Publishing an E-book on Kindle Direct Publishing

While anyone can write about the importance of publishing a book, there is another growing area that many writers overlook until after they publish a book.  This is the e-book- an entirely different format that most writer aren’t used to.  This format is the Kindle, or e-book format, and like it or not, it is changing the publishing world because of the ease a writer, and reader have access to the industry.

It was once a long process to have a book in the hands of a reader and if you were self-published, it was even harder. With KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) this all changed. It takes some simple coding and some basic HTML knowledge to format the book correctly, but for 99 cents, a person can find and buy your book, and it’s there and easy to find. With self-publishing, a book sold is one more network you have grown.

That is what writing and publishing a book is all about, and one of the basic things you can take from writing a blog, you can use on a Kindle e-book.  There are some general rules which they ask you to follow, but for the most part it’s a lot easier to sell an e-book online than it is to sell a paperback book.  If a person doesn’t like it, they have spent considerably less than if they had purchased a real book.

At one point, it was harder to self-publish, and at one point, it was painful to learn the HMTL needed, but people were successful and as word of mouth spread, more self-published authors decided to give Kindle a try.

Publishing an e-book on Kindle Direct Publishing is easier than it used to be.

It is still the same as publishing, but it is a different format and one which is starting to dominate the readers of the world.  Some publishers argue that e-books might hinder a writer to make a profit with their writing because you end up with two formats- a paperback and an e-book.  Marketed right, though, there is a place for both.

Publishing an e-book is easy and quick, and given that Amazon has its own e-book reader, publishing your work in a digital form is an important part of building your readership.  Some readers simply do not like to have a physical book in their hands.

Publishers want to make a profit, and Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing offers them another means to achieve that, and in this case the focus is on self-publishers. Many people also want to self-publish their work, and the e-book format offers them the chance to earn money faster.  The royalty rates are clear and they are fair.  The lower you sell your book the lower the royalty rate, but the more sales. The higher the price of your book the inverse is true.

Publishing an e-book on Kindle is simple, if you understand basic formatting, or you can have someone format it for you.  (This is the method I chose since I am not as technologically inclined with anything, and that includes a lot of HTML.  My book was already out in paperback format, but having an e-book available for Kindle allowed more people to see it.)  If you have the means to have another person format it, then it’s money well spent, as your e-book will look more professional.

Once you’ve checked to make certain that the preview looks good, it is always best to decide upon a price. (If you are a self-publisher this is easy, Kindle shows you the royalty choices, and shows you exactly how much you will learn based on the price of your book.) I decided to sell my e-book for $2.99 for a while, but now sell it at 99 cents, due to the age and the factor it’s in a niche market, I am dealing with village life in Transylvania, Romania before and during World War Two.  The profit is not as good, but the sales have improved.  This is all about learning and networking.  The more people read the book, the more likely it is that I’ll have better sales of the next book I publish.

This is one cost of publishing, but it is one that should be carefully considered since publishing an e-book on Kindle means more of a chance to have your book seen by others.  The more people see it, the more likely they will be to purchase another one of your books.  The key to success in the Kindle Direct World, is not how much you know, but rather how well and how effectively you can market your book to a larger audience.

If you have Twitter and Facebook it is only the beginning of the journey it takes to create money publishing your book.