Discover the power of Kindle publishing and much more in this episode of Author Audience podcast. This is part two of my “Procrastination to Publication” series.
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In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
- The power of Kindle publishing
- Why you should consider writing a short Kindle eBook
- How to speak your book and the tools to use
- And more!
Enjoy the podcast! It’s my hope that these episodes are bring you on step closer to reaching more people with your message.
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“Through Shelley Hitz’s Author Audience Academy, I was able to get my book idea, write the book, and get the eBook uploaded to Amazon lightning fast and achieved Amazon Best Seller Status in its category and sub-category the first day for the first time as an author! This has been so exciting for me and I’m so thankful to God and to Shelley Hitz for this program!” – Beth Jones
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Godly Gain Segment:
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Today’s scripture: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.” 2 Timothy 3:16
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Can’t listen right now? Read the transcript below:
Why Do I Recommend Short Kindle Books?
There are so many reasons to write short Kindle books. There is power in Kindle publishing.
Personally, I have been writing this type of book for several years and I’ve realized people actually enjoy reading shorter books.
We are all busy and we all have a lot to do. Therefore, if I can find one book to read quickly, get my question answered, and move on, I’m a happy camper.
A short book is easy for your readers to consume. A lot of readers will read books over their lunch break or when they have a few minutes. Some short books can be finished within a one-hour lunch break
The best part about writing a short book? It’s quicker to write!
The Book Length
A question I am often asked is about the length of a book. For short Kindle books, I recommend a length of about 10,000 words. If you are using my Kindle template, it equals out to about 60-70 pages. This is the length of most of my short eBooks. However, your book can be anywhere from 6,000-20,000 words.
Create a Series
Since you are writing shorter books, I recommend creating a Kindle series around your main topic. Your series title can be related to your main topic. Then, each small book can focus on a specific problem within that topic.
Publishing a book series helps you build authority in that niche; people will eventually know that you know your stuff.
One of the first series that I created was my vegetarian cookbook series. There were seven books in the series and they sold really well. Each book in the series then promoted the others.
Instead of having one cookbook with ALL the recipes, I broke it down by topic as follows:
- Breakfast Recipes
- Lunch Recipes
- Main Entrees
- Appetizer Recipes
- Salad Recipes
- Soup, Stew, and Chili Recipes
- The Ultimate Guide to Vegetarian Cooking with ALL the recipes
By now, you should be getting the idea.
What seems to work best is when you have six or seven books in the series. That seems to be the sweet spot, where Amazon starts promoting the other books for you, and doing some advertising for you. They do this by displaying your book on “Customers who bought this also bought” or sending out promotional emails about your books.
You may think that six to seven books sounds like too much work! However, if you think about writing 10,000 words per book, that is about 60,000-70,000 words for the entire series. This is less than some full-length novels. Therefore, when writing a Kindle series, think about it as if you are writing one big book in small chunks of six or seven smaller e-books.
It is powerful. There is power in Kindle publishing.
I want you to really consider writing a series and finishing one book per month. If you do this, your entire series will be finished in under seven months.
And the benefits from publishing your series can last a lifetime. Here are just a few of the benefits possible to you as a Kindle author:
- Credibility
- Authority in your niche
- Exposure for your business
- Reach more people with your message (even internationally)
- Get leads for your business, 24/7, on autopilot
- Find new clients for your services
- Diversify your income
- And more!
Day # 2: Writing
Now, it’s time for the writing to begin! This is where the real meat happens. Are you ready to go from procrastination to publication? I am going to help you get unstuck and actually get your book done.
There are several considerations I want to share with you about writing before we get into the actual writing methods.
Track Your Progress
The first thing that I encourage you to do is track your progress. I have an Excel spreadsheet that I use. You can get this spreadsheet as part of my full Procrastination to Publication training ($47 value) for free when you post a review on iTunes and email me a screenshot here.
If you want to make your own spreadsheet, these are the columns I have in mine:
- The date
- What was written (i.e.blog post, a book, etc.)
- The time of day (morning, afternoon, evening)
- Word count for that session
- Total time
- Dictated or typed?
