I Published Over 1500 Books on Amazon KDP: 15 Lessons I've Learned

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7 күн бұрын

Discover the best strategies and key lessons I've learned from publishing over 1500 books on Amazon KDP. Learn about building systems, building a brand, time management, being unique, keyword research, CTR optimization, and more to grow your Amazon KDP business effectively!
Free skool community (+ free course):
www.skool.com/self-publishing-entrepreneurs-9850
Connect with fellow self-publishers, share insights, and flourish your Amazon KDP Business. A collaborative network to inspire and empower each other.
Instagram: peholmquist
Tools discussed: bookbeam.io/?ref=340
Use promo code DRIVEN10 to get 10% off for the yearly plan or DRIVEN50 to get 50% off on the first month. The link above is an affiliate link. If you buy through it and apply any of the promo codes, you get cool stuff for a better price, and it helps support the channel.
Amazon KDP Guidelines: kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GU72M65VRFPH43L6
00:00 Why You Should Listen to Me + The Plan
01:06 A 7 Figure View on Self-Publishing
03:10 Lesson 1: Starting Out - Quality Over Quantity
07:51 Lesson 2: Finding Your Niche
09:21 Lesson 3: Writing and Outsourcing
10:22 Lesson 4: Building Systems
15:30 Lesson 5: Diversification
16:44 Lesson 6: Embrace AI, But Rely on Human Intelligence
18:24 Lesson 7: Be Productively Paranoid
20:11 Lesson 8: Be Unique and Solve Problems
24:34 Lesson 9: Translating Your Books
25:49 Lesson 10: Enhance Your Product Page
28:13 Lesson 11: Build a Brand
31:28 Lesson 12: Time Management
36:11 Lesson 13: Tap Into Your "Why" and Stay Driven
40:15 "Seven Levels of Why" Example
41:50 Lesson 14: Create Goals, a Plan and Celebrate Milestones
44:29 Lesson 15: Invest in Yourself
48:54 Conclusion + Personal Note
#selfpublishing #amazonkdp #kdp #kindlepublishing

Пікірлер: 67

@Fithara 5 күн бұрын

Great video but let's be real... a lot of these strategies require a budget that not all of us have. As a new seller, it's tough to invest in marketing when you're just starting out. Would love to see more content on free or low-cost marketing tactics that can help us indie authors get our foot in the door

@peterholmquist 4 күн бұрын

Thanks for your comment, I will keep this in mind.

@TimelessTunesRewind 5 күн бұрын

I did this and sold $600 mostly to my friends and family but other then that no sales. Competing on Amazon is so hard to compete with.

@jasonwilliams3095 2 күн бұрын

it means they don't provide inner traffic inside platform to their memebers that are selling ebooks? We need to drive traffic using our own resources?

@CelebsTracker369 2 күн бұрын

@@jasonwilliams3095 I can help you

@kwakumiller7323 7 күн бұрын

Thank you for this great video Peter. I really appreciate your invaluable knowledge that you share with us

@peterholmquist 7 күн бұрын

Thanks for your comment Kwaku!

@akoroguche2147 7 күн бұрын

Thank you very much, Peter. Very loaded content.

@peterholmquist Күн бұрын

Thanks for your comment, much appreciated!

@timgebhard4928 7 күн бұрын

Very insightful! Thank you so much Peter🤗

@peterholmquist 7 күн бұрын

Thanks for your comment Tim!

@VictoriaGetsVocal 6 күн бұрын

This content is brilliant ❤ I’m excited to see your channel grow, I’ve watched a lot of publishing content and this is some of the BEST. I predict you will do well. Now, I’m off to binge watch the rest of your content. Well done Peter and thank you for sharing. 😊👍🤩

@peterholmquist 6 күн бұрын

Thanks for your kind words Victora, happy to hear that you're finding value in the content, more to come!

@gayanrajapaksha9871 5 күн бұрын

I am a designer, this video is a treasure. I'm starting publishing some books for kids

@peterholmquist Күн бұрын

Thanks, best of luck on your journey!

@MaryamSanan-te3qw 18 сағат бұрын

Hi Gyan, I hope you are doing Great! I need help with my 100 page book paperback dimensions with 8.5×11 inches. What would be it's interior size and cover size. I will be awaiting your response Thanks.

@tremtoronto6462 5 күн бұрын

Great content 👌. Thanks for your usual objective and honest piece 👍

@peterholmquist Күн бұрын

I appreciate that!

