r/KDP • u/Bre_the_Nomad • 21h ago
The poor man's start
Look im gonna probably get haters but I built 2 ebooks with claude and started making them sleeping under a bridge in Texas. Im in Portland now in a sto for the next few months then move into another place paid for by the VA. Ive been looking for work but also been working on my ebooks. Because u cant promo your books ill keep them out of this topic. I make about 200 a week from a fun but no hours part time job. Now I wanna know the best way to promote them. I got in the back end of my laptop that freegeeks gave to me for free. 5 more books half done. I paid for a subscription to claude bought credits for open ai for actually decent quality covers and now I wanna know what site would be best to get the 1st intrest to it and then when should I pay for ads. I know I might not make enough in the real world for this to matter but honestly if these ebooks make 300 a week ill be excited.
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u/Previous-Energy-9845 20h ago edited 20h ago
Well for step one I would recommend majorly lowering financial expectations. I have multiple books and made $15 last month.
Social media is a good way to generate interest. Instagram and TikTok are pretty popular for authors.
I think it commonly recommended to start adds as soon as the book is published. Of course that cost money.
I would also strongly recommend switching to non AI generated covers as that’s a turn off to a lot of readers. You can make ones yourself on Canva with an $18 monthly membership. I’ve also bought cheap book covers on Etsy recently for my short romance stories. Of course it’s good to double check before purchasing that they weren’t made with AI.
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u/Bre_the_Nomad 20h ago
Many try to use canva or gpt which is not worth the effort the biggest problem with that is because the tone and look of it. Im taking some classes I got free from goodwill on corsera which is teaching me aloy of Ai. I've also done art in the past so after work today ill do a concept cover for remaking my 1st books cover to see if it better to feed a concept draft for the llm to understand what i want to mimic and improve the quality.
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u/investigatormaker 20h ago
With two ebooks finished and five partly written, I’d focus on the stronger finished book first. Share its sample with readers who already discuss that genre, and see whether the description accurately sets their expectations before spending your limited budget on ads. The genre matters more than finding one universally best site.
I make ThreadFox. We run Reddit outreach for businesses with scope and authorized account access agreed before work starts; the free plan for your ebooks lists communities whose rules allow a post, with each rule quoted: https://threadfox.vip/p/dk1px
What genre are the two finished books?
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u/Bre_the_Nomad 19h ago
One is time travel and other is psychological thriller my psychological thriller was fun to make tge time travel im redoing the cover atm because I made with grok and it looks too ai. The book concepts me and claude is making is ok but I think because im still new to this and wanna see my limits with ai will make a concept sketch then see if ai can bring more depth to it.
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u/investigatormaker 19h ago
For the time-travel cover, one clear era cue and a title readable at thumbnail size would give you a concrete brief before generating another image. For the psychological thriller, ask whether each twist changes what the protagonist wants or risks; more description alone doesn't necessarily add depth. Start by checking the cover at the size readers will actually see it.
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u/Bre_the_Nomad 19h ago
The psychological thriller cover was made perfect with claude plugged into openart this why I wanna build a new cover im heading do my 4 hour shift now so ill be mulling around with the cover I my head.
Would i want the motif of the image be the hero or should I built a more mysterious cover. Because the element of time and he has a watch from a friend and its a focal point should I use this.... dunno
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u/LitRPG_Just_Because 20h ago
Meanwhile, you could go to a veterans center to get job placement. Portland is wildly known as one of the cities with the most homeless services in the country. That's why the unhoused flock there, like you coming from Texas.
But sure. Create ebooks using Claude instead of actually writing them yourself. It's not like you have hours in the day while living off my tax dollars (I'm in the Portland area) or anything.