Hi everyone! Doing research I see lots of non-marketers looking for the advice about how to publish on Kindle. I think that’s GREAT! It’s a platform where we all have an equal shot at success and Geoff Shaw’s Kindling course makes it possible because it’s good for everyone.

Have you read the amazing stories of those who either started on Kindle and made it big – or got rejected by every traditional publishing house and agent in the world yet found a hungry audience on Kindle? There’s a lot of these stories – go look!

I have gotten SO many emails from you guys saying this review was “infectious.” (Your words, not mine). I’m so glad! I haven’t felt this enthusiastic about anything in a long time (y’all remember recently when I blogged about feeling indifferent? This is what I was needing).

Neat thing to come of this review: Someone emailed me who had bought it a month ago – before I started my review. Well guess what? He had NO idea there even WAS a right sidebar! His screen was set up so that the right sidebar was not showing. He was so thrilled because it was like finding a whole other half of the course. LOL! I love it!

By the way, as I was doing today’s review, I got an email from Geoff because I had notified him of the above matter and he thanked me, saying he would fix it. I like that this product owner cares about his users’ experience. How many DON’T care? Yeah, lots.

Geoff’s Heart: You know I have to tell you this. I wasn’t going to because I don’t want it to result in anything bad but I have to. There are two things I just love about the owner of this course that he did for me. First, I wanted to buy it as a gift for MY mentor, Craig Desorcy – my way of saying “thank you” for all he’s done, because I know he’s getting into Kindle, too.

So I email Geoff because I need to know 2 things: 1. How can I ensure I’m not buying through my own link (I’m really bad w/technical stuff and I didn’t want to be rude and have it credit me) and 2. I already bought through my own PayPal – so I needed to know how I could buy it and have it somehow connect to my mentor’s email, not mine.

Know what he does? Comes back and says, “It’s all sorted.” He gifted it to Craig. He told me something about how Craig influenced ME to be a good marketer, so he wanted to do something good for Craig. I LOVE good people.

Second – I mention to Geoff that I was telling my Mom, who I’m collaborating with on a specific fiction genre, about one of his sections I was excited about. He replies, “give her your log in info if you want her to see it.” Pitter pat!

Now I hesitated to share this BECAUSE I know some rude people will then flood him asking for this same thing. Problem is – I didn’t ASK. I wouldn’t ask. I didn’t even EXPECT! Don’t email him a sob story or request for the same, please. That’s NOT cool. I’m just letting you know his heart because to ME, that’s an important part of who I trust and want to learn from. Good people.

I gift people stuff all the time – and I also DON’T gift people stuff. You can tell who’s coming to you for that purpose, and it’s a big turn off. Okay, back to the review! (That IS part of the review to me – his ethics, but to many it’s not).

Outsourcing

This will be a necessity for many people and a luxury for others. Make sure you actually click on the Outsourcing link. I am impressed about James Patterson kind of doing this – he’s a bestseller – one of the big guns in writing – so I want to learn more.

This is a text section with some red number bullets. He talks about who NEEDS to outsource. He has several reasons who quality is so important. Gosh I wish everyone actually LISTENED to this advice!

Step 1 – you have to know what needs to be outsourced. Love his tip on this.

Step 2 – Boy I can instantly list my stuff right here. Graphics! I used to be able to add starting the story but thanks to Geoff’s ideas in here, I no longer have that problem. (big grin).

Step 3 – Geoff’s honey badger is out and after you! Run!

Is It for You?

This is a combination of text and video. After watching this, I feel two things. I feel grateful that people who can’t write still have a door open to them on Kindle. They’re not “shut out.” I don’t like anyone to feel left out.

At the same time, I feel so grateful that I’m a decent writer with lots of education under my belt. Writing has always gotten me places. In high school and college, I could ace classes I had zero interest in strictly because my writing abilities were good. I called it BSing my way through. When good writing is so rare, teachers are very impressed with good skills.

In my career, I was always praised in my jobs for my writing abilities. Thank God I have no boss now taking credit for my hard work. That used to piss me off so bad.