@fernandajansen9827 4 күн бұрын

pure gold!! 👏👏

@peterholmquist Күн бұрын

Glad you liked it Fernanda!

@DM-2630 15 сағат бұрын

Thank you Peter for a pure and solid information about KDP or publishing books I am sure many are here will agree with me why dont you make a Step by Step course on how to published a book. I am sure everyone will buy it, I will be the first one to be your student. Wish you all the best on your channel I am sure it will grow more. I have subscribed already. More power! 👍

@timgebhard4928 14 сағат бұрын

That course is available for free in his skool community👍

@jenjenstock 7 күн бұрын

7 lessons of why - OMG. rest of the content is great too, but that was a lovely personal insight and SPOT ON

@peterholmquist 7 күн бұрын

Thanks for your comment Jen!

@mdmanik887 5 күн бұрын

Great video ❤

@peterholmquist Күн бұрын

Thanks for your comment, glad you liked it!

@blackboysominc1288 5 күн бұрын

Thank you so much

@peterholmquist Күн бұрын

You're most welcome.

@user-ef4df8xp8p 5 күн бұрын

Good advices....

@peterholmquist Күн бұрын

Glad you think so.

@Bopo Күн бұрын

That you think about Apple Vision Pro for writing?

@lomejordecadatiendablog6248 5 күн бұрын

Great video! You said you spent tens of thousands of dollars in education, could you let us know some of the courses that you took that you found most valuable? Thanks!

@peterholmquist 4 күн бұрын

Great question, it's hard to pinpoint to what exactly has helped the most but wherever I was stuck, I aimed to find a book or a course on that topic. For example, Jim Edwards taught me some great stuff about copywriting while other books such as Great By Choice gave me concepts to follow. Sometimes, my return on investment has not been there, but overall, I think investing in oneself is a good strategy because over a long enough time horizon, even the "lesser" investments I made in self-education might pay off.

@MaryamSanan-te3qw 18 сағат бұрын

Hi Peter, I hope you are doing Great! I need help with my 100 page book paperback dimensions with 8.5×11 inches. What would be it's interior size and cover size. I will be awaiting your response Thanks.

@RahofAboRefaat-mr2mu 3 күн бұрын

Your experience with Amazon KDP is truly impressive! 🌟 I'm eager to try your strategies for self-publishing success. Could you share more about how you manage to maintain quality while scaling to over 1500 books? Thanks! Your insights will be invaluable as I implement them. Also, how can I get in touch for more details about your community and tools? 📚

@peterholmquist 2 күн бұрын

I will consider making a video about that, thanks for the suggestion. The link to the free Skool community is in the description.

@SaraSenkal 5 күн бұрын

Hi Peter, thanks for your great video❤ “I have posted 20 children’s books, coloring books, and activity books on Amazon over the past two months, but I haven’t made a single sale yet, even though my books are really beautiful. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong or if I should give up. Something isn’t working for me. Could you please give me some advice on what to do? It would be really helpful. Thank you in advance❤❤😊

@peterholmquist 4 күн бұрын

Hi Sara, Are you in the free Skool community? If so, that could be a good start to post there and see if you can get some feedback (I will look out for it too). I suspect that it's the niche/angle that's the problem if the other components (cover, title, etc.) are on point.

@monstar5603 2 күн бұрын

Hello sir I am published food snacks sweet and drink coloring book but I am book not sell Please guide me.....

@peterholmquist Күн бұрын

Are you in the free community on Skool?

@Maze.Labyrinth1 7 күн бұрын

Maze for kids 5 and above Is right keyword for my maze book?

@peterholmquist 6 күн бұрын

Yes, perhaps consider adding Ages before the 5.

@Tomkurek1234 4 күн бұрын

Top notch content Peter! If you or anyone else is interested, I’ve got custom S.M.A.R.T goal templates weekly task planners and priorities templates, checklist To do list, milestone moments all of these are in pretty sweet and unique templates my friend and I helped create for anyone who likes writing out your goals and having your tasks and events planner, written out where it’s very useful and easy to implement into your current routine. I be got a ton of custom t sheets that are all based in organizations. Like I got Morgan an adhd task planner/organizer; one that helps the person who’s mind is all over the place

@Mikeblanco12345 4 күн бұрын

I appreciate your content. As an author with a couple thousand units sold from two books, the scaling doesn’t compute for me. For instance, if you hire a quality writer for a small 30k nonfiction job, that’s about $3k. If that book nets $100/month, it would take three years to break even. I agree the covers, formatting, etc is cheap. But, I’ve never found good writers that are inexpensive and trustworthy (no AI). How much do you pay for ghostwriting ? Can you refer me to writers who will pay you a referral fee? Or would you entertain joining in a revenue share on a project together?

