.

darmochy1: Hello everyone in the house, kindly help me assess this cover that I just designed for my book. How is it?Txs

Nice cover. I like the way the guy's face is covered -saves you copyright worries. I can see your author is a "doctor" hope your content is up to the quality that is expected of a doctor

adino: @ mk82
Thanks for this thread and God will continue to bless and reward you. More power to your lappy and more strength to your fingers.
By the way, does Amazon Kindle publishing have a special platform for screenwriting or do you publish a screenwriting job the same way you publish the regular content in the same platform.
Sir, for the regular writing job, what is the minimum content one can manage, is a 30 page MS Word content okay for publishing (after conversion).
I am still gathering materials and I will publish at least FIVE books befor the Year runs out BY FIRE BY FORCE . Oga, I honestly want to be among the people on this forum that you will help to be earning N50K or more monthly[b] AND SO SHALL IT BE[/b].

1.You can publish plays the way other books are published.There is a subcategory for Drama & Plays under the Literature & Fiction category.
2. For regular writing, I use a minimum of 5000 words. This gives about 30 pages in kindle. Check the average number of pages your competitors have.

[quote author=Appliedmaths.]@mk, i just uploaded my 1st book today. It's under review, but please how do the payments system work? i didn't select any payment system, and you said we shouldn't put any bank account. So how do i process the payment issue?[/quote]The payment has been explained in previous pages. Payoneer is the solution you need. Visit the website to learn more about their services.

hamlak: Today I finally published my 1st book on the KDP platform. It has taken months but I finally did it.

First it was "the topic, then the cover, how was I going to make the cover?" that kept me away.
But after reading the thread here, I felt challenged and said "Hey I am going to do it". So today I
did it.

Right now, the ebook is under review. I plan 5 this month, so 1 gone, 4 left. I will do it! I am going
to start the 2nd one today.

For those of you who love to write but are still sitting outside the fence, now is the time to jump inside.
If I can do it, you can do it too.

If you want to motivate yourself, just go to Google and type Kindle success stories, and read of people
earning 6 figures monthly with their Kindle ebooks.

mk82 thank you for this thread. May all your kindle ebooks be Bestsellers, Amen.

I am happy for you and thank you for the prayer. Keep going strong...

darmochy1: OP, kimdly assist me by giving a detailed explanation on how I can convert my book cover which I designed in ms word/ corel draw to jpeg format. Thanks

I don't think you can convert to jpeg in MS Word because it's not a graphics software.
In Corel: Once your cover is ready, go to Export (can be found on the shortcut toolbar or under file). Choose a name for the file and the location you want to save it in. When you click export, you'll have the option to choose the width and height. I use 980x1260 pixels. Then click okay.

Bestlyf: Mk82, I need to understand something. Even after my promotion has expired, my account still reads "free promotion" under my transaction type and has a N/A under Royalty type. As a result my royalty for books sold is not reflected.

I don't know where you saw transaction type. To see your sales, borrows and free downloads, go to reports in your dashboard and click on "Month-to-Date Unit Sales"

Saryea83: Can one publish a professional book like research, he has made? I mean practical/research work done by someone!

You can publish research books. Just check to see if it will get buyers on kindle.

dombible: Master,i'm worken on a book now,but it nids pictural explanation.is it adviceable to add picture in my ebook?i want to know if is going to be accepted.thank u.

You can insert images in your book.Just make sure you don't use copyrighted images.

hamlak: Ok thank you mk82 for the advice.

Another question pls. I read that I have to make the Table of content (TOC) click-able. what If I do not want to have a
TOC? I just want to publish short stories, the one you can easily read from beginning to the end in one or two days.
can I just write my stories without a TOC?

thanks for the great work.

Yes you do not have to include a TOC for a short fiction book with very few chapters.

hamlak: @mk82, and other contributors here, thanks for the great job. I am ready to start my Kindle publishing journey.
I will publish some ebooks this month. I just want to ask one question.

The kindle ecover Creator or maker, has anyone here used it? Is it really good and can produce nice
covers? I tried to access it and discovered, it is only available when I upload my eBook.

Pls anyone, tell me.

