The report I published a little while back on “The Kindle Riches Lie” caused quite a stir (http://www.brandedfreereports.com/jump/t). In fact, I’ve seen more than a few people scramble to “adjust” their position on this issue now that the cat is out of the bag. But, after being in direct contact with the folks at Amazon, I think the problem for anyone who uses PLR or Public Domain is about to get a whole lot worse. In fact, it’s going to get downright nasty sooner than later.

You can read the rules I’m about to share with you at https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A2TOZW0SV7IR1U, however, I’m going to read between the lines for you and explain what I think it REALLY means to you as an ebook publisher. Though these thoughts represent my opinion based on research and emails with Amazon, I feel very confident sharing these thoughts with you about what I think Amazon is likely to do in the near future.

NOTE: Like it or not, the customers who buy your Kindle book are NOT your customers – they are Amazon’s customers. Remember: Amazon’s objective is to make their customers happy with every Kindle purchase they make. Anything that jeopardizes that customer experience or happiness will be eliminated sooner or later.

Content Guidelines

Your books and other content (such as book titles, cover art and product descriptions) must adhere to these content guidelines. We reserve the right to make judgments about whether or not content is appropriate and to choose not to offer it. We may also terminate your participation in the KDP program if you don’t adhere to these content guidelines.

The operative sentence here is “We reserve the right to make judgments about whether or not content is appropriate and to choose not to offer it.” If Amazon doesn’t like your ebook for any reason, they’ll delete it. End of story!

Pornography
We don’t accept pornography or offensive depictions of graphic sexual acts.

Offensive Content
What we deem offensive is probably about what you would expect.?

These don’t really require much explanation. If your mom or your 3^rd grade teacher would be embarrassed by it, Amazon doesn’t want it. There are plenty of other places online you can sell offensive stuff.

Illegal and Infringing Content
We take violations of laws and proprietary rights very seriously. It is your responsibility to ensure that your content doesn’t violate laws or copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights. Just because content is freely available does not mean you are free to copy and sell it.

This one is for the idiots who think they can just scrape anything and then publish it. This includes people who “spin” other people’s content using software or low-cost “re-writing” services.

These next two are where we get into what should scare the crap out of anyone who is selling, wants to sell, or teaches others to sell public domain, PLR (private label rights), resale rights, or any other NON-original content on Amazon Kindle.

Public Domain and Other Non-Exclusive Content
Some types of content, such as public domain content, may be free to use by anyone, or may be licensed for use by more than one party.? We may choose not to sell a book if its content is undifferentiated or barely undifferentiated from one or more other books.?

Amazon Kindle doesn’t want you to publish public domain works and, though they may have them in the Kindle Store now, they really don’t want more. So the chances of you adding “Huckleberry Finn” to the Kindle Store, let alone making sales, are slim. Plus, if they get a complaint about a specific book or publishers, they’ll latch onto your catalog of books and sniff out any other duplicate content they can find. All it takes is one complaint for them to launch a review of your account.

Sure, you might get by with some PLR or public domain content for a while, but they’ll catch you sooner or later. And the only thing worse than not making money is making money and then having it snatched away from you.

Poor Customer Experience
We don’t accept books that provide a poor customer experience.? Examples include poorly formatted books and books with misleading titles, cover art or product descriptions.? We reserve the right to determine whether content provides a poor customer experience.

Here’s the one that really gives them the power to slam down on PLR and public domain. Let’s be honest: most PLR and public domain ebooks are absolute crap. The people who put them up do a crap job of formatting them or editing them. Amazon does NOT want someone buying a Kindle book, realizing it’s crap, getting a refund, and then writing off the whole Kindle experience as crap.

On a side note, I think this will eventually extend to original ebooks in the form of overall quality control. Ebooks outsourced to low-rent ghost writers for whom English is a 5^th language will get rooted out also. It’s not hard for Amazon to scan a book looking for inappropriate language, spelling errors, poor grammar, and more. Though they may not get kicked automatically, these ebooks will most likely get tagged for human review. At that point, a person with minimal skills could read some of the ebook and label it as a “poor customer experience” for one of many reasons – not the least of which that the ebook just plain sucks.

