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.

A key element of setting your book up within KDP publishing is in choosing the correct categories for your publication, this option is within the upload process and is on the first page of the set-up process just below the section on keywords.

So why should you research your categories first?

Because when you select the right categories for your work, it can make the difference on how many people find and buy your book, it can also make your book an Amazon best seller, so it really is worth taking your time on this and getting it right from the get-go.

If you have chosen KDP Publishing for your book (and so many authors do), you may have uploaded it and are still waiting to see some serious sales come through, scratching your head, and wondering what’s going on.

But then most of us know that by just uploading your book with the basic information doesn’t necessarily translate into an overnight best seller, there is of course a bit more to it.

So, what should you do to give your book the best chance?

Firstly, you need to approach your book as an advertiser or publisher would, try to step away from it and view it from another perspective, as someone who will be its intended audience, and granted, this can be hard.

We all know that KDP is part of Amazon, and as such is one of the biggest online platforms for a self-publishing author, even if you are choosing to sell the book in person yourself, you’d still be crazy not to have in on their bookshelves too.

When you upload your book to KDP, you’ll see on the final third page of the process (which is for Rights & Pricing), in the section for Pricing, Royalty, and distribution, in the far-right section there is a check box labelled as ‘Expanded Distribution’, you may have wondered what this is, and should you enroll your own book into it.

So, first of all, what is Expanded Distribution?

You finally have your book ready to publish, the manuscript has been checked, double checked and checked again, you have a book cover designed, keywords ready and have decided to use KDP publishing for your new book.

So, how long should this take?

Well, the process of uploading your book to KDP publishing is quite easy, in fact we have an article on uploading your book to KDP which is worth a look, there’s also another article on selecting your keywords that you should check out too.

​The overall steps in uploading are in three parts, covering the details of your book, the book itself and then the pricing of it, most authors can usually have this done easily in an afternoon (this is including the research for your keywords and writing a captivating sales blurb for your book's sales page too).

We all know that KDP Publishing is one of the most popular ways to bring your book to market and upon one of the largest online retail platforms (especially for books), add to this it’s cost-effective publishing model and it is easy to see why so many authors use KDP.

However, with so many authors publishing this way, the competition to get your book in front of a reader can be a challenge, so, getting it set up upon your KDP bookshelf from day one is crucial.

Amazon place weight upon their keywords and apart from factors such as sales history and their ‘best sellers rank’, keywords will play a vital role in getting your book in front of a searching customer.