I haven't used the kdp cover creator but I've used the one for createspace. If it is the same standard, you can only use it for simplistic covers. You will have the same images and fonts with every other user. If you want your book to stand out, make your own cover or outsource.

Bestlyf: Mk82, How do I get a review for my book?

Reviews will come naturally if the book is good. It is better not to have reviews than to have bad reviews
Some people buy reviews on fiverr or tell friends to review their books but I do not do that.

Opengates: @MK82: Please what do you suggest I do concerning my published book that got 2 bad reviews, one says it should be $.99 instead of $2.99, the second says it is awful and useless! Do I unpublish it totally, make all the necessary corrections and publish it again although I only used 3days out 5 days promotion?


What, what, what and what I am confused!!!

Eeyaa, welcome to the club. I've had my share of terrible reviews (when I was just starting) and had to unpublish one book becos I used d same author name for anoda book and it was affecting the sales of dat book.
-U do not have to unpublish d book. Just go and make the necessary corrections in the original Ms Word n upload again.
- u may have to add more material to provide satisfactory value to buyers.
-if you make necessary corrections, oda gud reviews will counter d bad ones later.
-your grammar and use of English should be checked. If you know ur level of English is not good enough, hire a proofreader or ask a friend to read n correct it for you.
-My aim is to always produce books dat have very high standards n also provide quality information.
-Before writing any book, check d books oda people published in dat niche so you can produce similar or even better standard.

[quote author=Appliedmaths.]I'm done with the tax issue but I read on Kindle that we should save our books in HTML format. Any info on this *Thanks*[/quote]It is not necessary to save ur book in HTML format. You can upload directly as a MS Word (97-2003) file. Saving to HTML is only needed if u want to view it on ur PC b4 uploading to Amazon.

[quote author=Appliedmaths.]I am on the tax field now, and it said "we are sorry the service you're trying to use is currently unavailable, we are working on the problem as quickly as possible please try again later". like seriously[/quote]It's a system error, check back in a few hours.

[quote author=Appliedmaths.]Boss, how do i include keywords so that my book would pop up when searched for by the specific keywords i used.[/quote]there is a section for adding up to 7 keywords when u are uploading ur book details. U can go back to edit it at any time.
Update the tax field in ur account. There's nothing really to add since u are a Nigerian. Just follow d simple steps.

Bestlyf: @MK82, how do I determined a narrowed down micro niche that gets searched a lot but have less competition?

RESEARCH: METHOD TO NARROW DOWN A NICHE
-Go to Google, type Amazon bestsellers. Click on the amazon bestseller's link
-At amazon bestsellers, click on kindle store on the left side (do not use d search box at d top)
-at kindle store, click on kindle ebooks below it
-under kindle ebooks, u will see many categories. click on anyone dat u want and it will open subcategories. choose any subcategory and click until their is no more subs.
- At this point, start checking the 100 books that are listed for dat sub-subcategory.
-right click any of the listed books and check d product details. It should have amazon sales rank below 20,000.
-determine d keyword of dat book. For instance, it could be a book on anger management.
-now open amazon on anoda tab and go to kindle ebooks.use d search box to search for the keyword 'anger management'. when d results open,select 'new and popular' on d right side.
-Open about 10 of d books to check their product details. their should be at least 5 to 7 books with amazon sales rank around 10k,20k,30k,40k. there should be many odas below 100k.
-this shows money is circulating in dat niche.
if these criteria are not satisfied, go to the bestseller's page and start over. Avoid niches with many celebrity authors or those dat require professional qualifications.

[quote author=2s£xy]MK, what about the MMO niche? Any good?[/quote]Do u mean make money online?A few books are doing well there but I don't think there enough purchasing power for the money to go round. Look for niches where many books are having averagely OK sales. Except u just want to 'try'.

juliebest: Mk84, don't mind ur detractors. Because of this thread, I have published my first book on amazon. It was an ebook I wrote back when I started I'm. I just brushed it up and uploaded and even gave it the whole 5 days free promotion,got 139 downloads.mmh not bad. I have A LOT on my plate this period that I wanted to start publkshinh next year but then I said whT they heck, fire and then aim. I'm writing another that will be better and bigger. Thanks again for starting this threadand don't mind those that want to derail ur thread.

