Successful Kindle Authors - Finding Success with eBooks

Writing on Kindle One Authors Experience

I began self-publishing a few books in print on my own before eBooks became popular through the use of Amazon Kindle and iPad readers. I researched copyright, how to get and ISBN number, printing options, formatting and more before publishing my first book.

That was a difficult journey because I had to promote my book, ship it to booksellers such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble and use my own money before making a profit. Fortunately I did everything okay and was able to pick a subject (selling on eBay) back when there were no books about the topic and write a book about it.

The small booklet was featured in magazines, Newspapers and online content. Since it was one of the first books about the subject it sold fairly well. Although, I did not become a millionaire I at least made a profit and learned something.

I also tried selling my book in PDF format or as an eBook, but since there where no Kindles, Nooks or iPads yet there were not that many people buying eBooks. I took a break and focused on writing more articles and expanding my library.

Finally, one day I decided to take the plunge and publish my existing books on Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook. I read through all the details on the Amazon KDP Web site and Barnes and Noble PubIt site to learn how to upload my book the correct way.

I also assemble vintage patterns and sell them on the Craftsy Web site.

I began publish more small booklets featuring crochet patterns, knitting patterns and other collections that I had put together. After a few months of writing and promoting my books I am happy to say that I have started to earn over $1000 per month with my eBooks and hope to become more successful as I progress.

It takes some patience and skills but as an author, writing and promoting your book through Amazon Kindle can open doors to other writing ventures. Read through some of the authors successes below and think about beginning your journey as an eBook author.

Kindle Writing

Successful Authors and Their Stories

A few authors have done well on Amazon. What is their secret? To begin with they are able to get followers to read their books and find a niche market. Here are a few stories.

Amanda Hocking - This author began publishing her young teen novels on her own and eventually began earning about 2 million a year. She now has a publisher and her books are available in print and bookstores.

Dick Babcock - After 20 years, former Chicago magazine editor found the perfect platform for his short stories.

Maria Murnane is one author who quit her job and wrote her novel that became a huge success after all of the rejections by main stream publishers she went on to Amazon to Self-publish her book.

Lee Child - Lee Child is the most successful British Kindle book author worldwide, followed by Stephen Leather and Ken Follett, according to Amazon UK

Secrets of Successful Writers- Interviews with forty-nine writers as they speak about writing, publishing and promoting their books in the digital age.

The interviews include John Locke, Gordon Ferris, Stephen Carpenter, Dakota Banks, Linda Wisdom, Matthew Reilly, Loucinda McGary, David Lender, JR Rain, Jack Dann, Dale Brown, Stephanie McAfee, Andy Briggs, Kat Martin and many, many more.


Where to Start with eBooks

Writing a book and publishing on Amazon or Barnes and Noble is not as difficult as it sounds. The best way to publish a book is to write it in Word and not be too fancy. By this I mean not to indent paragraphs, do not add tables, or make to many diagrams.

Photos work well if you size them correctly. Read through the Amazon KDP forums and find out what other authors are doing for formatting and other questions that you may have. Read through Amazon's Web site and find out what their suggestions are.

Keep it simple - most of us tend to over think things when it comes to becoming creative. It tends to be easier than what we make it out to be. There are great Hubs, Web site articles and forum dedicated to publishing and writing books. Start with your first books and continue on from there.

More by this Author


Comments 11 comments

TheMusiconomy profile image

TheMusiconomy 4 years ago from New York City

Good hub. I just read what you wrote and I plan on coming back to your hub because you have a lot of interesting links that I want to read when I have more time.

I published an ebook last year and I've made some sales with very little advertising. But there is a lot of work to do to make it more available to the right people.

I ended up writing mine in Word but I had so many technical difficulties transferring it to the Kindle. There were too many formatting problems. So I found BookBaby which actually did the formatting for me and distributes the book to several retailers including Kindle and Apple. I paid 100 bucks and they took care of it for me. For me, it was worth it because i got really impatient with the formatting aspect.

Voted up!


craftdrawer profile image

craftdrawer 4 years ago Author

Thanks for the tip on BookBaby! I had no problem with formatting but it may depend on what version of Word you are using. It does take work in order to get sales, I use free promotions, contests, blogs and articles to get the word out on my books. Good luck in your ventures and thanks for the comments!!


Kristine Manley profile image

Kristine Manley 4 years ago from Atlanta, GA

craftdrawer, this is a great Hub. Voted up!

The Musiconomy, thanks for the tip on BookBaby - I'll look into it. Darice Chan became a very successful e-book author by selling over 413,000 copies of her novel in less than 10 months - so I know a person can be successful with e-books.


billybuc profile image

billybuc 4 years ago from Olympia, WA

A timely piece for me to read; I have four books on Kindle now and although I'm not even close to your success I do see Kindle as the answer for my writing success. Thank you for this hub!


TheMusiconomy profile image

TheMusiconomy 4 years ago from New York City

You're right CraftDrawer, I was having formatting problems with a 2004 Word app on my Mac. It was a big headache.

No problem Kristine. I will definitely look into Darice Chan to see if I can read her success story. Thanks for the tip as well. If you see below, my book is on Kindle and the BN Nook and I didn't have to upload anything to their websites. BookBaby did everything for me except write the book! :-) You also tell BookBaby your price and which retailers you want your ebook sold at. I think mine is sold at about 6 different retailers.

http://www.amazon.com/Parents-Guide-Child-Started-...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-parents-guide-to...


PWalker281 4 years ago

Wow, $1,000/mo is great, craftdrawer! I really need to get cracking and start writing more content to publish on the KDP. If only I wrote genre fiction (sigh). Great hub, thanks for the links. Voted up and useful.


Nell Rose profile image

Nell Rose 4 years ago from England

Hi, this is great! it just goes to show that it can be done, thanks for an inspirational hub, voted up, bookmarked and shared, nell


Rebecca E. profile image

Rebecca E. 4 years ago from Canada

Thsi is great and it really shows what can be done, I found a lot of the time ( with my own e-book) that hard work never hurt anyone-- I am sure these people would say the same!


Natashalh profile image

Natashalh 4 years ago from Hawaii

Thank you for these tips. I'm currently working on something I want to publish on Kindle, so this is very helpful! Bookmarked and voted up and useful.


GoodLady profile image

GoodLady 4 years ago from Rome, Italy

Very, very helpful thanks and so many resources. Bookmarking for when I get the time to study your words and links with magnifying glass and notebook - and a cup of tea. It's just what I need because I want to publish next year.

Voting etc.


craftdrawer profile image

craftdrawer 4 years ago Author

Thanks for all of the nice comments - Self-publishing is not always easy but if you work hard at it you can earn a living doing it.

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