The 6 Steps Plan to e-Publishing: How to Write, Publish in kindle format and Market your Kindle Books with Amazon KDP

by Ally Nathaniel

Is the only thing stopping you from e-publishing your book is the “how” to get it done? The ultimate guide on how to write, publish and market your e-book with Amazon KDP.

Do you have a great idea for a book but don’t know how to get it published?

Are you ready to fulfill your dream and become a published author?

*Written by Amazon's #1 best seller author Ally Nathaniel*

In this book you will learn, step by step, how to make your dream of publishing an e-book a reality. Whether you write a children’s book, a fiction/nonfiction or a “how to” book, “The 6 Steps Plan to e-Publishing” will guide you through all the steps you need to follow. From writing your book, publishing it in a kindle format, to marketing it with Amazon, the ultimate e-publishing guide is your road map to fulfilling your dream and publishing your book.

Say good bye to rejection letters and take your destiny to your own hands.

You will learn how to: Transform your idea into an e-book Create and publish your book in a Kindle format Find the perfect illustrator / editor/ ghost writer for your book Select the best keywords for your genre Choose the right categories for your book ˃˃˃ Are you ready to sell more copies?

This guide will teach you how to :

1. Create an attractive book cover

2. Write a book description that sells

3. Market your e-book

˃˃˃ Chapter 4: Promotion and Marketing

Effective promotion is key to success. However, promotion is the toughest part of the process. You need to get the right instructions and information on this in order to succeed.

Once you complete writing your book and want it to actually sell, promotion is an ongoing process. You will need to follow these steps with every new book you write and constantly reach out for more reviews, blog posts, and new ways to promote your book, including paid promotions.

Being a self e-published author means that not only do you need to write well, but you also need to be a researcher, marketer, and socializer. Use your book to promote your website, social media, and other books of yours and vice versa. Add your website URL, Facebook page link, and Twitter address at the end of your book and invite people to connect with you. I found out that by connecting with people and fans, it actually helped me to promote my books. Your friends, family, and fans are your messengers and can help spread the word about your book.

There are a few steps I highly recommend following. These will help you attract more attention to your book. Many authors ignore these options and potentially miss out on sells.

Ask for reviews

Good reviews can bring more readers. It is very important to follow the guidelines below to get some good reviews for your book:

This is the time to send a free copy to all your friends and family and ask them to write a positive review. You can also reach out to professional guest reviewers to review your book and publish it on their blogs as well as on Amazon.

Look for bloggers who write book reviews of your genre and send them the request/offer. You can buy contact information of bloggers on http://business2blogger.com/or simply search on Google for results and address the bloggers directly.

When you reach out to potential reviewers, remember to be polite and ask nicely.

Genres: Writing

64 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 15, 2014

About the author

Ally (Ayelet) Nathaniel is a #1 best selling author and a self-publishing coach. She has three young children who have inspired her to write and publish children's books. To date she has published ten titles: "Sparkly Me," "Who's Under the Bed," "Fabulous Me," "Dancing with the Sun,"The 6 Steps Pan to e-Publishing" and more. "Sparkly Me", "Who's Under the Bed?" and "My Snow Day" made it to the #1 best seller position on Amazon for children ages 0-6. Currently she has sold more than 40,000 copies on Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing).

Through Ally Nathaniel eBook Publishing Services, she assists business owners and authors to self-publish their books through Amazon KDP and by guiding them through the entire self-publishing process for Amazon Kindle and CreateSpace . She offers assistance with the writing, finding illustrators, editors and (when necessary) ghostwriters, and works with clients on ways to promote their books after publishing and listing on Amazon.

In addition to her work as a self-publishing coach, Ally has edited an on-line parenting magazine, managed parent-oriented forums, and has written and published articles for a parenting magazine. She is also a trained chef and is currently working on a unique cookbook that combines child-friendly recipes with parenting tips on how to build a child's confidence and develop a closer bond with your child in the kitchen.

Reviews

[Rich Meyer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from StoryCartel.com in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, I wish I hadn't bothered with it, for the entire ten minutes it took to read. It's simply reiterative of information found freely on the internet and in at least a dozen other similar e-books people have published in an attempt to ride the coattails of the e-publishing revolution instead of creating actual original content.

To start with, "The 6 Steps Plan to..." for a title doesn't even sound right. It's a six-step scheme, not a system.

Even barring that, a guide to e-publishing needs to include information on formatting your book for a e-publishing platform, and this one really doesn't. It's understandable, as the book is horribly formatted and hard to read. (Hint: Paragraph indents help your reader move along, even in non-fiction).

