Tony Eldridge Finally Goes Kindle: 5 Lessons Learned
Well, I finally did it. After being asked quite a few times by readers, I dove into Amazon's Digital Text Platform and published both The Samson Effect and Conducting Effective Twitter Contests: With Videos on the Kindle platform. There are a few cool things I learned from this process.
1. There are guides galore out there: By doing a Google search, you will find all kind of tutorials that walk you through the process of turning your book into the Kindle format. Even Amazon has published their own guide to help you out. I used it and CJ's Easy as Pie Kindle Publishing Tutorial.
2. You CAN implement video into your Kindle... sort of: My book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests has embedded videos in the PDF version. In order to make the e-book and videos accessible to Kindle readers, I create a web page for each video and linked that video to chapters in the book.
If you are reading the book using the free Kindle reader for the PC, then when you click the link to the video, it will take you there immediately. And if you are using a smart phone, there is a link on the video page to view the video on your phone. I have watched the videos on my Android with no problems.
3. Bit.ly is my new Kindle friend: Because of the nature of my book, I have a lot of reference links in it. In the PDF version, they are all embedded. But because not all Kindle devices will take you to all links easily, I added a shortened bit.ly link next to each link in the book. I wanted something that would be easy for someone to jot down and take to a computer since many links are a mile long with all kinds of symbols in them.
4. Know your rights: My publisher wanted $300 to add a Kindle version of my book and then share the sales 50/50. I knew I could do it myself. They couldn't stop me because I owned the rights. But the lady on the phone, in her most menacing voice, threatened me if I used their PDF to create the book or used the book cover that I commissioned. Yep, the fine print prevented me from using the cover I paid for. But that's fine. Live and learn, right? (I'm really not bitter over that)
5. Changes can take minutes or hours to see: I have been tweaking my books since publishing them. Sometimes the changes appear in a few hours, sometimes a few days. But Amazon will lock you out of making any more changes for a set period of time, depending on what stage of the process you are on.
All-in-all, using Kindle's Digital Text Platform was not too difficult at all. And if you want someone else to do it for you, your publisher will probably have that option available. My publisher for The Samson Effect now includes Kindle publishing in every new package, along with other e-book formats. But with a little time and patience, you can have your book on the Kindle format in no time.
Once your book is in the Kindle format, make sure you read Dana Lynn Smith's book, How To Sell More Books On Amazon.
1. There are guides galore out there: By doing a Google search, you will find all kind of tutorials that walk you through the process of turning your book into the Kindle format. Even Amazon has published their own guide to help you out. I used it and CJ's Easy as Pie Kindle Publishing Tutorial.
2. You CAN implement video into your Kindle... sort of: My book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests has embedded videos in the PDF version. In order to make the e-book and videos accessible to Kindle readers, I create a web page for each video and linked that video to chapters in the book.
If you are reading the book using the free Kindle reader for the PC, then when you click the link to the video, it will take you there immediately. And if you are using a smart phone, there is a link on the video page to view the video on your phone. I have watched the videos on my Android with no problems.
3. Bit.ly is my new Kindle friend: Because of the nature of my book, I have a lot of reference links in it. In the PDF version, they are all embedded. But because not all Kindle devices will take you to all links easily, I added a shortened bit.ly link next to each link in the book. I wanted something that would be easy for someone to jot down and take to a computer since many links are a mile long with all kinds of symbols in them.
4. Know your rights: My publisher wanted $300 to add a Kindle version of my book and then share the sales 50/50. I knew I could do it myself. They couldn't stop me because I owned the rights. But the lady on the phone, in her most menacing voice, threatened me if I used their PDF to create the book or used the book cover that I commissioned. Yep, the fine print prevented me from using the cover I paid for. But that's fine. Live and learn, right? (I'm really not bitter over that)
5. Changes can take minutes or hours to see: I have been tweaking my books since publishing them. Sometimes the changes appear in a few hours, sometimes a few days. But Amazon will lock you out of making any more changes for a set period of time, depending on what stage of the process you are on.
All-in-all, using Kindle's Digital Text Platform was not too difficult at all. And if you want someone else to do it for you, your publisher will probably have that option available. My publisher for The Samson Effect now includes Kindle publishing in every new package, along with other e-book formats. But with a little time and patience, you can have your book on the Kindle format in no time.
Once your book is in the Kindle format, make sure you read Dana Lynn Smith's book, How To Sell More Books On Amazon.
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