Self-publishing a book can be a rewarding endeavor, you finally get to see your work in print and put a great deal of time and effort into getting it out to an audience, so when it does begin to sell and readers start to purchase your book, what royalties will you get?
Well, this will of course depend upon the channel you’ve used to sell your book, and for the majority of self-publishing authors, these channels are the likes of Amazon’s KDP, IngramSpark, Smashwords, Lulu, Barnes & Nobel and Draft2Digital. So, let’s look at how much you can expect to get back in royalties from your book sales from each of these popular POD services.
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Royalties for your book with KDP
Publishing a book can be an exciting and highly creative process, one which most authors feel compelled to follow, dedicating many hours of hard work and effort into every page. But aside from the creative reasons why authors write books, they still want to get paid for every copy sold. So, if you have published your book with KDP (or are about to) what royalties do they offer and what should you be aware of? Well, KDP splits the categories for print and eBook, offering different options for both, let's take a look at both of these starting with eBooks. As a self-publishing author, you will have seen many places to publish your book, the big hitters like KDP publishing and IngramSpark are the first that come to mind for many, but there are other options, and Kobo is one publishing service that you may not have considered.
So, who are Kobo Publishing? Kobo (which they took from being an anagram of the word book), is originally a Canadian company, started back in 2009, it was then acquired by Rakuten in 2012 and then purchased the eBook business from the bookstore Waterstones in 2016. Most of us understand that each edition and format of a book requires an ISBN (International Standard Book Number), this is a 13-digit number used by publishers, booksellers, libraries and retails to identify and order books with.
But where can you get an ISBN and are they free? This does depend upon your location, for the USA you can obtain ISBNs from Bowker, for the UK they are available from Nielsen, Canada’s ISBNs are available from ISBN Canada, and Australia’s ISBNs are available from Bowker Australia, for other countries go to The International ISBN Agency | International ISBN Agency (isbn-international.org). If you are publishing your book through Amazon KDP, you may have heard of Author Central, this is a service that Amazon KDP have created specifically for their self-publishing authors, it’s a platform where you can share details about yourself and your books to your readers.
Once you connect your books up to your new author central page, you’ll see the Author Home page, this page shows you the books that you have linked and allows you to add an author profile and photograph, this your readers will see when they view your details (from the link which will be by your book on Amazon’s sales page). So, you’ve spent months and possibly years on completing your manuscript, you’ve edited, proofread, edited, re-written, edited some more, and now, finally, you’ve finished it! What’s next?
Well, the obvious next stage is in publishing your book, but before you go rushing to KDP or IngramSpark, you should give some very real thought to your book cover design (strange you say, a book cover design company talking about the merits of having a professional cover...hmmmm). Of course, we’re bound to be of the opinion that having a professional cover will help your book, but whether you like it or not, people do judge a book by its cover, so ensuring that your book looks professional and grabs the attention of a reader (and in a good way), is vital to the success of your book. The back cover of your book gives you an opportunity to sell the content to a potential reader, but what elements do you need to have upon it, and why should you spend more time that you may think in getting this right? First of all, the book’s back cover is a sales opportunity for you as an author, it enables you to give a clear reason as to why the reader would want to delve into the pages within and buy your book, the message you have upon the back page will differ slightly from fiction to non-fiction, but it’s job will be the same. The Blurb Looking at fiction first of all, the back page should contain a short synopsis of your story, giving some tantalizing details where you introduce the main characters, hit the reader with a hook to make them want to find out more, set out the landscape (time and location) and be aimed at your target audience (the language you would use in a historical adult fiction novel will be different to that of a children’s book for the under 10s of course). So, you’ve self-published your book, you have a great cover design, an author website, some reviews and are shouting about it to everyone possible, but you’re still not getting the sales you were hoping for, so what do you do next?
Advertising your book should be another opportunity for you and something that many successful authors have used to their benefit, and the good news is that there are plenty of ways to do this, from free sites to paid advertising through channels like Amazon, with a little effort you can reach a bigger audience. So, here are our top places to advertise your book today: Guest post from Dean Burgess: Working from home as a writer can be a joy and a challenge. Having a productive office is key to success. The following are important aspects to focus on when setting up your workspace.
Furniture and Equipment The furniture and equipment you use during your workday have a major impact on your health and comfort level. Choose a chair that is comfortable and supportive. Make sure the lighting in the area is bright enough to prevent eye strain but not harsh or headache-inducing. An ergonomic keyboard can make long periods of typing easier on your wrists. Consider investing in a standing desk. There are numerous health benefits associated with these devices, including: In the world of self-publishing, you may have seen authors sending out ARC books and thought about doing so yourself, but what are they and what are the benefits of having ARC editions created?
Okay, ARC Books are Advance Reading Copies of your work which you will send out to a select group of readers, in return they should give you an honest review of the book itself, they get a free book, you get a review (and hopefully additional feedback). But is it worth using an ARC book for your work? |
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