We’re nearing the end of our quest… to publish our very own book. Just a few more questions to answer, and then it’s a short (approx. 12 hours or less) wait, before the money starts pouring in.
You’ll notice that the very first thing you see on the final page is: Verify your publishing territories. This is just asking you if you own the rights to publish your book worldwide… or only in specific areas (because you sold the rights already). Chances are, you’re gonna pick worldwide… and that means that Amazon is going to sell your book around the world for you.
Now we come to point in time that it’s too easy to just stare at and go WTF? The price of eBooks has long been a point of contention… and struggle. Do I price it cheap, because that’s what the consumer is expecting? Or do I go higher in price due to length and quality of work? The confusion is real. I’m going to try to break it down into simple terms to grasp… and hopefully stay away from math.
Amazon’s royalties work like this: anything from $0.99 (the lowest you can price a book) – $2.98 and $10 and up… earns you 35% The sweet spot of $2.99 – $9.99… earns you 70% of the cut.
Pretty simple, right? there’s a bit more to it than that, though. What if we take the length of your book into account? There’s no way I’m getting away with charging $3 for a 10k word short story (at least as an unknown author) And it’s an insult to set my 70k novel at 99 cents. (isn’t it?) So we have a few more factors to take into account.
Then, we talk about the correlation of sales to price. Chances are, you’re going to sell more books at a lower price point… but you’ll make more money at a higher price point. What to do?
My main question when I put up my short stories for sale was: Do I want to make money? Or do I just want to get the stories out there and get people to know about me? While I would love to make a living writing, it’s never been about the money for me. I’ve given away so many free copies of my books, I’m still surprised to make a buck or two when they do sell.
And it looks like math rears its ugly head. Here’s an example:
I price my book at $1 (thus earning me 35 cents for every sale). I sell 100 books. I’ve just earned $35
I price my book at $3 (thus earning me $2.10 for every sale). I only sell 25 books (some people are frightened of that higher price point and just won’t bite because I’m a new author) I’ve just earned $52.50
Not bad, huh? I’ve sold less books, but have almost doubled my profit. At what cost, though? I only have 25 books sold, and only 25 voices to extol (or berate) my work… only 25 possible reviews (trust me, they all aren’t going to leave reviews) instead of 4 times as many the other way.
One last thing to think about, none of these prices are set in stone. You can change them up. If you notice that your books are selling like hotcakes… bump up the price a bit. Nobody biting at $2? Pull it down to $1.50. Amazon even allows you to do a couple of special things if you signed up for the KDP Select program: A time-run discount (you can discount your book(s) for a limited time. People can see the discount and the time remaining) or a Free Book Promotion (offer your book(s) for free for a limited time)
So… after all of that talking/rambling, pick a royalty rate and price your book. It’s so much easier to allow all of the worldwide markets to reflect the same price. Amazon will convert it using that day’s exchange rate and adjust to meet any minimum required to sell.
After the long list of markets, you’re offered a chance to enroll your book in the Kindle Matchbook program. If your book is also available as a physical book, and someone has already purchased it, they will have the opportunity to purchase the Kindle version for less than 3 bucks (giving you an opportunity to make money off of someone twice).
You can also choose to enroll in the book lending program, allowing people to loan your book to family and/or friends for 14 days. (like a library, but they only get to do it once)
Check the box that says that you agree to everything and that you really do have the rights to sell this book.
Click on the Save and Publish button….. sit back… let that grin envelop your face… and wait. You have now just published your book on Amazon.
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