Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

There are two caveats that precede any discussion of the opportunities -

1. “Dream Job” is not the same as work just 4 hrs a week and make a lot of money (which I personally have never seen anyone pull off). By Dream Job I mean something you absolutely love to do and also get paid very well for.
2. It does have to be something you’re very passionate about and would pick as your #1 job (or at worst #2). If it’s not, the level playing field that the Internet creates will destroy your chances of doing very well. If you don’t enjoy what you do, you’ll lose out to someone who will be ‘enjoying the work and working much more than you are’.

That brings us to two facts -

1. The old publishing industry and newspapers are dying out. Forget Profits – Most newspapers are actively losing a ton of money.
2. The Web 2.0 free and freemium models are not working very well.  Websites like Digg are losing money as are most ‘free content’ websites.

This means that not only is the old model disappearing, there is absolutely no new model for publishing currently available. This creates some huge opportunities. Especially for

1. Amazon, Apple, and Google.
2. Bloggers. 
3. Journalists. 
4. Editors. 
5. Small Publishers (I’m talking <5 people companies). 
6. Content Creators. 
7. Programmers.
8. Marketers.
9. Salesmen.
10. Writers (although this is ironically the area I’m least confident about). 

Note: I would put my money on either Amazon’s Kindle or Apple’s iReader becoming the future of the book. I speak mostly of the kindle – however, you would do well to consider Apple’s ‘releasing in Fall 2009′ eBook Reader/ Netbook.

 Here are some of the areas that will thrive because of the emergence of a new publishing paradigm -

On-line Real Estate

Take the case of Joshua Tallent and his www.kindleformatting.com website. Nearly everyone looking for formatting help with the books they want to publish for the Kindle will stumble across his website (via #1 and #2 spots on Google). That means he gets first shot at nearly all kindle related formatting work. At #4 you have ebookconversion.com.

However, the rest of the top 10 spots are available, and the emergence of a good alternate site means google will stop giving the top 2 spots to one website.

If you have or dream of a book formatting business, now is the time to move and grab a few of the very lucrative search engine spots up for grabs.

Book Publishing

If you can figure out a way to either -

1. Talk established authors into joining you; or 
2. Figure out a model to predict success; or
3. Figure out how to catch emerging hit authors,

You can create the next big publishing company.

There are an unbelievable number of authors that are trying to figure out how to succeed, how to market themselves and more.

Regardless of whether you choose to

1. provide services to everyone (make money off of numbers), or
2. focus on a few potential hit authors,

the opportunity to become the next big Publishing House is huge.

Online Communities

There is no clear-cut leader as far as kindle forums or kindle communities are concerned – mobileread, kindle korner and loads more forums are popular. However everyone is around the few thousand members mark. Creating something and dominating the niche is still possible.

Niche social networks are much easier to monetize than larger social networks because a book social network or a movie social network (like Flixster, which is already profitable) is focused on productive activity i.e. what to watch or read next.

An even bigger opportunity would be to create a community for people writing/publishing for the Kindle and then monetize that.

A New Publishing Model

There really is no cohesive, comprehensive publishing model for the Kindle. My free calendar for the Kindle 2 isn’t even on the Kindle Store because I’m dreading having to redo the formatting to meet Amazon’s DTP previewer requirements.  

Every single person releasing content for the Kindle/Kindle 2 has this fear. Not to mention a bunch of other concerns like -

1. Is the pricing right?
2. How do I make a profit?
3. Formatting. 
4. Quality of editing. 
5. Getting the Word Out. 
6. Getting Feedback. 

Provide a comprehensive publishing model and you could make money off of every single content provider.

Providing Services

Perhaps you just want to provide an individual service -

1. Editing (the top 7 spots on Google are open).
2. Formatting 
3. Proof Reading 
4. Marketing
5. Selling

All these are open – there are no established experts (except for kindle formatting) and you could establish yourself and get a lot of work.

Providing Platforms

Figure out a way to provide a platform and let other people make money off of it and you could very well make more money from the Kindle than anyone not named Amazon.

Just a few possible platforms -

1. A site that exposes new authors.
2. A place for kindle book ratings and reviews.
3. An auction site or marketplace for kindle related services.
4. A site to sell and buy kindle related accessories. 

Software

Format conversion software, Book creation software, and lots more software opportunities exist. The downside here is that there will always be people who give away their work for free as a form of marketing.

However, the enterprise market is ripe because they need good customer service alongside the software. And often companies and people want to spend money to get the best quality.

Writing

I’m not qualified to write about this because I have no idea what success for authors will look like with the new publishing industry.

To be honest it’s gotten much tougher for authors and I’d say finding a good book agent and a good book publisher becomes even more important.  And give away your first book free.

Closing Thoughts

There’s no doubt that a new publishing paradigm is emerging and that a lot of companies are going to emerge and flourish – Now is the time to step in.

Filed under: publishing Tagged: | future of newspapers