# Amazon



## InDeathITrust (Dec 5, 2012)

What's up with their publishing? Supposedly, the writer keeps 83% of royalties on average.


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## WriterJohnB (Dec 5, 2012)

With Amazon, the writer does all the editing, formatting, cover, etc. himself, so all Amazon provides is the marketplace. Thus, they can take a smaller cut of sales.

JohnB


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## debzo (Dec 11, 2012)

Hi everyone

This is my fist post, with the exception of my introduction and this is my area of interest, so I'm glad to see there's a thread going. 

I gave up on writing longer pieces of work (i.e. books) a number of years ago after hassles with a publisher who wanted all these changes to my novel, which I didn't know how to handle (I didn't have an agent). I would have turned myself inside out to have had that book published but what happened was I lost my story in the process. Amazon now puts the power back in the hands of the writer, where I believe it belongs, and so I'm going to have another crack at doing what I always believed I would do with my life. 

I'm only just starting out and I'd love to hear some experiences of self-pusblishing for kindle? 

Kind Regards

Deb


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## swhibs123 (Dec 12, 2012)

It should be noted that Amazon has a marketplace, where anyone can upload material for sale, and they also have traditional publishing arms where they produce books the exact same way as other publishers. What you guys seem to be talking about is not using amazon as a publisher, but rather self publishing and using amazon as your marketplace.


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## WriterJohnB (Dec 12, 2012)

Amazon does allow authors to self-publish with free service for print (Createspace) or ebook (Kindle). They also have some promotional services. The author doesn't pay for anything until he orders a proof, usually under $10 including shipping. There are for-pay services also for those who need help with editing, cover, or other aid, but I've published several books without help. They also provide free ISBN numbers, although the author can purchase an ISBN that lists him as the publisher. Nowhere in the book will you find mention of Amazon being the printer. If you try their services and don't like it, you don't have to list your book and it won't cost you anything. I'm extremely satisfied with them.


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## InDeathITrust (Jan 22, 2013)

so the 83% legit, awesome. now how do i go about it? is it like any other publisher where i send a letter first?


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## movieman (Jan 22, 2013)

InDeathITrust said:


> so the 83% legit, awesome.



No, I'm afraid.

Amazon pay 35% royalties on e-book sales priced from $0.99 to $2.98 or above $9.99, or e-book sales in countries where they don't have an Amazon store. They pay 70% on e-book sales from $2.99 to $9.99 in countries where they do have a store (I think India is an odd one out and may only pay 35%).

Createspace is Amazon's print side, and royalties there depend on the price you set. I think I get about $3 on a $12.99 paperback.



> now how do i go about it? is it like any other publisher where i send a letter first?



There are two sides to Amazon, the publisher and the self-publishing. I'm not sure how you get published by Amazon other than by being a successful self-publisher who sells a lot of books. For e-book self-publishing you open an account on kdp.amazon.com (I think), then upload the book text and cover and their system converts it to an e-book and sets up a page on their site.

Similarly, for Createspace you upload a .PDF file of the print book interior and a .PDF of the cover and they turn that into a print book which you can choose to make available on Amazon for anyone to buy. You can also pay $25 or so and they'll make it available for book stores to order. You can either approve the proof online, or order a discounted copy, but you should actually get a print copy of at least the first book you release to ensure it's not a complete disaster; print is harder to format than e-books and the covers look different when printed.


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## InDeathITrust (Jan 22, 2013)

Between WriterJohnB and movieman i'm still left with a can of mixed nuts like I did going through reviews.


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## movieman (Jan 22, 2013)

My advice: write a short story at least 4000 words long so it will reach the minimum page requirements for Createspace, create a cover with a $2 stock image,  then self-publish it through KDP and Creatspace (using a pseudonym if you don't want it linked to you for posterity). After that, you'll have learned all the ins and outs of self-publishing through Amazon and can decide whether you want to do it again in the future.

And you might make coffee money every month if the story is any good.


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## Charlie (Jan 23, 2013)

Hi Death,

I don't do anything with print books, but my company turns print books and typical word processing .doc and .odt files etc. into eBooks, so I deal with a lot of self-published people daily. Some are very successful financially while others are lucky to break even. A lot of it depends on marketing strategy and writing a good book in a genre that sells well. The good thing about it is that writing is one of the cheaper hobbies there is. If you publish digital only (Kindle Nook, Kobo etc.), it cost nothing providing you can navigate the obstacle course of proofing and editing your own books, can figure out the process of making Mobi and ePub files, and can manage to make a cover that looks reasonably good. Then you need only upload it to Amazon, B&N, and Kobo. Those three vendors cover about 90% of the market, and all are free to upload and sell eBooks with.

Worst case scenario is that you find it too difficult to do everything yourself (or too time consuming and you'd rather spend your time writing!) and need help with the cover, editing, or making the eBook files. That's still fairly inexpensive to have done. You can find people to make a cover for less than a hundred bucks. I charge 90 to $120 to turn a manuscript for a novel into an eBook depending on size, and editing will cost you considerably more. (But in my opinion, GOOD writers can usually do their own editing just fine.) So let's say you spend 150 to $200 total for the cover and the eBook formatting. That's still one heck of a cheap hobby that has the potential for a big return. I know guys who have spent $100,000 on stock cars, tires, and travel who have never won a race. I know a ton of musicians who have spent tens of thousands of dollars on instruments, PA equipment, and recording gear who have never come close to breaking even. $200 for a book is one heck of a cheap hobby! And you might just make tens of thousands with one good book. People do it all the time. And self-publishing is the future.


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## movieman (Jan 23, 2013)

Charlie said:


> Then you need only upload it to Amazon, B&N, and Kobo. Those three vendors cover about 90% of the market, and all are free to upload and sell eBooks with.



I would add Apple if you can upload there (I believe direct uploads require a Mac, so I use Smashwords). I sell about as many e-books through Apple as I do through Kobo and B&N.


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## InDeathITrust (Jan 28, 2013)

I think I'll start with the advice movieman put up about the short stories then with Charlie's in succesion. Seems like familiarizing myself to the concept before making it a fixed thing would make it a bit easier and profitable in the long run.


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## Woodroam (Jan 29, 2013)

I know a friend who had a cover made for $25, edited and formatted his eBook following free information guide from Amazon, then published his first eBook with no other costs. He gets a 70% royalty because the book is priced above $2.99. If he was under $2.99 the royalty would be 35%. His book went up for sale at Amazon in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Japan, Canada, and Brazil at the same time as the USA store. Amazon has a pretty good deal. The problem with this kind of publishing is that you're on your own in Marketing too. There are thousands of FREE eBooks flooding the market and many of them are not that good, right down to typos, misused words, poor grammar, and misspelling. There are many books available about ePublishing and marketing if you decide to go that way.


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## movieman (Jan 29, 2013)

Woodroam said:


> There are thousands of FREE eBooks flooding the market and many of them are not that good, right down to typos, misused words, poor grammar, and misspelling.



This is why free e-books aren't a big threat to writers who can spell, use words correctly and understand the basics of story structure. Of the couple of thousand I downloaded from Amazon onto my Kindle I read a few to the end and enjoyed them, but most were bad enough that I didn't get beyond the first page.


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