Amazon has probably already established some baseline level of readability and quality for ebooks – much like a Google Quality Score – and when that score falls below a certain level, they’ll kick out the ebook from Kindle (or at least have a human review). However, rather than Google just slapping you, Amazon will probably offer a list of suggestions to improve the ebook. For the serious writer, this will be a blueprint for improvement. For the “Kindle eBook Sweat Shop” owner, it spells the death knell for getting by with crappy ebooks.

Shutdown Email from Amazon

Now, let’s clarify even further with an excerpt from an email that was forwarded to me by someone who had their entire Kindle catalogue shut down after following the advice of one of these Kindle gurus who taught that it was okay to use content from Wikipedia, government websites, and other sites with “free to use” content. This person estimates they put in at least 100 hours of work into following this advice and getting their Kindle books posted.

“We’ve reviewed the information you provided and are upholding our decision to remove your books from sale on the Kindle Store. These books closely match content that is freely available on the web and we are not confident that you hold exclusive publishing rights. Licenses for master resale or private label rights (PLR) are two examples of “non-exclusive” publishing rights. This type of content can create a poor customer experience, and is not accepted.”

There it is in black and white directly from Amazon Kindle’s customer service. Read it again before we finish up here. Two parts stick out like a sore thumb. #1 any “content that is freely available on the web” and you don’t have exclusive publishing rights. #2 master resale or PLR are two examples mentioned by name. Anything like that – no matter what you want to call it – has no place in the Kindle Store and Amazon is going to do whatever it takes to root it out and prevent it from getting into the catalog in the future.

Next, I believe they will start grading the quality of every ebook, even if it?s 100% original content, to make sure it meets some basic standards of readability.

Bottom line: Do you want to make money on Kindle? Get really good at creating and promoting original ebook content. End of story!

By the way, if you really want to get started writing and publishing your own outrageously profitable Kindle ebooks, this is what the top ebook authors (or those who want to be) do http://7dayebook.com/kindle-ebook-in-7-days/

I just published a new article you should check out about ebook security and strategies to protect your ebooks.

eBook Security: How do I secure and protect PDF files with a lock or other ebook / PDF security protection software?

How important is it to publish your ebook for e-readers like Amazon Kindle and Nook, and tablets like iPad or Android devices?

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, “tablet and e-book reader ownership nearly doubled over the holiday gift-giving period.” That means, almost 1 out of every 3 Americans now owns at least 1 tablet or e-reader device. With both Amazon and Barnes and Noble offering e-readers below the $100 mark, this upward ownership trend is expected to continue. What makes this even more exciting is that the group with the largest percentage of ownership also had the highest income level at $75,000+ per year.

In non-scientific terms, here’s what those stats mean for people who publish and sell ebooks (or those who want to).

Money To Spend On eBooks:

The people who own the highest percentage of e-readers and tablets also make the most money and, presumably, have the most disposable income. This means they have credit and can afford to buy virtually all the ebooks they want without hesitation. They bought their tablets and e-readers and now they want to use them, which means buying ebooks from Amazon Kindle Store, Barnes & Noble, and Apple iBooks (among others).

Ebooks Are Now Mainstream:

One in 3 people has an e-reader or tablet. Getting to one out of 2 shouldn’t take much time at all because everyone sees everyone else using one. It’s cool to use one and be seen as everything from “green” (no paper, tree-killing books for me) to high-tech (is that the latest iPad?) to cool (wow, neat Bluetooth keyboard with your iPad)! Reading an ebook is now just as “normal” as reading a paperback. This also means less resistance to never getting something physical in the mail and understanding that all you’ll every receive is a file on your e-reader or tablet (a real point of confusion and resistance for many consumers just a few short years ago).

