for getting your book onto the Amazon Marketplace?

Are you wondering, is Kindle Direct Publishing worth it?

Well, we're gonna discuss that in today's video,

so make sure that you stick around.

(upbeat music)

This is Self-Publishing with Dale,

where you learn to publish books that sell

and build an unstoppable brand.

Have you published on Kindle Direct Publishing?

If so, would you recommend it to others

to do so as well?

Definitely leave your thoughts inside the comments.

I'd love to hear from you.

Stick around to the end,

because I'm gonna share with you

why or why you wouldn't want to publish

through Kindle Direct Publishing.

Also, I'm gonna equip you with

just the right resources and tools to start absolutely free.

But first, what is Kindle Direct Publishing?

Kindle Direct Publishing, also known as KDP,

is a platform that self-publishers

are able to put their books up onto the Amazon Marketplace,

and this actually started back in late 2007,

but really started to flourish right around 2013 to 2014

in the big Kindle gold rush and boom.

Today, KDP fulfills e-book sales and print book sales,

but how exactly does KDP work, anyway?

Well, authors prepare their work in advance

where they'll upload it through e-books or print books

on the Kindle Direct Publishing dashboard.

It's just as simple as getting all the things dialed in.

So, you're gonna need to come with your own cover,

you're gonna need to come in

with your own manuscript that is fully formatted,

and all of your metadata.

This includes knowing your title, your subtitle,

your series name, of course, your author name,

any relevant keywords,

as well as a dialed-in book description

of what readers can expect.

Of course, keep in mind what is going to be

the price point of your particular book.

Stay with me for just a moment.

When it comes to royalty and the pricing structure,

because it gets a little hairy, so just stay with me.

We're gonna start it out at the 35% model

when it comes to e-book sales.

This is at the lower end of royalties,

and in fact,

it's probably the lowest you're gonna get anywhere

when it comes to, say, print book or audiobook.

35% isn't terrible by any stretch,

and especially if you're having

a traditionally published deal,

you may be seeing way less than that.

But to get on the 35% royalty structure,

you're staying outside of what's called the sweet spot.

The sweet spot would be anything below $2.99

and anything priced above $9.99.

Why is that?

Well, Amazon believes that the sweet spot

where they see the most sales

happens between $2.99 and $9.99.

They want to provide their customers

with the best experience possible,

and obviously set themselves

and everybody else up for victory.

So, they reward those that stay within the sweet spot

with the 70% royalty structure.

There is exceptions to the rule,

and actually,

it has a lot to do with the KDP Select program,

which we'll get to in just a moment.

Now, what if you're thinking,

well, I've seen a lot of books priced at 99 cents, Dale,

so what gives?

Are people really willing just to take 35 cents

out of every dollar for each one of their books?

Well, yes.

Sometimes that pricing is a way

that they're able to get more sales

so they can increase their rank in the bestseller ranking

of the Amazon Kindle store or whatnot.

But if you plan on pricing your e-books, say, above $9.99,

that's all well and good,

but keep in mind that at the 70% model of, say, $9.99,

you're getting about a $6.98 return.

With that being said,

you're gonna wanna make sure to get the same return

if you're gonna do 35%,

you're gonna wanna do $19.99 or greater

in order to actually match that same level

that you would have at the 70% model of $9.99.

And then there's the KDP Select program.

It's very interesting in that you have

a 90-day exclusivity agreement.

Now, you don't have to enroll your e-book

in the KDP Select program,

but there are certain benefits and advantages

that come with going into the program.

So, remember I mentioned how there are exceptions

to the 70% rule?

This means that outside of some of the primary regions,

like the US and UK,

there are a couple of regions that you only get 35%

if you're not enrolled in the KDP Select program.

By enrolling in that KDP Select program,

then you get global reach and the full 70%

of all of your sales of that particular book

as long as your book is priced between 2.99 and 9.99.

And then there is the unfair advantage

of using the KDP Select program.

Now, I say that with a smile because it's true.

You would assume that the words bestseller rank

means that it's based on sales.

This is not necessarily true,

because the KDP Select program

actually influences the bestseller rank.

So, if you have your book enrolled

in the KDP Select program,

this means you're allowing Amazon to lend your book

to members of the Kindle Unlimited program

as well as the Kindle Owner Lending Library.

