Writing has become a lot more accessible as a hobby, a passion, and a profession. It’s not really hard to see why this is the case, given how much easier the internet has made it to create and publish content. For a lot of us, though, it can still feel quite difficult and intimidating to actually publish our works.
Why is that? Well, as you may already know, the old methods of having pieces officially published is quite…complicated. Let’s just say that a lot of it is truly about who you know, rather than the quality of the work that you create. Sites like this one offer some perspective on it if you aren’t familiar with it.
It’s no wonder that folks have tried to come up with more ways to get their work out there, right? Sure, you can try smaller magazines or indie publishers, but it’s still an uphill battle. Considering how much competition there is, unfortunately these routes are still a long shot more often than not.
What are our options, then? As you’ve probably guessed based on the title of today’s article, we’ll be discussing Amazon publishing. Specifically, how you can use the Kindle application and functions to essentially self-publish your works and get them seen by a much wider audience.
What is Kindle Direct Publishing?
Since a lot of people don’t realize that this is a thing, we’ll begin here. Kindle Direct Publishing, also known as KDP, is a way for authors to self-publish their work in an inexpensive and effective manner. With that established, let’s go ahead and get into the details more!
The Cost Involved
Let’s start with the thing everyone wonders about first – what’s the price tag? Well, you’ll probably be pretty happy to know that to publish through KDP, it’s free. Of course, there are some small caveats involved, but this is the base effective cost.
The first caveat is that for each sale that you make, Amazon will take thirty percent of the profit. This still nets you a respectable seventy percent, but it’s at least worth being aware of. Additionally, the advertising that you may or may not want to opt for will need to be paid for out of your own pocket.
Now, while you might look at resources like this https://www.cmu.edu/career/documents/industry-guides/Publishing to get an idea of what to expect out of that, it’s not necessarily required to spend boatloads of cash to get your book seen. You can utilize the other options out there such as social media campaigns and the like to get your work seen – keeping those costs down further still!
Just bear in mind that the “free” bit applies to the e-book versions of your works. There may be bigger costs incurred if you want to publish paperback or hardback editions of the novel.
Ease of Use
With the pricing issue out of the way, we can turn our attention to how user-friendly that KDP is. This may seem surprising considering that it’s a free tool, but it’s quite easy to use and figure out. There are a nice number of customization options, and the software allows for all sorts of edits to be made even once you’ve submitted the book for publishing.
Once you’ve got a book or other piece that you’re ready to publish, it’s as easy as submitting it, making any last-minute edits that you want, and then waiting the appropriate amount of time for it to be released on the Kindle and Amazon platforms. Typically, it’s about a seventy-two-hour timeframe.
What does that mean for us as the author? Well, as soon as it goes live on the platform, anyone will be able to purchase it! That can turn out to be a sizeable chunk of passive income, which is what we’re covering next.
Is it Worth Pursuing this Type of Self-Publishing?
To some readers out there, you’ve probably already guessed the answer here – it’s a resounding “yes.” However, we’d like to explain ourselves a bit further in terms of why we consider it to be worth it. After all, there aren’t that many people talking about Amazon publishing KDP outside of the specific writing niche.
The biggest reason that it’s worth your while is that you can quickly build up that passive income that we mentioned above. To say that it’s invaluable to have that type of option for these days is an understatement, really. It doesn’t require any extra energy on your part once you’ve finished writing and have published it.
From there, you can enjoy the fact that as people purchase it, you will get seventy percent of that revenue in your pocket. For the minimal investment required, the rewards are quite nice. The longer that you keep writing and producing content, the better results that you’ll notice!
In that sense, there are some time and energy costs involved. However, they really pale in comparison to most traditional “jobs” that we think of. For many of us, writing is something that we pursue because we truly enjoy it. It’s a dream to be able to commit to it full-time and know that we’ll still be able to put food on the table.
So, if you’re someone who has felt a little lost in the industry and you haven’t known where to get started with publishing, hopefully this article has been helpful for you. Although it can seem pretty intimidating to self-publish at first, programs like this one make it much easier for the authors themselves.
While you may not get instantaneous wads of cash, the passive generation of income is a benefit that’s hard to pass up. Anyone who enjoys writing and wants to share their work with the world should at least check it out, just to see if it’s something they’re interested in pursuing. You can get a taste of what the world of professional writing is like, all with very few stakes on your own end as you explore!