If you’re a fan of reading e-books on Kindle, you know how popular they are. But they are also increasingly popular for those who want to write and publish their own titles. You can publish an electronic book that is beautiful and looks as great as a traditional printed book. Offer it on Amazon, and you reach a global audience. You do it much cheaper, faster, and easier that traditional print publication. That’s why you’ll want to know how Amazon self-publishing of e-books works, before you create your e-book.
Kindle Direct Publishing
Amazon has a department called Kindle Direct Publishing, which is free to use to help you publish an e-book and then market and sell it through Amazon. There are ways to use Kindle Direct Publishing to enroll in royalty programs, too, to get paid when people buy, download, and read your book. That includes shoppers who download to read on Kindle devices and Kindle apps for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, PC, Mac, Blackberry, and Android-based devices. To learn more about how to participate in Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), check out the program’s website. There is also a resource called KDP University. Once you are ready to learn everything there is to know about publishing with Amazon, it will give you lots of information in great depth. A good place to start and get an overview of how it all works when you create an e-book with Kindle Direct Publishing is the video Amazon produced, which you can view at this link.
Kindle Direct Publishing Select
For marketing purposes, you can also choose to enroll in a program called KDP Select. This gives you access to more marketing tools and strategies, and allows you to earn your royalties from global Amazon markets. You can, for instance, schedule a limited-time promotion using the Kindle Countdown Deal or do a promotion where readers get to download your book for free for a limited time. That kind of free download can help you get more readers and reviews for your book, and spread the word as readers tell others about what you wrote. Word of mouth advertising is still one of the best ways to sell any product.
Exclusive Selling Restrictions
When you own the rights to your e-book, you can generally sell it wherever you want and to whomever you want. But you should be aware that Amazon enforces it own special rules once you decide to join Kindle Direct Publishing Select. In that case, you have to agree that you will let Amazon be the exclusive distributor of your title. That means that you cannot legally sell it anywhere else, except if you convert the e-book into a traditional printed ink and paper book. Then you can sell it outside of Amazon. But as long as it is a digital format e-book, and you are a member of Kindle Direct Publishing Select, it can only be sold on the Amazon platform. That means that even you cannot sell it somewhere else like on your own website or blog. To read the legal fine print, visit this Amazon link.
Pricing and Royalties
Amazon’s exclusivity rules are highly controversial, and many authors and publishers think they are unfair. But many others don’t mind them because of the fringe benefits they derive from Kindle Direct Publishing Select. You’ll have to decide for yourself. But you can earn as much as 70 percent of your sales when you self-publish with Amazon. That is more than twice as much as you might earn if you sell a book on Amazon that you didn’t publish through Amazon. If you join the Kindle Direct Publishing Select program your book will also be automatically placed in the Kindle Lending Library and Kindle Unlimited…giving you additional access to readers. If people find and read your book through those portals, you can get paid a royalty based on how many pages of your book they read.