Wider, More Diverse Audience:

“Everyone” means everyone! Heck, my mom even has an iPad now AND a Kindle e-reader. This means markets previously closed to most ebook authors (fiction in particular) are now ripe for the picking. If you’ve got a quality ebook aimed at a specific target audience, your chances of making consistent, significant sales rate better than ever (especially without a traditional publisher).

Consumption Will Increase:

More people with ebook readers means more demand for ebooks, which leads to more ebook consumption. Think about it! Devices like Amazon’s Kindle, Kindle Fire, Apple’s iPad, and the Barnes & Noble Nook are, at their core, content consumption devices. People buy them to read books, watch movies, download content and use apps. Some of the content will obviously be free, but much of it will cost from $.99 up to $14.99. And it doesn’t take long for the billions to pile up with millions of people spending a few bucks on digital goods every single day.

Less Resistance = Easier eBook Sales

It takes FAR less education or explanation to make the sale of an ebook now. People just log on to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Apple’s App Store, pick out what they want, click a couple of buttons, download, and start reading. It’s now as natural as buying a regular book, only without the drive, traffic, gas, or hassle at the counter. Ebooks now make for instant gratification and the ultimate impulse purchases.

So, let’s answer that question, shall we: How important is it to publish your ebook for e-readers like Kindle and Nook, and tablets like iPad or Android devices?

Bottom line: it’s now CRITICAL to publish your ebooks for all of these devices because they will shortly represent the majority of all ebook sales worldwide (if they don’t already). And the importance of using all of these ebook distribution channels to get your ebook (or a version of your ebook) out there into the ebook marketplace will only increase. The age of the ebook is upon us along with the age of the ebook megastore. So, if you want to make it in the world of ebooks, you’d better get your ebook onto the virtual bookstore shelves the majority of the world’s consumers are browsing.

By the way, here’s what the smartest authors do to get their Kindle ebooks written, formatted, published, and selling in less than 7 days. Check it out, but only if you’re serious about making money and building fame as a published ebook author: http://7DayeBook.com/kindle-ebook-in-7-days/

The Amazon Kindle “Riches” Lie

“Your Amazon Kindle Account has been Terminated!”

A subject line like that is what a lot of Amazon Kindle sellers will see in the not-too-distant future if they continue to follow the get-rich-quick-on-Amazon-Kindle con-men out in the market… and that’s a promise!

This new Free Report I just published details exactly how and why I believe it’s already happening:

Special Report: The Amazon Kindle “Riches” Lie

=> http://www.brandedfreereports.com/jump/t

Do NOT make the mistake of following these people because all you’ll do is get your account shut down or worse… you will start making money, put in a ton of time and effort, and THEN have your account shut down when you’ve come to depend on the income stream that Amazon brings to a screeching halt!

This FREE report gives you my uncensored thoughts and comments on what I see as a REAL, immediate problem for anyone who is serious about making money on Kindle.

Special Report: The Amazon Kindle “Riches” Lie

=> http://www.brandedfreereports.com/jump/t

Enjoy the report. And if you know someone who wants to make money on Kindle (or is trying to already), please do them a favor and pass this report along to them.

They’ll thank you for it!

Jim

PS – “7 Day eBook V2.0″ is now available! You can get a sneak preview here on my website (and grab a copy of the new classic against which all other ebook courses are measured)… check it out:

http://7dayebook.com

That’s really the $64,000 Dollar Question isn’t it?

How much money can you actually make if you write an ebook?

The answer is: it depends!

The two things you need to look at are:

1. How much will you make per sale?

2. How many will you sell?

The answer to the first question is easy. List price less advertising cost, delivery, credit card fees, etc. If you sell on Amazon Kindle at a price between $2.99 and $9.99 (or your currency’s equivalent), Amazon pays you 70% of the list price, less a few cents for digital delivery (bandwidth) cost. If you sell for more than $9.99 and less than $2.99, they only pay you 30%. That translates into about $3.50 profit for you on a $4.99 ebook (which is virtually the exact same royalty you’d get from selling a $12 ebook). If you sell 100 books in a month, you make $350.00 – not bad, but certainly not getting rich! This is, however, a LOT more than you would make through a book publishing deal on the same number of sales in a month.

