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5 Signs It May Be Time to Publish a Print Book from a Kindle Version

April 18, 2016 By Shelley Hitz Leave a Comment Click here for a FREE book marketing training

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publish a print book

When is it the right time to publish a print book from a Kindle version?

When you publish a book I typically recommend you publish a Kindle book first. Why? Because it is so much easier. It’s an easier process, it’s less expensive, and it just simply gets you used to the process of publishing, getting something out there, testing the market, see how it does, and then see if you want to invest in a print book. But, what do you do then when you do want to publish a print book?


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Sign #1: Your Book is Selling Well

The first thing you want to look at is, what are the sales for your Kindle book? Is it selling well? So that’s the first sign you may want to publish it as a print book, it is selling well.

We love sales right? Woo-Hoo!

One of the biggest things that authors write me and ask me about, “how can I sell more books?” One of the things is, if your Kindle book is selling well, if you then repurpose it into a print book guess what? You’re most likely going to increase the sales of that book because there’s going to be people that want both versions. So, that’s the first sign.

Sign #2: Your Customers Are Asking For It

The second sign is customers are asking you for it. I have customers that will write me.

As a matter of fact, just this week I had somebody email me and say, “is your book, Marketing Your Book on Amazon, available in print?”

Currently it’s not, but if you’re starting to get a lot of customers and a lot of people asking you, “is this book available in print?” Guess what you should do? You should probably make it available in print.

Sign #3: Issues Have Been Worked Out

Sign number 3 is any issues have been worked out.

Let me give you an example. If you publish a Kindle ebook and then you decide this title isn’t really doing well and I want to change it, if you haven’t assigned an ISBN Kindle ebook, which you don’t have to because Kindle gives you an ASIN.

So, if you haven’t assigned an ISBN to that specific Kindle book you can change the title without any repercussions. You can do some testing with your titles, you can work out any issues with your formatting, any final editing, all of those things, because guess what? Once a book is in print, you can’t update a print book that someone has bought. It’s forever going to be that way.

So, if you find errors, if you find edits, if you find things that you want to add or do later, or if you want to change the title of a print book, you actually have to retire it and get a new ISBN, because that ISBN is tied to that title. So, if you want to do some testing, if you want to work out the kinks, if you want to have a faster get it out and then let’s work some things out, doing it first in Kindle is an option.

But make sure you’ve worked out those kinks before you publish it in print.

Sign #4: To Sell More Books

Sign number four that it’s time to publish a print version of your Kindle book is that you want to sell more books.

You can use it in marketing, because when you have a print book guess what? It can be like a business card that people don’t throw away.

Do you ever throw away a print book? I don’t, I can’t get myself to throw away a print book. I may give it away, I may donate it, but I can not throw a print book away. So, a print book is really, really powerful in marketing because people will throw business cards away all the time.

But, if they have a book they may put it on their shelf, and they may see it over and over, or they may put it on their coffee table and they’ll see it over, and over, and over. You’ll have a greater opportunity to potentially get their attention.

Also, if you have a print version of your book, you can do a Goodreads giveaway. Now, I did a complete workshop on how to market your book on Goodreads, it’s in Author Audience Academy in the Take Action workshop section. So, if you’re an Author Audience Academy member go check that out if you have not been through that workshop yet.

One of the things I share in that workshop is that you can actually do a giveaway. All you need to do is giveaway one print book, they don’t do it with ebooks it’s with print books. So when you have a print book you have more leverage, you can get more potential exposure on Goodreads and other platforms because you’re able to use it in your marketing.

You can also use it in mailings. When I’m doing a mailing for potential speaking engagements and I’m sending things out to go to people who book speakers I’ll include a copy of one of my books. So, print books are powerful in marketing, and you never know who’s going to pass along that book, where it’s going to end, how many people are going to read that book.

If you have written a book that is Christian based and has a gospel message you never know who is going to end up reading that book, who’s going to pass it on. I’ve got a book for teen girls and I’ve gotten emails before saying, “I passed this book along to this person,” or “I got this book from this person,” and you never know who is going to end up with that book. So, it’s powerful for marketing, but also to get your message to more people.

If you want to sell more books, if you want to have more opportunities to market your book to more people, guess what? Get a print version of your book! It’s just a no-brainer.

Sign #5: To Relaunch Your Book

Sign number five that it’s time, if you have a Kindle only version of your book, to get a print version is that you want a reason to have a relaunch, or a special promotion.

You’re always, always, always, 99.9% of the time, going to sell more books when you have a special promotion going. When you have a special reason to promote it.

For example, you can say, “I just gave birth to a print version of my book, let’s celebrate! Let’s have fun! Let’s make this a party! Let’s have a promotion, and if you buy the print version of my book during these three days I’ll also send you the PDF version,” or “I’ll also send you this extra bonus.”

It gives you a reason to mail your list, it gives you a reason to promote on social media, it gives you a reason to build buzz, it gives you a reason to get people excited about your book.

How amazing is that? Awesome.

And guess what?

Many times when you do this, if you are offering them a reason to buy now, go back and listen to my podcast Author Audience, I have several episodes on book launches. But, when you give them a bonus and a reason to buy now during the launch of the print version of your book you’re going to make sales, and you’re going to be able to do it genuinely and authentically.

So many of my followers, so many of the people that are in my tribe, people who are my lifers, they don’t like feeling spammy or self promotional, or pushy with sales.

But, when you have a reason to be talking about your book, to be posting a picture–you can have a picture of you and your book, “look what just came! My print book!”

It’s genuine excitement, it’s not pushy, it’s genuine buzz, there’s a genuine reason to share with people about your book, guess what?

That’s marketing! It is a great way to give new life to an old book. Especially if it’s Kindle version only.

Kindle to Print Challenge

I am doing a Kindle to Print Challenge for AuthorAudienceAcademy.com members.

Are you in?

Woo-Hoo!!! I love it! You know why I love it? Because it gives you another product to reach your message. Another way for you to not only reach more people, but to get income from the work that you have done.

Can you tell I’m a little passionate about this? LOL

I surveyed my AuthorAudienceAcademy.com members because I want to give you what you want and what you need, and overwhelmingly the response was, “we want this. We want this challenge.” So, we’re going to be doing it this month and the replay will be available at any time ongoing.

I actually have a book that I published as a Kindle book that I am going to walk you step by step through the process of using Create Space. I’m going to upload it and show you all the steps, what you need to do, and we are going to do this together.

So I’d love for you to join us, you can become a member at AuthorAudienceAcademy.com.

Conclusion

5 signs you should publish a print book from a Kindle version:

1) It’s selling well

2) Customers are asking for it

3) All your issues have been worked out, you know you’re not going to need to change the title, you know that you’re not going to have to do a ton more editing, proofreading, you’ve caught all the mistakes, you’ve updated everything you need to update, and it’s good

4) Because you want to sell more books. You want to use it for marketing, because there is so much marketing power when you have a print book.

5) So that you have a reason to build buzz, and to do a relaunch, a special promotion that you can offer special bonuses, special prize, or a package, or you can do a giveaway, and you can build buzz on social media, on your email list, everywhere! Get people talking about your book.

What are your thought?

Share your takeaways from this post in the comments below.

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Filed Under: Self-Publishing

About Shelley Hitz

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Together, CJ and Shelley Hitz are passionate about equipping and empowering Christian writers of all genres to share their unique gifts with the world. This website is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters! Our online community, Christian Book Academy, is where we help you write, self-publish and market your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom Writers! 

  
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