While this could've been an interesting look at the game from the viewpoint of a children's book author, it really doesn't even do that well. The illustrator's role - the most important part of a children's book - is relatively glossed over. Fiverr.com is also stressed overmuch as an option for such things as artwork and covers. Try to remember that if you can't do it yourself, you get what you pay for. A $5 cover will look like a $5 cover, no matter how much that Fiverr person knows how to use that pirated version of Photoshop.

There are far too many good books on how to publish on Kindles and other e-readers, and a wealth of information for free on the internet, to bother picking up a book like this.

[Hank Pharis · Rating 2 out of 5]

(NOTE: I'm stingy with stars. For me 2 stars means a good book or a B. 3 stars means a very good book or a B+. 4 stars means an outstanding book or an A {only about 5% of the books I read merit 4 stars}. 5 stars means an all time favorite or an A+ {Only one of 400 or 500 books rates this!).

The great news is that I can listen to a book a day at work. The bad news is that I can’t keep up with decent reviews. So I’m going to give up for now and just rate them. I hope to come back to some of the most significant things I listen to and read them and then post a review.

[Ross Darren Knowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its ok

I wanted the book to tell me by steps to change format then the finished book so it was not very good for me

[Esther Filbrun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not worth a whole lot of your time.

This book starts out with writing tips, continues with how to prepare for publishing, gives a step-by-step tutorial on how to use KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), and ends with a short chapter on promotion.

The writing tips, for the most part, I did not find useful. Most of them were ones I had seen elsewhere. The one helpful thing I found there was links to where to find an editor and illustrator, although if you did the research yourself I’m sure you’d find the same sources.

How to prepare for publishing was pretty much common sense—although most of it was things you’d probably be able to figure out yourself as well. There were a few good tips there, though, so I’d recommend a quick scan through there. I felt parts of the instructions on writing a book description were pointless, though, and would possibly even detract from sales—but then, that might be just my opinion.

The tutorial on how to use KDP I found really good. It was explained in an easy-to-understand manner. That was the real highlight of the book. Ally did very well with this part. This is the point that will probably bring me back to this book again if I ever pursue self-publishing. Here, she explains how to set up an account, upload your book, find relative keywords, and more. This book has the best explanation on this topic that I’ve seen anywhere.

The promotion section was also pretty good. There were some valid points made. Several good websites were linked to as well. I’m sure a newly-published author would find some helpful tidbit there.

Overall, I’m afraid I can’t give a rave review on it. I didn’t get a whole lot out of this book. While there were the odd good bits, I feel that this mostly had things in it that I’ve seen elsewhere. The text formatting was also not as good as other books, making it harder to read.

I hate writing a negative review, because I know the author has put a lot of time into writing and promoting this book. But these are my honest thoughts. Overall, I’m afraid I can’t really recommend this book. Although, if you are looking for a quick overview on how to publish and market your book, you might find something helpful here.

I received this book for free in exchange for my honest thoughts in a review.

[Stacie Wyatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in exchange for honest review.

Ally Nathaniel lays out the basic steps to write the book. She discusses editing, which includes spelling, grammar, and punctuation. She also talks about research. Research background. Research your audience. You also need to analyze the market. Look for similar books in genre and topic to see what people are reading.

Next, Nathaniel discussed finding an illustrator. I had a friend design one cover, while I designed the rest. I could not afford an illustrator. I had ideas for covers but some people was not feeling my vision. So I used publisher to create my covers. I also used Amazon's cover editor. I would love to one day redo the covers on all the other books. Maybe I can barter blogging services.

Finally, you need to upload the book, like I said, to Amazon, for example. Amazon and Smashwords have a system, where it will not publish your book until you fix any errors found. I also thought of for Kindle, you have to choose whether your book is enrolled in KDP Select, which has the book exclusive to Amazon. With KDP select, you get 5 free days on Amazon per quarter. You will get plenty of downloads (thanks to freebie book websites) but not a lot of reviews. If your book is found somewhere else online, Amazon will remove your book from KDP Select (this happened to me because I forgot I put the book on Smashwords).

and Don't forget to create your author profiles on whatever site you upload your books to. Link your social media in the book and on your profiles. Add your blogs (if applicable) RSS feed, which Amazon does. You have to manually add your books so people can view your books and social media feeds from one page. Make sure to add a photo.

Nathaniel also recommends creating a trailer (which I have never done).

