It is not wrong to say book readers are everywhere in the world. However, due to smartphones and online social media networking sites, book readers have decreased massively over the past few decades. But, still, there’s a tremendous amount of book readers in the world. Did you know that even Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos themselves read books as a hobby? In 2017, there were over 266 million book readers in the world. However, with the advancement in technology, people are shifting towards a digital life. That’s where Kindle Direct Publishing comes in the ground!
Today, in 2021, Amazon Kindle is the world’s leading book-selling platform, in both offline and online cases. There are now over 6 million books available on Kindle and every year Kindle sells almost 58 million books. If you’re a book author and writer and using the same old-school publishing house technique to sell your books, then this article is just written for you! According to the BBC, there are over 720 million book authors in the world. But, most of them are not aware of anything like Kindle or even self-publishing. If you’re also an author, continue reading this guide that can supercharge your whole writing career:
Publishing Houses
If we look back to the past few decades when people used to hire publishing houses to publish their books in the market. A publishing house is usually an agency that works as a middle man between an author and the market. The author submits his book, and the publishing house designs the front and back page, printing and marketing the book. The author was just responsible for the writing section, and that’s it! However, this is 2021! Today, nothing is the same as it was decades ago. Especially with the launch of Kindle, everything changed. It revolutionizes the whole world of the book publishing business.
Kindle Direct Publishing
No middle man (publishing house) works between the author and market in the Kindle Direct Publishing method. From designing the book to selling it to the customers, the author has control of everything. The author of the book writes the book on his own. He designs every element of the book. The author publishes his book on Kindle and manages all the sales by himself.
There’s no publishing house or agency involved. With this unique idea, Kindle Direct Publishing became the #1 bookselling and purchasing platform globally. Of course, when you do everything by yourself and eliminate any 3rd party, you get so many benefits. Below we’ve mentioned some of the most highlighted benefits that you’ll get in direct publishing:
Benefits of Kindle Direct Publishing
No commission: Of course, publishing houses will take a benefit from your every book sale. They will not publish and market your book for free! They earn through the commission. However, depending on the publishing house, their commission will fluctuate. But in direct publishing, you don’t need to pay any commission because then you’ll be the publisher!
Copyright owner: Depending on the publishing agency, the agency may take the copyrights from you. But most of them keep the copyrights to themselves. However, indirect publishing, you’ll own copyrights. Amazon Kindle has a strict policy against copyrights, and they’ve mentioned.
“Neither Amazon nor Kindle will own the copyrights of any book. The sellers will own and hold the complete copyrights of every book they sell.”
Reach out to a digital audience: Through Kindle, you can easily reach your digital audience. There is a large number of readers who use Kindle to read their books. With Kindle, you’ll get an opportunity to reach out to those digital readers.
There are many other benefits of using Kindle Direct Publishing for your book that you’ll see once you ride on it!
Why Choose Amazon Kindle for Direct Publishing?
Source: Selfpublishing.com
You might wonder why you should go only with Amazon’s Kindle for direct publishing your book? Because there are many other platforms such as Apple’s iBook, Kobo, CreateSpace, and IngramSpark, then why only Kindle? According to statistics, the Kindle platform covers 80% of eBook shares, and in 2013, it’s the #1 platform for buying and selling eBooks.
We’re not just calling it #1 in terms of monthly traffic. But if we talk about the eBooks database, annual sales, and annual profits, Kindle is doing #1 in all of these areas. There are over 150k books sold on Kindle each day, so it might be a better choice to start your direct publishing on Kindle. Moreover, Amazon owns the Kindle, and people have a blind trust in Amazon in terms of payment and scam protection. All these stats make the Kindle Direct Publishing best for self-publishers!
Getting Started with Kindle Direct Publishing
Now that you get everything about Amazon Kindle and Direct Publishing, some authors will still decide to go with an old-school publishing house for publishing their book. Most of the book authors are not very techy people. Even book writers are far from technology. Many of them don’t want to see the change!
Believe us, you’re are missing a great chance. There are already millions of authors working on Kindle and publishing their books on their own. So why can’t you? It’s the best method to get rid of publishing houses and start everything on your own. If you don’t know how to get started on Kindle? We’re here for you, and below is the complete guide on how to get started on Amazon Kindle.
Write Your eBook, Not Physical Book.
The very first thing you’ve to do is to write your eBook, of course. We know it sounds obvious, but here you’re going to publish an eBook and not a physically printed book. That’s why it’s better to write your eBook in a digital form. Such as Google Docs, WP Office, or if you need a more advanced version, you can purchase Office 365. Many writers made a mistake by writing their full eBook through a physical pen. We’re not saying it’s the wrong method, but why waste your efforts when you have a better choice? In the case of niches, you can choose any place you want. We highly recommend you write on the slot in which the audience is interested or the trending niche. In this way, you can increase the chances of your sales and surely get higher sales.
