The WORST LIES About Self-Publishing Books on Amazon KDP - It's Not As Bad As You Think!

Thank you for this. Is ISBN necessary for ebooks?

I plan on putting good effort into this.

I've self-published on amazon, not done very well. I think marketing is one of my bigger problems.

My non profit publishes art catalogues for the fine art shows that we do. We do not intend or expect to make money but to promote the exhibitions and support participating artists. Works for us

Thank you for the POSITIVITY!

Is this all still true today 10 months later? Or is it oversaturated?

One thing you gloss over with the amazon royalties vs a traditional publisher is that a traditional publisher will give you 10% of the sticker price, as where amazon gives you 60%, then takes off the money for printing. You are of course in control of the price, and you add $0.6 to your royalties for every $ added to the book price, but to say "traditional publisher = 10%, amazon = %60" is very misleading here. You then also have to do any marketing out of what is left of your royalties after amazon has taken it's printing costs, as where a traditional publisher will do that for you.

So if you take an example of an average paperback in Australia, where I assume you're from, amazon charge $10.52 for printing, so I need to charge $17.50 for a paperback to make nothing, with amazon taking 100% (remember amazon are doing the printing here, so they're making a profit on that too). If I push it out to $18.50, I make $1, which I probably need to spend on advertising - for example with amazon. So they still get 100% and I get nothing. It's not until I start charging about $20 for a paperback that I actually make any money at all. And how easy is it to sell a $20 paperback as an unknown indi author?

I honestly think trying to indi publish a paperback outside of the US (where the economics are a lot more reasonable) is a waste of time. ebooks make far more sense in terms of being able to sell something at a reasonable price to the consumer and still make money on it.

Thank you.

They have NEVER paid me a cent for the books sold, tried to contact them but it's imposible, I think it's a SCAM.

Thank you

First you better find out if those comments are coming for real because we’re living in a corporate world were selling wise means absolutely nothing anymore

Does this channel get any benefit of any kind in any way from the promoted service provider (i.e. Amazon KDP)?

The thing that disappoints me is not many people bother to leave a review or even a star rating. Getting these things is very hard. Otherwise publishing for ones self and ordering hardcopies to give out is very rewarding.

Its a scam though.

You made allot of great points! Thank you for this video!!

Complaining about non-sales = Your book sucks.

Thanks for your encouraging video, Caroline! I'm getting ready to launch my first book on Amazon in a few months and am so nervous. I want my book to encourage many people, but am also hoping it will bring in a decent amount of income:) This gives me a lot of hope!

@MyFreedomEmpire do i need registered trade mark or its not necessary ? Do you have template of the contract of transferring rights between righter and publisher? When observe sizes on KDP there is not clear the actual quality :((

Well, this is another very informative video. Thank you, for taking the time to create it.

Hi, thanks for the video, I have a question. I have one keyword with low CTR (0,17% out of 1770 impressions) but which scored a sale in just 3 clicks... what should I do with that?

It's interesting to watch this video. Tonight, I just put my first book in for review by Amazon and I have a second waiting in the wings (need feedback from friends).

I clearly don't know how to write. Phooey!

Phooey!

Do I need to pay for loyalty? I created a book, and I want to self-publish it. But do I need to purchase loyalty to make money or do can I still make money even if I don't purchase for royalty?

I would really like to write some cook books do you think I could make money eventually on this?

Does self publishing on Amazon on kindle have up front costs. You are right a lot of doubters.

I signed up for KDP and was contacted by amazon an amazon person and was explained how it works and I had to pay something. Then I was given a publisher and he is doing the publishing. Is this a scam or is this normal. They will go in my account and publish for me.

I’m a new writer any advice anyone can give me

Could you talk about what I am also hearing from some people about Amazon 'randomly' deleting their accounts when they get high enough?

Excellent podcast. Thanks for sharing your candid thoughts.

Thanks Caroline, Valuable information dear one. Thank You you are so appreciated.

I overstand what you have stressed! But, what have me perturb is: presently I have 6 high content published books on kdp! And thus far my books are not bringing any royalties! Accordingly, I was extremely optimistic about book: Message To The Blackmale Teenz In America! Because I am endeavoring to encourage those young Brothers to get off the egregious crime spree! And educate themselves to become productive citizens! But, as I have stressed my books are not selling! And of course, I have been advertising via videos on fb; tik tok; Instagram and passing out flyers and business cards! So, can you or anyone else that reads this! Can give me some information on what I should do that will change my travel?!