Then I have a formula that will take the word count divided by the total time, to give me my words per minute.
This can be a powerful tool to help you get more done in your writing time. It will give you clarity, because it will show you the time of day you write best, whether you get more done when you dictate or type. And it will give you encouragement because you will see the progress you have made.
The Seinfeld Calendar
When Jerry Seinfeld was an up-and-coming comic, he developed a calendar system to help him become a better writer. He knew the way to become a better comic was to write more jokes and write more often.
His productivity secret?
He used a wall calendar. For each day he did his writing, he would put a big red X on the calendar. After doing it several days in a row, you start to form a habit.
Basically, don’t break the chain!
You can do this with a calendar on your wall, or there are several apps that will help you with this as well. You can also use the app Strides to help form new habits.
Write as if You’re Having a Conversation
When you are writing, I encourage you to write as if you are having a conversation, especially when writing nonfiction books.
Write it as if your target reader was sitting across the table from you in a coffee shop and you are sharing this information with them. Most people prefer this style of writing, as it is easier to read and consume. There will be certain types of nonfiction books that are more technical in nature. However, for most books it will be best to write as if you are having a conversation.
Ask yourself what questions your readers would ask. If you ever get stuck while writing imagine you are your reader. What would be the next question they would ask? Have that conversation with them in your mind (or out loud if you’re in the privacy of your home), and write it out. Doing this will help you get the flow going.
You can also ask the 5 W’s. These are questions that journalists ask when they are investigating a story. The 5 W’s are:
- Who
- What
- When
- Where
- Why
Use these questions when you reach a standstill with your writing. They will help you fill in the gaps.
Consider Using Content You Already Have
If you have published blog posts, podcasts, videos, or have given presentations; you may already have content you can use for your book.
Take a moment to look over the content you have already created to see if you can repurpose it and include it in your book. Podcasts and videos can be transcribed and presentation slides can be used as part of your outline.
The Basic Flow of Your Book
This is the basic outline I recommend:
- Introduction
- Chapter one
- Main chapters
- Conclusion
Introduction:
I usually start with an introduction, which can include the benefits (what your reader will learn from your book). The benefits of your book are different from the features.
For example, this training will help you write and publish a Kindle book. But what are the benefits? There is so much power in Kindle publishing. I listed them in the introduction as a list.
Here is the list of benefits again:
- Credibility
- Authority in your niche
- Exposure for your business
- Reach more people with your message (even internationally)
- Get leads for your business, 24/7, on autopilot
- Find new clients for your services
- Diversify your income
- And more!
So, think about the benefits your reader will get from your book and include them in your introduction.
The introduction is also an important part of your Kindle book, because it will most likely be available through Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature. Therefore, you want to make it as compelling as possible to draw your potential reader into your book, then buy it, and continue reading.
Chapter One:
Either in your introduction or in chapter one, include your own story. For instance, in this book, I shared that my first book took me one year to write and publish, whereas my last book took me one week. I also shared that the turning point for me was when I learned a repeatable system.
In your story, you can include:
- What your situation was like before
- The turning point
- And what the results were after your turning point
Like I said, the “before” for me was that it took me one year to write and publish my book. The turning point was when I developed a repeatable system that works for me. The “after” was that I am now able to write and publish a book in one week.
Pretty simple, right?
Main Chapters:
This will be the meat of your book, where you will share most of your information.
Conclusion:
Your conclusion can simply be a summary of everything you have covered in the book. It is good to include all the key points and/or steps again. This repetition helps solidify the content in your reader’s mind and it helps bring closure to your nonfiction book.
3 Ways to Write Your Book
There are three options I recommend for writing your book. Read through each one to decide which option is the best for you. You may actually use all three at different times.
Option 1: Speaking Your Book
Did you know you can write a book by simply recording yourself talk? It really can be that simple.
I encourage you to use this method if you prefer speaking to writing. To be honest, this is my preferred method, as I can speak my thoughts much faster than I can write them. You will need to pay to get your audio dictated; however, there are many affordable options available.
