The Treasures of Amazon Kindle

What Can Kindle Offer that Others Can’t?

 Believe it or not, but the most successful of authors – regardless if they are writing fiction or non-fiction – will be the first one to tell you that the title of this e-book is NOT a lie. In fact, they will have no qualms with telling you that they wish it was a lie, but it is not.

You do not have to be a great writer to earn from writing e-books. And this guide will show you why and, more importantly, how you can do so.

Why Target E-books for Kindle?

Another thing you are probably wondering about is why you have to write an e-book for Kindle and not just for any e-book reader. Here are your answers, explained in cold hard facts and figures, which were provided in a 2010 news article with an interview of Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon.

• Sales of Kindle units tripled since Amazon reduced its price to $189 from the original $259, which means more potential readers for your e-books
• Total sales of Kindle e-books tripled as well from the first 6 months of 2009 to the first 6 months of 2010; you can then safely assume that all those new Kindle owners are also actively buying e-books.
• Kindle sales have outpaced sales for hardcovers
• Amazon sells 143 Kindle e-books for every 100 hardcover prints sold
• If you narrow the research to a monthly timeframe, Amazon actually sells 183 Kindle ebooks for every 100 hardcover prints sold
• Amazon’s hardcover sales begun over 15 years ago while they only started selling  Kindle e-books forty-plus months ago;  this means today’s generation (the income-earning generation!) is yours to target!

Note: Amazon carefully notes, however, that their hardcover sales are still steadily increasing. It just so happens that Kindle sales are growing more quickly. So if you want to expand your writing career to print publishing, there is money in it, too – but it will be harder to earn.

Apple’s iPad did not kill Kindle, which is probably much to the dismay of many news journalists who, for months after iPad’s 2010 release, gleefully predicted the death of Kindle in Steve Jobs’ hands. If anything, Apple’s iPad can only increase the sales of Kindle since Amazon already has official Kindle applications out not just for Apple’s mobile devices but for the PC as well.

What Tools Will You Need?

In a writing manual that the great Stephen King wrote, he talked about writers needing a toolbox for their chosen career. As an e-book writer, you will have a need of many of the various tools that King talked about (e.g. knowledge of proper grammar and punctuation, et al), but you will also need a few extras because you are targeting a new and specific breed of readers.

As a creator of Kindle e-books, you also need to have at least basic working knowledge of the following applications. Keep in mind that basic working knowledge means knowing beyond how to open and close files in these applications. You have to know how to create even just simple files with them and edit them as well whenever required.

Microsoft Word or Open Office

Take your pick among word processors although if you are new to e-book writing, you would do best when you choose MS Word. Most articles and e-courses for writing e-books that sell have MS Word users in mind, which means you cannot apply their technical guidelines if you are using any other word processor. MS Word is a very powerful tool, and you are strongly encouraged to take your time learning the many types of text-based and even visual effects and tricks that you can do with it. MS Word also has table-making features, and they are usually more than enough that you will not have to use Microsoft’s spreadsheet program Excel when making tables.

Microsoft Paint

Although Adobe Photoshop has a lot more powerful features, MS Paint is the better choice if you have never had the chance to use any kind of image- editing software. MS Paint is more beginner-friendly, and it has all the image-editing features you will need when using photos or any other kind of graphics for your e-book.

Keyword Search Tools

The free keyword search tool of Google will more likely be sufficient for your needs. Take the time to understand how all of its features work. This will help you choose not just the right keywords but also the best keywords for your e-book.

Internet Marketing Software

There are many different types of Internet marketing software products out in the market today, and promoting your e-book, later on, will be a lot easier if you use one or several of them. It is critical that you do take advantage of these products – whichever ones you do end up picking – because they will help you multitask more effectively and concentrate on activities that are most in need of your actual involvement.

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