In This Article, We'll Discuss:
- How Amazon KDP works
- The downsides of Amazon KDP
- The advantages of Amazon KDP
- Some Self-Publishing Alternatives
- How to make Amazon KDP work for YOU!
Table of Contents
I’M ALIIIIIVE! Yes, after several months of being backed up with clients, I have returned to regale you with methods of self-publishing sure to set your career on the right track! And boy, is today’s article a big one! Today, we’re tackling Amazon KDP and how to make it work for you!
Amazon KDP is one of the largest distributors of books in the world. Period. It’s impossible to overstate the sheer stranglehold Kindle has on the market, and they’re still growing. We can only imagine how big it will be in the future.
With KDP, independent authors can now publish their novels for free, at any time. Never before has this been possible, and it’s completely changed the face of the book market. With minimal quality control and essentially zero rules, Kindle is a minefield of mangled manuscripts. But if you dig deep enough, you’ll eventually find countless, amazing novels that simply haven’t had a chance to succeed in the way they deserve to.
Why don’t these novels succeed? And what is it that makes Kindle the biggest name in the self-publishing business? Does it really live up to the hype?
Ultimately, Amazon KDP is only as powerful a tool as its wielder, and like any other self-publishing service, results vary, with most authors making next to nothing. But, if you use it right, you can build an amazing career. There’s gold in them there hills! And here’s how you can mine it.
Amazon KDP: How it works
Kindle Direct Publishing launched in November 2007, and it took the world by storm. Through the program, any author can simply upload their manuscript and get it published—not only as an eBook, but in print as well.
That blew some minds, let me tell you.
Before KDP, there weren’t nearly as many self-publishing services, and many authors looked down on the whole self-publishing market as an embarrassing scam, never likely to produce any real successes. But now, most authors use Kindle, and traditional publishers have struggled to keep up!
On Amazon KDP, authors can convert their manuscripts to an eBook (in the past, Amazon preferred to use MOBI files, but they are shifting to EPUB to align with the rest of the market), and they get a variety of publishing options from there. Authors can distribute their eBooks across the Amazon marketplace, showing up in Kindle searches and Amazon searches alike, with a good chance to show up on Google, too. Furthermore, it allows authors to publish physical books, both hardcover and paperback, and even provides complementary ISBN numbers. In using this service, authors can thus forego a whole slew of annoying publishing steps, like purchasing an ISBN number and finding a printing company, for zero charge.
Sounds great, right? Well, life is complicated, and there are plenty of problems with even the best systems. Speaking of which:
The Downsides
The first (and most obvious) downside to working with Amazon is that—well, you’ll be working with Amazon. Everyone knows Amazon is a sketchy company. We’ve all heard about the scams, the labor violations, the poor conditions, and the downright dystopian union-busting campaigns they’ve forced their employees into. Who would want to contribute to a company like that?
Similarly, KDP doesn’t offer any help for marketing your book at all. In fact, you’ll have to learn how to manipulate the service’s search algorithm by yourself. When you publish on Amazon, you’re publishing by yourself. Granted, that’s just what self-publishing is like, sometimes. But with Amazon KDP, you really feel that isolation. Other self-publishing services might give you marketing plans or demographic information. With KDP, you really feel the lack.
And, of course, Amazon skims a little bit off the top of every purchase. After tax, you can expect to make less than sixty or seventy percent of the listing price. They don’t withhold taxes, either, so make sure to open a savings account to set your taxes aside!
That isn’t to say it’s not worth it to pursue Amazon’s services. If you can swing past all of those issues, there are benefits:
The Upsides
There’s a reason Amazon KDP is such a huge service. First of all, it’s FREE! Few self-publishing services out there will publish your book for you at no charge, but Amazon has set the bar high with their suite of polished, professional publishing tools. And this isn’t just for eBook authors! Amazon will print physical copies of your manuscript at no extra charge, and you can still earn some half-decent royalties! But that’s not to say eBook authors get left out. Kindle Create, Amazon’s flagship eBook creator, is a joy to use, and there aren’t many competitive alternatives out there.
Similarly, KDP sports the largest book-reading audience in the entire world, by far. Amazon started out as the internet’s bookstore, and they haven’t forgotten their roots. The viewership potential you gain access to when choosing Amazon KDP is massive. Of course, whether you reach that audience is a matter of algorithm manipulation and SEO. But that’s how publishing works, no matter where you go.
Some Easy Alternatives
If all of Amazon KDP’s red flags haven’t gone away for you, worry not! There are still amazing self-publishing options out there, even if most don’t offer the same variety of services Amazon does. They all have their ups and downs, so let’s go over a few popular ones!
