Episode 69:
Learn to Self-Publish an eBook
In this episode I talk again to Alex Newton from the firm K-Lytics about the trends he has recently seen in the Amazon eBook market. His company K-Lytics scans the Amazon charts and looks for the number of books, their prices and how they rank relatively. In this way he can work out what areas are the easiest to chart in and which are the areas with the most potential sales and least competition.
Since you were last on the show what is the biggest new trend in the Amazon eBooks marketplace?
The biggest trend is the sheer supply of books. Even though it has slowed a little bit, there are still 3.75 million English books, with about 20% growth each a year.
Has there been any genre that has markedly declined recently?
The bad news is that non-fiction has had a huge influx of new books. The sub-genre of Crafts, Hobbies and Homes which were huge have now been really hit badly. In many of the cases where non-fiction readers were going to eBooks they are now going to places like YouTube instead. It’s harder and harder to earn money in these areas.
Has anything changed markedly in Fiction in the last 9 months or so?
There has also been a huge influx of books here. But the main thing is that Indie Authors keep winning share over Traditional publishers. In Romance there is huge growth, and areas like Sports-related romance are exploding in terms of sales. There is a similar situation with the “Preppers” market for Dystopian Science Fiction books.
In terms of non-fiction, which categories are the best to write in from a market perspective?
Personal transformation is probably the lucrative non-fiction market, but has an issue in that it is very hard to chart in for Indie Authors because of the marketing required to actually get into the chart in the first place .
Is the Bonzai tree category still the most ridiculously easy category to chart in?
Looking at his database there are many new sub-categories that are even easier. The best is Craft, Hobbies and Home/Interior Design/Floors – which only has one book in it. You need hardly any sales to chart in this category. In fiction it is children’s books, African Myths and Tales which only has four books in the category.
If you are looking for authority rather than income then some of these categories may make sense if you know something about them, so as to make money by being an expert and not from sales.
What is the hottest category in the Kindle store at the moment?
Alex mentions that there are many definitions, but keeping it simple, the story hasn’t changed much in general : Romance is still best followed by Mystery Thriller Suspense and Sci-fi. In the sub-categories under these, for Romance the best for sales with low competition area is Clean and Wholesome Romance. Other good Romance sub-categories are Gothic Romance and Historical Romance/Ancient World.
What are your predictions for the future of the Kindle store?
Alex still hopes that Amazon will intervene in terms of quality checking. He hopes they will remove some of the very worst books, especially from non-fiction. He also predicts more success for Indie Authors in terms of speed of reaction to new trends. But he believes that there will be more grouping together of Indie authors into collectives to improve quality.
How do people find out about you?
You can contact Alex Newton at support@k-lytics.com and can find out about K-Lytics at k-lytics.com.
If you liked this show then you might like Author Income : How Many Books Do You Need to Sell to Make Money?, EBook Discovery Services with John Doppler and Organising a Mega-Book Launch with Kate Erickson.