Amazon self-publishing: 20 advantages and disadvantages for writers.
What are the pros and cons of self-publishing on Amazon and working as a freelance writer on this global platform?
Like any other method of publishing your book, self-publishing on Amazon has advantages and disadvantages. “Book Publishing Company” Read the following advantages and drawbacks to help you make better decisions on your publishing journey:
- 10 Advantages of Self-Publishing on Amazon
- Excellent knowledge base and Amazon instructions
- Get your book published as soon as possible.
- Gaining access to worldwide book purchasers
- Keep ownership of your book rights.
- Going exclusive with Amazon comes with benefits.
- Amazon’s book pricing system is adaptable.
- Author pages and structured book metadata help with discovery.
- There are two author royalty rates to select from.
- There are many ways to sell and distribute physical copies.
- Digital eliminates stock fulfilment concerns.
Let’s look at ten reasons why it’s good for independent writers to sell their books on Amazon, and then ten reasons why it’s bad:
Excellent knowledge base and Amazon instructions
If you’ve never published a book before, it might be intimidating.
The knowledge base at Kindle Direct Publishing, on the other hand, is extensive. There include sections on book formatting, tax information for self-publishers, and other topics.
There are also several useful instructions for newcomers. See Scribe Media’s step-by-step instructions to creating an Amazon author account.
Get your book published as soon as possible.
Many independent writers chose self-publishing on Amazon over conventional publishing for one reason: to get their work to market quicker.
According to Kindle Direct Publishing, you may publish in “less than 5 minutes.” They further claim that “your book will be available in Kindle shops globally within 24-48 hours.”
It’s no secret that conventional publication is time-consuming. Getting an agency to represent your novel entails sending out query letters. It entails crossing one’s fingers for requests for partial or complete manuscripts. There may be rejections with reasons and rejections with no explanations.
Of course, self-publishing your novels on Amazon takes time as well. Perhaps not in the stated five minutes. If you’re providing writing services for a market, you should do your homework.
Yet now, novel course graduates (such as author Dr Bonnie Traymore, who we featured here) have gone from beginning to finishing a book in six months. That turnaround time is nearly unheard of in the conventional publishing industry.
Gaining access to worldwide book purchasers
The possible scope of your reach is a third advantage of self-publishing on Amazon.
Although Amazon’s market dominance has been criticized as anti-competitive (the UK’s Booksellers Association, for example, addressed the harmful effect on brick-and-mortar shops in a 2020 study), the truth remains that it provides independent writers with a speedy route to reach worldwide fans.
Although selling your books on Amazon has a learning curve, the barrier to entry is also minimal. You may also link audiobook versions of your items to print and possibly significantly increase earnings.
Keep your book rights.
Your choices determine the amount of rights you grant Amazon to sell and promote your book. Whether or not you participate in their optional KDP Select programme, which needs 90 days of exclusivity and renews until terminated.
Aside from that, the most important thing is that you pick whatever path you pursue as an independent author. In this short video, Romy Sommer, a hybrid-published author and writing instructor at Now Novel, talks about the extra benefits of being an independent author:
Going exclusive with Amazon comes with benefits.
When you self-publish, you may opt to participate in Amazon’s KDP Select programme to get specific benefits. These are some examples:
Inclusion in Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program—similar to Netflix for books, consumers have access to your works as part of a subscription package, and you are compensated based on the number of pages read.
Acceptance into Amazon’s Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (members may borrow one book per month, the royalty payment scheme being the same as KU)
The possibility of using extra promotional tools, such as limited-time discount offers, to increase sales
The possibility of getting 70% of the profit from sales in India, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan, instead of Amazon’s standard 35%.
This is not the only advantage, since the KDP Select programme has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. For example, digital exclusivity implies that you cannot sell digital versions of your books on other publishing sites.
If you have a huge email list and believe it may be a solid cash generator, consider if Amazon’s advantages are worth not being able to promote via other channels.
“Going broad” is the industry phrase for multi-channel bookselling.
Amazon’s book pricing system is adaptable.
Another advantage of self-publishing on Amazon is the ability to choose your own prices.
When producing a series, one typical book pricing technique is to make the first volume cheaper as a “lead magnet” to entice people to give your series a try.
It’s important to know that if you want to take advantage of Amazon’s 70% revenue split option (where you keep 70% minus tax and shipping costs instead of 35%), your book must be priced between $2.99 and $9.99. This has led some people to accuse Amazon of anti-competitive “price fixing.”
Author pages and structured book metadata help with discovery.
One benefit of self-publishing your book on Amazon is that it gives you ways to make it easier for the right people to find your books.
Your book’s information, which includes everything from the genre category and subcategories to the front and back page content, an ISBN number, the blurb, and plugs (review samples), may all be submitted. Each book on Amazon’s site is also assigned an ASIN number.
Of course, these discoverable aspects aren’t exclusive to Amazon’s merchant platform; numerous online retailers offer searchable databases. However, Amazon’s well-organized product data implies that if you learn, for example, how to pick the correct categories for your books, you may get additional awareness in novel ways.
Look at the Amazon pages of well-known authors like Colleen Hoover to get an idea of how to make an interesting page with relevant biographical information.
Pricing is one of the benefits and drawbacks of self-publishing on Amazon. One advantage is that you are not trapped in a single royalty rate arrangement in perpetuity.
If you price your book extremely cheap (below $2.99) or very expensive (beyond Amazon’s $9.99 barrier), you will get 35% of each transaction (after VAT and delivery cost deductions). However, as of 2022, there is a list of 37 countries where you may earn 70% of each Amazon sale (before deductions) if you meet Amazon’s standards.
Making your digital versions at least 20% cheaper than any physical copy you mention is one of them.
There are many ways to sell and distribute physical copies.
Using Amazon’s platform to self-publish your books is also helpful because there are many ways to fill physical orders.
You may use Amazon only as a marketplace and fulfil orders yourself (this includes packaging and sending orders), or you can have Amazon fulfil orders on your behalf.
Amazon provides detailed rules for their extended book distribution programme, which allows you to sell physical versions of your book to libraries and shops.
Digital eliminates stock fulfilment concerns.
Many independent writers choose digital publishing because it presents fewer logistical obstacles.
Another advantage of selling your self-published book via Amazon’s KDP platform (or any other digital platform) is that order fulfilment is handled automatically. There will be no contacting readers who bought copies like it’s 1990.
This is more crucial than ever, given the current worldwide shortages caused by the pandemic and other issues influencing global supply chains for everything from computer chips to paper. We discussed this before while discussing publication patterns for 2022. For further details visit our website Phantom Writing.