Good job. Try n do detailed research for ur next book. Research is key. 139 downloads is small even for 1day.

Bestlyf: A question. I hope there won't be any problem if I disable the KDP select automatic renewal button for 90days?

You can disable automatic renewal but the 3 months you are currently on must be fulfilled.

[quote author=Appliedmaths.]@OP you don't need to show us any proof, you have done a lot. And please those your figures are intimidating me

Erm', I wrote my book with MS word, saved it as .doc(97'-2003) format with clickable TOC. Can I upload my book like that? Or is there anything I need to add? Thanks!

And you also made mention of uploading the book cover separately from the remaining contents.

Abeg, answer my beginners question.[/quote]You can upload or book as Ms Word 97-2003. You need a separate cover in jpeg format. I use 980 X 1260 pixels.

Colynx: @mk82, My post you referenced was not to slight you. And if you feel slighted in anyway I am sorry about that. It wasn't my intention to make you feel that. My respect to you for opening this thread and kudos to me for making you to post a screenshot of your account, which you did. lol.

Calling people out to post their account is optional, we all know that nl is a platform for all of us and its a good thing to abide by the rules. Remember you asked someone to post his/her screenshot and the person did not. Thank God for what you wrote about the screenshot I posted. That is just for one of my accounts. I will not post my real and long time account here.

I am not asking anybody to get anything from me and you will recall the two tools I posted #330 for all to use. Like you people need to pay for somethings for them to value it. I check through all the post, I didn't in anyway frown at your post #1, for some your offer is the best and for some my offer is what they will prefer.

Someone asked earlier about the card, payoneer is what I use and mk82.

finally @mk82. Sincerely with the tools in my post #330 have I contributed positively to what you intend to achieve? Do well to answer.

Note we are all here to help each other rise! At least that what I am here to do.

Thanks for ur contributions but the bolded looks suspicious. I think everyone that wants to teach here or advertise should upload current screenshots of what they have achieved with their knowledge. For instance, if the master makes $10/month, how much will d students make?

Colynx: (1) its easy to talk, to prove my sincerity, am attaching a pdf file of my remittance advice for the uk platform.

(2) Here is a link to one of my tools ( This one is what i used in writing my books) http://www.kdpublishingpro.com/members-658125475/software.php I have tools for researching the bestsellers, for marketing, for searching for good niche to write. Please note these tools are paid software and I cannot give them to you for free

Any other help, get across to me, am willing to help you for free.

@Colynx, I am putting up this post with reference to your insinuation (bolded above) and as a compound reply to all other antagonists and "info marketers" who have attempted to take over this thread in order to sell Kindle Publishing Information to unwary novices. This reminds me of the of the days of Success Digest Extra when all we had were info marketers that were buying cars from selling eBooks and seminars to ignorant people.

I have challenged a few people to show proof of their kindle achievement before claiming the status of "online publishing veterans" and none of them has been able to show anything.

@Colynx, I was not surprised when I saw your advert in the preceding post. Thank you for your Remittance Advice Screen Shot. However, it showed you made $17.02 dollars in the UK marketplace in the two months of August and September 2013. That is $8.5 each month. That is less than what I make in one week in the UK. I don't know your US marketplace income for those months and I'm not assuming anything.

I have uploaded below, the screen shot of my November 2013 income for the US market place up till today(Nov 29). It shows total sales and borrows of 407. None of those books are below $2.99. So using a royalty of 70% that is 407 x 2= $814. If you remove tax and Payoneer charges that is about N85,470 for the US market place sales/borrows alone. I have already crossed N100,000 so far this month when the UK,CA and DE marketplace sales are added.

My overall kindle income crossed 1 million naira a few months ago and it is moving rapidly towards the second million.

I have been unfairly accused of all sort of things on this thread and the same people turned around "looking for novices to devour".

I did not create this thread to market kindle publishing to anybody. I do one-on-one training for N20,000 and I pour my heart out to all trainees so they will not have problems. I also offer as much support as I can until they stabilize. Most people get this money (N20,000) back within 2 months from the sales of their books.

