How To Publish Books on Amazon Kindle and Make Money

Table of Contents

Introduction.

Self-publishing on Amazon Kindle has become a popular way for aspiring authors to get their work out into the world and make money.

With Amazon Kindle, you can self-publish your book and have it available to millions of readers worldwide.

Amazon has made the process of self-publishing easy, and it’s possible to publish your book on Kindle in just a few steps.

In this article, we’ll take a look at how to publish books on Amazon Kindle and make money from your writing.

Whether you’re an experienced author or just starting, self-publishing on Amazon Kindle can be a great way to share your work with the world and potentially make a living from your writing.

What is Amazon Kindle Publishing?

Amazon Kindle Publishing is a platform that allows authors to self-publish their books as digital eBooks and sell them on Amazon’s Kindle Store.

With Amazon Kindle Publishing, authors can upload their manuscripts in a variety of digital formats and have them available for purchase on Amazon’s platform.

This allows authors to bypass traditional publishing channels and get their work in front of readers around the world.

Amazon Kindle Publishing also offers tools to help authors with book formatting, cover design, and pricing options.

The platform is free to use, and authors can earn royalties on every sale of their book. Amazon Kindle Publishing has become a popular way for authors to share their work and reach a wide audience while retaining control over their content and profits.

Why Should I Publish Books On Amazon Kindle?

As an author, you may be wondering why you should publish your books on Amazon Kindle. After all, there are other platforms available, and traditional publishing channels still exist.

However, publishing on Amazon Kindle offers several advantages that can help you reach a wider audience and potentially make more money from your writing.

Here are some reasons why you should consider publishing your books on Amazon Kindle:

1. Reach a global audience.

Amazon Kindle has a massive audience that spans the globe. By publishing your book on Kindle, you can make it available to readers in the United States, Europe, Asia, and beyond.

This can help you reach a wider audience than you would through traditional publishing channels.

2. Control over your content.

When you publish on Amazon Kindle, you retain complete control over your content. You can make changes to your book at any time, adjust the price, and choose how it’s distributed.

This level of control can be empowering for authors who want to have a say in how their work is presented to readers.

3. Higher royalties.

Amazon Kindle offers higher royalty rates than traditional publishers. Authors can earn up to 70% royalties on their book sales, compared to the 10-15% offered by traditional publishers.

This means that you can potentially make more money from your writing by publishing on Kindle.

4. Faster time to market.

Publishing on Amazon Kindle is fast and straightforward. You can upload your manuscript and cover, set your price, and have your book available for purchase in as little as 24 hours.

This means that you can get your work in front of readers quickly and start earning royalties right away.

5. Tools and resources.

Amazon Kindle offers a range of tools and resources to help authors with book formatting, cover design, and marketing.

These resources can be incredibly helpful for new authors who are just starting in the publishing world.

6. Amazon dominates the eBook industry.

Amazon owns a large chunk of the eBook industry with 80% of the market share and still growing. It started initially as an eBook store and later became an eCommerce store that sells anything but still chooses to retain its initial value proposition.

You’d want to leverage its vast customer base by having your book available on its platform.

7. Amazon Shares revenue with you.

Amazon Kindle publishing offers 35%-75% royalty on net revenues, compared to traditional publishers who provide only 15%-20%; I think it’s a massive gap for something you do without a middleman.

All you need do is upload the soft copy of your eBook on the Amazon Kindle publishing platform, with a click of a few buttons, and that settles it.

8. The Kindle Store has a lifetime shelf-life.

The downside of running a physical bookshop is that it has a limited shelf-life. On the other hand, Amazon Kindle is a cloud-based service that gives you a lifetime.

9. Amazon promotes your book for you.

When going through a traditional publishing route, you need to take care of promotion yourself. This includes hosting a book launch with many unneeded guests, which sometimes can be expensive for starters.

Going through the accessible Amazon routes makes it easy to publish books without worrying about promotion.

