Best Tips for Launching an e-Book | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

I've always found the ebook "How to Launch the **** Out of Your Ebook" to be pretty solid although a bit dated at this point. Chris Guillebeau's Launch Checklist from The $100 Startup also has good advice, although it's not ebook specific. And Pat Flynn's ebook group on Facebook has tons of advice from other ebook authors and ebook professionals. And "How I Made Over $42,000 in 1 Month Selling My Kindle eBooks" is an absolutely fantastic resource as well.

What I'm planning on doing with my next ebook is to launch it on Amazon's KDP Select first to jump-start it with the 5 free download days available per 90 days. From what I've read, 2-3 days when you first launch and the rest a month later works best. Promote it during the free days, and then again on the day after the promotion ends. After the 90 days are up, then I will launch it on other platforms, including my websites.

• By starting out on KDP Select, you can get those free days. Depending on how well you promote them, you can get hundreds of downloads and several 4 & 5 star reviews. Those ratings will make your book more attractive when it isn't free any more. And several other platforms let you add reviews (that aren't from you or anyone else with a financial interest in the book) from other sites.
• Add a final page to the Kindle version telling readers that when they turn the page from there (for actual Kindle devices), they will be brought to a page to rate the book and ask them to do so. Provide a link to the product page for readers that are reading on other devices, such as the Kindle app for iOS and Android devices.
• Prior to the launch, join authors groups, such as on Triberr or the Pat Flynn ebook group. You promote their stuff and they will promote yours.
• Tweet every milestone you reach, such as <10 ranking in a category or getting on the Top 100 free ebooks list.
• Provide review copies to other bloggers in your niche. Nothing sells like a good review.
• After your KDP Select exclusivity period is up, pull it from Select and submit it to other platforms. My SEAM Publishing site has tutorials for getting listed with the other major players. As you get listed on each retailer, share that with your followers as well. Some people have had fantastic success staying in KDP Select, but I think the average author will do better to be available on as many different platforms as possible. I can't confirm from direct experience, but I have heard that in Canada, the Canadian bookseller Kobo is more popular than Amazon for certain genres.

I wrote a big post a while ago that might help you. It covers a lot on e books. It has details of how to make them, where to sell them, and other tips for distribution. It can be found here

How To Make Money With E Books

I'm in the process of testing Smashwords right now. They are now beta testing epub submissions which takes away my major objection to their operations.

As far as who I used to format the book, that was me, of course. My SEAM Publishing gave me a really good deal. :) (not to plug my services, but I do offer a 10% discount to Yakezie members/ challengers)