Write a Book That Engages
If you’re going to make money from Kindle, then you’re going to have to do some writing. Specifically, you’re going to have to write some books. And, these books need to be engaging both in terms of their title and conceptand in terms of their writing and style. Many marketers make the mistake of thinking that it’s okay to release a sub-par book as long as it has a great title. Their logic is that a book with a good enough title and subject will sell and at that point, it will be too late for the buyer to change their mind.
Apart from this being immoral and wrong, it also just plain doesn’t work. The problem with this approach is that selling a poorly written ebook will result in bad reviews and a lot of people only reading the free sample and not investing in the whole book. It will also hurt your long-term profitability as well as your reputation. Once you’re known for crappy content…well, think about what you would do if you purchased an ebook and found it to be badly written?
So how do you write a book that will be so stellar that it sells by word-of-mouth? The first thing to do is get rid of the “shoulds”. Just because you think your bad spelling and grammar ‘should’ be ignored because the content is awesome – is wrong.
Let’s take a look at some strategies that work.
Writing Style
One thing that is important is your writing style. Good writing is engaging and entertaining and is grammatically correct. Poor spelling and bad grammar will distract from your message and will nevertheless damage your reputation, making you less trustworthy to your readers.
Make sure your writing style is good enough to charge money and if it’s not… hire someone!
Formatting
Formatting colors the first impression your book makes on readers. Proper formatting makes it look more professional and much more impressive. So be sure to use proper headings, great images and more to give your books a truly professional format.
Structure and Pacing
Also important is your pacing. This means you need to draw the reader in and make sure to keep delivering value to them. Try to think about your paragraphs and your chapters like installments in a television series – ending on a cliff-hanger will make sure that your readers can’t wait to turn to the next page. The next chapter then needs to deliver on the promise of that cliff-hanger and not be an anti-climax!
Value
The most important thing of all is that your book offer value. If it’s non-fiction, this means you need to provide useable information that can help your readers to achieve more. If your book is a story, then the value comes from the entertainment factor and you need to ensure your story really moves your reader.
Think too about ‘over delivering’. In other words, if you can offer more value than you suggest in the blurb, your customers will feel they got a great deal!
The above has worked well for me. I have an ebook I published in 2014,Competitive Intelligence the Internet Way: CI101: There’s More to Finding Information than Google. Another one that I published in 2015, Social Media Authority Unleashed: A Step by Step Guide for YOU to Create YOUR Social Media. I don’t advertise or promote either one. I don’t have it in my email signature, nor do I have a LinkedIn or Facebook Group devoted to the teachings of the books. I don’t market them, unless it’s to show a point such as in this blog post. There are a handful of good reviews. Every month I receive a report from Kindle Direct Publishing showing that sales are being made. I’m sure some of the sales are from searching on Amazon, and I’m assuming other sales are from recommendations being made by those who’ve read it.
There are other ebooks I’ve written, but I think you get my point. Unless you have someone else write it for you, follow the basic guidelines I’ve been offering to you and you’ll do well. If you’re just beginning your journey into writing books for Kindle, here is a link to my ebook Make Money With Kindle: A Guide for the Beginner. A recent review:
“I just bought this for my recently-retired Mother who loves the idea of writing a kindle book, and Charlene I want to say a big thank you! This is an excellent guide that I know Mum will easily understand, as well as very effectively use to start publishing to kindle! Im so excited about this, and its not even going to be me using it!!! Worth every cent, thank YOU!!”
How’s that for word of mouth?
