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Choosing the 70% option will only remain in this bracket in certain regions, whereas the 35% bracket has no restrictions and you can earn this royalty in every country where you own the rights. The two royalty brackets are more complicated though. Prices below $2.99, as tempting as it may seem to a new publisher who wishes to get their name out there, are a bad idea.Īmazon changes its commission structure for authors who overprice or undervalue their work when they take 65% commission and leave you with 35% royalties. Books that are priced between $2.99 and $9.99 are top-notch in this algorithm.Īmazon takes 30% commission and gives you a whopping 70% of retail. The costs involved will be determined by your pricing as soon as you upload your book via the KDP platform. The world has moved on and people have virtual libraries now, rather than a bookshelf stacked with paperbacks and hardcovers. Most authors will gather the majority of their revenue through Kindle purchases. Amazon and Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform work hand in hand to bring you a simple and cost-effective method of telling your story. eBooksĪmazon offers us a pretty standard and sweet deal like no other. The Nitty Gritty Costs Involved With Self-Publishing on AmazonĪmazon offers us various options to choose from when publishing and we can start our pricing conundrum by knowing which costs we incur and how we benefit from each package. Amazon is the number one book resource in the world and is available in nearly every country.There’s no hidden agendas and smokescreens to fool us.You can continue to sell and market your book on other platforms.It’s profitable and you maintain the rights to your work.There are countless advantages of self-publishing and I’ll mention the five that matter the most to me: The Advantages of Self-Publishing on Amazon The experts at TUW are here to guide you on all the Amazon self-publishing costing and pricing to make sure your book sells. There’s no need to sell your beloved dog on the black market to pay for people having the privilege of reading the book you wrote. The beauty is that Amazon has made publishing easy and accessible to everyone. So, you’ve done the right thing and put it on paper (or a computer to be exact). You woke up one day and realized you have a story to tell. Now I get to help new authors steer clear of the disaster that befell me and use the power of Amazon to promote themselves.Įverything You Need to Know About the Costs I became part of the largest, expert players in the field of self-publishing when I was taken in and trained by The Urban Writers (TUW). Kudos to you for being a new author who has the right stuff. The good news is you’re not as ignorant and naive as I was because you’re doing the research that modern people should. I don’t want you to experience the same thing I did. I signed my rights away and have no power to take it back or change the price. My heart breaks every time I see my book without reviews, simply wallowing in the black hole of nothingness. The worst of all is that my book is sitting on Amazon at a price that even I wouldn’t pay. They haven’t bothered to promote the book and it became lost in the vast world of available reads. I sold my book to the devil, never mind a shark. I ended up giving my book to a company that would give me 15% royalties and owns the first 5,000 copies in lieu of printing costs. Unfortunately, I didn’t use the easily accessible internet to find other options like a normal person would. The sacrifice of my soul wasn’t enough and they only promised me 25% of future sales. I still had to pay ridiculous commissions on top of this. This might not seem like Mount Kilimanjaro, but I assure you that this was only the cost to get started. Figures ranged madly but the average was well over $2,000 from publishers that didn’t even leave a stain on the map. Suddenly, I felt like I had to sell my soul and those of my kids, spouse, and even my dog just to cover the costs. The quotes started pouring in and I was shocked with the requests! This publisher was prepared to take my book, but they wanted me to pay for publishing costs upfront. It was only two weeks before the first shark came at me head-first. I emailed publishers all over the world with a manuscript, hoping to get a response. I needed people to read my story and listen to my advice. I was in your position a few years back and I was impatient to get my book out there. New writers must take a step back and consider Amazon’s self-publishing cost and pricing before they allow these predators to grab hold of them. However, they don’t realize there’s a bunch of sharks waiting out there, waiting to snatch them. It’s understandable when the authors want to rush into the next step. The excitement alone can make your world spin around as you read it once more. Finishing your first book leaves you feeling like you’ve finally arrived at the center stage.
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