Hey all! For those of you that have thought about publishing fiction on Kindle, I'm here to tell you that you can do it and make good money at it... if you put in the right effort.
I've been publishing erotic/paranormal romance on Kindle since the beginning of 2014. I have about 19 titles, but most of my stories are short, like under 15,000 words and are parts to series. Most of the stories I've written myself although there are a few I contracted out to be finished when life got in the way. My first payday was for $120 and that was in March 2014 (for the royalties I had in January 2014). In May 2014, I started to figure out the 6 main points to publishing on Kindle and as a result, my income shot from $1,342 in June 2014 to $6,278 in July 2014.
At any rate, I wanted to share the 6 points that really need focus and a brief bit about them:
1. Title - is it catchy? Does it tell the reader what the story is about?
2. Cover - this is sooooo important and I cannot emphasize this enough. You put up a crappy cover, you might as well kiss your chances of a sale good bye. Your cover needs to be professional and look like it deserves to be on the best seller list! Unless you are a professional graphic designer, best leave this to a professional graphic designer. You could take your chances with Fiverr, but I suggest not as you'll end up paying out the butt with the extras to get a best seller worthy cover. To get a cover designer, post gigs on elance or odesk. Be SURE to check out the contractors previous work and if you choose them, trust what they have to say! They are designers, you are not! You came to them for a reason. Also, I can recommend cover designers as well, send me a PM and don't just post a reply here, I may not see it.
3. Description - is it catchy? Does it leave the potential reader wanting more? For help with this, check out stories by top-selling authors in your genre. What words are they using? How are they phrasing things?
4. Keywords - Amazon isn't like Google. It has a whole different algorithm for searching. The best advice I can give is to think about what your possible reader my be searching for to find stories like yours, then go type the first word of your keyword into Amazon's search bar and see what pops up below it. People are searching for the suggested keywords they are offering you.
5. Categories - Again, check out top-sellers in your genre and see what categories they are listed in. If you find that you cannot find the category you want to be in, simply contact Amazon. I've done this many times and they have always put me in the right category.
6. The story (this should be a no-brainer) - edit, edit, EDIT! If you value good reviews and want to make a name for yourself, find yourself a spelling and grammar editor at least.
While I have yet to publish a best-seller, I am quite comfortable and out of the rat race. It's quite fantastic to dream up a story... and people buy it!
I also have started dabbling in my own kindle publishing company where I jv with writers. They provide the story, I provide the rest (covers, keywords, description, marketing) and we split the profit. Has been working out quite well and I've met a lot of fantastic writers!
Anyway, good luck to you all!