Design the Graphics
You own the book, and you’re the self-publisher. So, of course, from writing to publishing, you’ll have to handle everything on your own. In Kindle Direct Publishing, the most challenging and most expensive part is the designing of your book. Such as the front, back, and landing pages of your book. We know most of the authors are not professional graphic designers. Yes, you can design the book yourself, only if you’re a professional graphic designer. For that purpose, you need to hire a freelance graphic designer to do this task for you. Also, there are some agencies that you can hire, but we believe they will cost you much higher than a freelancer from any marketplace. For this task, we’ll suggest you hire on Fiverr. This platform is ideal for short time projects and provides authentic sellers.
Set up Your Profile on Kindle Direct Publishing
The most important thing you’ll have to do here is to sign up for your Kindle Direct Publishing. Without signing up on KDP, you can’t sell any book on your Kindle Direct Publishing account. Below we’ve mentioned a step-by-step guide on setting up your account and profile on KDP:
Sing Up on KDP
First of all, you have to do is to visit https://kdp.amazon.com/ and sign up there. You can create a new account through your email address or either use your existing Amazon account. During the sign-up process, you’ll need to enter a few basic details such as password, security question, and phone number. After creating the account, the system will redirect you to the page same as mentioned above. From there, click on “Update Now“. On the next page, you will be asked to fill out the tax information. Note that without filling the tax form, you can’t publish and sell your eBook on Kindle. After doing that, your account is now ready to use!
Upload Your eBook
Now, the system will send your account for approval that will take no longer than 24 hours typically on working days. Once your account is approved and ready, you’ll need to upload your eBook on Kindle Direct Publishing. However, it’s not just like simply drag & drop the PDF file and you’re done. There are many other things that you’ll see once you click on the “+ Kindle eBook” button. Below we’ve added the snap of that page and explained some important terms that Kindle will ask you:
#1 Book Title
Your book title is Amazon’s first indication as to what your book is about. Consider an attention-grabbing, benefit-driven, result-driven, or keyword-specific title. Suppose, you search for a product on Amazon, you get SEPRs of some products. That blue highlighted text in Amazon’s product is the Title. In short, the book title is the name of your book. So make sure that you write the accurate book title and don’t spam the system by writing the wrong book title.
#2 Book Cover
When choosing a book cover, make sure to choose images that convey the overall message of your book. Be mindful that your book cover needs to be legible, eye-catching, and engaging both as a thumbnail and regular size.
#3 Book Description
If your book is nonfiction your book description should read like a sales copy. If you write fiction, share a quick synopsis of your plot and characters. Always include a call to action (e.g., click to download)!
#4 Keywords/Categories
Use amazon’s search feature to discover the keywords buyers are using to find books just like yours! Choose keywords and categories that relate to the content of your book!
#5 Pricing
A book priced too low may make readers feel like there isn’t any value being offered, while a book priced too high may price you right out of the competition. Research to determine the price!
Few Things To Consider While Working on Kindle Direct Publishing
We’re pretty sure, if you consider these two tips while selling on Kindle, you’ll not face any kind of failures or anything like that. After searching a lot and asking from the experience of other sellers on Kindle, below are these 2 tips:
Don’t Follow “Don’t judge a book by its cover”
We know you might have heard the quote “Don’t judge a book by its cover“. This quote is true unless it happens in the real world. In the real world, things have completely changed! We, humans, are graphical creatures and our mind is highly attractive to visual images. It is because our brain doesn’t require much energy to understand visuals and our brain only requires 13-80 milliseconds to understand and process the image. If you place a written content and visual content side-by-side, we’re 99.3% sure you’ll look first at the visual content and then the written content. That’s why it’s important to make your book cover as beautiful and professional as you can!
Put Informative and Helpful Content
Of course, your readers are buying your book to gain something informative and content that increases their knowledge. You’re going to sell on an online marketplace, right? It means, there will also be a review system. Your buyers will review your eBook on the Kindle platform that other future buyers can see. Believe us, if you get good reviews (4.8+ with at least 50+ reviews), it can boost your sales up to 70%. Whereas, bad reviews on your eBook will result in the opposite thing. That’s why it is important to make your eBook useful and informative as much as you can to get good reviews!
Conclusion
Amazon Kindle is today the world’s leading online eBook selling platform. Even this platform has beat all the records of physical books selling stores as well. Want to know why Kindle is popular? It is because Amazon Kindle offers Kindle Direct Publishing that allows the authors to do publishing and selling of their books on their own. But most of the authors even don’t know what the heck is KDP. That’s why in this article, we’ve written this ultimate guide on everything you need to know about Kindle Direct Publishing.
