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Kindle Direct Publishing

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Comments

  • I just tried to visit and found the site not available.
  • Oh, dear sorry I was having problems yesterday. No, that's wrong! The site was having problems! I don't know why but I think Virgin Media were running slow. It's running okay today.
    I have some more information I will be adding to the guide when I get chance. I'll let you know when I've done it.
    Carol
  • Just saw this on AOL
    http://www.dailyfinance.co.uk/2011/06/15/kindle-set-to-make-5bn-for-amazon/?icid=main|uk-ws-bb|dl4|link5|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailyfinance.co.uk%2F2011%2F06%2F15%2Fkindle-set-to-make-5bn-for-amazon%2F
  • I could see the article for about five seconds, then everything went black!
  • You fainted? :P

    Works fine for me.
  • Hi

    I want to upload my first novel on to Kindle but I need to get it proof read/edited first but the prices I have been quoted on line seem huge, I know that you have to speculate to accumulate but well £1400.00 seems a bit OTT............. especially if my book does not sell well!!!!!!!!!

    Does anyone know or recommend anyone???

    Thanks a lot, bit daunted by the process, excited, nervous but mostly scared....................

    Cheers

    Ro
  • Hi, Ro. Have you looked in the various writing magazines for proofreaders? I've a feeling some of the Talkbackers may do proofing/editing. If not, they'll know someone. Best of luck!
  • Have you searched Talkback for any proofreaders? Also, you may get more people reading a New Discussion. Yell if I've confused you. :)
  • And there are various sites - Editors and Preditors - where you can see publishers etc to beware of.
  • And the 'stickies' at the top of the Discussion Board are worth looking at.
  • edited June 2011
    http://talkback.writers-online.co.uk/comments.php?DiscussionID=178649&page=3#Item_12

    And the above thread (read from first page). Sorry - I don't think the link's working. The thread's called:

    Kindle Direct, Smashwords and publishing information
  • I've just posted a comment, so it should be near the top of the board.
  • edited June 2011
    See the thread:

    My new venture - proofreading and copy-editing
  • Thanks, Jay. I've sent a whisper to rkem.
  • Thanks Jay for all your comments, only really discovered this website a couple of days ago, the amount of information is great, just what I needed as a novice writer/kindler!!!!
  • Knee deep in formatting the next book I am bringing out on Kindle - I've got a few things to sort out, but I am hoping to go live with it in the next couple of weeks.
  • Good luck Mutley.
  • Good luck, Muttley. Have been uploading my own book to Kindle - aimed at people who were bullied as children and how to deal with bullying behavior when you're an adult. I find formatting a bit of a nightmare and have alreadt updated the book 5 times because of formatting rather than content.
  • [quote=Jenthom72]I find formatting a bit of a nightmare and have alreadt updated the book 5 times because of formatting rather than content. [/quote]
    If you're having trouble you can send your book direct to Kindle; they will change it into ebookformat free for you. You send it with free in the mail address and put convert in the subject line.
    Good luck, your book sounds very interesting.
  • I'm still working away on publishing. I have now brought out 'Alfie's Diary' as an ebook. This is the edited highlights of the first year of his successful blog.

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alfies-Diary-ebook/dp/B00583ZGSA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1309074833&sr=8-2
  • The blurb is great.:)
  • I have now entered the madness of Kindle publishing with a book I wrote aimed at helping the survivors of bullying whether that bullying behaviour took place at school, in the workplace or in the confines of a relationship, called Don't Let The Bullies Win: How to get your Confidence Back https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00578ZJ56

    I wrote a parent's guide to bullying, Bullying - A Parent's Guide (creative title, eh?), but couldn't get a publisher from this one.

    http://i52.tinypic.com/28anhwo.jpg

    P.S. Your cover for your book is lovely, Mutley. I love the dog at the laptop. I also like clever dogs who can write books!
  • Congrats Jen. All the best with sales.
  • All the best with the sales Jenthom, it will be a useful book for those who need it.
  • I agree seems like a valuable book for a lot of people to own. Good luck with the sales Jen.
  • Great presentation, Mutley and great cover too. Good luck with it.
  • Only just had time to read through the latest posts here - well done Mutley and Jen. Both great subjects and I expect you both to get lots of sales. I'm going to turn my freelance writers blog in to a Kindle book soon. Will let you all know when it's up and running. Good luck to all with their Kindle books!
  • edited July 2011
    Hope everyone's kindle ventures are going well.

    I've spent a bit of time looking into publishing with kindle as I'm thinking of doing this too. I've downloaded the free kindle for pc thingy so I could take a look at how the kindle books appear. I know that at the moment kindles are probably not so good for children's books that have colour as the pictures would come out as black and white. That's not a problem for me with my stories that have just black line drawings to illustrate. And I guess if anyone wants a colour picture ebook then they'd know to download it onto a pc or other device that can show the colour?

    Anyway, I've got a few questions. My husband is a bit wary of kindle (bless him!) and says there is no quality control. I say readers will soon sort that out. I believe you can get a refund for any kindle book if you decide you don't like it (which would include discovering it was full of grammar, spelling errors or badly written in your opinion). Does the process of uploading your book pick up on grammar and spelling errors or do we just have to be very thorough proof readers? Does that worry anyone?

