It’s June 2015 and about a year after the Kindle Unlimited program was introduced. When it was introduced it caused quite a stir among authors selling on Amazon – some in favor, and others strongly opposed.

Numerous updates have been made to the program in the past year, including opening Kindle Unlimited in the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Brazil, France, Mexico, Canada, and Germany. With the rapid growth of the KU program, the amount paid into the “fund” that pays authors royalties on their books borrowed through the program has increased from $2M per month to over $10M per month. Obviously, it’s been successful!

Large and small publishers railed against it when it was introduced and most have continued to opt out of the program. However, independent authors have embraced it and continued to renew their books in the KDP Select program (95% renewal rate, according to Amazon) in order to remain eligible for the Kindle Unlimited program.

However, like almost every other income opportunity, some marketers have jumped on the opportunity and promoted “shortcuts” to making more from the Kindle Unlimited program. After all, an author earns the same amount for a KU 20-page book as for a 200-page book.

For example, since authors are paid when a reader reads 10% of the book, some have recommended stuffing the front pages with images, offers, and generally light information so that readers need to read past the first 10% to get the beginning information they wanted. That triggers payment for the author.

Others have recommended churning out a series of “short” books of 10-15 pages, so that readers will read the required 10% within a page or two.

Both tactics have worked until now, earning the same amount as a New York Times 500-page bestseller offered under the Kindle Unlimited program.

However, Amazon is very smart when it comes to these work-arounds. As of July 1, they are changing the way that the Kindle Unlimited bonuses are paid. Like any other change, it’s good for some and not so good for others.

Winners and Losers

The Change: Authors will now be paid on the basis of the number of pages that consumers read. This is measured through the Kindle reading apps, available on all platforms.

With the start of the changes, each of your Kindle books will show a new number – the Kindle Edition Normalized Page Count (KENPC). This is the basis for the count of the number of pages read. However, this number will only appear on your Bookshelf in your KDP account, not on the book’s sales page. Non-text items, such as images, charts, and graphs will count toward a book’s KENPC.

As an author, you will also be able to see the pages read in your Sales Dashboard report – by marketplace and by title.

Likewise, authors will be paid on a percentage of total pages read across all Amazon books enrolled in the KU program. As an author, you have no way of knowing what that number is, so you must rely on Amazon’s calculations.

Winners: Authors with quality books that readers actually read all the way through.

Winners: Authors with longer books that keep readers moving forward through the book. This will be particularly good for those who write series of books.

Losers: Authors with poor quality books that readers may start but never finish.

Losers: Authors who write shorter books. It will take a larger number of books offered to maintain earnings at current rates.

Examples

Here are a couple of examples, based on rounded, easily understood numbers. For these examples, let’s assume that under the current program, an author is paid $1 per borrow (it’s actually more). Let’s also assume there were 100 million total pages read in the month, with a payout of $10 million.

Short Book Author – 20 page book
Current program: 500 qualified borrows (read 10% or more)
Current payout: $500

New program: 20 page book x 500 borrows = 10,000 pages read
New payout: (10,000/100 million) * $10 million = $1000

Note that this depends on someone reading ALL of the book, not just 10%.

Long Book Author – 500 page book
Current program: 500 qualified borrows (read 10% or more)
Current payout: $500

New program: 500 page book x 500 borrows (all pages read)
New payout: (250,000/100 million) * $10 million = $25,000

Clearly the longer book author stands to profit in a big way under the new program – as long as readers read the entire book!

What You Need To Do Now

Keep writing! If you don’t write and publish your book, none of this matters to you. So your first step is to keep writing.

If you have one book, write another.

If you are writing quality books that garner good reviews, then keep doing what you’ve been doing. Just write ANOTHER book to offer your readers.

If you’ve been “shortcuting” the process by some of the tricks that have been introduced, be prepared for a potential drop in your income. Now is a good time to improve the quality of your books and introduce new editions for your readers.

The wonderful thing about writing books is that you control the quality, length and number of books you offer. You are truly in control. Everything else is a bonus!