I am doing this just to help and encourage more people to come in. (I spend over 1 hour daily replying emails and answering questions because of this thread). When I started in June 2012, there were about 1.69 million books on KDP. Now there are over 2.25 million. That is about 500,000 books. I have just over 30 of those books and I wondered how nice it would be if about 100,000 of those books were published by fellow Nigerians.

At a point, this thread became too argumentative and many posters were blowing hot air about "making it" with fiction blah, blah, blah. That is why I stayed off most of this week.

I have trained a few people one-on-one and I have access to about 5 accounts of people I trained and the least of them is making over N20,000 every month with 5 to 8 books. They all started less than 8 months ago. One of them a lady, collected over N60,000 yesterday (September sales).

I will prefer those that are here to market their information to open their own Amazon Kindle Threads on nairaland so we will not be confused.(Personally, I believe if you are making so much money from the knowledge, you will not have to market it)

As the saying goes "it's a free world". If you are reading this and you do not want to follow me, good luck. I do not have the "sweet mouth" to convince anybody because I am not naturally a marketer. What I know is that Kindle publishing works for me and my protégés have been able to repeat similar success. We are no longer doing trial and error. If this thread will produce 10 to 20 individuals who are making at least N50,000 monthly from Kindle Direct publishing, then MY WORK IS DONE.

Good day all!

Saryea83: Bros, I appreciated ur effort so much in xplaining amazon publishing. However, I still request d whole detail in pdf format let me pay cos difficult for to access nework every time where am serving as a corps member! Pls, do it for me!

I got your mail! Thanks!

@ Saryea83 if this request was intended for me, I have not sent you any mail. Be careful with whoever sent you d email. If you want to contact me use the gmail in my profile.

Bestlyf: I just uploaded my first book. It was well formatted. I took a chance on my table of contents and succeeded in making it clickable. I just discovered that your book cover has to be 1000pixels on the longest side and 650 on the shortest side for maximum result.
@mk. Is there any side effect promoting your book for just 24 hrs? Just thinking of how people respond to scarcity.

Congrats on ur 1st book. 24 hrs is short.Give it at least 2 days for better exposure.

akpan aniefiok: Hello guys,

am currently writing my 1st book and i want to know the estimate number of words on microsoft word on a page..for example.when i want to write my chapter 1 should i use only 50 words on a page? Or i should write till i cover the page.for xample, about 800 words make a page.pls i need ansa

There is no minimum/ maximum number of words per page in MS word.Just keep writing till u cover the page n continue to the next one.

[quote author=einstein_e]you will only get an isbn number if you publish with createspace. The folks here would tell you not to publish fiction but in my opinion, fiction sells. You just have to follow certain guidelines. If you are interested in hearing more, pm me.[/quote]@einstein_e you keep saying fiction sells and u know d guidelines.
1.Can u reveal some of ur guidelines here without asking people to send u pm or email.
2. Secondly, post a screen shot showing your current sales with kindle fiction books then we'll believe.

[quote author=frank3.16]sent u a mail, but will like to ask a question. i have a novel (fiction story) and posted some of it in an online forum, i got encouraging feedbacks and this served as my motivation.

what is the possibility of making good sales here?
i intend to use my real name as i have more interesting stories and would want to b recognized by my name, what do u think?
and will i get an isbn number?[/quote]From what u wrote above, I will say u have chosen the tough route to online publishing success. It is very tough to make it as fiction writer. Many people check kindle bestsellers n see dat most bestsellers are fiction books. However, they do not know what those authors went thru b4 getting there.
There are many such writer' forums like d one you described. Many people there are struggling writers with tales of woe.
Many of them are ready to sell off 30,000 word beautifully written stories for $60 on freelance websites.

PS. u don't need ISBN on amazon. they'll give ur books ASIN.

This is my advice:
Since u want to make a name with ur books, continue writing ur fiction books n publishing them with the hope of 'breaking thru' sometimes in d distant future.
At d same time, start writing or outsourcing short nonfiction books dat will give u regular income now as I have been teaching.

jdilight: Bros are you saying Word 2007 is not accepted on kindle?

The docx format (Word 2007 till date) has conversion problems when uploaded directly to kindle. Just save as 97-2003 once u are ready to upload.