Unlock the Secret to KDP Success: From Start to Finish in Two Steps!

Summary

The video discusses strategies for success on Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform. The speaker shares insights from extensive research and personal experience, emphasizing the importance of focusing on medium-content books like mazes or word searches, rather than low-content ones like blank journals. They also highlight the need for effective promotion, using social media, personal networks, and author copies to generate reviews and sales. The speaker encourages viewers to experiment with different niches, find what they enjoy, and be patient with results.

Takeaways

• 📈 Success on KDP is achievable with the right strategy.
• 🔍 Research and study of successful KDP creators is essential for understanding the platform.
• 📚 The speaker has a collection of 150-200 books on KDP, created using Book Bolt.
• 🎨 Medium content books, such as mazes and coloring books, are recommended for their uniqueness and potential for success.
• 🚫 Avoid creating low content books that are easily replicable by others, as they are oversaturated.
• 🌐 Utilize social media and personal networks to promote your books and gain reviews.
• 🎟️ Consider using Amazon ads to boost visibility and gather initial reviews for new books.
• 🎁 Gift author copies of your books to friends and ask for reviews without requiring them.
• 📝 Keep track of what works and what doesn't through experimentation with different book formats.
• 🔑 Focus on one niche to become known for that specific type of content and build a loyal following.
• ⏳ Patience is key; it can take 3 to 6 months to see significant results from a side hustle.

Q & A

What is the main point the speaker wants to convey about success on KDP?

The speaker emphasizes that it is 100% possible to be successful on KDP, but it requires a specific strategy, particularly focusing on creating medium content books and promoting them effectively.

What types of books does the speaker focus on, and why?

The speaker focuses on medium content books, such as maze and word search books, because they are more unique and less saturated compared to low-content books like journals and blank sketchbooks.

Why does the speaker prefer creating maze books over other types of content?

The speaker finds maze books fun to create and sees them as a niche with good potential for success. They are also relatively easy to generate using tools like Book Bolt, which automates much of the design process.

What tool does the speaker use to create their books, and why do they recommend it?

The speaker uses Book Bolt to create their books, praising it for its ease of use and built-in resources, like templates and graphics. They recommend it because it simplifies the process of creating medium content books.

What strategy does the speaker recommend for promoting KDP books?

The speaker suggests promoting books through social media, sharing with friends and family, and gifting author copies to encourage reviews. They also mention using Amazon ads, but they personally prefer direct promotion over ads.

Why does the speaker believe that promoting books on social media is important?

The speaker believes that social media promotion is essential because it helps generate initial reviews, which can boost the book's visibility and credibility, leading to more sales.

What is the speaker's opinion on using Amazon ads for book promotion?

The speaker acknowledges that Amazon ads can help boost initial visibility and reviews but personally prefers to focus on direct promotion methods like sharing with friends and family.

How does the speaker suggest obtaining reviews for KDP books?

The speaker suggests buying author copies and gifting them to friends, family, or acquaintances, asking them to leave a review if they enjoy the book. This approach is seen as more personal and effective than relying solely on ads.

What advice does the speaker give to those just starting out on KDP?

The speaker advises beginners to experiment with different types of content to find what they enjoy and what works best for them. They emphasize the importance of focusing on a niche and being patient, as success may take 3 to 6 months.

What is the speaker's long-term strategy for success on KDP?

The speaker's long-term strategy involves consistently creating medium content books in a specific niche, promoting them through personal networks and social media, and gradually building a reputation and customer base in that niche.

Outlines

00:00

📚 The Journey to Success on KDP: Research and Strategy

This paragraph introduces the concept of how some content creators on KDP achieve significant success while others struggle. The speaker shares their extensive research and interactions with the KDP community, highlighting the possibility of success with the right strategy. The key takeaway is that success on KDP is achievable through careful planning, and the speaker plans to share their findings on effective strategies, particularly in creating and promoting books on the platform.

05:01

🖼️ Exploring Low and Medium Content Books: What Works and What Doesn’t

In this section, the speaker discusses their experiences creating different types of books on KDP, including low and medium content books. They emphasize the challenges of breaking into oversaturated markets, such as coloring books, and the importance of uniqueness. The speaker reveals their successes and failures, mentioning the use of tools like Book Bolt for book creation and the decision to focus on maze books due to their potential for success.

10:03

🔍 Focusing on Maze Books: Research and Strategy

Here, the speaker explains why they decided to focus on creating maze books for children. They describe their process of using Book Bolt to find popular niches and formats, settling on maze books because of their recent popularity and the fun factor. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of narrowing down to a specific niche and the benefits of becoming known for that niche, as it can lead to repeat customers.

