No KDP Low Content Books Sales - Here's Why!

 

Last time I counted on Amazon.  There were around 33  million books published,    and that's probably a lot more now  because around 2000 to 7000 books get    published on that  platform every single day.    Now only about 1% of all  authors and publishers on Amazon    make more than $1,000 a month,    which means 99% make less and probably  a big proportion of that make no    money at all. And from  the questions I get,    particularly from people starting out,    I suspect that you may be one of  those also. Okay.    So one of the most common  questions I get is,    and it goes along the lines  of, I published a book, two,    three books about two weeks  ago or even a week ago,    and I'm not making any sales.  Sigh. What's the problem.    What am I doing wrong?  Or I'm going to give up.    And it reminds me of a  story about Novak Djokovic,    who's the current number, one tennis  player in the world. And in fact,    myself and Novak Djokovic  have something in common,    but now it's not tennis.    Now Novak started playing tennis at  around the age of four and didn't    win his first professional title  until around the age of 16.    So that was 12 years of working  of training and not earning any    money. Now, some of you may not know this,    but I was a medical doctor  for nearly 30 years.    Yes. I know what you're saying.  I don't look old enough.    And to get to that point, I went  to medical school for six years.    So the thing that we've both got in  common is that we kind of both did an    apprenticeship where we spent  a considerable amount of time    learning training, and not  earning any money whatsoever.   

 Now,    the problem with publishing books on the  KDP platform is that there's a very low    barrier to entry.    And as such a lot of people  assume it's easy to make money,    but actually the opposite is true because  a lot of people are publishing books.    The competition is high and it's  difficult to get your books seen. Now,    does that mean that KDP is saturated,    which is the other comment  I get very frequently.    Absolutely not. I've got a list  of loads of different niches,    where people are making good  money and there's low competition.    And on this channel,    I publish videos on some of  these niches to help you.    Guys get in there and  start making money. Now,    when I was like a lot of you guys  and the position that you're in,    you're just starting  out. My books were awful.    They were just plain lined notebooks  and journals. And, you know,    I used to get things like  images of say a pineapple,    go to Adobe Illustrator,    create a pineapple pattern and  call it a pineapple notebook.    And I did that for lots of niches.  I'd actually had a spreadsheet.    It was like a grid of all different  notebooks and all different niches.    And then for me, a niche was  things like unicorns, space,    pineapples, avocados.    And I'd create these pattern  notebooks and upload them to Amazon.    

Now, understandably it took me a while  to get sales and it wasn't until probably    about six weeks after I started  that I actually made any sales    whatsoever. And I used to  do these different patterns  in plain lined notebooks,    composition notebooks, all different  types of notebooks, dot grid journals.    And understandably, when I look back  at them, they were, they were awful,    but that's the way I started.    And I know from a lot of the people  that send me books to look at,    that's how you guys are starting as well.    And that's really the only way to  start. And then after about five months,    I started producing  sports-related log books,    very simple covers, but  they started to sell.    And then that got me onto  the log book type thing.    And it wasn't until really  a year after I started,    and looking at so many different  books on Amazon, studying them,    looking at all the bestselling  ones in different niches,    looking what they had in common  in terms of, you keyword use,    cover design pricing,    descriptions that I then started to  get a real grasp of this business.    And I came upon a design concept.    It's suddenly came to me one day and I  knew straight away that this would sell.    And it was a very basic,  simple concept that only had,    or used two colors. And yes, as soon  as I published a book with that cover,    within a matter of days,  I started to get sales.    And I used that concept on other types  of books and got sales from those    as well.    But I wouldn't have got there without  producing all the books that I did,    without practicing my design skills,    without learning more about  keywords and keyword use.    Now I had a slight advantage and that  I'd tried other businesses online    businesses in the past.    I'd studied search engine  optimization and understood keywords    and keyword research and how to  get websites and blog posts ranked.    But again, it wasn't until about  a year that it's suddenly twigged,    that keywords are important for  getting your books seen on Amazon.    But.    One of the most important aspects  of not only getting your books seen,    but getting those clicks and  sales is the cover design. Now,    unless you've got a  background in illustration,    graphic design or some form  of visual creative arts,    it's going to be very difficult early  on to get covers that are really good,    that attract customers.   

And the sort of factors that need to be  looked at and things that I studied over    that first year, as well as looking  at books on Amazon was things like,    you know, composition,  color theory, fonts.    And I got all my information from  YouTube doing searches on Google and    learning about those aspects.  And sometimes, you know,    you can learn those aspects and then break  it down into its simplest components.    So you don't complicate things too much  and come up with very basic designs    that are effective, you know,    rather than using lots of different  colors on a book cover using just two or,    or three covers,    but using them effectively to  create something that's attractive.    So when someone asks me that question  I've just produced a couple of books a    couple of weeks ago, and  I'm not making any sales,    it's almost similar to perhaps me  going up to Novak Djokovich and saying    Novak, you know,    I started playing tennis two weeks  ago and I did my first tournament    last weekend and I didn't  win. What's wrong? Well,    after he's picked himself up  off the floor, laughing it,    just pat me on the back and say, you know,    practice and the same goes  for this business. Yes,    the barrier to entry is low. It  might seem an easy way to make money,    but it's anything but. And you've  got to put in that apprenticeship,    if you like, you've got to put in  those hours of creating, uploading,    repeating, and going through that  cycle of doing that over and over,    and also studying about essential  factors like keyword research,    which I cover on this channel cover design  again, which I cover on this channel.    But it's not just me.    There's lots of other videos out there  that cover these individual components as    well. You know, if you're using Adobe  Illustrator or using Affinity Designer,    again, I've done videos  using those bits of software,    but there's lots of videos also on  YouTube on how to use those pieces of    software. And YouTube is fantastic. It's  one of the best resources out there,    if you want to do learn  something and learn it for free.    And that's what you've got to do. You've  got to study, study, study, create,    upload, repeat, and go through  that cycle over and over.    And after a period of time, you will  improve, but it will also start to click.    And all those factors that, you know,    you need to create and sell books,    which are niche choice, keyword choice,    keyword use, title structure,  cover design, descriptions,    and pricing.    

 Those are the main components after  doing that over so many times will it all    come together and it will twig and you'll  start to get sales and you'll discover    what works and you'll  start to make more sales.    But you've got to put in that time,  it's not going to take two weeks.    Probably not going to take  three weeks or four weeks.    It's probably going to take a few  months of creating and practicing to    get there.    So take that on board before  you send me that question about    what's going wrong.    It's probably because you're new to the  business and you've just not put in the    time yet, but if you keep at  it, you will. And I promise you,    you will get there. Now,    if you are just starting out  in this book creation process,    particularly no content  and low content books,    but there are principles that do  apply to normal books as well.    Then I suggest watching  this playlist next,    which is my book tutorials playlist on  all the different steps on creating and    publishing books on the  Amazon KDP platform. Thank  you very much for your time.    It is very much appreciated.    Don't forget to hit the subscribe  button and until next time, goodbye.   

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