Once you have uploaded your acual book, set the title, description and targeting information, you will then need to let Amazon know where in the world you want to make the book available and for how much. Sounds simple, right? And it is, but there are a few things to consider before you do so.
1. Rights & Pricing
So here we are again with my Awesome new book. After hitting Save and Continue on the previous section of the book set up in KDP, you will find yourself on the Rights & Pricing page.
2. Verify Your Publishing Territories
I always simply choose Worldwide, and can see only a small number of reasons why someone would want to restrict distribution to just a particular area of the world.
3. Setting Your Price and Royalty
This is where things get a little confusing. Amazon have a page that tries to explain their pricing structure but to be honest, unless you have an accountant’s brain, it may confuse you even more.
Essentially you have two choices. You either sell cheap $0.99-$2.98 or opt to sell in the $2.99-$9.99 bracket.
- Any book priced $0.99-$2.98 will give you a 35% cut of the profits.
- Any book priced between $2.99-$9.99 will give you a whopping 70% of the royalties.
As you can see, there is a significant difference between your potential profit depending on your pricing strategy.
The best thing to do is look at similar books in your target categories and see what they are selling for. It is difficult to crash into a marketplace if your pricing is out of whack with what readers expect. Unfortunately, Amazon have set things up in a way that encourages low pricing across the board.
Obvioiusly, if you are able to price at $2.99+ and still gather sales it is a winner all round.
The $0.99 option can make make surprisingly good business sense though, especially in fiction, where there are large numbers of prolific readers. The sheer number of sales for a book that rises in the charts can outweigh less sales of a book lower in the ranks. Also, many readers are part of the Kindle Unlimited program, so a good proportion of your income may not come from sales but pagereads, and the more visible your book the better.
Pricing is strategic, and something worthy of a more complete treatment (Note to self: add this to the Dept of Awesome list). Your pricing choice will in many ways be determined by the specific book in question so there is no hard and fast rule that works across the board.
Once you decide on your strategy, choose your Royalty percentage and drop your list price in the box.
I generally set the international prices based on my US price.
4. Matchbook and Lending
Matchbook: The Kindle MatchBook program gives customers who purchase or have previously purchased your print book from Amazon the option to purchase your Kindle version for $2.99 or less. If you have a print version of this title, enroll your title and select a Promotional List Price that is lower than your Kindle List Price by at least 50%. (Prices greater than 50% of the Kindle List Price will not be available to select.)
I sometimes simply give away the digital version to print buyers, or offer it for $0.99.
Lending: Enrollment in Kindle Book Lending will allow users to lend your book after purchasing to their friends and family for a duration of 14 days.
I always allow lending. A fellow indie author said to me once, “a reader is more important than a sale”. We always need to be on the lookout for a new reader, and if current readers have the opportunity to introduce their friends to our brand it is a bonus for them, and for us.
5. You then have the opportunity to save the book as a draft for later publication, or Save and Publish.
To publish the book you will need to agree to Amazon KDP terms and acknowledge that you do indeed own the rights to the book you are publishing.
6. PUBLISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yay! You are now an indie publishing ROCKSTAR!
Once you hit publish the book will go into the process of publication to the Kindle store. It generally takes between 4-12 hours before the book is live (although sometimes it can take a little longer).
Back over on your KDP bookshelf you will be able to see the book, and it’s present status – In Review, Publishing or Live.
Go, go, indie!