Odesk Recruiting

I have to admit this would scare me – outsourcing my fiction. Non fiction I can handle and I’m not sure why fiction would scare me. Before the video on Odesk, he talks about (in passing) another way he gets people to write for him – I hope he expands on this because it IS something I’m interested in.

I have never outsourced at this site but I DO see it mentioned quite a bit online.

Wow he’s going through every single step of outsourcing on here. Detailed specifics. He covers what things to check off. He goes into US versus UK English. And here he mentions that he’s a Kiwi. Okay, okay I know he’s not an Aussie! LOL! I learned that at the start of my Kindling training.

Okay to my UK friends – why does everyone always say the US is the biggest market? I’m dense about this stuff. I picture the UK equal as far as living stuff – do y’all not buy as many Kindle books? If not, why not? What’s the deciding factor? I always see this advice so it made me curious.

This video is just under 9 minutes, by the way. Side note – this Odesk is REALLY cool. I’d never seen it but it’s awesome to be able to pick that much of a detailed freelancer. Wow! Love how it narrows it all down, too. He mentions that he keeps it private but doesn’t say how that happens. I hope the next section tells me.

Private Jobs

This is a combination of text and a video that’s a little over 4 minutes long. Yes this is what I was looking for. I like that he’s teaching us this. Okay I thought this was a little different. I thought we could keep the buyer’s profile 100% private. It’s my understanding this limits exposure somewhat, but the people invited to bid can see it.

I’d love it if I could hire ghostwriters without anyone knowing who I am – especially if I’m getting into fiction. Many freelancers don’t fully grasp copyright ownership, etc. They’re more “work at homers” and not “journalists” who are educated about that stuff. I guess I could create an account with some username but I’m not sure if that’s allowed.

Editing

I like the emphasis on this and it’s something I’m VERY lazy about. Plus, some people don’t know the difference between editing for spelling errors and tearing your entire piece apart into something you can’ recognize anymore.

He breaks this down into a sort of income level option for you. I like that. I do wish he’d go into some detail about how he hires students. I’ve wanted to do that but I have no idea how to get started on that. Students often have great ideas.

Drafts

This is a text page with numbered bullets. He gives us a real life example of how he tested something – I loved reading this. Okay I am DOING this! I just signed up as an Odesk buyer. Okay I can’t seem to get a confirmation email so I’ll try the same thing at Elance. LOL Oh my gosh. I went searching and found a fiction writer.

This lady has a chihuahua, she used Xtranormal to make a cute video for her profile. I just like her sense of humor and background. Okay I just posted a project to try to hire her! See people, this is how you do it – review, learn and implement RIGHT that second!

Students

Oh! Maybe we’re going to learn this now. I never look ahead. LOL! I should. He does tell us how. He was reading my mind I like that he gives us a good warning. I might try this, too. One thing at a time, though.

Translation

By the way my oDesk verification finally came in. I’ll post a project there, too. Just did. BAM! I rock  Okay it seems like I already read this page somewhere. Anyway, it basically alleviates the fear of non English native speaking people.

Alrighty I will let y’all know how my outsourcing adventure goes! I posted a project on both Odesk and Elance called Fiction Short Story – 10 pages if you want to find them.

Quick Note:

This isn’t specific to Kindling, but since you’re all learning right along with me, let me warn you about something. One of the free promo announcement places I was advised to notify on promo days was ereadernewstoday.com – Apparently it can increase exposure a HUGE amount (like 10k rather than 1k).

So I did a paid ad there to test the waters. $50 for 100k impressions. It has a system where you can track the exposure your ad has gotten and by the night before it ended (it ran a week), I had only used up 68%. That means the last day would have to show my ad 32% more.

So the day after it ended I went back and checked and they had let it run out at 82%. I contacted the site owner politely inquiring about it (no honey badger yet) and he very professionally extended my ad. So he was great – my warning to you is to track that kind of stuff so you get your money’s worth.

Tiff

Find Part 1 Here

Find Part 11 Here

Find Part 13 Here

Share and Enjoy

28 Responses to “How Do I Publish on Kindle – Review Part 12”