Lulu
Lulu is one of the largest self-publishing services out there, specializing in print publishing, with a seriously massive distribution network to play with. Their print quality leaves Amazon’s in the dust, producing some of the finest self-published manuscripts you can get your hands on—at least, in the physical sense.
Of course, Lulu’s printers charge more than Amazon’s, and their eBook distribution system is an utter joke at best. But if you’re looking to publish “a book,” in the most literal sense imaginable, Lulu isn’t the worst option out there.
Apple Books
The second-largest eBook distributor, Apple Books is probably Amazon KDP’s biggest competitor. Of course, Apple Books doesn’t publish hardcopy books, but it does have a ten percent share of the eBook market. Its royalties also beat Amazon’s, a lot of the time! It depends, though, and depending on where you sell, KDP can match Apple Books’ royalties pretty handily. Ultimately, think of Apple Books as a secondary market to pursue. It can be a great tool for authors with a niche audience!
Ingramspark
Ingramspark is one of the best direct competitors to Amazon in the self-publishing world. If you want your books to get out into the real world, at bookstores and libraries, Ingramspark’s model works like a charm, and has no “expanded distribution” fees. With print-on-demand quality rivaling Lulu’s, eBook tools on par with Amazon’s, and higher royalties than most other services, Ingramspark should be a shoe-in for the top contender on this list. Trouble is, the service isn’t free. In fact, they charge a forty-nine dollar service charge per manuscript, with a twenty-five dollar fee for each revision. So if your book has an error or a misprint, the burden falls on your wallet. Also, Ingramspark books just flat-out do not sell well on Amazon. A lot of authors actually follow a distributed model, where they rely on Amazon for eBook sales, while using Ingramspark for physical copies.
How you can take advantage of Amazon KDP
First off, marketing is key. Before we can start talking about the specifics of Amazon’s marketplace, we have to begin with a basic rundown on what you should be doing anyway.
Amazon KDP requires a lot of direct intervention from authors, so make sure you’re on social media, getting people talking about your book as much as possible. Make an author website, get a Goodreads account, be active, post as much as you can, and engage with popular creators. The more you post, the more Amazon’s algorithm will pick up on the buzz for your book, and the more it will recommend it to readers.
After that, you’re left with two major outlets to increase your chances of being seen: advertisement and optimization. Advertisement is the big one, but it’s also the costliest. Optimization is free, but it’s also the hardest to nail down.
Advertisement:
In order to make money, you’ve got to spend money. Sad to say, but it’s the truth! Amazon offers several paid ways to advertise on their platform, but the ones you’ll want to look for first are search ads and Kindle lock screen ads. Lock screen ads are great, because they display on your readers’ Amazon devices when they’re unused. On a Kindle Paperwhite, for instance, your advertisement will sit there in glorious black-and-white e-ink indefinitely, until the prospective reader picks up their device and unlocks it. In other words, the cover of your book will be sitting in plain view in someone’s house, potentially for days. If more than one person lives in the house, you could easily get way more bang for your buck than you’d expect.
Search ads are the more obvious option, in that they show up in Amazon searches. Trouble is, a good number of people instinctively skip over advertisements when they search, so these are more touch-and-go. In general, though, whichever ad strategy you employ, you’re most likely going to make more than you spend, assuming that your book looks interesting enough to average readers.
Optimization:
On Amazon, every book gets sorted by the holy algorithm. Yes, it is a powerful, mysterious force that few understand. But it can be manipulated! Bent to your will!
Basically, use a lot of keywords in your book description, think hard about the tags for your book, and look up which ones you want to use before you use them, either on tools like SellerSprite, or by asking around with other author friends in your genre. Using bright colors in your cover is a great way to draw eyes to your manuscript, and the more people look at your listing, even if they don’t buy, influences the number of people Amazon’s algorithm will show your material to.
The big, unsung secret of the algorithm is that it gives a lot of weight to Kindle Unlimited borrows, meaning that if you opt out of that service, you’re going to seriously hurt your chances of getting noticed.
There are several great guides out there to help you get down into the nitty-gritty of how to use Amazon KDP and take control of your self-publishing journey, and I’d encourage you to continue researching this topic. You can never learn too much!
In Conclusion...
While there are plenty of reasons to use Amazon KDP, it isn’t the only option out there. Still, if you’re going to go with it, make sure you read up on all the tips and tricks you can! Tools are only as good as the way people use them, and it’s important that you become acquainted with every piece of the software and services you use, so you can maximize the utility you get out of using it. Remember, though, the publishing service you use is only half as important as the marketing strategy you employ! Get online, get visible, and get going!
If you’re thinking about moving forward with Amazon KDP, maybe it’s time to take the next step!