The book could have expanded more on pricing models, such as Amazon gives you a minimum price, based on number of pages, type of book, binding, etc. The book also could have expanded more on the different markets. Such as The United States or Europe and how royalties vary. Or even Smashwords requires a set format to be published on other markets such as Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, and ibooks. Other than that, the book provides the starting foundation to write a book

[Julie Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 6 Steps Plan to e-Publishing by Ally Nathaniel
I wanted to read this book to help out an author friend get the word out on his new book.
This book is written for one who's never published their book. It will walk you through a lot of the sites available to help publish and promote your book.
I even clicked on a few of the links to understand what was going on and they are spot on.
So many ways and very very very time consuming to do it all yourself as the author. So many different places you have to visit to sell yourself along with your work.
There are many helpful people along the way, some free, some you need to pay. This is the first book I've read dealing with ebook publishing and I felt it covered everything and then some.
Not every aspect of this book was relevant to my friend's book as it's not a children's book but the general concepts are very well thought out.
I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to not only publish their ebook but promote it for others to read.
The most important part I felt was the keywords used at Amazon to tag to your book. Book trailer was another part that I felt was very important especially with all the digital components around us.
I received this book from Story Cartel via the author in exchange for my honest review.

[Eugene MacRae · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great resource for beginners. Anyone new to publishing in our digital age can easily be overwhelmed by what it takes to actually self publish your own material. And anyone who has started a business knows that the trial and error method can be costly and delay the journey to profitability because you have to keep tweaking your business plan. Anyone who succeeds in business usually has a mentor or a group they can use to help point them in the right direction. This book offers just that, a definite step by step process that you can follow to getting your book properly formatted, selecting the proper keywords, selecting the right categories (a step too often overlooked), creating an eye-catching cover and making sure you book is competitively priced. Screenshots throughout the book make it much easier to understand what you need to do at each step along the way. The all-important step of marketing is also discussed with a number of important links to websites you can use to promote your book. If you're just starting out on this journey of e-publishing your own book, let a publisher like Ally Nathaniel, who has sold in excess of 50K books herself, help you. I received a copy of this book from Story Cartel in return for a review.

[Cily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty basic and too simple.
The book is well written,concise and easy to read but I found the first part pretty basic and too simple.
There are a lot of thing just outlined without many details.
For example talking about pricing the book right the only thing the author describes are the Amazon royalties.
There is nothing about how the market goes with ebooks prices, since Ally is a self published author It would have been interesting to read some of her insights in pricing ebooks.
When she talk about finding an editor ,finding an illustrator , get a book cover there aren’t free resources and no references to the range of possible costs. I would have appreciated some considerations about how much it would cost to have the book completed (cover, editing etc) just to get an idea.
I found more interesting the part about uploading and publishing the book because there are step by step instructions, the information on how to maneuver around author central and the KDP dashboard are very helpful, Ally Nathaniel really hold your hand in the whole process.
If you're a brand new Kindle author then you'll probably get something out of this book otherwise look somewhere else.

Note: I was given a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Joseph McGarry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book from Story Cartel in exchange for this review.

This is a great book about e-publishing. It's very concise and direct. It walks you step by step through the process. It focuses on Kindle and KDP, but that is what the author knows. There are other e-book publishers out there, but Kindle is by far the dominant player in the market. It goes into details about subcontracting work to outsiders, and also illustrations for those who need it (especially for illustrations other than the cover). The e-book contains links to help you get started. One thing to mention is that with any contract, it's always buyer beware. Read contracts carefully before signing them, and especially before transferring money. It touches on pricing and royalties as well. Much of this information is available elsewhere, but it's nice to have it in a concise location. All in all, if you're going to publish a book, this is a good reference.

[Merissa (Archaeolibrarian) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book from Story Cartel in exchange for a fair and honest review.

For anyone who wants to get a book published, no matter what the genre, this book is going to be exceedingly helpful! It is written in easy to understand language and gives you step-by-step instructions on how to upload your book to Kindle, as well as many other pointers. There are links to websites which will help you with the proof-reading, editing and illustrating parts of your book.

Part of the book is also dedicated to promoting and marketing of your book once it has been uploaded.

I found this book to be incredibly helpful and would recommend it to all those who are contemplating the self-publishing route. This is only a small book but it is definitely a gem.

[Sher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free digital copy from storycartel.com in exchange for a review.

This book had useful information. I particularly liked the marketing plan and suggestions. The author included useful websites for hiring professionals such as editors and illustratators. For formating an ebook, she gave a few guidelines and referred the rest to the Amazon website. The information about keywords, categories, and pricing was helpful. Screenshots were used throughout the book to help explain the steps. She explained how KDP can be helpful for marketing. I would've liked for her to also include the disadvantages to be balanced so authors can make the best decision.

Overall, it's a good book for beginners. The marketing information was the best part of the book.

[Rebecca Kasarjian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this from Story Cartel in exchange for an honest review.

This book is intended for beginners but as such offers a nice, simple step by step guide to getting a book e published. It offers some marketing ideas and is a great first step for authors who want to write and publish their work.

[Brenda Cummings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great information!

This is a great informational source. There are many great tips and helpful links here. A must read for anyone wanting to self-publish.

[Lisa Presley · Rating 3 out of 5]

simple and easy to read

I enjoyed the simplicity of the information in this book. All the links and information will be helpful to me!