Amazon does all of these on your behalf, using various means such as Search engine optimization, getting listed on the Amazon recommendation page, etc.

How Do I Self-Publish Books on Amazon Kindle?

Amazon started as an online bookstore, and, building on those roots, it never deviated. Unlike a traditional book publisher, though, where you need to convince an editor to offer you a contract to get a book published, anyone can self-publish a book on Amazon without any hassle.

If you want to self-publish a book on Amazon kindle and make money without any interference, then this section will show you how you can get started with the process.

1. Decide and write the Best Book to Publish.

The next step is to decide what to publish; not all books do well on Amazon. To write a great ebook to sell on Amazon or your website, you first have to pick a book idea that you are passionate about and understand your target audience.

Writing a book is rewarding, but it requires hard work. It requires emotional labour, long nights, extended weekends, and facing a constant self-critical process.

To simplify this process, I wrote a comprehensive guide on this blog to help you create your first eBook.

How To Write an E-Book and Make Money

2. Choose Your Desired Format.

Amazon Kindle publishing is not only restricted to PDF files only, as there are various other formats that you can decide to publish your books.

1. Kindle books.

Kindle Unlimited is a service that allows you to read as much as you want, choosing from over 2 million titles, millions of audiobooks, and up to three select magazine subscriptions.

Explore new authors, books, and genres, from mysteries and romance to sci-fi. You can read on any device. It’s available for $9.99 a month, and you can cancel anytime.

2. Paperback Books.

There’s still a considerable demand for paperback books. Especially for children’s books, parents would prefer to buy physical books for their young children to reduce their screen time.

As a self-publisher, you can decide to create a paperback version as many readers still read physical books.

You can use a print-on-demand service provided by CreateSpace (Amazon’s sister company) or Amazon itself. It will only take you extra few minutes to set up your paperback on Amazon once you’ve got the file ready.

Plus, you can charge higher prices selling physical books, and thus you’ll earn more royalties here than your KDP royalties.

3. Audio Books

Creating an audiobook is another excellent way to generate more money on the Amazon Kindle publishing platform.

You can hire narrators to produce your book on Audiobook Creation Exchange ACX (Amazon sister company) or use Fiverr to do that. Then, your audiobooks will be distributed to Amazon and Audible.

4. Hardcover Books.

Using the three methods above would be more challenging to self-publish hardcover books.

But you can still make a good earning by adding a hardcover option to your book. Since CreateSpace doesn’t print on-demand hardcover books, you’ll need to use a third-party service like Lulu.

You can then request Lulu to make your hardcover books available on the Kindle store. The bottom line is that you can leverage these three available formats to generate more value and boost your commission.

3. Get an Amazon Kindle Account.

Now that you have finished writing your book, it’s time to get it on Amazon, and to do that; you need an Amazon Kindle account which requires that you create an account on Amazon. You can visit the Amazon kindle publishing link as described below to get started.

TRY IT NOW – AmazonKDP.

4. Fill Out Personal Information.

After signing up, you would be asked to input personal details; payment information fills in our tax information.

You would be filled in these sections starting from your details which entail country, full name, address, city, postcode and region. Next in line is the section that allows you to fill out your payment information.

This section enables you to fill out payout information that allows you to receive payment from anywhere worldwide by adding your bank account details.

Mind you that this option is not available to every country; if your country is not supported, you are free to use other options like Payoneer to create an offshore account that can be used to accept payments.

Finally, you would be asked to fill out your tax information called W-8BEN (Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding and Reporting (Individuals)).

A completed and signed W-8BEN is required for all reportable tax transactions made to a Nonresident of the United States. Depending on your residential status in the US, you can decide to fill out this tax form accordingly.

5. Upload and Publish Books.

Now it’s time to get your hands dirty, and self-publish your first book. Amazon Kindle Publishing has simplified getting your book published by allowing anyone to upload with a few clicks.

All you need do is choose your desired format, as stated above. Next up is the section where you must fill in three parts of publishing your book, namely, Kindle ebook details, Kindle eBook content, and Kindle ebook pricing.

