Review: Worth the cover price in frustrations prevented.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 27, 2013
You Too Can Moonlight as an Amazon Bestseller is a useful book for anyone who wishes to publish a book on Amazon. Yes, there are a zillion how-to's on this topic. I've read tons of them, first to do my own publishing, then specifically to review the books because I do have that experience. This one is concise and easy to follow. The things that ought to be spelled out are spelled out. Step by step. Things you only need to be aware of, or need to make own your decisions on are pointed out. Some guides are confusing, this one is clear and useful. Worth your time and the asking price.A few notes of my own that were not covered or not made clear:KDP select note: To use KDP Select, you must agree to place your book exclusively on Amazon for that 90 day period. You get 5 "free" days per 90 days of exclusive Amazon listing. If you sell your book (or give it away) anywhere else - ANYWHERE, even on your own website - you cannot participate in KDP select. Don't try it. Violating your agreement with Amazon can get you permanently banned.Borrowing must be enabled in order to participate in the library payments program.My personal opinion on negative reviews:Negative reviews can be extremely beneficial to the author. If the review cites poor formatting, bad editing, or disjointed sentences and ideas, fixing these things will improve your book. There is always going to be someone who dislikes your tone, thinks you used too many (or too few) big words, or someone who didn't read the description and is angry because they expected X instead of Y. Ignore those reviews. Reviews that offer real input, respond to (wait until you get over the initial shock and horror, so you can respond graciously!) First make corrections to your book, then respond with a sincere thank you.If you honestly believe that a few one star reviews will hurt you when you have as many or more higher reviews, go look up Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea. 25% of those reviews are 3 stars or less. The Da Vinci Code has 1199 1&2 star reviews compared to 1716 5 star reviews, out of 4190 reviews as of 01/27/13. (I hated that book but my review isn't one of the 1199.) Reviews do matter, but not as much as we think they do. A bad review isn't the end of the world.