Why Writing a Book Can Boost Your Expert Credibility

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Writing and publishing an ebook can give your business the boost you’re looking for. In fact an ebook can help you accomplish several important business building goals in one swoop. If you’re not sure what an ebook is, it’s simply a downloadable version of a book that you read on a computer, an ebook reader like Kindle or other mobile device.

Here are a few benefits of creating a successful ebook…

Credibility

Publication is one of the main avenues you can take to improve or establish your credibility. It doesn’t matter what industry or business you’re in, when you write a book people tend to automatically assume you’re an expert. Even if they don’t read your book, often the simple fact that you’re published will help you establish yourself as an expert on your topic.

This is important as a business building tactic because we buy from people we perceive as experts or authority figures in their industry. We turn to them to solve our problems, ask advice and to gain new skills and knowledge.

Awareness and Exposure

Writing a book broadens your reach. It spreads awareness of you and your business virally as people talk to each other about your book. Additionally, as you begin marketing and promoting your book you will subsequently also be marketing and promoting your business.

They say it takes three exposures to a business, product or service to create awareness. Your book and relevant marketing messages help your exposures quickly add up. This means you’ll have more prospects who think of you when they have a need.

Your book can also help increase your search engine optimization which increases your website traffic, and the awareness and exposure we just mentioned. You’ll receive incoming links to your website from book reviews, blog posts, and affiliate marketers if you’re selling your book and of course through content and other book marketing tactics.

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You can also use your book as an opt-in offer so you can build your email list. And of course we’re only talking about how your book can help market your business. You can also use your book as a product or bonus product to generate more sales.

Whether you’re selling it for a profit, giving it away to build a list, or using it as a strategic marketing tool, the better your book the more effective and successful it will be. It should also be noted that ebooks are growing by leaps and bounds. Digital publishing has become mainstream and most people don’t think twice about downloading a book online. Bookstores now offer digital books and there are specific reading devices that cater to ebook readers.

You don’t need to worry about paying for print publishing and you don’t have to worry about shipping. Distribution is as simple as a download page and maybe an autoresponder. It’s an incredibly cost effective means to communicate, provide value, and to market your business.

50 Ways to Get New Clients

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1. Speak at local events. Look for groups, meetups and gatherings of people who’re in or related to your industry. Speak at these events to position yourself as an expert and gain more exposure.

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2. Speak at seminars and conventions. Offer to speak at seminars and conventions. If you have a recognizable brand name, most organizers would be thrilled to have the opportunity.
 3. Sponsor an event. If you’re a solo service provider, sponsor a small event in your area. If you’re a large service provider, sponsor a bigger event.
4. Get covered by the press. Come up with some unique angle and pitch it to reporters. Use tools like Help a Reporter Out (HARO) to find reporters looking to do stories. 
5. Take out a small newspaper ad. This works great if you provide services to local clients.
6. Network and follow up. Go to minglers, mixers and professional events and meet people in your target market.

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7. Give free advice. Do it both online and offline. Demonstrate your credibility first before trying to sell.
8. Answer questions on LinkedIn. This helps build your credibility online, which often translates into real world contacts.

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9.Build a professional website. Having a great looking website helps create trust with people who’re considering hiring you.
10. Ask for referrals. Talk to people you know, including but not limited to past clients and ask for referrals.

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11. Run a mailing list. Develop a relationship with others in your field over time by mailing useful content regularly.
12. Run a Q&A mailing list, blog or website. Become known as the person to go to for questions in a particular arena.
13. Copy your competitors. How are your competitors getting clients? Do what they do. In fact, see if you can do what they do, only better.
14. Join a Business Networking International (BNI) network. BNI can be a great source of leads for offline service providers.
15. Get on Yelp. Try to be the most positively reviewed provider in your area. Yelp profiles often rank very well in search engines.
16. Put your USP (unique selling proposition) on your business card. People who look at your card should instantly understand your value offering and what sets you apart.
17. Get to know university professors. Professors are fantastic connectors and know people in all kinds of different fields. They often know very powerful people. Reconnect with old professors and see if they can help connect you with anyone who could help your business.

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18. Network with lawyers and accountants. Every business needs a lawyer and an accountant. If your clients are businesses, networking with lawyers and accountants can be a potential gold mine.
19. Mail your legacy clients. Most people only ask for referrals or sales from current clients or recent clients. But your legacy clients, meaning clients that dropped off a long time ago, could still harbour a lot of good will towards you. See if you can tap into that for more business or for more referrals.

cold-calling20. Cold call. Many Fortune 100 companies were built initially by some guy in his bedroom, cold calling. Humana is one prime example, as was Microsoft. Bill Gates just cold called both the programmer of DOS and the buyer of DOS. Cold calling might seem scary, but it does work.