Just to be clear, no, you do not get 10 to 15 % from a traditional book deal. You generally get a sliding scale, at least if your have a good representative, contract, that scales upwards depending on sales.

Ergo, you might get a lot less than 15% on the first say, 1000 copies sold, then for the first 10,000 thereafter, you get more, and so on and so forth. For books which are selling hundreds of thousands, or millions of copies, you should be getting a significant amount of that revenue maybe even over half.

This is not what the Publisher will WANT to give you, but it is what you CAN get. Of course, this depends on the book. A fiction piece, which resonates across cultural boundaries, with women around the world... the 15- to 35 yrs of age demographic thereof, which is the largest spending demographic in the world now, might well be a book which goes on to sell ten or twenty million copies, or more, and that author is going to be getting a A LOT more than 10% of that money on 19,900,000 of those copies.

However, if you are writing teaching texts in a niche subject, or religious works in short story form for children, or niche craft manuals, then indeed, you will likely NOT be selling millions of copies, and have a very limited print run, and make low percentage off the sales, because the costs to a publisher are greater for small market, low volume, printing. They need to calculate what everything from designing the cover, to book launch, to legal review before it hits shelves, is going to cost, on top of the actual printing of the books.

I do not think these 'Lies' ARE lies... I think it is just dependent on what you are writing and if it has merit to those in traditional publishing. A really great novel, or even perhaps just hit at the right moment good cook book or travelogue or specific history book on a specific period which resonates at that point in time it is written, are all very different to other types of books, lifestyle specific books, or manuals for a specific hobby or trade, or technical or educational books...or maybe a not so great novel, or bad cook book. The former books have the potential to sell a million copies, or ten times that and then some... the latter kinds of books basically do not, at all, ever. Just will not be there as an outcome for those kinds of books.

So the former kinds of writers SHOULD always seek a deal with a proper traditional publisher, and do so repeatedly until the message has been hammered home it will not happen.. before they go for self publishing, because traditional publishing IS much better if you have book worth it to them, and the deal you get will be potentially a lot better. Conversely, oversaturation, limited financial return, all the work you need do for yourself, unsupported, and how hard it is, do not matter at all, to the person who does not have a book which can easily be shopped around to traditional publishers, because they have no other options, and for those people it is definitely worth doing it yourself.

Thank you for the video, im going for it.

Sounds like many people are trying to make a living out of writing books.

I what to Publish a book basically I'm my childhood but I don't have the cost to publish it

Good information, but please work on your script reading skills.

Hi, great video, I'm working on a medium content book,
with my search on amazon with that niche came back as
1-16 of over 1,000 results for "memory care activities for seniors"
How could I place my book under this category.

Please help me! I want to publish low content books on KDP but for that I need to upload my ID, and when I send them the scan of my ID, the say it's not valid. I don't get it because it has every information they need. I don't know what to do? I am not from USA or UK so english is not my first language. Thank you.

Thanks for those valuable insights, my sister. As you put it yourself, "It's not as bad as we think."

Tell me if this is a misconception.
I understand that Amazon takes a 60% royalty leaving 40% royalty for the author.
From the 40% the author has to cover the printing.
I find this very disturbing since this leaves very little for the author.
I think 60% to Amazon is crazy but it would be a little nicer if they would take it after the publishing fees are covered.
I created a 40 page coloring book and priced it at $5.99 and after Amazon fees, and Publishing it left $0.25 to the author while Amazon collected $3.59 Royalty, $2.15 Publishing/Printing. leaving $0.25.
Is this accurate?

Laziness and Fear is oversaturated.

Watched this video in January when I was researching KDP and found it very helpful. Thanks for taking the time to set the record straight.

Thanks for this video really helpful

Yes, I've heard most of these lies too. I certainly have fallen into the trap of feeling like sales should have come quickly, when sadly they didn't. I think the hardest part is defining a solid marketing plan, especially when from my own experience most FB groups are full of other people who are also trying to sell/market their websites or products. Thanks for sharing!

I have a book written and illustration already. how much would it cost to print hardcover? its children book 24pages

Hi Caroline, question, please..On KDP, templates, can I use my own dialogues narrating spaces, and can I use balloons dialogues, when I transpose my jpeg pages on Amazon templates.?..
Thanks, Joseph

Good morning , thanks Caroline, I am a beginner and i need to know how to approaches KDP, to upload my Jpg pages, Do I have to upload KDP Templates?..
Is there others ways to do the work?..
Thank you, Joseph