Today Amazon Brazil is promoting my books. Last time they did this I saw a marvelous spike in book sales – like 5 times the average sales day!

So I’m expecting the same type of spike today. Essentially – my books are the “hot” thing in Brazil today.

So I know you have a couple of questions…

1. Do the books have to be in Portuguese or Spanish?

No, they are promoting the English versions, even though one of the titles IS available in Spanish. So no need for translation.

2. How did you get Amazon Brazil to promote your books for you – free of charge!

Actually, I’m not sure, but this is the third time they have done this for me. I know that my books have sold well over the past 18 months, so I doubt they contact brand new authors. They contacted me the first time when my books had been in the program for a year.

3. Do you get paid less for sales during the promotion?

I still get my 70% royalty, but it’s on the sales price. So yes, I get less net. But keep in mind – if you write non-fiction, you should have backend offers in your book. That means regardless of the royalty you receive up front, you still get business. So every book sold is a potential bigger sale for you.

4. How can I get MY book promoted by Amazon?

While I assume you could submit your book to Amazon via a customer service request, I’m not sure it will help. My best advice would be to write a good book, keep it at the top of the charts for as long as possible – and keep writing! Experience says that Amazon loves prolific authors.

Here are some books that will help you market your books – and keep them at the top of the charts:

If you have considered writing a book, you have probably encountered the question of what name you should use as your “author name.” For some people, the decision is easy – they use their “real name.” But for others, it may not be a straight forward decision. Here are five reasons you may want to use a pen name.

1. You have a conflict of interest.

Sometimes you are working in a field that frowns upon outside activities, such as writing books. Or you are a teacher who wants to write adult novels. In those cases, you don’t want your “real” name to appear as the author. So of course, this is the perfect time to use a pen name.

2. You don’t want your own name to appear.

If you are concerned about your privacy or safety, it’s a good idea to use a pen name. It makes finding you more difficult and may be the safer option in your case.

3. Your name is hard to spell or easily confused.

Let’s face it. Your parents weren’t envisioning you as an author when they named you. So your name may have an unusual spelling that won’t show easily in search engines. Likewise, it could be difficult to pronounce, so word of mouth marketing for your books will be a challenge.

In this case, make it easier to find you with a pen name.

4. You want to write in specific genres that suffer from gender stereotyping.

There are certain prejudices in the book market that assume that certain types of books are written by one gender or another. A good example, is Nora Roberts, who also writes under the pen name J.D. Robb. Her romance novels use the Nora name, while her other books use the Robb name.

Likewise there are some men who believe their romance novels sell better when they use a female name as the author. It lets them more easily fit the mold, particularly when they first begin to publish in that area.

5. You want to avoid confusion in the marketplace

If you are a prolific writer, you may find it easier to publish under multiple names. For example, I write business books under my own name. That’s what I’m known for. But I write cookbooks and personal development books under pen names. While I’m not a celebrity in those arenas, I do have a following for the pen names as well.

Summary

This gives you five good reasons for using a pen name – beyond just for fun! If you can think of other reasons to use a pen name, please share them in the comments below.

In the next article, I will discuss how to manage pen names. Meanwhile, here are more resources to explore on this topic:

Here is a related blog post that offers other considerations before deciding to use a pen name: http://penandmuse.com/when-you-should-and-shouldnt-use-a-pen-name/

Here are seveal self-published authors talking about why they use pen names: http://www.selfpublishingadvice.org/writing-should-the-self-published-author-use-a-pen-name-pseudonym/

And if you’re wondering how to choose a pen name, here’s a good place to start: http://www.smallbluedog.com/how-to-choose-a-pen-name.html

Or you can use the Random Name Generator at http://www.behindthename.com/random/

As a Kindle book author, you know that your primary job once the book is finished is marketing. Some people love the marketing aspect of being an author, but an equal number dread it. While you may understand intellectually that marketing is necessary, fun does not fit into your definition of marketing.

I had the same attitude until I started marketing my first Kindle book! Seeing daily results from my marketing efforts made it all a lot more fun. As the sales started to pour in, it turned into a game. It’s now become a daily obsession – what can I do to increase my sales?

