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1krazy4katz
Hello good people,
I have a friend who is thinking of self-publishing on Amazon. I think probably paperback. Does anyone have any advice or comments, negative or positive about the process?
I greatly appreciate any advice you would be willing to give us. Best wishes, k4k
I have a friend who is thinking of self-publishing on Amazon. I think probably paperback. Does anyone have any advice or comments, negative or positive about the process?
I greatly appreciate any advice you would be willing to give us. Best wishes, k4k
2paradoxosalpha
I have published several books using the current Amazon KDP platform for both paperbacks and ebooks, and I've found it pretty easy to use. There are some tricks to the category process (for listing in the Amazon storefront) that took me a while to figure out. Really, my only complaint is putting more coin in the pockets of the world's richest man.
3reading_fox
My friend has just started this journey she's got some thoughts I've linked to in this group before. Her blog is https://tallerbooks.com/homepage/who-are-we/ and on publishing: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-do-you-launch-new-book-alan-platt/
It's not easy!
I mean in practical terms it is. You just sign up with amazon and there you are. But if you want readers be prepared to put in a LOT of work.
Carefully consider your target audience. Do they read paperbacks? Obviously an author wants to have a physical thing to have and to give away, but I doubt that will be the majority of the readers (genre allowing). My friend above has 100 physical copies, and doubts she needs that many.
It's not easy!
I mean in practical terms it is. You just sign up with amazon and there you are. But if you want readers be prepared to put in a LOT of work.
Carefully consider your target audience. Do they read paperbacks? Obviously an author wants to have a physical thing to have and to give away, but I doubt that will be the majority of the readers (genre allowing). My friend above has 100 physical copies, and doubts she needs that many.
6paradoxosalpha
>3 reading_fox:
Using print-on-demand makes self-publishing less of a hazard this way. Authors really don't need much physical stock after initial publication. It would be easier to do e-book only, but if you want to set up on-demand paperbacks, it's just a matter of some more work getting it set up for print. My process worked the other direction: I knew I had a market for paper copies, and I did all my preliminary editorial towards that format, so I had to go back and rework a lot of details to get the e-books to look right. As anticipated, I've easily sold five times as many paper copies as digital.
Using print-on-demand makes self-publishing less of a hazard this way. Authors really don't need much physical stock after initial publication. It would be easier to do e-book only, but if you want to set up on-demand paperbacks, it's just a matter of some more work getting it set up for print. My process worked the other direction: I knew I had a market for paper copies, and I did all my preliminary editorial towards that format, so I had to go back and rework a lot of details to get the e-books to look right. As anticipated, I've easily sold five times as many paper copies as digital.
7krazy4katz
Thank you everyone! I really appreciate your responses.
k4k
k4k
8LShelby
>6 paradoxosalpha: “I've easily sold five times as many paper copies as digital.”
For me its the exact opposite. Easily five times as many digital copies.
But to be honest I didn’t expect to sell anything much at all. I was surprised when I made enough to pay for a copyeditor.
I wasn’t surprised because I thought my books were terrible and nobody would want to read them — I already was a ‘pro’ writer — I was surprised because I know that findability is a big issue. In order for someone to read your book, somehow they need to find out that it exists.
That’s a lot harder to accomplish than most self-publishing newbies realize. :(
For me its the exact opposite. Easily five times as many digital copies.
But to be honest I didn’t expect to sell anything much at all. I was surprised when I made enough to pay for a copyeditor.
I wasn’t surprised because I thought my books were terrible and nobody would want to read them — I already was a ‘pro’ writer — I was surprised because I know that findability is a big issue. In order for someone to read your book, somehow they need to find out that it exists.
That’s a lot harder to accomplish than most self-publishing newbies realize. :(
9jeffschanz
krazy4katz Agree with LShelby. Get your book out there primarily digitally. Places like Amazon gives you the option to have custom ordered paperbacks, which, YES, do actually sell. DO NOT spend cash on some printing operation. You'll have a garage full of paperbacks you can't give away.
See how your digital book does with just pushing it to your suspected target audience. Big success? Branch out and go from there. You will spend enough hard-earned money on promotion.
Also, seek out alternate ways of promoting books rather than Amazon's ad system. Haven't got a nibble that way. All my traffic has come from outside media/sources/events.
See how your digital book does with just pushing it to your suspected target audience. Big success? Branch out and go from there. You will spend enough hard-earned money on promotion.
Also, seek out alternate ways of promoting books rather than Amazon's ad system. Haven't got a nibble that way. All my traffic has come from outside media/sources/events.