💡 Promoting Your KDP Books: Strategies and Tools

This paragraph outlines the importance of promoting books on KDP, detailing various strategies such as using Amazon ads and leveraging social media networks. The speaker shares their personal experience with Amazon ads, ultimately deciding to focus on promoting books through social media and personal connections instead. The importance of gathering reviews through these methods is also highlighted.

🎁 Gifting Author Copies: An Alternative Promotion Strategy

The speaker presents an alternative strategy to promote KDP books: purchasing author copies and gifting them to friends and family in exchange for reviews. They discuss the ethics of asking for reviews and why this method might be more effective than running ads. The speaker also reflects on their early sales results, reminding viewers that success takes time and effort. They conclude by encouraging viewers to find the right side hustle for themselves, offering additional resources on their website.

Keywords

💡KDP

KDP stands for Kindle Direct Publishing, which is a platform for authors and publishers to independently publish their books on Amazon. In the video, KDP is the main subject as the speaker discusses strategies for success on this platform, emphasizing that it is possible to make a fortune through effective strategies and content creation.

💡Content Creators

Content creators are individuals who produce various forms of content, such as books, videos, or other media. In the context of the video, the term specifically refers to authors who create books for the KDP platform, with varying degrees of success.

💡Medium Content Books

Medium content books, as mentioned in the script, are those that require more effort and creativity than low-content books but are not as extensive as high-content books. Examples given include mazes, word searches, and coloring books with unique designs, which are more likely to stand out in the market.

💡BookBolt

BookBolt is a tool mentioned in the video that helps authors create books with ease. It is used to generate content for books like mazes and word searches, which can then be published on KDP. The speaker is an affiliate for BookBolt and uses it to create unique content for their books.

💡Amazon Ads

Amazon Ads refer to the advertising services provided by Amazon to promote products, including books published on KDP. The video suggests using Amazon Ads to boost visibility and gather initial reviews, which can help improve a book's ranking and sales on the platform.

💡Reviews

Reviews are customer feedback on products, which are crucial for new books on KDP. The video emphasizes the importance of getting reviews to build trust and attract more buyers. Strategies for obtaining reviews include using Amazon Ads, social media, and gifting author copies for feedback.

💡Social Media

Social media platforms are used in the video as a means of promoting books published on KDP. The speaker shares their personal experience of using social media to share their books with friends and family, which helps in getting initial sales and reviews.

💡Niche

A niche refers to a specific segment of the market that has particular interests or needs. In the video, the speaker advises focusing on a particular niche within the KDP platform to become known for that specific type of content, which can help in building a loyal customer base.

💡Promote

Promotion is the act of marketing a product to increase its visibility and sales. The video discusses various ways to promote books on KDP, including using Amazon Ads, social media, and gifting author copies to encourage reviews and word-of-mouth marketing.

💡Side Hustle

A side hustle is a part-time job or business that one does in addition to their main job to earn extra income. In the video, the speaker refers to KDP as a potential side hustle and offers advice on how to be successful with it, including finding the right content and promoting it effectively.

Highlights

It's 100% possible to be successful on KDP with the right strategy.

Focusing on medium-content books, like mazes and word searches, can lead to more success than low-content books.

Using tools like Book Bolt to create unique content can significantly simplify the process.

Concentrate on one particular niche to build a recognizable brand and encourage repeat customers.

Promoting your books is essential; you can't just set it and forget it.

Running Amazon ads can help generate initial reviews and boost your book's visibility.

Leveraging your personal network and social media can be an effective way to promote your books.

Buying author copies and gifting them to people, then asking for reviews, is a viable promotion strategy.

Success in KDP takes time; expect 3 to 6 months to see significant results.

Exploring different content types is okay, but ultimately focus on what works best and is most enjoyable for you.

Utilizing keywords and templates in Book Bolt helps in finding and creating popular content.

Social media presence, even if small, can make a difference in book promotion.

Choosing a niche that is currently popular and has demand is crucial.

Avoid relying solely on easy-to-create content, as the competition is higher.

The key to success lies in creating unique, engaging, and high-demand content.