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21. Offer to write guest posts. Write fantastic articles for other people’s sites and send the traffic back to yours with a link in the article.
22. Offer to write for small time publications and trade newsletters. If you have experience, reputation or background in the industry, they’ll often be happy to have you.
23. Start a blog. Help people in your target market by providing great content.

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24. Be active on social media. Regularly post great content to your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ profiles. People who follow you will come to see you as more and more of an expert.
25. Call in to a radio show. Give your name and either ask a well informed question or make a comment that really helps listeners.
 
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26. Ask past clients to give you credit on their website. For instance, if you did some graphics for a client, ask them to put that the graphics were by you on the bottom of their site. If you were their coach, ask them to talk about their experience on their blog.
27. Join your local chamber of commerce. You’ll often meet valuable contacts that can either become clients or people you can work business deals with.
28. Advertise on popular message boards. Look for message boards in your industry where your target market gathers and advertise there.
29. Submit proposals on oDesk and eLance. Look for jobs other people are posting up that fit your specialty.
30. Offer to work for a freelance shop. For example, if you’re a freelance writer, look for a freelance writing agency and offer to be one of their writers.
31. Practice your elevator pitch. Have a strong 30 second answer for the “what do you do” question. Sometimes your best clients come from chance meetings.
32. Wear a T-Shirt to locations where potential customers are. For example, go to a trade show with your brand’s logo on your shirt.

33. Befriend connectors. Develop connections with Twitter users, bloggers, Facebook page owners and other individuals who have a lot of connections. See if you can help them, so sometime later they might help you.

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34. Buy Google AdWords. Bid on keywords related to your industry. Focus on “buying keywords,” words that someone who’s ready to buy might type in.
35. Buy banner ads on related sites. Find websites that your target market frequents and buy banner ads on those sites.

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36. Write a free eBook and give it away. This helps you build credibility. Put as much great content as you can in your free eBook.
37. Produce a big virtual event with other people in your industry. For example, if you’re in the social media business, get 10 social media consultants together to do a big online workshop about social media. Use the leads to market your services.
38. Do a publicity stunt. Google publicity stunt examples and see if you can do something similar for your business.
39. Join competitions and win. If you’re a writer, look for writing contests. If you’re a designer, look for design contests. Consultants could look into speaking contests. Put a lot of time into your entry, as a winning placement could mean a lot of exposure.

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40. Use Craigslist. Post in the services section and respond to posts in the “gigs” section.
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41. Mail or email companies with free advice. If you’re a website conversion specialist, mail possible conversion improving advice to companies.
42. Yellow pages advertising. Buy an ad in the appropriate section in the yellow pages.
43. Co-work with other freelancers. Working with other people is a great way to network and meet both potential clients and people who could refer you to clients.
44. Host your own meetup. Go to http://www.meetup.com and create a meetup on your topic. Having your own meetup is a fantastic way to get more exposure, meet potential clients and build your network.
45. Publish a book. Write a book about your subject and get it published. Even if you never sell over a thousand copies, being a published author will still massively boost your credibility. Nobody will ever ask you how many copies you’ve sold.
46. Get your work featured on a compilation site. For example, if you build websites, enter a website you built into a website that compiles examples of great website designs.

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47. Create a referral reward system. Give clients and other referrers rewards for sending you new clients. Rewards can be financial or non-financial.

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48. Play with your prices. Sometimes when you raise your prices, you actually get more clients. Working with a few high priced clients might be a better model than a few lower priced ones. Alternatively, you might be priced to high and might need to lower your price to attract more clients.
49. Contact your former employer. Your former employer can be a fantastic source of leads. They could even be your first client. 
50. Put flyers up in relevant local boards. For example, post a flyer on your chamber of commerce’s board, or post flyers on boards in co-working spaces. 

Nook Publishing Checklist

checklistSo, you’re ready to publish a book on the Nook. Not so fast! Have you covered all your bases? Miss one crucial step and you could botch your whole launch.

Before you upload your book, look through this checklist to make sure you’ve taken every necessary step.

 

Have You … Said Something Truly Unique?

 

For your book to really take off, it has to have something really different about it. People can’t pick up the book and think it seems like every other book they’ve ever read.