    Secondly, I see that royalty payments for US downloads of authors' books are made in cheques made out in dollars. That means the bank will charge quite a lot for me to pay these cheques into UK bank accounts. (I'm assuming I might get a cheque from them one day ;)) I don't think you can have direct payments from amazon into your account unless you have a US account. Or am I wrong about that? What have other people done?

    Finally, how are you marketing/advertising your kindle book(s)? How will people know our books are there? Does amazon promote a list of new or recent additions? Or is it all up to us?
  • edited July 2011
    [quote=daisy]spelling erros[/quote]

    I believe we just defined irony.
  • So we did! ;)
  • Hi Daisy,
    I got a very good editor and proof reader to check my book before I put it on Kindle her name is Rosalie! She is on TB as you know and is excellent and her rates are very good.
    I think book sales for children are slower at the moment but it will pick up. My sales have been up and down. They go up after I do a lot of marketing on the Kindle threads where you are allowed to market it mainly 'meet our authors' one.
    Also I've been guest blogging about my book like on Tracey's
    http://talltalesandshortstories.blogspot.com/2011/05/self-publishing-ebook-1-body-trapped-by.html

    Best of luck. I am putting another book on Kindle soon.
  • Daisy there is a lot of info on the other main Kindle thread, mentions Smashwords too.
  • Just a quick announcement to say that I've just uploaded my second book, So You Want to be a Freelance Writer (by Deborah Durbin), on to Kindle, which shows you how to make it in the world as a freelance writer. Price is £1.71 It should be available in about 24 hours.
    Many thanks in advance to anyone who buys a copy.
    Debs
  • That will be popular I'd think. Good luck with it. :)
  • Well done midia. All the very best of luck with your book - a great subject.
  • A book like that Midia will sell well.
  • I find Kindle interesting - In a research kind of a way. Not necessarily Kindle, per se . . . I'm thinking about e-books in general. Writers aside, what sort of a person would own a multifunction 'gadget' and use it for reading?

    I'm experimenting in writing e-books. So far they have come out very 'play' like. I think specifically written e-books should be cheaper and shorter.

    I keep my stuff here if anybody's interested.

    http://www.hardpressed.org.uk/titles.html
  • I'm having a problem with formatting for Kindle. My manuscript is in MS Word 2007 and I use 'First Line' to indent paragraphs and dialogue. Unfortunately when migrated to Kindle, some of the First Line formatting is rendered as an indented paragraph and to me it looks odd.

    Some tutors say to use 'First Line' for indenting because apparently if you use TAB it doesn't convert properly in some formats, but I'm wondering if I should use TAB for indenting the first line of speech, otherwise it indents the whole sentence even if it goes to a second line.

    Some of you have already published on Kindle. How do you do this formatting?
  • I used First Line indent in Word 2007 but didn't convert straight from Word - I used MobiPocket Creator which seemed to iron out some of Word's funky formatting issues.
  • Ah ha! I reckon that's it. Kindle do say, come to think of it, that the conversion from Word 2007 (docx) is in beta.

    That's fine.

    I don't need to use MobiPocket Creator yet, since I am not planning to publish to Kindle at this stage. I only want to use it for editing. It does throw up the errors more clearly - the ones you miss on the Word screen (such as comma when you meant to type a full stop).

    Thanks for that.
  • Sorry to be absent for a while - away for much of the summer, death in the family and life/work generally getting in the way. I just wanted to share a quick Kindle update with you: Just checked my Amazon listing and discovered that I am at number one in the best-seller charts (supernatural category)! I've been at number three for weeks now and have finally reached number one! Don't know how long it will last, but it's a nice feeling anyway:)
    I have also uploaded a second novel called The Allotment - this one is women's contemporary fiction - a bit Rosmary & Thyme-esq.
    Hope everyone is well. Going to spend an hour or so catching up on things on the forum.
  • Glad to have you back Midia.
  • And well done being at number one.
  • Congratulations on hitting the top spot. Bet you feel like a pop star now. Good luck with the new title also.
  • Thank you Jay, Tony and Carol. Well, I looked again today and I'm back to number four! Never mind, it was nice while it lasted:)
  • How brilliant to have been in the number one spot, midia. Congratulations. That must feel so good! Number four is just as fantastic to my mind.
    So sorry to hear you've had a difficult summer though.
  • Hey, congrats midia!
  • edited September 2011
    That's great news Midia.
    My ebook is number one in Middle Eastern cookery and African cookery, I just saw on Amazon, but I don't think there are many books on that subject on Kindle yet. I may have just sold one copy!
    It's number 11 in food and drink.


    My book is called A Taste of Egyptian Cookery' It has lots of photos and one thing that I find a drawback to Kindle is that it only uses black and white photos. A cookery book really needs colour to get those taste buds working!

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taste-Egyptian-Cookery-ebook/dp/B005M94C58/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1315734114&sr=1-1
  • Yay, Katyanne! That's great news! You can now officially say that you have a number one best seller!
  • You're right!
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