The reason Amazon Kindle structures its payout this way is simple: they are in the business of moving a LOT of ebooks at bargain prices to their Kindle owners. If YOU want to make money with Amazon Kindle, you need to make a lot of sales and you need to publish a lot of books. That sounds hard, but Amazon Kindle makes it easy and they help you out a lot if you structure your titles and descriptions correctly AND you’re willing to do some basic marketing of your ebook.

On the flip side, if you sell ebooks from your own website, that’s where you stand to make the most money AND have the most control over merchandising and sales. Selling from your own website however, also puts the vast majority of responsibility for success or failure squarely on your shoulders.

From your own website, let’s say you sell your ebook for $20 (just to keep the math easy).

Now, let’s take a timeout! For those of you about to freak out over ebook pricing, you can, by the way, sell an ebook for $20 and have a “Kindle” version of the same ebook sell for $4.99 without any problem. How? Have a LOT MORE content in the version on your website and make it plain what they get in the website version vs. the Kindle book. This can include bonuses, videos, charts, process maps, interviews and just about any extra you could imagine to differentiate the two offers.

Ok? Less stress now? Ok. Let’s get back to the example.

So you’re selling your ebook for $20 on your own website and let’s assume you have an advertising cost that averages out to 40% of the ebook’s cover price (this assumes you do NOT have your own list of subscribers, where your advertising cost is basically zero). That means after credit card and other expenses, you’ll probably net around $10 per ebook. So now when you sell 100 ebooks from your own website you stand to make $1,000 net profit. Not bad, but you’re still not rich yet (though this is one helluva part-time income). Between Amazon and your website you make about $1,350 off 200 sales.

How do you make it great? Easy! You want to do 3 things:

1. Sell more of the ebooks you’ve already written

2. Build up your buyer subscriber list through making more ebook sales

3. Publish more ebooks and sell them directly to your past customers (who love you and want more of your stuff)

So now let’s say next month you publish another ebook and sell it for $20 from your site as well as an Amazon version for $4.99. 20 people who bought the first book on Amazon buy your second book immediately because Amazon sends them an email announcing it. You also sell 100 copies of your first book AND 100 copies of your new book this month. That’s a total of 220 books at $3.50 profit totaling approximately $770 profit from Amazon.

On your own site you email the people who bought directly from you previously and sell 20 copies of your new book. You also advertise like you did last month and sell 100 copies of the first book AND 100 copies of the new book. Since the 20 copies to your own list didn’t have any advertising cost, you make about $18 per sale, or $360. Add in the 200 other sales at $10 net each and you’re up to $2,560 in profit from your own website. Combine that with the $770 from Amazon and you’re over $3,000 for the month net profit.

Now, a question for you: where would you be if you did this every month for just 6 months in a row? I’ll tell you! You’d be in a damn fine place! You’d have 12 different sources of revenue (6 Kindle, 6 your own site). You’d have a nice email list of subscribers you could make affiliate offers to and maybe even start a membership site to get you recurring revenue that was basically all gravy.

But the reality is, most people will never publish an ebook. Most that actually do it will then wonder why they aren’t rich off that one ebook, give up, and never realize how close they were to their dreams. And a few, just a few, smart and enterprising authors will publish and market consistently and create their own little ebook empires that will bring them profits, satisfaction, and happiness for years to come!

If you want to join the smart and enterprising author group, check this out. Truth is, a lot of ebook authors (or those who want to be) have asked “Can you still make money with ebooks in today’s market?” This Free Report I just published answers that question and a whole LOT more! You can grab it FREE here: http://7dayebook.com/free-report/