Becoming a bestseller on the Nook is only slightly easier than becoming a bestseller in paperback. Your book must stand out.

Give your book to a few people in your target market before launching. When they give you feedback, are they excited? Or do they simply say it’s good? Keep working on your book until people you show it to absolutely love it.

 

Have You … Formatted Your Document?

 

Formatting for the Nook is different than formatting for the Kindle or for the iBookstore.

One of the biggest differences is that you can’t use page breaks; but have to use section breaks instead.

Most of Word’s basic features, such as underlining, bolding and bulleting will work on the Nook. However, other features, like symbols or image wrapping won’t come out properly.

Make sure you’ve formatted your document properly before uploading. You can upload in HTML, DOC or TXT files.

 

Have You … Tested Your Cover Image?

 

Your cover will have a bigger impact on your sales than just about anything else in your description. Have you tested it to make sure it’s the best cover you can possibly have?

The best way to test your cover is to have 5-6 different covers done, then have your friends look over them. Get different opinions from 10 to 20 people and choose the one that people consistently say is the best.

Have You … Got an ISBN Number?

 

An ISBN number isn’t required to publish on the Nook. However, having one can add a lot of credibility for your book. If you’re serious about making your book a success, the $25 ISBN fee is a small price to pay.

 

Have You … Honed Your Pitch?

 

Why should someone buy your book? Barnes & Nobles advocates this approach to writing your description: Imagine someone asked you what your book is about at a dinner party. You have to “sell” your book in 30 seconds. What would you say?

Now take that pitch and turn it into your book’s description. It should catch attention, tell people what the book is about, hook their curiosity and get them to buy.

 

Have You … Got an Inspiring and Credible Bio?

 

Before someone buys your book, one of the first things they’re going to look at is who you are. Do you seem like a credible person? Do you have the credentials to write the book you wrote? Why should they trust you?

When you’re writing your bio, focus on the credibility building aspects. For example, if you’re writing a business book, people will care a lot less about where you grew up or what you’re passionate about than what your business track record is. Even if you’re writing a fiction book, you should still focus on your track record as an author.

Make your bio “snap” and fun to read, but make sure it also adds credibility.

 

testimonialsHave You … Collected Blurbs and Testimonials?

 

Blurbs and testimonials should go in the beginning of your book, as well as at the bottom of your description. They can help convey other people’s excitement and get your readers excited as well.

Getting testimonials is easy. Just send the book to a few of your friends, have them email you their thoughts and put those thoughts in your book.

 

Have You … Got Editorial Reviews?

 

In the Nook, editorial reviews get a section of their own.

That means there’s a huge opportunity to build credibility by adding a few editorial reviews.

An editorial review is a review by someone who’s respected in your industry. For example, a journalist, a well known author, an editor of a well known publication or a CEO of a prominent company.

 

Have You … Leveraged Bloggers, Reviewers and Reading Groups?

 

One of the best ways to sell a Nook book is to get a ton of reviews, both on the web and in the Nook store.

To get reviews on the web, contact bloggers and review sites that write about your industry. Offer to send them a free copy of your book to review.

To get a lot of reviews in the Nook store, look for reading groups. These are groups of people who read Nook books. They often focus around specific categories of books. Find one of these groups and offer your book for free to the entire group, in exchange for reviews.

How to Publish E-books for Nook Readers

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The Barnes & Nobles Nook device is an Android-based e-reader device that incorporates Amazon’s pioneering E-Ink technology. The price of the device ranges from $99 for the Simple Touch reader to $249 for the Nook Color.

One difference between the Nook and the Kindle is the Nook’s “GlowLight” technology. This makes it easy for people who own a Nook to read books in the dark, something that the Kindle is completely incapable of doing.

Publishing on the Nook gives you access to millions of highly active readers. The Nook and the Kindle are often neck in neck in terms of sales. If you’re publishing your book on either the Kindle store or the iBookstore, there’s no reason not to also publish on the Nook bookstore.

Here’s how to publish your eBook to the Nook bookstore.

Step 1: Click Create an Account

Go to: http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com

In the upper right corner, click “Create an account” to begin the account creation and book creation process.

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Step 2: Creating Your Account

Fill out the PubIt registration form on the next page.

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Give PubIt your contact information.

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If you have a publisher, enter your publisher’s details.

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Enter your bank account information. This is used to deposit your payments. You need a US-based bank account to use the Barnes & Nobles Nook bookstore.

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Give PubIt your Social Security number or your Federal Tax ID number (if you’re a corporation.)