Transcripts

have you ever wondered why some content

creators on KDP make a fortune and

others barely break even I spent some

time studying researching watching

videos reading the membership boards all

the comments about how to be successful

on KDP and I'm here to tell you it can

be done I found a lot of successful

people and authors that are doing it and

I've summarized everything into a before

and after step for Success let's dive in

the main point here to explain about

what I learned is that it is 100%

possible to be successful on KDP there

is a strategy though I've watched tons

of videos like I said I spend a lot of

time on the comment section on where the

members of KDP the Publishers the

self-published authors are expressing

their concerns asking their questions

and sharing about what's been successful

for them some of these comments are from

authors who've written like novels and

things like that but there were several

comments from people who've done low and

medium content books and what they've

done to be successful yes you can do it

I've also watched some videos I really

like this guy um he's got some great

tips about how to be successful on KDP

and I'll dive into what he did first let

me show you what I created o present um

this is I've I've got about 150 or 200

books right now on KDP um I made all of

these with book bolt and you can get

them on KDP right now and I'm going to

walk through what I'm doing to promote

them um how they've been successful

which ones are already selling and I'm

having a lot of fun doing it so first of

all this is a coupon book that I made um

obviously this is not a low content book

I would say this is more of a medium

content book I've already sold a few

copies of that um these are very popular

you know these are the mandala books

where you're doing some coloring this is

a really hard Market to break into it is

possible to do it but I'm going to talk

about how to do that and what the

process is oh here we go this is my

favorite this is my book Maze that I've

done this is a dinosaur kids coloring

book in maze each maze is unique and

different and you have here the solve

puzzle at the bottom on the back page it

gives each kid a variety of skill levels

beginning to advance and then a little

surprise reward coloring thing on each

page also this is an example of our low

or medium content books I would say this

is low content because it's just blank

Staff Pages okay with a different color

if you saw my video on how I made 25

books in 25 minutes then I'll post it

here you'll see how I've been able to

make probably a hundred of these of

blank sketchbooks journals these staff

books a couple of them have sold not

many but with the new strategy I've

discovered I'm confident that I'm going

to be able to sell more this was a lot

of fun and like again all done on book

bolt um but I'll tell you why I've

decided to concentrate on the maze

coloring book okay strategy number one

this is the before part this is when

you're deciding what to create and what

to do right so I'm going to use my

examples of what to do and what not to

do obviously the low content books the

ones that are just blank pages and the

journals and I've done tons of those yes

super easy to do these but that's just

it they're super easy to do everyone can

do them and everyone does it's like

coloring pages right if you just do a

plain coloring page and you go to canva

don't get me wrong I love my canva I do

so much on canva with other projects but

if you can find it really easy on canva

so can a million other people find it

easy on canva and that's what they're

doing actually you make a good point so

that's the mistake that I made on the

I've done several coloring books and

they're not selling um I'm going to talk

about that strategy to sell later but

really your key here for the before the

development of these KDP books and to be

successful is to create medium content

books so a medium content book is

something like a maze a word search a

word find so Sudoku is that how you

pronounce it it's that's because it's

Unique um you're not copying something

that you found on canva that everyone

else can find you truly are creating a

unique item every time you make the book

and you've got to be thinking well Renee

how do you make all those mazes that's

just it book bolt did it all for me I am

an affiliate for them because I love

them so if you click on the link below

and you get 20% off if you use my coupon

code Clancy 20 it's there because I love

them and I use them every day that's why

I'm promoting them so this is my plan

I've decided to concentrate on maze

books I tried word searches and in book

bolt it's all formatted for you what you

do is you enter an Excel spreadsheet and

you just have to format a certain way

it's a little bit more work when you

you're moving pages around and you want

to put a design if you want to do

something fancier than just the word

search if you want to add a little bit

of graphic design or something like that

in there which you can do all that in

the book bolt system um you can do that

I just found it wasn't for me it wasn't

that interesting for me but the mazes I

thought were a lot of fun so all you

have to do is describe how difficult or

how thick you want the Maze and where

you want the result of the maze or the

key to be posted and it generates as

many as you need so this particular book

has 100 mazes and so here is like one

Maze and then on the back down here is

the result and I got a lot of these

little Graphics in book bolt also it

gives you access to pixels.com and some

other free websites some I did get on

canva but very few there really wasn't a

need anymore but I was able to design it

all in book bolt so that was awesome

okay so first why did iite on mazes I

wanted something that was going to be

popular and doing really well and

something that was already available in

the book bolt system so I went and I

searched in book bolt to see what temp

templates they had to offer and as you

see here there are things like blank

Staff Pages uh dot metric's you can get

the Sudoku you can get uh the word

searches the math finds all of those

things here and I decided to concentrate

on The Mazes so what I did was I took

the word Maze My keyword and I went into

the keyword search on book bolt typed it

