In part three of my series of posts talking about Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) service, I discuss the rights and pricing of your book. It’s getting simpler since most of the heavy lifting is done (as far as Amazon is concerned). More on that later. By the way, if you haven’t read parts one and two yet, you might want to do so before continuing.
In general, Amazon is helpful when explaining the commonly asked questions for this section.
Verify your publishing territories
This is self-explanatory. If you’re doing everything yourself and all the content you are uploading is yours and yours alone, select worldwide rights. Otherwise choose the territories you have rights for.
Set your pricing and royalty
What this boils down to is whether you choose 35% or a 70% royalty and each have pros and cons. 35% allows for pricing between $0.99 and $200 no delivery costs and unrestricted territories, while 70% allows for pricing between $2.99 and $9.99, a delivery charge is included and territories are limited (but would likely not affect sales to a large degree).
Do some research into what other books in your category are charging and adjust accordingly. You can try the KDP Pricing Support feature to see what Amazon suggests charging. I have found this value to be too high, but you may get different results.
Kindle Matchbook
If a reader has a print version of your book (lucky reader!) before the kindle version, this allows them the option to buy the Kindle version for $2.99 or less. I’m starting with Kindle first, then possibly migrating to CreateSpace* after, so this won’t apply to me at the beginning. It is your choice whether to do this or not.
Kindle Book Lending
This allows readers to lend a Kindle book to friends and family for 14 days. A book can only be lent once per reader. I can’t imagine why anyone would not want to opt in to this program, since it gets your writing in front of more eyes. You will not receive any royalties for lent books, but added exposure, reviews, and word of mouth can result, which I think is a good thing. Think of it as loaning your paperback to a friend. If you choose the 70% royalty option, this is automatically selected. You can only opt out if you are at the 35% royalty option.
Save and publish!
You’ve gotten this far, now it’s time to get your book online. Click “Save and Publish” and within 24-48 hours, your book will be online and ready to be purchased. If you find that you have made an error in your book, or want to change your details, cover, keywords, or categories, just go through the process again. I have found that updates take about 4-5 hours for changes to go live after the first publish is successful.
That’s it, right? I hate to disappoint, but no. There are a few more optional steps you can take, including taking part in KDP Select, which I’ll cover next Thursday.
* Createspace has been retired and KDP Print has taken its place.