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Finally, give PubIt a credit card. They do this primarily to verify that you are who you say you are. They also use it as a protection mechanism, if your book refunds happened to exceed the amount of sales you make during a payment period. (This is highly unlikely.)

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Once you hit “Submit,” your PubIt account will be created. You can then begin creating your first book.

Step 3: Enter Your Title and Author Details

Enter your title. Then choose your list price.

Look through the Nook bookstore to see what other comparable books are charging. Unless you have a very good reason to do otherwise, you should try to list your book for about what other people are listing them for.

If you’re using your book as a loss leader to get more people aware of your brand, you can sell your book for a much lower price just to get more people to buy.

Your title needs to stand out among the sea of other books that your book will be swimming in. It should say something so unique that people can’t help but wonder what the description says.

Finally, list your author name and publisher details.

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Step 4: Upload Your Book

Click “Browse” to find the book on your computer. Then click “Upload & Preview” to upload your book.

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Step 5: Preview Your Book

You’ll be taken to a preview of what your book looks like. You can click the “Next Page” button to see what the other pages in your book look like. Make sure your book’s formatting came out the way you want it to before continuing.

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Step 6: Upload Your Book Cover

Upload your book cover.

Remember when you’re designing your cover that people really do judge a book by its cover. Much of your book’s ability to make sales will depend on the strength of your cover.

Your cover should convey credibility, as well as make a strong promise. It should have good overall design aesthetics as well as be a strong marketing piece.

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Step 7: Publishing Details

Barnes & Nobles needs a few bits of information before it can publish your book. It needs to know if you have an ISBN number, whether it’s part of a series, whether it’s in print and whether it’s a public domain book.

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Step 8: Age & Language

What age is your book geared towards and what language is the book written in?

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Step 9: Rights & DRM

Let B&N know whether you have worldwide rights, or rights in only the USA or the USA and Canada.

Choose whether you want to DRM encrypt your book. This helps protect your book from being stolen or passed on.

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Step 10: Categories and Keywords

Choose the categories and keywords you want to use to market your book. You can choose up to five categories.

Try to list your book in the most obvious categories, as well as one or two non-obvious categories. Get your book into categories that your competitors might not necessarily think of, but are shared by your target market.

You can also try to pick a category that you think you can dominate. In other words, pick a category that isn’t too competitive and try to get your book to the top.

Your keywords will help people who’re performing searches to find your book. Use tools like the Google Keyword Tool to identify keywords that people search for on a regular basis.

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Step 11: Description & About the Author

Write a compelling description of your book. If your book’s an informational book, try to titillate people by hinting at some of the things they’ll learn in the book. If your book is a non-informational book, try to give people an emotional dose of what they’ll experience once they’re reading your book.

Your “About the Author” section is the perfect place to demonstrate your credibility. Talk about your past experiences that make you uniquely qualified to read this book. Give specific figures (E.g. “helped over 8,000 entrepreneurs raise startup capital”) and drop names wherever possible (E.g. “helped raise capital for Groupon, eBay, Dropbox and more.”)

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Step 12: Submit!

Once you’ve confirmed that all the information you’ve submitted is correct and complete, click the checkbox and hit “Put on Sale.”

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That’s all there is to submitting a book to the Nook! What comes next is the hard part: Marketing and promotion.

Leverage your social networks, your email list and you website to get the word out about your book. You need to get some attention to your book first, before people will start to come to your book on its own. Once your book gains some momentum however, at some point it’ll be able to swim on its own and become a real money earner for you without you having to constantly promote it.

 

Proper Formatting and Conversion for Nook

 

Formatting for the Nook is all about making your text appear the way it appears on your screen, on the Nook. While the Nook can convert most .DOC files and formatting to the proper format, there are a few things you need to do beforehand to get your document ready.

For the purposes of this guide, we’re going to use a .DOC upload, as that’s the most common format used. You can also upload a as an EPUB document,  .HTML or .TXT.

 

Step 1: Fix Your Spacing

 

If you’re using two return carriages at any point in your text in order to create a new paragraph, that’s going to come out wrong in the Nook. While on screen two returns might give you the look you want, on the Nook it’ll look like too much space.

For example, this is what spacing looks like to a lot of people in Word:

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The single spacing doesn’t look like it creates enough space above it for a new paragraph. So people do two return carriages instead. This works in Word, but not on the Nook.

Instead of using double returns, select the text whose spacing you want to change, then click “Paragraph.”

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Change the spacing. Usually the field you’ll want to change is the “After” field.

