Is Amazon KPD Worth It?
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If you are looking to get rich quick, it is a terrible idea to become a writer. People do buy books, but often it takes many interactions with a new author before they will purchase one, even then the profit on that book will only be a few dollars at best.
Over the long run this is a viable strategy. As you publish more you will get a returning audience who will come for one book but leave with many – particularly if you group them into a ‘series’.
At time of writing, I have 12 books published on Amazon KPD, my cheapest is an eBook at $0.99USD (0.35 c profit) and most expensive is a paperback at $19.99 USD ($8 profit). Each month I receive around $200-$300USD royalties, and about half that again with connected audio books, for this I use Authors Republic as it distributes to many audio platforms.
Looking at the trends, I can see that eventually I will be able to live off my books. But that is likely to take a long time, as well as consistent pushing on social media and other avenues to gain traction.
This is really the crux of the issue. If you are a true writer and know you will be publishing for fun, for years, without expecting to live of it, then yes, KPD is worth it. What’s more, having a book under your belt is almost a must for most professionals wanting to make it big in the coaching or niche space.
Point the average person to your book on Amazon and they are impressed. As long as you have a good cover and blurb, it won’t look any different from the traditionally published options. An added benefit of KPD is that it is print to order. This means that the moment someone purchases a copy, that copy is made and automatically posted to your reader.
You make less profit per book (compared to buying in bulk), but you don’t need to risk over purchasing or deal with postage. I much prefer this option.
Another benefit is speed. A few days ago I spent two hours and wrote the 3000 word eBook, ‘Break Through Writers Block And Create Your Next Masterpiece’. Then I spent another couple of hours running it past my editor and making the appropriate changes, building the cover on Canva, and then uploading it to KPD.
All told, from conception to completion, this book took six hours (plus another four for the audio recording, editing, and uploading). At time of writing, I have sold a total of 10 copies, earning me a tidy $3.35 for my efforts. Terrible value for my time, but wat that $3.35 doesn’t capture is the long term earning potential, both of it, as well as the other books it sells. In five years, that book will still be sitting there, still earning me money. It will still be serving as an advertisement for my other books and coaching.
That is were the true value of Amazon KPD is, in the coaching space. I teach people how to write poetry, how to improve their communication skills, and how to use writing as a form of therapy. This process is deep, transformative and involves one on one work. This is where I make the most of my money, the books serve as a taster for potential clients to consider taking the next step. If they like my book, chances are they will like my coaching offerings.
In that role I also take people through the entire process, from conception, to completion, and beyond into the promotion phase of writing. My approach is to give everything away for free over time. As a part of an integrated social media strategy, I share everything. Every published poem and every published chapter, eventually get posted. Not only doe this keep the social media streams flowing, each piece serves as a mini advertisement for the entire book.
Yes, they could look through my social media and read it for free, but they don’t. People pay for the convenience of holding the book all in one place. Once they read a chapter/poem or two, they are sold.
This approach works for me and my clients, and I encourage you to try it for yourself.
Finally, I would also suggest signing up for an Amazon affiliate account. Sell your books through the link and you will get 4% of their total cart that day (and a signup bonus if they are a new client). This means that if they by your book and a TV, you also get a cut of the TV. Once again, it isn’t much, but over time it all adds up. To date, I’ve made over $1000 this way.
It takes a lot of time to build up an audience that trusts you enough to buy your book, but it can be done, it just takes time, practice, and perseverance.
If you want guidance in any aspect of the writing process, from conception, to writing, to editing, to formatting, to publishing, including with audio, reach out.
