Kindle Direct Publishing has opened up a whole new world for businesses and authors to build true authority. Indeed, it is now so simple to publish on Kindle that almost everybody is trying to get their books noticed. As a result, building overnight success is all but impossible and earning a six figure income through nothing but publishing books is even harder. Nevertheless, using it to build business authority is very easy to achieve. Additionally, once that authority is in place, publishing and selling books on Kindle becomes increasingly easy.
As soon as a business decides to become a Kindle author, they should start by completing their Amazon Author’s profile page. This is about creating an authority public profile. On this page, a biography can be included, as well as a head shot, a video sharing area, a link to blogs and social media pages and more. Additionally, this can all automatically be fed back into blogs, Twitter feeds and more. As such, simply setting up an author’s profile page is the start of building an authority network.
“The richest people in the world look for and build networks,” says Robert Kiyosaki, author or Rich Dad Poor Dad. “Everyone else looks for work.”
Publishing a book to Kindle is the start of marketing an entire business. The book should be linked in all relevant places, including other public profiles, guest blogs, content, public profiles and more. This is true for both digital and traditional media. By constantly mentioning the book, businesses will start to build true authority as well. Naturally, this does mean having the skills to actually write a book, although there are many tips available on how to do that as well.
Writing a Kindle Book
One of the great benefits of writing a Kindle book is that it doesn’t have to be excessively long. Indeed, many businesses already have a number of short eBooks and how-to guides that can be easily transformed to a Kindle version within just a few hours. As such, Kindle Direct Publishing is a type of medium that allows for content distribution, in the same way as Facebook, YouTube, blogs and Google+.
The more Kindle books that you publish, the better for your expertise status. Some popular coaches publish a book every month. It’s a good way to get buzz because every book that is published should be promoted via all social media networks, blogs and via press release. Each published book is an event and an opportunity to talk about your business and what you do.
Naturally, all of this requires effort. Effort equals time. And everybody knows that time equals money. However, as Evan Carmichael, owner of a hugely successful entrepreneur website once stated, “there is very little knowledge that can’t be obtained through effort.”
KDP Select
It is important to understand that one of the best ways to build authority by publishing a Kindle book is to do so through KDP Select (Kindle Direct Publishing Select). This is because they will then promote the book for a certain period of time, and businesses can also earn a 70% royalty. However, anyone who uses KDP Select must also agree to not publish the book anywhere else for a set period of time. This is why KDP Select cannot be used for existing eBooks and why it requires even further effort. On the other hand, the payoff is much higher.
Building Greater Authority
When publishing through Kindle, businesses have the opportunity to gift their book to certain individuals who’s email addresses are known. This is a great opportunity to build authority. A business could gift the book to anyone on their mailing list in return for a review, for instance, which again helps to build authority. Similarly, this can be done through live radio shows, public speaking events, and so on.
The most amazing thing about Kindle Publishing is that a business can actually use ghostwriters as well. This allows an organization to bring in an established expert to deliver information. However, it is perhaps better for authority building purposes to request different team members to write pieces on their specific expertise, becoming experts and authority figures in their own right.
Patrick Hurinenko
SBT Contributor