Becoming a Kindle Author
I have been sitting on a story since I was sixteen. It started out as a short story, which all of my friends, and random people on the internet, just loved. I saved it, tweaking and such over the years. All those years I talked about expanding it into a novel. Then a decade later, at 27, I decided it was time to either write up or shut up. I chose to write.
Writing and writing and writing, I discovered that my little novel was still coming up short. I had all sorts of things I could have added to it to plump it up, but I felt like the story was best told the way it was. I did some research about novellas, and was rather disappointed. Traditional publishers want full novels, and even then it is very difficult to become published. Then one day I came across a review for Kindle Singles. I used to weigh the pros and cons on audiobook services I liked, and it’s usually Kindle against Audible. But after finding out the opportunity Kindle gives to new writers, I have come to like it better.
At first I thought this was like submitting to a traditional publisher and having to wait months for a response on if they would add your book to the Kindle website. This of course sparked more research on the subject and I learned that pretty much anybody can submit to the regular Kindle store.
I finished up my story, and found a photograph that I wanted to use as my cover. I did my research on how to format my story to work on the Kindle. Formatting was rather easy for me. I had taken Microsoft Word in highschool and have used plenty of it over the years. Anything I was unsure about, I simply looked up. You can find tutorials for EVERYTHING on YouTube.
Once everything was formatted and gone over with a fine tooth comb, I decided it was time to submit my book. I already knew through my research that I wanted to sign up for the Kindle Select program, which gives you a higher royalty and more promotional options.
Signing up for the Kindle Author Program was rather easy. It walked me through the submission process of my book. My only hiccup was I had failed to fill out my account information before uploading my book, so before completing the submission process, I had to stop and do that. Once my Tax ID (in my case I used my Social Security Number) was recognized I thought I was good to go. I went back to finish the submission, only to discover my account was not complete. In my opinion, Kindle should go straight from the Tax ID section to the bank account information. They require your bank account information so that they can direct deposit your royalty checks into your account automatically. Once I completed this section, I was ready to go and submitted my book.
My book was uploaded and fully submitted in mid-afternoon. By the next morning, my book had gone live and was available the next morning. I was terrified about my book being a failure, and so excited that after so many years of just talking about publishing a book I had finally done it.
My book was live at full price for a week, and then I used the Kindle Select Promotional tools, which gives me five days to give my book away for free every ninety days. My book of course has done fairly well being free. Much better than at full price. This can always be expected. I chose to give it away free because it increases my download rank, and in hopes that this would translate into more reviews. More high reviews encourages more sales.
As of yet, I cannot say I will be a raving success as a Kindle Author. I did not go into this with the dreams of sitting on talk shows and quitting my daytime job. I simply love to write, and I know only a few make it big. I just want people to read my work, be it a hundred or a hundred thousand.
Overall, I would have to say my experience with Kindle has been a 4.5 star ranking. Now that I have published an ebook, I have decided to go through their print service, which will put my book available in a paperback format. Time can only tell which format will do better or if I will be successful by my own standards as an Indie Author, but I can say I am very pleased so far.
You can find my book on Amazon Kindle here: The Point of No Return by Holly Elizabeth-Jean