6. Start Promoting Your Books.

Congratulations on conquering the long time-consuming process of writing a thrilling E-book. I know how it feels to spend countless days and nights trying to pass a message; you even heard about Amazon Kindle Publishing and decided to give it a trial.

You created an Amazon Kindle Publishing account, filled out personal details and uploaded your book for publishing.

You don’t have to leave it that way because no one is going to find it unless you put it out there, and this calls for the implementation of various marketing strategies as stated in the section below.

1. Use Amazon Ads.

Amazon ads work similarly to how Google search ads work; when you type in a keyword in the Amazon search box and results appear, some of the top results will be sponsored posts – these are considered Amazon ads.

They are denoted with a “sponsored” or “ad” tag attached to the object card. Another reason to advertise on Amazon is that if you are doing Amazon PPC, your organic Amazon rankings will likely improve, making more people get to see your product or offers.

2. SEO.

Search engine optimization is getting your website to rank on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing and many more.

It involves determining the best keywords and phrases your target audience uses when looking for products or services like yours, and then working towards ranking well for those searches.

SEO can help you boost your credibility, earn more traffic, and improve your online visibility without spending a cent on ad space; beyond that, SEO is a great way to enhance the overall experience your target audience has with your brand.

One way to do this is to own a website and start creating content, get that content to rank and redirect leads to your books on Amazon.

I wrote a comprehensive guide on this blog on how to get started with Search engine optimization.

(The Beginners Guide To SEO) Learn How To Do SEO The Right Way

3. Go on YouTube.

YouTube has become a quick-to-go platform for anyone who intends to go viral. It has allowed creative content creators to go viral in a short while more than any platform.

YouTube is an online video hosting service that lets people share their videos. Businesses and individuals use YouTube to share or find videos.

YouTube is the most popular video hosting service, followed by similar services such as Vimeo, Facebook video and Flickr.

It would help if you built a following by posting genuine content about what you do; after you must have made a loyal audience, you can begin telling them about your books on Amazon.

I wrote a comprehensive guide on how to get started with YouTube. Click the link to the article below to get started.

How To Start a YouTube Channel and Make Money

4. Use Social Media.

Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are another avenue to promote your eBooks.

Social media has gone from a new idea to an absolute must for marketers quickly. There is no shortage of social media sites to share your content. On the contrary, the number of places is growing every day.

Sharing your content on the right platforms is paramount to your success. You must create accounts on the platforms your target audience uses, so they can easily connect with you.

I wrote a comprehensive guide on this blog to get you started. Click the link below to get started.

FAQ About Publishing Books on Amazon.

Here are some frequently asked questions about self-publishing books on Amazon.

1. How much does it cost to publish a book on Amazon?

It’s free to publish a book on Amazon through their online Kindle Direct Publishing platform. You pay no upfront costs.

Amazon will only take a portion of your book’s earnings to print, leaving you with 60% royalties after the book print price.

2. How do you make money posting books on Amazon?

You make money after someone purchases your book, all you need do is promote your books and get your audience to buy them.

3. How much do Amazon authors make?

A self-published author can make $10,000+ per month or more publishing their books on Amazon.

4. How much can you earn from a book on Amazon?

Amazon pays out a 35% royalty rate for books priced at $0.01-2.98 or any book over $9.99. This looks small but when multiplied by the number of buyers, then you know it’s big business.

5. Is Amazon publishing worth it?

Yes, cos it is a means of building a passive income. Self-publishing on Amazon is also worth it if you can use the clicks and views that your eBook receives to boost another venture.

Conclusion.

Publishing your books on Amazon Kindle can be a great way to reach a wider audience, retain control over your content, potentially make more money, and get your work in front of readers quickly.

If you’re considering self-publishing, Amazon Kindle is a platform worth exploring. With its vast audience and robust set of tools and resources, it can be an excellent way to get your writing out into the world.