in typed in kids Maze and then it popped

up it generated all of the most popular

maze kids books and I personally wanted

to find one that was popular or wanted

to see if it popular lately because if

it has you know thousands of of reviews

and it's done really well but it was

posted in 2018 that could have been

successful you know 3 or four years ago

but I want something that's hot right

now and so as I searched I found that

kid mazes were doing very well in this

last year and kind of this mix of

coloring and kids Pages was doing very

well and it looked like fun so I thought

that's what I would do so that's your

step number one concentrate on medium

content formats find in book bolt which

format works for you which one you want

to try and try a little bit of

everything even though this tip is to

concentrate on one Niche one particular

thing try a few different things see

what you like see what's fun um like I

said I've made a little bit of

everything I did some great sermon

notebooks and I did some journals and

and I did lots of things it's been a lot

of fun I did some ABC coloring books and

Trace books

and that's okay to explore and to try

fill out what works but I decided to

land on this because that is our tip

number one concentrate on medium content

books and one particular Niche because

then you will become to be known for

that particular Niche and if someone

buys your book and they like it they're

going to come back to you over and over

to get your next book and the next one

and the next one here we are to the

second part of being successful we

talked about the before part the how to

create a medium content book the best

resource for you and really

concentrating on one particular Niche

our second step to success now this is

the idea that you cannot just set it and

forget it and walk away you need to

promote the book but you might be

thinking well how do I do that how do I

how do I promote a book there are

several different ways one particular

suggestion people have and I got it from

this guy he's pretty awesome um is to

run Amazon ads now I never thought I

would have to run an Amazon ad but he

has a really good um reasoning about why

to do this he says do it at the

beginning to really push your book out

there get some reviews get some feedback

and then Amazon algorithm will almost

find it pick it up and then carry it

after that you know have you ever

purchased something on Amazon or wanted

to purchase something and you won't

purchase it because there aren't any

reviews on it yeah I have too I'm going

to go to someone who has more reviews

than someone who doesn't have any so

we've got to get those reviews on there

so I started an Amazon app on a few

books honestly I don't think I'm going

to go this route I'm going to try the

other suggestion I spent about 20 bucks

and I made about $25 I sold a few books

but honestly I think it's because of

this second way I tried it why I ended

up selling them so utilizing social

media and your network to sell books and

you might be thinking but Renee I don't

have a social media neither do I I

really don't have like there's this

channel but I don't have I just started

my Instagram for this channel last week

the really is not a following on there

um but what I did was I shared my books

on my personal social media I shared it

with my family and my friends I shared

my CP my date night coupon book with

them and they went on and bought some

and so that's your number one thing

really I get it my family and friends

are buying some of these right now but

that's okay because they will put some

reviews on there and that'll get it

going and then other people will see

positive reviews if my family leaves

positive reviews I'm sure that they will

I love them very much here's the next

strategy for promotion let's say if

you're like I don't want to do anything

on social media totally fine so this is

what the author said to do in the member

forums they said to buy a whole bunch of

author copies so what it is is when you

publish the book on KDP you can buy an

author copy that's basically the price

of just the print of the book so this

one was like $4 this one was like $2 buy

a whole bunch of copies they said buy

like 20 copies and gift them to people

and say hey please review my book and

someone on there said but isn't that

like bribing them saying hey I'm going

to give you a free book if you Give me a

review so what's wrong with that and

someone replied and said no you're not

requiring the review you're just asking

if you like the book please review it

and so they said that right there you

know if you're going to spend 20 or 30

bucks do that instead of an Amazon ad

and then when you give it to somebody

they're going to probably write a review

especially if it's a friend or a

neighbor or something like that so what

I've done is I've purchased about 20 of

these and I'm going to go give them to

my friends my girlfriends who have

younger kids and ask them if their kids

like them to please write a review I

feel more comfortable with that than

doing an Amazon ad um and I'll let you

know how that goes now I'll be honest I

have I've made $25 total that's it but I

only started this a few weeks ago and

everything's going to take 3 to 6 months

no matter what side hustle you try it's

going to take 3 to 6 months so just

remember that I will let you know how

this goes in the update remember step

number one concentrate on medium content

books and pick a niche narrow it down

step number two promote it promote it on

your social media share it with friends

and family gift it gift your books to

people ask them politely not requiring

ask them to write a review and I want to

ask you if you are enjoying this content

I would really appreciate it if you

would subscribe and like this video it

really means a lot to me to grow my

channel and I'm having a lot of fun

doing this so thank you so much if KDP

is not you know the side hustle for you

that's okay you can go ahead and go on

over to my website I've got a free

download that will help you deter

determine which side hustle is best for

you if you go to Rene Clancy decom then

you can get the free download and really

determine what's going to make you happy

I want you to be happy whether that's

with a side hustle or not have some fun

and let me know how it goes