5 Things Beginners Need to Know About Kindle Publishing
Hey Maverick!
I thought I want to do something a little bit different! I want to share some kindle-tastic kindle publishing tips with you!
Everday I receive emails and messages asking me how I build my website, publish books, create magazines, run my Instagram, Pinterest etc
Truthfully, I’m not that confident that everything I do actually works for you. But I learned a lot over the last 4 years of self-publishing online. Which allow me to quit my day job to work from home full time.
Now I can do what I love doing because I have a passive income stream and I don’t have to rely on a month-to-month paycheck.
But don’t quit your job tomorrow. I didn’t quit my job until I had my side hustle going for 31 months.
Be responsible. You have to work on it over time but every day move closer towards this goal.
So, for the next 12 days, I’m going to share some self-publishing tips and guides to help you start your Kindle publishing, building a passive income and ultimately quit your day job!
Day 1: 5 Things Beginners Need to Know About Kindle Publishing
Day 2: 7 Reasons Why You Should Create an eBook for Your Business
Day 3: How to Write and Publish an eBook
Day 4: How To Find Profitable Niches To Publish Online
Day 5: The Biggest Mistake I Made In Self-Publishing and How You Can Avoid It
Day 6: 6 Steps To Sell More Books on Amazon
Day 7: Designing Book Covers That Sell
Day 8: 7 Most Common Self-Publishing Mistakes You Should Avoid
Day 9: 40 Ways to Promote and Market Your Book
Day 10: 49 Inspirational Marketing Tips From Top Authors
Day 11: Top 10 Best Tools for Self-Publishing Authors
Day 12: 12 Best Platforms to Self-Publish Your eBook and Make Money
So without further ado, let’s take a look at the Top 5 Things Beginners Need to Know About Kindle Publishing
#1. What Is Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)?
Kindle Direct publishing (also known as Self-publishing on Amazon) is one of the best online business models for beginners. Anyone can start creating and publishing their books online.
We use this same model to build our six-figure publishing business online.
No matter where you are from, self-publishing is a great opportunity to generate life-changing passive income.
People like to read. The eBook market is expanding and growing all the time. In fact, anyone can start creating and selling a book. You don’t have to have any specialist knowledge or technical skills. Even if you feel like writing isn’t for you, you can outsource every single step of the publishing process.
#2. But why Amazon?
1. Amazon dominates the eBook industry with 80% of market share. You’d definitely want to leverage on its huge customer base by having your book available on their platform.
2. Amazon offers 35%-75% royalty on net revenues. Compared to traditional publishers who offer only 15%-20%.
3. The Kindle Store has a lifetime shelf-life, these are your mini-assets you own a lifetime. Bookshops only shelf a book from 30–60 days.
4. Right now Amazon promotes your book for you if you use the strategies I teach you this coming day.
5. Publishing on Amazon is so easy that you just need to follow the methods I teach you to start making money in days.
6. You don’t need to handle any inventory ever!
7. NO MORE MIDDLEMEN — People who decide whether your book meets their criteria.
8. Kindle Shipments continue to grow exponentially, now other devices and computers can also download and read Kindle eBooks.
#3. There are 4 ways to make money with Amazon self-publishing
(i) Kindle books– Creating and selling an eBook is the easiest way to get started with self-publishing. Often, kindle self-publishers price their eBooks from $2.99 to $4.99.
(ii) Paperback Books- There’s still a huge demand for paperback books. Especially for children books, parents would prefer to buy physical books for their young children to reduce their screen time.
I think paper books are evergreen products. As a self-publisher, you can capitalize on this paperback version as many readers still read physical books.
No. You don’t have to keep stock of your paperback books.
You can use a print-on-demand service provided by CreateSpace (Amazon sister company) or Amazon itself. It will only take you extra few minutes to set up your paperback on Amazon once you’ve got the file ready.
Plus, you can charge higher prices selling physical books, and thus you’ll earn more royalties here than your KDP royalties.
(iii) Audio Books
Creating audio book is another great way to make money online. You can hire narrators to produce your book on Audiobook Creation Exchange ACX (Amazon sister company).
Your audio books will be distributed to Amazon and Audible.
(iv) Hardcover Books
Compared to the 3 methods above, it’d be more challenging to self-publish hardcover books. But you can still make a good earning by adding a hardcover option to your book.
Since CreateSpace don’t print-on-demand hardcover books, you’ll need to use third-party service like Lulu. You can then request Lulu to make your hardcover books available on Kindle store too.
#4. Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) vs KDP Select
Before you start selling your books on Amazon, you’ll have to decide whether you want to join KDP select exclusivity program or standard Amazon KDP.
Amazon KDP is non-exclusive, so you’re free to sell your book on other eBook retailers, as well as Amazon Kindle.
Amazon KDP Select requires you grant Amazon exclusive distribution rights for your Kindle books. You can’t sell your eBook on Apple, Google Play, Nook or any other retailer platforms or your own website. So during the period of exclusivity, your eBook is only available for sale on Amazon.
#5. What are the benefits of KDP select?
(i) Your kindle ebooks will be available to Kindle Unlimited (also known as KU).
KU is a subscription reading service that allows Amazon’s members to download as many books on KU as they want for $9.99 per month.
You’ll get paid based on the monthly KDP Select Global Fund and the total number of pages read for all your book titles during that entire month.
The more pages people read, the more royalties you’ll collect.
For example, KDP Select Global Fund for February is $20 million and the royalty for every page read is $0.00465! If you have 100,000 pages read, you will get (100,000 x $0.00465) $465 KU royalty on top of your eBook and paperback royalty.
To make a handsome sum of money, you’ll need to publish engaging and good quality content to stay competitive on the KDP select.
(ii) You’ll get 70% royalty earning royalty earnings on sales to customers in Brazil, Japan, India, and Mexico.
(iii) You have access to Kindle promotional tools such as Kindle Countdown, Kindle Free ebooks and paid Amazon Ads.
However, these promotional tools are only available to a certain number of days out of every 90-day enrollment cycle. So you’ll need to plan and organize your promotion plan in advance.
(iv) You will have the opportunity to earn higher royalties, sell more books, and reach a wider audience.
When it comes to Kindle exclusivity, there is no right or wrong choice, it all depends on your goals and objectives.
If you wish to spread your books on multiple sites then standard KDP is for you.
If you have only one book and no other platform, if you want to use the kindle promotion tools, if you’re satisfied to have your book on Amazon only, then KDP select would be your choice.
Keep in minds, you can always hop in and out of KDP Select. You can run some tests and see which option works best for you. By leveraging the options, you can get the best of both worlds.
Well, there you go!
Do you have any concern not to self-publish your own books?
This is day 1 of 12 Days of Self-Publishing Tips to make passive income online!
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Coming Up Next
Originally published at thinkmaverick.com on April 2, 2018.
