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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