Here are ten ways that you can start having more fun in marketing your Kindle book.

1. Track from day one. You don’t know what’s working unless you are tracking your sales. I make it a habit to log into my KDP account first thing every morning and jot down my total sales (and borrows) for the month. It was fun seeing which days of the week sold best, as well as seeing if I could track spikes in sales based on my marketing efforts.

You’ll also want to track borrows, which now include Kindle Unlimited “sales.” Likewise, it’s fun to track foreign sales to see how many countries your book is selling in!

2. Play the Amazon game. Based on the description of the various Amazon ranking factors found in Let’s Get Visible by David Gaughran, I watched my daily rankings. Immediately after checking my sales, I went to my book page and scrolled down to the ranking section.

In that way I could see how well I was doing in each category. I could also see which day Amazon added the page count and when they started adding my book to the “those who bought this also bought this” list on other books in related categories. Each step made it more fun!

3. Encourage reviews. Naturally we would all like all 5-star reviews, but often you can learn the most from those with 3 or 4 stars. Read every review. I did this each morning as I was checking my sales stats.

Respond to any reviews you need to, vote for your favorite reviews so they move up the list, and send thank you notes to the reviewers you know.

I also wrote and shared an article with my network on How to Write an Amazon Review, as well as one on Why Authors Need Your Reviews. Those helped take the mystery out of the review process for some of my readers.

4. Document the process. Each time I gained a new ranking, I took a screen shot. That included total sales rank in Amazon, as well as where I stood in each of my three major book categories. It turns out you can rank for both books and Kindle books – even if you only publish on Kindle. For example, this is a screen shot for my Membership Site Plan book, taken on 2/21/2014.

These screen shots can be used in articles, blog posts, and on social media. They also back up any of your claims in terms of best-seller status.

5. Go where the audience is. Since my Ecourse and Teleseminar Guest books offer additional distribution methods for authors, I found that advertising on sites where authors go can be valuable. Therefore it made sense to pay for ads on author marketing sites.

Consider your book’s target market. Where do they go online? Then buy ads on those sites so that you are right in front of them.

6. Use profitable links. Always use an affiliate link when sending people to your book. In the first month I made extra money over and above the sales of the book because those clicking on the link to my book also bought other items while they were on Amazon. From groceries to music to golf clubs – they sell it all. And when you send visitors with your link they are “cookied” for 24 hours. It’s extra money in your pocket.

7. Use tracking links for each source of traffic. Within your Amazon affiliate account, set up tracking links for each source of traffic. I use different links for my blog, email, Facebook, YouTube, and article sites, as well as other places where I post my links. By tracking these sources you not only see where your sales are coming from, but you also see how effective your marketing is to draw more traffic to your book page.

8. Create a book trailer. A video book trailer is an additional way to attract people to your book. By creating a movie-style short video, viewers can learn more about your book and why they want to buy it.

I took a course on creating book trailers, but that isn’t necessary if you just need a couple of short videos. You can try out the process and easily create your first book trailer with online tools like Animoto, WeVideo or PowToon. Each of those can help you create effective short videos that can be shared on Facebook, posted on your blog, and added to your Amazon author page.

9. Follow up with your readers. Naturally you have included bounce-back offers in your book. For my Book Marketing book I offered a simple invitation to get a Target Market Worksheet. That took them to an optin page, which added them to a special autoresponder.

Through the autoresponder sequence I encouraged them to

•     Look at specific parts of the books
•     Read articles I had written, particularly the two on writing book reviews on Amazon
•     Write a review of the book
•     Check out the full course I offer on Design Your Online Course
•     Offer suggestions and questions they have on the content for my next book

With this dedicated autoresponder, I can stay in contact with my readers, building a long-term relationship.

10. Brag About Your Book! This is probably the hardest step, but keep in mind that people like to share in your success. Post awards, rankings, quotable reviews on your social media account – each time with that trackable link to the book.

Remind your subscribers about your book. It’s not enough to write them once telling them you have a book. Put it on your calendar at least twice a month to send an email dedicated to some aspect of your book.