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Step 2: Change Your Indents

 

Tab indenting doesn’t work on the Nook. If you want to indent the first line of a paragraph, again use the paragraph tool.

Right click, select “Paragraph” as shown in step 1, then change the indent using the “Indentation” section.

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To indent the whole paragraph, use the left side controls. To indent just the first line, use the “Special” section.

 

Step 3: Insert Section Breaks

 

The Nook converter cannot read Page Breaks. You also can’t start a new page by just pressing return until you get to the next page. In order to have your page breaks be properly formatted for the Nook, you need to instead use a section break. Use this at the end of chapters and when you want to start a new page.

To insert a section break, position your cursor where you want the break to appear. Then go to “Page Layouts,” click on “Breaks” and select “Next Page” under “Section Breaks.”

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Step 4: Lists

 

If you have lists, such as bullets or numerical lists, make sure you’re using Word’s built in list tools. Don’t try to create your own lists by placing numbers then a dot, or any other makeshift method of creating lists.

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Step 5: Change Your Font

 

Use either Arial, Times New Roman or Courier New.

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Step 6: Format Images

 

Your images can be aligned in the middle, the left or the right. Text should be above and below the image. Don’t use formatting that causes words to wrap around the image. By and large, choose the “In line with text” wrapping style (it’s on by default.)

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Step 7: Remove Symbols

 

Remove any non-standard symbols from your text. Remove any superscripts and subscripts.

By default, Word converts the “th” and “st” texts that come after a date or a fraction into superscripts. If this is the case with your text, you’ll need to go through all of them and remove them. Having symbols or superscripts can disrupt your book’s formatting.

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Above are two examples of Word automatically creating superscripts. To change it, just backspace over them and re-write the text. If Word tries to change something, just press CTRL+Z to undo it.

Once you’ve made all these changes, your .DOC file will be ready for publication on the Nook!

Submitting Your eBook to the Kindle Store

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Getting your eBook on the Kindle format is a powerful way to get exposure to a group of people that may never actively search for your book online. You’ll be exposed to people who are ready and willing to spend money and can purchase your book quickly and easily at the click of a button.

Amazon’s process for submitting an eBook used to be long and complicated, requiring an ISBN number and a lengthy application process similar to its physical book process.

With the Kindle’s new Digital Text Platform (DTP) you can now submit your eBook to the Kindle quickly and easily. Here’s how.

Step 1: Sign In to the DTP

 

Go to: http://dtp.amazon.com

You’ll be presented with the introduction page. Sign in to your Amazon account.

 1-Sign-In-to-Account

Step 2: Add Seller Information

 

When you log onto the DTP system, you’ll immediately be presented with a screen that says “Your account information is incomplete.”

That’s because you currently have an account for buying books on Amazon but not for selling books on Amazon.

Click the “Update Now” button to give Amazon the necessary information to have an account that can submit books to the Kindle.

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Step 3: Fill Out Your Account Information

 

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You’ll be presented with an account information page that should be mostly self-explanatory. Fill out your name, tax ID / SSN number and how you’d like to receive your payments.

 

Step 4: Add Your First eBook

Once you save your changes, you’ll be returned to the main screen. Click “Add a new title” to add your first eBook.

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Step 5: Fill Out the Book Details

 

When you click the add button, you’ll be presented with a long page of options for your book. Here’s what each section means.

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1) Provide the title of your book and the description. Remember that these are two of the most important things people will use to consider whether to buy your book or not. The title and description should be both descriptive and compelling.

2) Book contributors – Who are the authors?

3) Publishing Details – What language is the book in? Everything else is optional.

There’s more when you scroll down …

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1) Do you own the rights or is the book in the public domain?

2) What category does the book belong in? This will help people who don’t know of your title find your book. If you’re unsure, look for books similar to yours and see what categories they put themselves in. You should also add a few keywords to make the book easier to find.

3) Your book cover. Perhaps more than any other factor, your book cover is what will catch attention and get people to buy your book.

4) Upload your book. Amazon prefers HTML format, though they can accept PDF format as well.

Click Continue when you’ve completed everything on the first page.

Step 6: Set Your Rights and Pricing

 

When you hit continue, you’ll be taken to the rights & pricing page:

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Here you’ll set whether you want to sell the book all over the world or just in certain parts of the world. You’ll also set your royalty percentage and your listing price.

Once you hit submit, your book will be reviewed by Amazon. Once you receive approval, your eBook will be live on the Kindle store!