You might write wonderful prose but if your Kindle ebook is difficult to read, don't be surprised when your monthly report shows very few sales. People who own a Kindle eReader are very picky. The more your ebook looks like a regular paperback, the better your sales will be.
Don't believe? Just go to Amazon and check out the reviews of ebooks. The most prevalent complaint is poor formatting and or the navigation "leaves a lot to be desired." You have to realize...Kindle customers are lovers of books. That's why they bought the Kindle!
They see the beauty of having thousands of books at their disposal as a huge benefit to them and their environment. No trees have to be sacrificed for their reading pleasure. And, that's the key, "reading pleasure."
Your job as an self-published Author, is to see to it your readers enjoy your ebook. Formatting and navigation, while not as sexy as writing, enhances their pleasure. They are able to click the "next" button and completely immerse themselves in your prose. The only time your reader becomes aware of the hardware is when your formatting interrupts their reading flow. It's quite EZ to maintain this flow if you take a little extra time and make sure your navigation and formatting looks good in the Kindle.
So what do I mean by navigation and formatting?
The Navigation consists of a Table of Contents and the location points at the bottom of your Kindle ebook. The navigation points are what the your customer uses to proceed through the chapters of your fiction or non-fiction ebook. The navigation points look like little dots as the bottom of your ebook. The dots tell your customers that if they use the five way controller on the Kindle, they'll be able to move back and forth through the chapters or main points in your ebook.
Now you might be saying "big deal." The Kindle remembers where they left off so why should I bother?
Well, maybe you shouldn't if you have that attitude. But consider -- most of your readers do want to go to different chapters. Sure they could flip out of your ebook and go to the Table of Contents (provided you supplied one), click on chapters, but that's way too inconvenient. If you provide EZ navigation, you'll be known as an Author who cares. The Author who took the extra step to be professional.
Plus, your readers will place you right up there with main stream authors from traditional publishing houses because your ebook will look the same. And, because it does, your reviews will be better thus improving your Kindle ebook sales.
Judith Tramayne's passion for the last 13 years is helping Authors self-publish ebooks. Her "Kindle eBook Course" has 18 videos and 7 image-filled PDFs shows how to EZ-ily make a Kindle ebook. Visit www.agoodread.com
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