I’ve just unpublished ‘How to Print your Novel with Kindle Direct Publishing’.
It’s not the first book I’ve unpublished – I had to unpublish the two CreateSpace versions after CreateSpace ceased to exist. Nevertheless, hitting that ‘Unpublish’ button on KDP felt very odd, especially as I’m not sure whether I’ll ever republish in the same way again.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. I unpublished the KDP how-to book because it was first published in 2018, and parts of it were now quite out-of-date. KDP only made a few changes, but Thorpe-Bowker [the agent for ISBNs in Australia], and the National Library of Australia, had both completely changed their websites. I would have to update much of the second and third parts of the how-to, and basically create a ‘second edition’ of the book.
Unfortunately, when you create a second edition of a book, you have to publish it with a new ISBN, and that costs money. Given that I haven’t earned a single cent from the how-to, it didn’t make sense to invest yet more money into a project that no body seemed to want.
Around about this point, I sat down and did some hard thinking.
Was the how-to bad? Was the Kindle Fire version too restrictive? Was the paperback too expensive?
Or could it be that people have grown used to finding information online? For free?
Given how much research I do online, for free, I could hardly fault others for doing the same thing. So I had to decide whether to keep flogging that poor dead horse, or move with the times. I chose to move with the times and publish the entire how-to, online, for free on my blog.
Was this a completely altruistic decision? Hah… -cough-
The truth is, self-publishing is hard. Making yourself visible on Amazon is hard. Selling your books and making money is next to impossible unless you’re:
- very lucky,
- very good at marketing,
- have oodles of cash for advertising, or
- have some way of enticing people to your blog
I suck at the first three, but I am good at teaching people how to do things. At least half of all the people who visit my blog are there for one of my how-to posts. So if that’s my strength, how do I translate it into increased visibility for the rest of my work?
Honestly, by the time I got to that question, the answer was pretty obvious – the smart thing would be to self-publish the how-to on the blog and hope that increased exposure would lead to…something. -shrug-
I’m realistic enough to know that very few of the people who come for my how-to posts stay to chat, or buy my science fiction. But you have to work with what you have. Besides, I’ve put so much work into my how-to books I’m damned if I’ll let them sink into complete obscurity.
So, allow me to introduce you to the new, updated, 2020 edition of ‘How to print your novel with Kindle Direct Publishing. -points to sidebar on the right-
Clicking that image should take you to a Table of Contents which contains all the links to all the sections/chapters of the how-to. Alternatively, you can click the link below:
Click here to display the Table of Contents
Enjoy,
Meeks
February 23rd, 2020 at 6:55 am
THANk you! You ARE generous and I shall be needing this/reading this soon as I hope (operative word: hope) to get moving with my flash fiction collection. xo
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February 23rd, 2020 at 10:51 am
Oh, please do! I’ll try and keep everything updated from here on out. 🙂
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February 24th, 2020 at 5:02 am
Thanks!! 😘
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February 18th, 2020 at 5:41 am
Meeks, thank for publishing your absolutely wonderful and extremely helpful book on your site!
I was unpleasantly surprised it didn’t go well on Amazon. I’m sure marketing plays a very important role. Many a time, more important than the actual product, but this book deserves all the attention and affection it can take!
It is a wonderful and wonderfully written book. It describes everything and anything in such simple manner that is easily understood, and in the same time, it makes everything so very clear. Reading your book, I felt like I knew KDP’s site, although I had never been there, yet.
I can imagine how much time you’ve spent just gathering your facts to write this book, and I feel so very lucky I had the opportunity to read it. Yes, online search is useful and something we all, or most of us, have gotten used to, but, personally, when I need decent and excessive information on a subject, I’ll go for a book. And I’ll say it, as many times as I can: Your book is a masterpiece on its subject!
On a side note, I must add that I loved the texture of the cover, too. It makes holding the book, alone, a pleasurable experience. Yes, this doesn’t say anything about the actual book, but it makes this perfect book, even more perfect. 😇
I really hope and wish that people will find this book, at least now, that it’s online on your site and they’ll tell you just how much – a lot! – it has helped them. Because both you and your book deserve nothing less. Much more, in fact.
Once again, thank you, Meeka. I can’t do much to promote your effort, but I’ll do what I can.
Oh! And did I mention “How to Print your Novel with Kindle Direct Publishing” is a masterpiece? It is! 😘😘😘
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February 18th, 2020 at 8:14 am
-grin- You lovely man! Stop with the compliments or my head will get so big it’ll explode. 😀 That said, feedback like this is what makes me love what I do. Thank you. -huge hugs-
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March 4th, 2020 at 11:34 pm
💖💖💖😘😘😘
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February 13th, 2020 at 4:51 am
Wonderfully generous. 🙂 Thank you.
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February 12th, 2020 at 4:41 pm
How do you feel about having one of those ‘buy me a cuppa’ thingamajigs where interested parties can toss in a few dollars by way of appreciation?
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February 12th, 2020 at 11:26 pm
Um…I’m not averse to the odd bit of appreciation, but I have no way of receiving it. Maybe give a couple of dollars to a deserving charity? Animal shelter? That’d make me happy. 🙂
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February 12th, 2020 at 12:31 pm
Have to confess that dealing with the whole KDP thing sent me into the arms of Vellum. I am fortunate that it was in my budget, and I find it to be an amazing product.
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February 12th, 2020 at 11:39 pm
Hmm…I just looked up the Vellum website but I can’t work out exactly what they’re offering. Is it a wordprocessor of some sort?
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February 13th, 2020 at 2:04 pm
Sort of. It is a program that formats all of you books for Kindle, Kobo, etc. It also does paperbacks. You write it in Word or Scrivener or whatever, import it, and it turns it into a professional looking paperback or ebook. Very slick program.
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February 13th, 2020 at 10:08 pm
Good to know. Thanks. 🙂
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February 11th, 2020 at 8:07 pm
Meeks, I recommend you tick the box of you embedded link here, and your Table of Contents links, so the pages open in tabs 🤗❤️🤗
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February 11th, 2020 at 10:37 pm
Oh! Good thinking, Chris. Thank you. 🙂
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February 11th, 2020 at 10:53 pm
Welcome, Meeks 👍🤗❤️🤗
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February 12th, 2020 at 8:57 am
Made a start last night and I’ll be finishing this morning. 🙂
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February 11th, 2020 at 7:59 pm
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
WRITERS/AUTHORS – Meeks has very generously published her book, in it’s entirety, on her blog – click on the link at the bottom of her original blog post, then on each of the links in her Table of Contents 👍😃
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