Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) is a powerful tool that you can leverage to make an online income. In this post I'll show you exactly how to get started and how to make money from Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
Amazon KDP in it’s very simplest form, offers a way to self-publish on the Amazon platform. So that authors (or publishers) can upload books to sell on Amazon’s Kindle Store.
‘Self-publish eBooks and paperbacks for free with Kindle Direct Publishing, and reach millions of readers on Amazon’ - KDP
When it comes to quick online publishing, Amazon Kindle Publishing is the gold standard. No other online bookstore can compete. This is because:
Image credit: https://wordsrated.com/amazon-publishing-statistics/ showing KPD royalty payouts of over half a billion in 2022.
If you want to publish your book on Amazon Kindle self publishing, you'll need an Amazon KDP account. If you don't already have one, here’s how to get setup:
Step 1. Go to https://kdp.amazon.com
Step 2. Once your account has been set up then you can add other account information such as payment methods and tax information. From your Kindle desktop you can also choose other settings for example if you want to opt-in to Kindle Select for the best royalty rates and Amazon exclusivity.
Here are some of the costs associated with KDP publishing:
There's no doubt about it: writing is hard work. You have to spend time coming up with ideas, researching topics, and crafting your manuscript into an engaging read. Editing (to meet certain KDP publishing rules) is also an important part of the process so that you can publish to the Kindle cloud.
As with any book publishing business, you don’t need to be an author or write your books. Instead, you can hire writers (yey)! Using Ghost Writers is a normal and accepted practice for KDP publishing.
If you aren’t a writer yourself, then we recommend outsourcing the content to qualified and talented writers that can be found on platforms like https://www.scripted.com/. For around $800-$1000 you can get a well-written book and for another $200-$300 you can get it edited and ready for Amazon Kindle Publishing.
Even though your eBook might never go into print, it’s still important to create a unique and eye-catching book cover. You can find great artists on platforms like https://www.fiverr.com/ and for around $50 you can get a beautiful front cover designed to help you attract readers to your books.
There are a number of promotional options available on Amazon direct publishing, to help market and increase your book's sales. You can also consider running paid ads using Amazon Advertising. Running ads can get costly, so we recommend a low ad spend and monitoring the profits.
It can be trial and error, so monitoring your ad spend will keep things under control. To get the most out of your advertising budget you should also make use of the Amazon guides as well as consider using custom software like Helium 10.
If you haven't come across Helium 10, it's an all-in-one collection of software that does sooo much to assist many types of online businesses! If you want to know more, we cover everything Helium 10 has to offer in-depth in this article.
So, Amazon KDP gets a thumbs up as a great platform to publish and promote eBooks. There are millions of customers using the marketplace and royalties are generous. If, you have a quality book in an interest area that is in demand on KDP and you’ve created an attractive front cover, then your book stands a good chance of making money.
But, if you want to self-publish on Amazon the question still remains: What sells on KDP? What should the book be about!? Here are some considerations to help you find a good topic area for publishing on kindle:
The most effective method of knowing which topics are highly sought after is by conducting keyword research. You can do this on Amazon KDP, or any other Amazon Kindle cloud site by simply typing in topics.
You can also use Google to identify the topics people are searching for on the internet. Following trends and areas of interest may stimulate your ideas for topic areas. We think that keyword research is so important that we’ve written a separate post to dig into this further.
Amazon KDP gives you immediate income, and that's an important aspect of the business. It’s much easier to get your book up on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) than it is to set up an Amazon FBA store and start selling physical products.
Amazon KDP direct publishing is a great way to start a side hustle with low upfront costs. The KDP platform allows you to display your products for free, so it doesn't matter if you don't sell any books at all. If your book does become popular, then you start to earn royalties and Amazon takes their cut. If you want to start selling eBooks then KDP amazon self publishing is a low risk option.
That’s about it for KDP self publishing. If you're kind of scared to take a leap into Kindle online publishing, take a deep breath. In this article we’ve discussed how Kindle digital publishing can help you earn money online. As side hustles go, it's not hard to get started, and publishing on kindle is about as low risk as it gets.
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Jeremy Harrison started this blog to share his journey and encourage other ambitious solopreneurs. He shares his highs and lows from experience with Amazon KDP, affiliate marketing and eCommerce.
Amazon authorcentral KDP is an online Author Page where you can share your profile and content with your readers.
A public domain book is one that can be put into reprint and sold without the permission of the original author or publisher or content owner. This is because the work is not covered by intellectual property rights or copyright. Public domain books kindle republishing is allowed but you may have to provide proof that the work is not under intellectual property rights or copyright.
KDP Select is available to KDP members with Kindle eBooks (electronic content) and offers the best royalty fees (currently 70% for most countries). There are eligibility criteria:
Refer to the KDP Terms and Conditions for current information.
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