How to sell self published books on amazon
Publish a Book on Amazon in 2023 | How to Self-Publish Step-by-Step
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hey Chandler bolt here CEO and founder
of self publishing school and in this
video I'm gonna talk about how to self
publish a book on Amazon so for the last
few years I've written six books myself
and we've helped thousands of people
through this process at self-publishing
school and really what my goal is to
take all the lessons that we've learned
the hard way and condense them into this
video into nine simple steps for how you
can navigate the publishing process now
first things first maybe you're trying
to figure out what should I
traditionally published should I self
publish obviously this video is gonna be
all about self publishing we got a
different video and I definitely
recommend that you check that out on how
to decide should you traditionally
publish or should you self publish now
obviously you're here you're self
publishing and more specifically you're
self publishing on Amazon so the first
step in this process is gonna be to set
up your KDP or Kindle direct publishing
account so this is what's gonna allow
you to publish your Kindle book there's
also kind of some other accounts that
you can set up through this process
through KDP print so you know this used
to be create space so you see it set up
a create space account all those things
but now you can also do that inside your
KDP account so that's the first step is
to create your Kindle direct publishing
account step number two once you've got
your book written obviously you probably
have that written um because you're at
this point of publishing now if you
don't have your book written I
definitely recommend that you check out
we've got a video it's very detailed on
how to write a book that'll help you
with that but you've got this done so
now you're ready to publish so once
you've got your book written it's
important that you come up with a title
and subtitle now your title this is very
very important and the biggest mistake
that I see people make is they go way
too broad so they don't get specific
enough the litmus test for me is does
your target reader instantly know within
two seconds what your books about if the
answer to that question is no then your
title probably isn't good or specific
enough so this is super important I'll
give you a quick example publish the
proven path from blank page to published
author you instantly understand
hopefully what this book is about right
it's about how to get your book
published and it's the proven path from
blank page so there's pain there but
there's also a benefits
so those are the two things that I
always try to touch on in my title and
subtitle is what's the pain that your
person is experiencing right now and
then what's the benefit or solution that
you have to that step number three now
that you've got a good title and
subtitle it's important that you get a
good cover now I'm amazed at how many
people will spend years writing their
book and they'll spend five minutes and
five dollars on their cover right well
you know you've probably heard the
saying don't judge a book by its cover
right don't judge a book by its cover
but we all judge a book by its cover so
you need to have a good cover now your
cover needs to do three things number
one it needs to grab attention so you
notice the contrast here you've got the
read it kind of jumps off the page
number two you're title needs to be easy
to read and it needs to be on the upper
third of your cover and then number
three again I need to instantly
understand what your books about within
two seconds there's a saying confused
people don't buy so if I don't get it
if it doesn't pop out to me then I'm not
gonna click on your book or I'm not
gonna pick up your book and buy it step
number four write a good book
description so whether it's the back of
your book if you're in physical
bookstores or it's the description on
your Amazon page this is super important
so we've got the cover we've got the
title and the purpose of that is to get
people to click into your Amazon listing
now I always say that people will stay
on your Amazon page for five seconds and
leave or they'll stay on there for a
minute and a half and buy so the whole
goal is once we get them onto your
Amazon page we want to keep them there
so they see the cover they see the title
they click into the page and then the
first thing that they see is your book
description now we've got a separate
post on how to write a great book
description definitely recommend that
you check that out but the most
important thing is you need to hook and
grab their attention from the start and
then keep them reading and keep them
intrigued about what the books about
step number five choose the right
keywords so on the back end when you're
submitting or when you're self
publishing your book on Amazon Amazon is
going to give you a handful of keywords
so they're going to give you seven
keywords that you can use so think about
that as SEO for your book so search
engine optimization now the really cool
thing about Amazon is while everyone
over here is focusing on Google I always
say that Google is a search engine
browsers Amazon is a search engine of
buyers
so there's 310 million plus people over
here whether credit card on file and
they're on Amazon for one reason and one
reason only and that's to buy stuff
right so this is way more competitive on
Google but the cool thing is on Amazon
if you target those same keywords you've
got a better chance of ranking with your
book but you got to be strategic about
picking the right keywords and making