@peterholmquist 4 күн бұрын

Do you think you'd be able to transfer your knowledge to another writer and steer him or her in the right direction while you provide the outline, review as he progresses, etc.? I agree that it's hard to find skilled writers. I don't have anything like that to provide now but I'll let you know if it changes.

@Mikeblanco12345 4 күн бұрын

I can do the keyword research, provide chapter outline, and give them a target length, but I don’t see how I could transfer the knowledge of what to write. I’ve been publishing for six years and I’m a project manager for a well-known publishing and marketing firm. Once you know the process, you need the personnel or you have to write yourself. Even as a decent writer, I can only write a high quality, no AI book every few months. To get to your 1500, that would take me 400 years. I’ve never found a class where the leaders share their writing resources. To me, I can only think of two reasons: 1) they don’t or no longer have those inexpensive writers or 2) they have them but don’t want to share them because they keep them busy on their own projects. The fact is that no publishing strategy that relies on scaling can be successful without these low cost writers. Books don’t make much money. So, you can’t afford to turn out books for the usual $2-$4k and make a profit. If you know the rest of the process, as we both do, and I had quality writers at $.03/word, making long term profit is pretty easy.

@peterholmquist 4 күн бұрын

@@Mikeblanco12345 I appreciate you sharing your experience and point of view. I don't think the goal should be to publish 1500 books but rather to have a bigger impact from the books published. Ideally, we want the books to make more than $100/month. My plan for 2025 is to decrease the publishing pace and focus more on making sure the books published have the best possible chance for success. One reason why it has worked for me is because of the editors and the way they work with the writers (the writers improve with time).

@jasonwilliams3095 2 күн бұрын

it means Amazon don't provide inner traffic inside platform to their memebers that are selling ebooks? We need to drive traffic using our own resources?

@peterholmquist 2 күн бұрын

I think this video will answer your question, if not, let me know: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pOB6h5yq2rmqfok.html

@BruceWayne15325 5 күн бұрын

If you use AI be EXTREMELY careful where and how you use it. AI has a high chance of violating copyright and being ignorant of the violation is no protection to you. Each violation is punishable by up to $250,000 and 5yrs in prison, so it wouldn't take very many books violating this law to spend your entire life in prison when the lawsuits start rolling in. I love AI, and I use it a lot. Just be smart about it. Don't let it write for you, it's terrible at it anyway, and it will land you in hot water when it goes off the legal rails. If you use it for artwork be very careful since there's not an easy way to determine if it's reproducing copyrighted artwork, but if the original artist comes forward you can get in big trouble.

@Pamela-mb6bj Күн бұрын

Constructive feedback - kindly be mindful of wiggling the images while we are trying to watch your video. Thank you.

@peterholmquist Күн бұрын

Noted, I appreciate that feedback.

@mahdicourse1622 3 күн бұрын

when you are an expert on Inspect element😆😆😆

@kevinalmiron8693 2 күн бұрын

1500 books in 9 years? That's like one book a month I mean come on dude you gotta be focusing on quantity rather than quality popping out as much as you can and see what hits. You can't really say you focus on quality with that amount of books.

@happilylivingtoday9885 4 күн бұрын

1500 books multiplied by $2000-$3000 book cost will make 3-4 million in publishing costs. Are you breakeven after 8 years?

@peterholmquist 2 күн бұрын

Many of the books are translations.

@SW-fh7he 4 күн бұрын

The numbers are probably fake and edited with browser editor

@canaday2k 3 күн бұрын

Nope, this guy is legit

@SW-fh7he 3 күн бұрын

@@canaday2k prove it

@canaday2k 2 күн бұрын

@@SW-fh7he I can't, and neither can you 🙃

@SW-fh7he 2 күн бұрын

@@canaday2k probability is on my side though

@canaday2k 2 күн бұрын

@@SW-fh7he Please explain your logic?

@gausulazam804 5 күн бұрын

I need your help

@Shahnwazshah-h7r 3 күн бұрын

Hey ! Love to see your unique content . If your average retention is below 50%, investing in high-quality editing can keep viewers hooked and boost your growth. I promise your channel growth with high quality editing and strategies or all refund . Let me know what you think . You should reply with your email .