In that program, they borrow the book,

they flip through it, they read it,

it's kind of like a library is.

But for every page that they read it,

it influences the ranking of your book

in its given categories in the overall Kindle Books store.

Here's the deal.

You could literally become a number one bestseller

without selling a single book.

That's why I say there's an unfair advantage.

To a certain extent,

you can call yourself a bestseller,

but it's a rather hollow victory

if you're just doing it through page flips

of the Kindle Direct Publishing select program.

If this still seems a bit ambiguous,

I assure you, stick around to the end.

I'll share just a little bit more

about the KDP Select program

and how you can find out more details.

Print books, ambiguous and unclear royalty structure.

According to KDP print,

you're getting 60% of the retail cost minus the print cost.

Bear in mind that print costs, obviously,

they're not gonna be printing the books for free,

and each one of the books' cost

is going to be based on the number of pages

that are being printed.

So, a small book, say, anything underneath 108 pages,

is going to be pretty much a static price per printing.

Anything above that,

they start to charge one to two cents per page

and it starts to take away from your bottom line.

So, you may look at, say,

60% of a payout of the retail price in the store,

but you're not getting that, ultimately,

and I typically see right about a 35% royalty

of each one of the books, sans the actual print cost.

For KDP print, you actually get distribution

to a wide array of marketplaces,

including US, UK, Germany, France, Spain,

Italy, Japan, Canada, and Australia,

keeping in mind there are smaller regions

that feed off of each one of those territories.

So, you're getting a wide, wide reach

when it comes to publishing through KDP print.

Additionally, something that was over

originally inside the CreateSpace platform

came over to the KDP print platform,

and that is expanded distribution.

Well, if you try to reach out to them

and get some direct answers,

it seems to me that not too many people are very familiar

with where exactly expanded distribution goes.

I can assure you that what I've found out so far

is that expanded distribution includes

Ingram Content Group's reach.

Now, you may recognize the name

from IngramSpark or Lightning Source,

because Ingram distributes e-books and print books.

So, they feed out to thousands and thousands and thousands

of retail distributors online.

But it does come at a cost.

Expanded distribution,

you're sacrificing 20% of that original 60% of retail cost,

so you're seeing considerably less.

In fact, it's going to be literally about a third

of your payout in expanded distribution

compared to what you get through Amazon's distribution.

Marketing and promotion.

Let's start out with the KDP Select program.

They actually have built-in features

that include the seven-day Kindle Countdown deal

that you're allowed to utilize every 90 days.

This is only available in the US and UK markets,

so essentially, what you end up doing

is you're going to put your book on sale

for a seven-day period,

or you can even make it shorter.

You can do one, two, as much as seven days.

And it has a countdown clock

that will go onto your product page,

communicating a sense of urgency.

Let's say for instance you have your book

normally at $9.99.

It can drop down to, say, 99 cents for a 24-hour period

or as much to seven days.

And it can even go in increments.

Here's the beautiful thing

when it comes to Kindle Countdown deals.

They will actually showcase your book

in a separate page, in a separate category,

and especially if your book carries a lot of sales already.

They're gonna showcase that.

I've seen many, many great Kindle Countdown deals

with some of my own books,

and they've proved to be very advantageous

to exposure for my book.

You can get hundreds and hundreds of downloads

if your book carries enough relevancy

within your given category.

And the big benefit

when it comes to utilizing the Kindle Countdown deal

is you get to maintain that 70% payout.

I love that.

It's really nice that you can drop it down to, say, 99 cents

on the Kindle Countdown deal,

and you aren't put into that 35% tier.

So, be selective when it comes

to bargain-basement pricing your book,

because you can literally take advantage

of the KDP Select program's Kindle Countdown deal

through this avenue,

as long as you keep that inside the sweet spot,

and you have to keep your price at a certain time period.

It's eluding my brain right now.

Then there's the five-day free promotion.

This was utilized a lot for many people

back in the Kindle gold rush

back in the day of 2013 to 2014.

In any event, they would use that five-day free promotion

to get their books into more hands

and get more reviews on their books.

However, there are many people out there right now

that believe that the effectiveness

of the five-day free promotion

isn't quite what it used to be.

What I would recommend is use it as a promotional tool,