sure that you rank for things that
people are actually searching for step
number six choose the right category so
inside the Amazon ecosystem you've
probably seen this there's a bunch of
different categories and it can go all
the way down to these obscure things
like underwater basket-weaving
or anything like that but there's all
these categories so Amazon gives you the
ability to pick two categories so what
we generally say is pick one that's
maybe slightly competitive so you can
check out the rankings of the top three
to five books in that category so so
pick one that's slightly competitive but
this super relevant and then pick one
that's also relevant but easier to rank
in now the important thing here is if
you can stay number one in a category
for as long as possible that's gonna
help with social proof so when people
land on your book page they see this a
number one bestseller in at least one
category so that's gonna help you sell
more books long term now one kind of
bonus tip here is that you actually have
the ability to get into as much as ten
categories on Amazon you just have to
ask for it so we've got a separate blog
post and this is something not a lot of
people know on but you should definitely
check out that blog post is that you
know they give you two categories but
then if you go through this process you
can request eight more so this just
increases the exposure for your book so
check out the blog post along with this
video and we'll walk you through exactly
that process and this just helps you get
more eyeballs on your book
step number seven uploading your
manuscript so this is a step in the
process of actually uploading your book
to KDP or the kindle direct publishing
and you're gonna upload your manuscript
you're gonna upload your cover you're
gonna upload things like that but once
you upload the book that's gonna be one
of the steps to help you publish step
number eight price your book to sell so
there's kind of a couple different
options that you have if you're going
kindle you'll probably notice that
you're gonna make more in roll teas so I
think it's about seven
percent on royalties if you price your
book between $2.99 and $9.99 and then
you're gonna make a lower royalty if you
price your book between 99 cents and
$2.99 so I would recommend that you
price your book between $2.99 and $9.99
for Kindle and then if it's the print
book you're gonna want to price your
book you know obviously this is
depending or is this on the trim size
what's the size of your book how what's
the word count how many pages are you
going black-and-white all those things
so that's going to kind of determine
that economics of how can you be
profitable on a per book
basis but typically print books are
priced between 10 99 on the very low end
to $17.99 so you want to make sure that
you're pricing your book to sell and one
of the biggest things I recommend here
is you actually do some research on the
books in your category and on books that
are like yours so that she can make sure
you price it to sell and then also when
you're going through this process you
can submit and sell your book
internationally so you want to click
those other countries and make sure that
you're pricing it accordingly per
country step number nine and the final
step is the press publish now this is
simple but also terrifying if you've
ever been there you know that you've got
everything uploaded you know you've got
all the settings you want to make sure
that your settings are right and then
you just hovering over that publish
button and so it's time to actually
press that publish button and launch so
you're gonna publish the book but really
you're gonna publish it when you're
ready to launch so make sure that you've
got launch efforts lined up and you've
got a strategic process that you're
following during launch week now we've
got a separate video all about how to
successfully launch a book definitely
recommend that you check out that video
because this is the point in that
process where you don't press the
publish button if you don't know what
you're gonna do next right because your
books gonna go live so you're gonna
waste time on hot new releases and stuff
like that and you're gonna just kill the
momentum of your book so there you have
it those are the nine steps on how to
self publish your book on Amazon I hope
that you found this video helpful we've
got two really helpful resources that
are gonna help you with your next step
so number one you can get a free copy of
my book published we're giving away
copies of this book all you have to do
is cover shipping and handling so you
can click the link along with this video
grab a copy of this book and then while
you're waiting on that
to be shipped to you check out step
number two and that's we got some free
training this is gonna be a 45 minute
training that's gonna really gonna go
into detail on how you can go from blank
page to published author in as little as
90 days so check out that training I
think you'll find it very helpful it's
gonna kind of go into further depth on
what I just talked about in this video
so click the link along with this video
and you'll be able to register for that
training now the last thing super
important comment below this video let
me know what you thought so anything I
missed here what was your biggest
takeaway or maybe what was the part of
this publishing process that you've been
through this before
which part tripped you up write any
recommendations for new authors comment
below let me know and then lastly and
maybe most importantly click subscribe
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watching this video and I'll see you in
the next one