None of these book launch tips are hard or time-consuming. The wonderful thing about having a Kindle book is that daily you can see the impact you are making with your marketing. And results make it all more FUN!

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Everyone who writes has had those moments when they either didn’t feel like writing or wanted to write and couldn’t think of what to say. We typically call this “Writer’s Block.”

In actuality it gets a lot more attention than it deserves. After all, it adds drama to an otherwise straight-forward process – writing. You are either writing or you are not. There is very little drama involved. But it plays well in print to create a problem like Writer’s Block.

There are several techniques you will find helpful if you do have brief periods of not writing.

1. Accept it. Relatx and do something unrelated for a while. When you are writing for yourself, you have no deadlines, other than the ones you have created for yourself. Whether you publish your book this week or next only matters to you. There isn’t an editor or publisher breathing down your neck. So relax. If you have a day when you don’t want to write, take the day off!

2. Talk it onto paper by talking aloud as you type. Some people talk better than they write. It’s a more natural communication mode for them. If that’s your preferred style, accept it and use it to your advantage.

3. Hire help to draft the sections that are challenging you. If you don’t want to hire someone, you can use existing materials, including public domain and PLR (private label rights) items. Just consider them first drafts, then edit them into your copy.

4. Record, then transcribe the parts that are difficult. You may even have that material sitting on your hard drive in the form of a presentation you have recorded in the past!

5. Use dictation software.

6. Use a text processor instead of a word proessor. You’ll stay in your creative writing brain, rather than your analytical editing side. Every time you have to argue with your word processor as to how to number or format something, you are losing creativity!

7. Skip around, writing the parts that seem easy today. Nothing says you have to write from beginning to end.

8. Work on standard pieces of your work that don’t require creativity. These include your resource box or bio page, your dedication and acknowledgements for a book, a list of resources, or bonus material you want to offer with the item you are writing.

9. Ask someone to interview you on the topic. It’s always easier to answer questions than to create from scratch.

10. Keep writing! Write about the blocks you have, how you are struggling, what you had for lunch. Write anything, but keep writing!

These tips excerpted from the 7-Day writing plan in One Hour Guide to Your First Kindle Book, available at BooksByJeanette.com.

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Amazon announced Kindle Unlimited today for readers in the United States. While it sounds like a great deal for readers – unlimited books for $9.99 per month – what does it mean to you as an author?

First, if your book is already in KDP Select, it will automatically be included in the Kindle Unlimited program. So if you want to be included just be sure any titles you want to include are enrolled in the KDP Select program.

On the other hand, if you do NOT want to be included in the Kindle Unlimited program, you have the option to immediately remove your book(s) from Kindle Select. (Typically you have to fulfill the 90 days, but this seems to be an exception.) Just include your ASIN on the contact form here.

Second, you will be paid much as you are for titles that are loaned – that is, you will be paid a percentage of the “Global Fund” set aside for this purpose. I generally assume about $2 per book for a loan – and it will be the same for a book “bought” through the Kindle Unlimited program.

Will this help or hurt your book sales? It all depends…If your book is currently earning more than $2 per copy, then it could hurt your profits. However, initially you should anticipate seeing an increase in the number of people reading your books.

One important note: you are only paid for a book “sale” through the Kindle Unlimited program when the reader reads more than 10% of the book. This is the equivalent of reading the “Look Inside” portion – but they must do it after they “buy” the book.

As an author you want to look again at each of your titles and see how you can encourage them to read beyond that 10% mark. Otherwise you won’t get paid! Here are a couple of ideas…

1. Tell them to keep reading. It sounds simplistic, but many times they just need some encouragement. Particularly if you give them a reason to keep reading, such as “keep reading to discover the five secrets of…”

2. Put an incentive further into your book, then remind them about it early in the book. For example, “Be sure to download your checklist. Details are here (with link to later section of the book.)

What other ideas do YOU have for keeping them engaged for at least the first 20% of your book and profiting from the new Kindle Unlimited? Share your ideas in the comments.