In essence, Amazon KDP is a platform that allows authors to publish their own books for free and allows customers to purchase these books via the Kindle storefront.
Self-publishing has become a viable alternative to publishing through a traditional publishing company and it can be very beneficial for new and established authors.
Amazon KDP is a self-publishing platform where authors can make their books available to an exceptionally large audience for free and can earn royalties from the sales.
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The rise of self-publishing
Whilst a select few authors get the chance to have their books published by a traditional publishing house, self-publishing platforms like Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) allow authors to take this process into their own hands.
Self-publishing has the added benefits of giving authors much more creative control over what they choose to publish, and it can also speed up the turnaround time for the entire process by cutting out the middleman.
This platform is particularly effective for writers who want to take risks and also for amateur authors who see it as a means of earning a passive income.
Amazon KDP: What is it all about?
At its core, Amazon KDP is just a platform that connects aspiring authors of all different kinds with Amazon’s huge base of customers.
In fact, Amazon currently holds about 80 percent of the online eBook market in the United States and has helped over 1 million authors publish their own books.
The Amazon KDP platform allows authors to publish eBooks as well as physical copies of their books in the form of paperbacks and hardcovers, through the print-on-demand service, which prints the books as and when they are sold.
Selling a self-published book through the Amazon KDP platform is similar to selling any other product through an e-commerce site.
Essentially, authors only have to sign up for a free Amazon KDP account in order to start uploading and listing books on the platform.
The books that you upload on the platform can range from novels and book Series, to children’s books, comics, cookbooks, journals, poetry and even textbooks, which can be listed at a price which you can determine yourself.
As an added bonus, authors who self-publish through Amazon KDP get to keep the full rights to their books, which is not often the case with traditional publishers.
Since Amazon KDP is such a popular platform, competition on the platform is steep. This means that even though getting your book published is fairly simple, getting this book to sell might be more complicated.
Authors want their Amazon KDP books to be amongst the best sellers on the platform because they earn a royalty percentage on each unit sold (minus some applicable VAT, delivery and printing costs).
New and established authors are drawn to the Amazon KDP platform because of its massive, global audience.
This means that people from all around the world will be able to search for and purchase these books, and since the authors do not need to handle the printing and shipping themselves, it means a lot more sales with no additional effort.
The Amazon KDP platform also has a number of helpful tools that can assist authors who are new to self-publishing, and it does not limit the amount of books that an author can publish.
What are the costs and royalties?
Many people see publishing through Amazon KDP as a feasible passive income stream because the platform does not require authors to invest any money upfront, but still pays these authors a percentage of the list price for every unit that they sell.
The royalties for books sold through the platform are calculated using the list price of the book and are usually paid on a monthly basis.
How can customers find the books published through Amazon KDP?
Books that are published through the Amazon KDP platform can be purchased by customers all around the world via the regular Amazon Kindle e-commerce storefront.
Once customers have searched for a term or keywords through the search function on the Kindle site, they will be able to click on the Amazon KDP book that they would like to purchase.
Amazon KDP authors who enroll their books in the Amazon KDP Select program will also qualify for inclusion in the Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Lending Library programs.
If customers purchase the eBook version of a book, it will be made available to download instantly, but if they choose the paperback or hardcover versions, they will need to wait for the standard delivery period for the physical copies of the books to be delivered to them.