have you been thinking about
self-publishing on Amazon but you're not
sure if it's right for you well today
I'm going to discuss self-publishing on
Amazon the pros and cons in 2019 so make
sure that you stay tuned
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this is self-publishing with Dale where
you'll learn to publish books that sell
and build an unstoppable brand given the
choice if you were to be a traditionally
published or self-published author but
make the same income which would you
choose I definitely would love to hear
from you in the comments down below
times are a-changing and a lot of you
are acutely aware that the modern-day
self-publishing model versus the one
that we come to expect in the past has
greatly changed and this has really
happened more so over the past five
years than ever
whereas some people used to admit to
being a self-published indie author they
used to be vilified and often laughed
upon nowadays it's becoming more and
more of in vogue if you will and that
really has come in large part due to
Amazon allowing self-published authors
to share their works on their
marketplace but why exactly would you
self publish on Amazon there's a variety
of reasons but the main one being is
Amazon has a wide reach and it's also
growing by the year so it only makes
sense that you would partner yourself
with a large platform that can get you
exposure to a greater amount of people
than these smaller ones if you will so
let's discuss the pros and cons of
self-publishing on Amazon and this
includes publisher accessibility a lot
of you are probably already aware of the
Kindle direct publishing platform yes it
is free to upload it's free to use and
it's fairly intuitive and considering
that you can actually go and get their
free online course called KDP jumpstart
it makes it super super dead simple to
publish onto Amazon however KTP is not
the only place that you can get access
to Amazon the other ones include
the aggregates like Ingram spark draft
the digital lulu.com publish drive and
the list goes on and on the 70% royalty
now there are some exceptions to this
rule but for the most part when it comes
to publishing ebooks on the Amazon
platform
generally speaking you get a 70 percent
royalty that's not too bad
70 cents of every dollar I'll take that
all darn day long
pay checks every 60 days II I know if
you're not used to this particular
Avenue you're probably going they'll
that's a con that's a con no no no it's
60 days before I get my paycheck I want
it right away however when you're used
to being in the online space 60 days to
wait for a paychecks not terrible so I
definitely don't feel like this is a con
necessarily I can at least anticipate my
paychecks and I can start to predict
exactly what I'll be paid out another
two months in advance based on what I'm
doing right now the KDP select program
this is exclusivity on the amazon
platform by way of the kindle direct
publishing platform yes you are starting
to limit yourself
however the KDP select program does have
its benefits and it includes your having
more of a payout globally speaking and
because you're involved in a lending
program anytime somebody borrows one of
your books on the amazon platform and
they flip through it each page read
influences your best-seller rank
customer accessibility I know this is
given we know this I said this already
but I just thought we just go ahead and
revisit this because there are literally
millions of people on the Amazon
platform and they are a warm audience
that have come there to purchase your
products you could try to sell those
things by way of say Facebook or you can
go through your website but the issue is
they're kind of a cold audience versus
on Amazon they've got there while it's
open and they're ready to invest in the
products that are available on the
Amazon platform so customer
accessibility hands down one of the
nicest features when it comes to pub
on Amazon one product page for three
iterations if you've published an eBook
version a print book version and an
audiobook version of a particular book
they will go on to one product page that
way when your ideal audience is showing
up on your product listing they have a
choice to pick and choose what they
would like and part of the nice thing of
going through say Kindle direct
publishing you do have something that's
called matchbook in the event that
somebody purchases the print book
version of your publication they could
also get your ebook at a severe discount
if you choose to take part in the match
book program free advertising for your
author brand you're probably going free
advertising wait whoa whoa hold your
horses Dale I didn't understand what you
just said yeah you get free advertising
think about it this way Kindle direct
publishing aka Amazon and even the
aggregates for the most part there are
exceptions to this rule don't charge you
to upload think about that for a second
it may not cost you a dime to get your
brand more importantly your author brand
into a large marketplace now in the
event that you say oh I don't want to
publish on Amazon at least consider
putting your version of a gateway drug
over onto Amazon be it a very good
stellar publication and then take the
rest of them and fulfill them through
your website how people redirected over
there it's just a way to get your author
brand out there and you can also think
of it in this way if you're selling an
eBook version a print book version an
audiobook version you're going to get
paid for the opportunity to be in front
of your ideal audience and then you can
educate that audience about where they
can find the rest of your content and if
there is more self-published in the
authors that would know that this free
options available to us it's free think
about this years ago we had to buy a
garage full of books and
to actually get into this business and
then we would sit on these books that
nobody would in the by now we don't now
