Self-Publishing has changed my life and that is an understatement. It helped me get back my health, enabled me to Quit the 9-5 cycle, move across the continent to take care of my parents and spend unlimited time home schooling my kids while helping them find their passion.
Welcome to a remarkable era for writers! Gone are the days of feeling pressured to seek out a publishing house or shelling out hefty fees for vanity publishing. Today, you have the incredible freedom to choose between traditional publishing and self-publishing, with the latter requiring no up-front investment. Imagine the empowerment of selecting from a variety of self-publishing platforms tailored to your needs!
Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing
Let’s dive into an essential question: Should you take the reins and publish your own work, or should you aim to catch the eye of a traditional publisher? Many writers who have experienced both worlds lean towards self-publishing, and it’s easy to see why.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Self-publishing offers you the exhilarating opportunity to bypass the long wait for acceptance; once your book is ready, you can bring it to life on your terms. You enjoy higher royalties and complete creative control—but this comes with its own set of responsibilities. You’ll be the one managing editing, cover design, and formatting, which can feel daunting. Yet remember, with great power comes great opportunity, and you are the captain of your own literary destiny!
Choosing the Right Platform
Finding the ideal platform for your book is crucial. You can opt for multiple platforms, but choosing the right one can make all the difference in your self-publishing journey. I have stuck to KDP for almost 95% of my published work, I did attempt to go to other platforms but my best results and most of my $437,000 earnings are from Amazon’s awesome resource for independent publishers.
Popular Self-Publishing Platforms
There’s no denying that Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) reigns supreme. While it wasn’t the first player in the game—Lulu held that title just a decade ago—KDP now connects your work to countless readers. Publishing on Amazon means your book gets seen by a vast audience, and with options for Kindle eBooks, paperbacks, and hardbacks, the possibilities are nearly limitless.
KDP operates on a print-on-demand model, meaning no upfront costs for you. When your book sells, Amazon handles the logistics and delivers your book, paying you royalties in return.
Alternative Platforms
If you’d like your work to reach readers beyond Amazon, there are several alternative platforms to consider. Whether it’s Smash words, Draft2Digital, Barnes & Noble, Ingram Spark, or Apple Books, each offers unique opportunities. Some platforms, such as Draft2Digital, let you upload your manuscript once and then distribute it to multiple bookstores and libraries. Others, like Barnes & Noble, focus solely on their own retail outlets.
Spend Your Time Where It Matters Most
Filling out forms on a self-publishing platform can be time-consuming. You’ll need to craft the title, subtitle, author name, blurb, keywords, and pricing, along with uploading your manuscript and cover art. That’s why many indie publishers focus on just one or two platforms. By choosing to exclusively publish on Amazon with KDP or amalgamating it with Draft2Digital for broader distribution, you streamline your efforts and save precious time.
Understanding Royalties
What Should You Expect?
Let’s take a quick look at royalties. In traditional publishing, authors typically earn between 5 and 15 percent on their book sales. For a $20 book, that translates to a meager $1 to $3 per sale—sometimes even less.
In contrast, Amazon offers a whopping 70 percent royalty on Kindle books priced between $2.99 and $9.99, meaning you could pocket approximately $7 for every $9.99 book sold. While royalties on print books are lower due to different factors like page count and printing costs, Amazon provides a royalty calculator to help you gauge your earnings.
If we stick with our $20 example, a black ink paperback of 300 pages might net you around $7.40, with Amazon paying 60 percent royalties after printing fees. Draft2Digital offers around 45 percent of the list price of print books, also minus printing expenses.
Is It Worth the Extra Step?
You might be wondering if it’s worth the extra effort to use additional platforms when Amazon dominates the market. For many authors, the answer is yes! If you want to avoid giving Amazon exclusive rights to your Kindle titles, branching out to other platforms can be a smart move.
Consider readers who prefer shopping outside of Amazon or who may not have access to it at all. Platforms like Draft2Digital can help you reach these potential readers. While most self-published authors report that the majority of their royalties come from Amazon, the income generated from other bookstores is a valuable supplement to your earnings.
Best of all, you can reuse much of your Amazon-ready material—title, description, cover, and manuscript—making the process smoother than you might expect.
With just one extra form to fill out, you’re well on your way to expanding your reach and increasing your potential earnings!
You can certainly try out different platforms, but always stick to the biggest to begin with and once you get your publishing empire off the ground you can always experiment, but until then KDP reigns supreme, for the ease of use, great customer support and of course is the biggest market place out there for books.
Cannot wait to help you through with the rest of the publishing journey and looking forward to see you write (or get it ghost written!) and start taking the first steps towards building your publishing empire.
Thanks for giving me your attention and time. I will do my best to make sure it’s worth it. Welcome!
