Monday, December 26, 2011

Creating an eBook via The Killer Cookie recipe


If you’re into self-publishing, you are likely acquainted with J.A. Konrath. Over on his blog, Joe provides quite an insightful view of the journey he’s taken. I think most would call it a highly successful one, though Joe hasn’t yet crossed the proverbial finish line and declared total victory.

When it comes to publishing a successful eBook, I like Joe’s formula. To me, Joe simply follows a recipe for producing The Killer Cookie, namely:

1. It has to catch your eye,
2. It has to sound good to eat,
3. It has to look positively delicious,
4. It has to be priced so you don’t even think twice about it,
5. It has to be found where ever you want to buy it, and
6. It has to make your taste buds squeal when you munch it.

In eBook terms, this translates to:

1. Have a striking cover and a title that grabs
2. Have an arresting book description, search tags and keywords
3. Have all aspects of the packaging be clean and crisp
4. Have a low or even impulsive buy price
5. Be readily available across all major store fronts
6. Be well written, engaging, compelling and error-free

For the most part, I’ve tried to be faithful to The Killer Cookie recipe in producing my latest eBook, Dark Doses. I consciously chose to deviate from point #5 though. Here’s why.

I opted in to Amazon’s KDP Select program. Dark Doses is exclusively offered via Amazon for at least 90 days.

Let me be upfront and acknowledge this ploy by Amazon to lockout the competition. In this post, I’m not going to dwell on the potential consequences and ramifications of Amazon’s tactic. Plenty of writer blogs are reacting to the launch of KDP Select and perhaps that’ll be the subject of one of my future missives.

Instead, let me just say that there are lots and lots of cookies out there. More are rolling out every day. What’s an aspiring cookie-baker to do?

Play the numbers game. The majority of cookie-lovers are going to browse and consider the selections put forth by the number one cookie peddler in the world. So for a brand new, just-released Killer Cookie, I’m exploiting all available tactics to break into that leading market.

Amazon is selling a million Kindles a week. There is a lot of muscle and inertia propelling that market. I hope to tap into that as best I can. Not to specifically get rich via KDP Select’s anemic remuneration terms but to get better known.

I seriously doubt I’ll keep Dark Doses exclusive to Amazon for any greatly protracted period of time. I don’t especially like being locked out of non-Kindle eReaders.

But, at least for now, I’m willing to test this one modification to the recipe.

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