all we got to do is put together a
stellar book and people order them as
they please
whether through eBook delivery they're
downloadable audiobooks or through print
on demand print books but for all the
prose let's go ahead and address the
cons of self-publishing on Amazon the
35% royalty that they have on ebooks
it's garbage quite frankly they're
saying that they're gonna pay you 35
cents of every dollar when it comes to
your royalty payout now some of you that
have been traditionally published or are
thinking about traditionally published
deals will sometimes see way less than
that so you're probably going quit
whining Dale but quite frankly you could
get two times as much at 70% and that to
me is why I kind of I don't know 35
percent royalty
there are times I'm okay with this but
for the most part I think for 35 percent
royalties where I'm kind of going up and
that is generally speaking when it comes
to books that are under $2.99 or over
$9.99 that's outside of what is called
the Amazon sweet spot which is their
$2.99 to $9.99 for e-books the ambiguous
guidelines oh boy I can't tell you how
many comments private emails and
messages that I get from people that
have either had their account suspended
or banned or terminated what have you
the ambiguous guidelines sometimes gets
people and every now and then because
there are scammers in this business what
ends up happening is that one bad apple
ruins it for the entire bunch I've
actually even spoke with a couple of
indie authors that were in inadvertently
hit by a particular vetting process
Amazon puts in place because scam
were gaming the system these ambiguous
guidelines unfortunately and leave
something to be desired and this is why
I always tell people don't put all of
your eggs in one basket
if you're considering publishing on
Amazon awesome but exclusively
publishing on there is a recipe for
disaster always try to plan to build
that author brand beyond just Amazon
amazon's platform this is Amazon's game
it's not yours
therefore anybody that purchases your
book is purchasing it through Amazon and
they're not your customer they're
amazon's customer and in the event as i
mentioned before with the ambiguous
guidelines or if for some reason you are
a chronic line stepper or
something like that they can pull the
rug out from underneath you and then you
are left high and dry without your
customer base and one would say well if
you've got such devoted readers wouldn't
they just go along with you well that's
easier said than done if they are going
to Amazon to purchase your books chances
are likely they are not solely going
there just for you they're picking up
other books other products so in the
event that you just disappear most times
people are going well you probably
stopped publishing books in that case
that's where I say it's their customer
not yours so you need to always be
thinking about how exactly you can take
that customer and convert them into a
lifelong reader that comes along with
you regardless of the platform you
publish on risk versus reward as with
everything in life there is a bit of a
risk with a bit of a reward or a lot of
risk for a lot of reward and for those
of you out there that have spent tens of
thousands of dollars on your
self-published book or even tens of
thousands of hours on a self-published
book then you are very aware that there
is a bit of a risk and you may never see
a dime self-publishing on the Amazon
platform I hate to admit it but there
are less successful people in this
business than there are unsuccessful and
I don't want to shame anybody because
I've been in that position before and
I'm sure I could probably be in that
position again quite frankly there is a
lot of risk versus reward and this is an
ever-changing business the risks change
for one day to the next and the rewards
change from one day to the next just be
aware that it's a risky game that you're
getting into when you're self-publishing
on Amazon scammers aplenty oh my
goodness I'm sure I'll probably cover
this in a future video between falsified
page reads to keyword stuffing to fake
reviews aka review swaps you know who
you are those of you out there that are
working the system you're trying to find
those loopholes and work those things
that is the con of working in this
business but much like anything else in
any walk of life there's always going to
be one person who tries to ruin it for
everybody that one person who's going to
try to game the system that one person
that's going to try to take from you and
take from your business and there are
some people that will say this they'll
go well it's it's Amazon they can stand
to lose a few dollars remember this and
I want you to pay attention those of you
that are the scammers out there
you aren't scamming Amazon you're
scamming the audience that's purchasing
from Amazon would you do that to your
own family member because if you would
do that
remember this chances are likely that
there are other people out there they're
scamming your family and scamming your
friends so just stop doing it it's that
simple
stop trying to to justify taking from
Amazon because they have a larger deeper
pocket these ultimately you know who's
funding that real people and so let's go
ahead and we're gonna dial this all back
here for just a moment I do want to
address self-publishing on Amazon is
this something that's terrible no not by
any stretch with every Pro there's a con
and vice-versa in my opinion overall
Amazon is a great platform to publish
your content on in fact might I
recommend that you take a look at one of
my previous videos here it's about with
the KDP selected program and I give an
in-depth review and some insights on how
I feel about that program so take a look
at it I'll see you over there and that's
not all if you enroll in KDP select
amazon allows you one of two options
choose from in promotion one is Kindle
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