Every
writer, every author, has the want to get published at some point, to see their
work in print. To be able to look at their published work in a bookstore or
online and proudly point out "I made that" for many writers, that
dream could never come true. Maybe it was because their writing wasn't good
enough. Maybe it was because they wouldn't let the publisher rewrite half the
characters of their story and a quarter of the plot. Or maybe it was because
they thought that getting something published was so far out of reach that it
didn't really matter to try at all.
When
it comes to Kindle
Direct Publishing, or KDP, all those worries go right out the window. Why?
Because everyone may get
published with KDP. And the best part about self-publishing on KDP? It's
free. There are no upfront costs whatsoever. What's not to love about that?
Revolutionizing an Industry
KDP
has truly revolutionized the publishing industry when it comes to writers of
all genres. How? Self-publishing has always been a method for some writers
simply because they don't want to see their artistic vision ruined or their
unique concept turned on its head. In the past, self-publishing has been a
difficult proposition for success because there was no distribution arm to get
your book into bookstores. Your options were to sell it out of the trunk of
your car, have someone local peddle it for you, and have book signings in cheap
places and hope people would come out.
With
KDP, all of that is taken care of up front. Sure, you might only get to send your
books out to Kindle readers, but with free Kindle applications on internet
browsers like Google Chrome plus free Kindle apps for iPads, Android tables,
and smart phones, virtually everyone has the opportunity to read books on
Kindle, which eliminates the distribution problem that self-publishers have
faced in the past.
People
are moving toward utilizing both print and electronic book formats when it
comes to reading their books. Certainly there is nothing like the experience of
turning a physical page or experiencing what a new book smells like. But the
ease and flexibility of electronic media is difficult to ignore as it becomes
easier and easier to access it, so now is the time to take advantage of this
change in attitude if you are thinking about self-publishing.
Make More & Sell For Less When You
Publish on KDP
The
other obstacle to self-publishing
for writers has simply been the cost. There are setup fees, design fees,
consultation fees, and distribution fees if you had a self-publisher who could
get your book into bookstores, so by the time you got your book all ready to
publish in the proper format, you’re already out four figures - and that's
before you buy copies of your book to attempt to resell and at most make maybe
15% off of it.
With
KDP, an author can actually make MORE and sell their book for LESS, much less.
The base price an author can set for their book that’s published on Kindle is $2.99. Out of that $2.99, an author who qualifies for 70% commission and almost every author does, would make about $2.00 per book. Compare that to a traditional novel in the bookstore that might cost you $9.99. Out of that $9.99, an author through a traditional publisher would make around $1.00, maybe a little more. What do you think a customer is more willing to buy… the e-book for $2.99 that you can purchase and read on the go or the traditional book for $9.99 that you have to travel to go get or pay for shipping?
And
with KDP, you can simultaneously publish
on Amazon's American, British, German, Spain Italy France
Free Publishing is Good… Is There Free
Marketing Too?
So
self-publishing on Kindle is free, it's easy to do, makes sense to do for the
author because there's no upfront costs - authors are going to make a fortune
right? Well… as Lee Corso says, not so fast, my friend. Just because the
publishing is free doesn't mean you are just going to be able to sit back and
rake in commissions. People don't know about your book. People don't care about
your book. Those now become your tasks as an author - convincing people to care
and convincing people to purchase your story.
That's
easier said than done. Most authors who self-publish certainly have a core of
family and friends who would be willing to purchase the story outright, but at
most that might be 50 or maybe 100 total copies sold. How can you make that
become 1,000 copies, 10,000 copies, or even more? Especially when there are
literally millions of e-books on the Kindle website and thousands of authors
who are literally uploading their books like you did this very second?
Certainly
one marketing strategy authors may take is to promote and grow themselves on
social networking platforms. More followers means more opportunities for sales,
means more potential incoming revenue/royalties from commissions. As with
publishing on KDP this is also nice and free, meaning the only thing this is
going to cost you is time, personal effort and a lot of patience to keep
growing your influence. So you may start a dedicated Twitter, Facebook and
Youtube accounts. As your family and friends start sharing your tweets, posts
and videos about your ebooks, your amplification will start to spread, given
you have compelling messages.
Creating
and sending out press releases to various news outlets is another easy and
relatively free thing you can do, especially with the ability to e-mail them
directly to newspapers, magazines, and other forms of print media outlet. The
challenge in taking this tactic is that for many print outlets, they want to
provide content to their readers that is relevant and wants them to come back
for more. That means you've got to convince the media outlets that your product
is relevant to their readers, will be interesting enough for their readers to
want to read, and will generate continued interest in the media publication.
Not the easiest of tasks - and because you're not likely a celebrity and most
people don't know who you are, a general press release just isn't going to
work. You're going to have to spend more time and use more patience to write
tailored releases to each media outlet.
Easily Change Your Mind with KDP
One
of the issues that traditional authors and even authors who self-publish face
is that their commissions are set, even if the prices of the books are varied
by the publisher. If a book doesn't sell, oh well. With KDP, you have the
flexibility to easily change your price points, your commission percentage, and
the tags and description of your e-book. This means that if you are simply not
finding any success with your initial setup, you can keep trying new things to
garner traffic your way. You can even reduce your commission to 35% and sell
your book for just $0.99 if you think that might bring in more sales. You can
change your description tags if what you've put on just doesn't generate
results. The flexibility combined with the ability to do it for free simply
makes this a highly rewarding experience.
To Sum It Up - Everyone Can Get Published
with KDP Today
If
you are a writer, then you should be considering non-traditional publishing
forums simply because it is extremely difficult to break into the traditional
publishing world. When it comes to non-traditional publishing forums,
especially self-publishing, all of the advantages lie with a decision to
publish on KDP. That's because there is simply no monetary cost to make this
happen. You can get your e-book listed on Amazon literally tomorrow and start
earning commissions from sales of it. You earn higher commissions and can make
much more money than traditional authors per book and the only cost in all of
this to you is your time, your manual labor at promoting, and your patience as
you work on growing and amplifying your presence.
A
decision to self-publish on KDP is literally all up-side - if you're a writer,
why don't you check out the Kindle
Cash Flow system and see how by this time tomorrow, you too can be a
published author with an e-book ready to go on Amazon.
Visit
How to
Publish on Kindle to start publishing your ebooks today!