You Can Speak Faster Than You Can Type
Typically, you can speak faster than you can type. Research has shown that the average human being types at 31 wpm (words per minute) from memorized text, and 22 wpm while copying. If you are writing from scratch, it may be even slower than that, but let’s just say the average person can type at a speed of 22-31 wpm.
When someone is recording an audio book, it is normally read at 150-160 wpm. Slide presentations tend to be closer to 100-125 wpm for a comfortable pace.
So, let’s say you can speak your book at a 100 wpm, and let’s say that you can write it at 25 wpm. Therefore you can speak your book four times faster than you can write it. If you are using my Excel spreadsheet, you will notice any trends and what works best for you.
Something fun that I added to my website is a calculator that will tell you how fast you can type. Click here to try the typing speed calculator: https://www.trainingauthors.com/typing-speed
Typically, you are not able to type as fast as you speak. So, definitely consider this option when determining which method you want to use to write your book.
Tools You Can Use
If you have a smart phone or mobile device, the easiest way to record your book is by using an app.
1) Dictation Software
You can purchase software like Dragon Naturally Speaking for a one-time fee, and use it to speak your book into your word processing software. I have this software and personally find it difficult to train for accurate transcription. But many people use it successfully.
When using dictation software, I prefer to use the built-in dictation capabilities on my mobile device. I find it to be fairly accurate and easy to use. Since I sit so much at my computer, dictating into my phone or iPad also allows me to stand up or walk around as I dictate.
2) Record via Your Mobile Device
That’s right…there’s an app for that!
has an app that allows you to speak into the app on your mobile device, record yourself speaking a section of your book, and then send it to Rev.com from your phone to have it transcribed. They charge around $1 per minute for the transcription and have a 48-hour turnaround. You can also upload a MP3 directly to their site online.
A similar app is . They also offer $1 per minute transcription with a two to three-day turnaround. However, you can upgrade to $3 per minute and they will send you a fully edited transcript.
3)Apps that record your audio only
I introduced my mom to the DropVox app on her phone to record audio. It is so simple. All you have to do is press the record button, speak, and it will automatically upload to a folder in your DropBox account. Then you can access the audio on your computer and send it to your transcriptionist.
4) Recording on Your Computer
If you are going to record on your computer, you will need a microphone. I personally use a Blue Yeti microphone to record high-quality audio.
Then you will need the software to record from your computer. You can use a free software called Audacity. It is very simple to use once you learn it, but you can also record on your computer.
For this book, I recorded the audio with Camtasia and my Blue Yeti microphone. This way I could record a tutorial video showing the mind map on the screen at the same time that I recorded my audio to be transcribed. I love repurposing my content in multiple ways, and this way I can use the video and mind map as a gift for my readers. In fact, make sure you download it for free here.
If you are busy (and most of us fall into that category), I recommend using your smartphone or mobile device to record your book while on the go. Therefore, you can work on your book while you are waiting to pick up your kids, when you are waiting in the line at the car wash, on your lunch break, or in the small gaps of time you have in your day-to-day life.
To give you an example, the transcript of this book was originally around 10,000 words and my audio was about an hour long. Therefore, think of it like this… once you have your outline ready, you simply need to find about an hour of time to record your book. That sounds a lot more doable than spending hours and hours sitting in front of a computer typing. I truly believe anyone can find time to do this!
Transcribing Your Audio
Once you have recorded your audio, you will need to have it transcribed. This is where Rev.com or Transcribeme.com can do the work for you.
You can also use and look up transcriptionists on their site. What I recommend is sorting by rating, so you get the highest rating first and look closely at the reviews. Just know that on Fiverr, it can be hit or miss. Some people can be really good. Once you find someone you like, try to stick with them. Typically you can get about 10-15 minutes of audio transcribed for about $5.
Now, that we’ve covered speaking your book, let’s talk about another option I use often.
More Ideas to Write a Short Kindle eBook
If you want to learn more tips to help you write your short Kindle eBook, check out “Tips on Writing a Book – How to Write a Book”
Have Comments or Questions on the Power of Kindle Publishing?
If so, share them in the comments below.
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