How I Am Scaling A Profitable KDP Business This Year
I am finally creating the money-making author business of my dreams.
I self-published my first novel in 2015.
It was called These Are the Moments and I held a launch party locally in my town. I blogged my way through the process and built a nice following there.
But I learned a couple of things:
- One book will not create a wealthy author's business.
- You will *probably* need to write to market to scale your wealth.
Last year, I created a pen name and began writing romance books. I write under a pen name because it gives me the freedom to experiment. I also am less tied to the result.
Turns out that I am actually doing something right.
I publish about one short book a month and with every new book, I add about $60 — $100 of profit to my account.
My books are getting good reviews and are being read. I am making money from my writing.
So, here is how I am going to scale this business this year.
I write (at least) one short book a month.
The books I write fall under the “90-minute short read” category on Amazon. These books fall under 10k words typically and are fairly quick for me to write.
The Amazon algorithm likes new books. So, when you publish frequently, it helps to bump up your entire backlist. So far, I have been able to make one book a month work.
Two books are completely reasonable, too, so I am going to aim for that in the coming months.
I put money into advertising.
Last month, I spent $3 a day on Amazon Advertising. This worked out pretty well for me and I noticed more sales as a result. Not only did I have an increase in buys, but in Kindle Unlimited reads.
For my Amazon Advertising, I target keywords of author names that are in the same genre. This helps to get my pen name out there.
Also, I listed my book for free and bought a paid promotion for a newsletter.
This helped boost sales significantly. When I ran this promotion, the next day my sales doubled.
It also helped landed my book on the first page of the “90-minutes short reads” category and it has been consistently selling well since.
I plan to use this strategy with every book I publish.
I will create box sets and make them available in paperback.
Right now, I have been publishing under one series. Let’s pretend it is a firefighters series. (Hint: it is not.) When I complete a series, I will then package it as a box set and sell it for a lower price.
I also want to make these box sets for sale as paperback copies.
Paperback sales are not necessarily huge for self-published writers, but I want to be able to have physical copies available, especially as a marketing tool. I can give away autographed copies.
They are also great for TikTok. And that brings me to…
I am using TikTok marketing like crazy.
TikTok is an incredible marketing tool for writers. In fact, TikTok helped this writer reach #1 on Amazon. By getting involved on this platform, it has raised my sales dramatically.
In fact, I got over 100+ preorders just by posting on TikTok.
While Facebook and Instagram are still great platforms, I find that it is hard to have the rampant success there that you once could. TikTok makes this possible.
And lastly, being consistent is key.
Most importantly, showing up and doing the work is the most important thing. Readers want consistency. They do not want to fall in love with an author who will just stop publishing one day.
That is half the battle: staying consistent and coming up with new ideas.
So far, it has not been an issue for me. But the longer I publish, the harder it will be to keep ideas fresh.
Getting serious about my writing business is incredibly exciting. Watching the numbers rise every month is equally amazing.
It feels good to finally be making it happen.
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Jenny Bravo writes books and helps other writers through trial-and-error. She’s on Instagram (@jennybravobooks) and Twitter (@jennybravobooks). You can hang out at her website, www.jennybravobooks.com.
