Book cover smaller10,000 Free Downloads Goal - Accounting Illustrated Dictionary on Kindle

By John Gillingham, CPA

Get your copy here: http://amzn.com/B00RJE688I

Free: January 20, 2015 to January 24, 2015

Stats year to date: 1/8/2015

Kindle paid rank: #400,940
Paid downloads: 3
Countries: USA, Japan, England
Average / Total Royalty: $1.77 / $7.10
Site sessions: 36
Subscribers: 1
Promo emails sent: 5

The Accounting Illustrated Dictionary by John Gillingham, CPA, Illustrated by Courtney Quirin, will be available FREE for download on Kindle Tuesday, January 20th to Saturday, January 24th. Kindle books can be downloaded and viewed on practically any computer or smart phone. I will be blogging the book promotion adventure as a way to communicate with family, friends, and Accounting Play users regarding the economics of self-publishing, app creation, and online income. I will be posting regularly throughout the promotion to provide clarity to my own business and help others interested in the same thing.

 

Feedback and Five Star Reviews

The AID has been a work of approximately two years on and off working with illustrators, editors, graphic designers, and YouTube tutorials. It has been an incredibly time and money consuming process of passion for me and I am now ready to release it to the world! The goal of this book is to make accounting fun and to teach visually. I am so excited about the free promotion because I want to get the book into as many hands as possible and get feedback. If you feel that the team deserves it, nothing is more helpful for the future of the book and Accounting Play than five star reviews. Simply click the book link and find “Write a customer review.” Thank you for your tremendous support. I hope the book and this series of articles provides a tremendous about of value for everyone. Please subscribe to stay posted on all of the 2015 Accounting Play positivity.

 

How much does amazon pay authors?

At $2.99 the take home pay so far has been about $1.77 which gives Amazon a 40% cut. There are two royalty options: 70% and 35%. At 70% the author gets 70% of the proceeds and also pays for the download of the book to the end consumer. Since my book is illustrated, amazon takes about 57 cents for the delivery. At the 35% option, the author keeps only 35%, but there are far fewer stipulations. Each options has pricing and other restrictions. If enrolled in KDP select, the author may give away a book five days in an approximate 90 day rolling period. These terms are constantly changing.

 

Why would you give your book away?

Accounting Play exists to help others learn accounting and other financial subjects, so the order of operation is to help others by getting more valuable content in their hands. From a classic brand building perspective, books can be great marketing. Also, the Amazon marketplace is built on trust, and a book needs several positive reviews before getting significant traction. Finally the Kindle product allows ample opportunity to link to the main site or other rich media. A 10,000 free book download is the first step in achieving the overall goal of helping more people learn. The metrics which I will be reporting on reflect areas which I would like to see improvement in these areas:

-Use of products and user feedback
-Total free downloads
-Subscriber list
-Site traffic
-App downloads
-Paid users
-Increased reviews on App Store and Amazon
To come: Key Performance Indicators and Why They Matter

 

Why only $2.99?

The difference between a $2.99, $4.99, and $7.99 price point is huge in terms of paid and unpaid download volume. Naturally the volume is higher at the $2.99 price point which is more aligned with the short-term goals of the book. In the content proliferation age, consumers are weary of paying much for content unless it solves a very specific pain point – such as passing the CPA exam. This book solves some paid in the accounting learning process by making the concepts fun and visual. But, since a dictionary is a supplementary tool, the starting price seems appropriate. Kindle pricing adjustments can be easily achieved at a later date.
Paying for free downloads

As part of the free download period I will also be paying for advertising. I have approximately $100 of advertising budget which I have spent using the online service Fiverr, where people do “crazy things for $5.” The “crazy” things which I have purchased are mostly tweets, Facebook page postings, and promotion to sites which feature free kindle book promotions. I will detail what I have purchased and try and extrapolate the results along the way.

To come: Paid Advertising for a Free Kindle Book Promotion - Genius or Insanity?

Thanks Again

Thanks to everyone who has assisted me professionally and personally.