Aah, the woes of being a struggling writer. It is not easy to break into the publishing industry when you are an aspiring writer, let alone breaking even and making a living out of it. Sometimes, it doesn’t really matter how good or relevant your work is, because the next big thing can be forgotten if no publisher is willing to give it a try.
Plus, the more rejections you get, the more you convince yourself of how your work is not good enough, which can shy you away from trying to sell yourself. Then, you just give up to work on anything that will hand you a paycheck at the end of the month, leaving your real talents to be undiscovered. Now, that’s a thing of the past, because Amazon is the way to help!
Amazon has devised a system that allows writers and narrators to let their creativity flow. Amazon’s self-publishing service is the way to go if what you want to reach millions of readers and audio book lovers on a worldwide scale, while also maintaining full control over your work. This system is designed to help you easily and independently publish your physical book, your eBooks and your audio books.
You’ll just need to go to the Amazon homepage. Once there, scroll all the way down to the “make money with us” section, and click on “self-publish with us”. There, you’ll see three options to self-publish: publish to kindle, publish to print, and publish to audio. Let’s take a look at each option and see what they offer.
Publish to Kindle
As you may know, the Kindle is a tablet-like device designed by Amazon which is primarily used by eBook lovers around the world, with its own dedicated marketplace and publishing platform. Amazon offers you the “kindle direct publishing” platform, so you can publish your books for free and reach millions of readers. It will allow you to earn royalties of up to 70% when your book sells in the US, UK and other major markets.
You can publish your book quickly, in a matter of minutes, and your book will appear within two days in the marketplace. One of the greatest benefits of self-publishing your book with Amazon is that you’ll be able to distribute it digitally on the global market, which is awesome if you plan to publish your book in different languages.
Finally, your book will be available in the kindle ecosystem, which means that anyone with a kindle device or a kindle reading app installed in their smart device will be able to buy and enjoy your book! To start using this service, simply click on the “get started” button in the “publish to kindle” box. On your right, you’ll find a sign up box inviting you to join the service with your existing Amazon account.
If you are not currently an Amazon customer, you’ll have to create an Amazon account in order to use the service. Below it, you can see a list of popular book genres published by “Kindle Direct Publishing”. If you want to familiarize yourself with the self-publishing process before creating your account, we recommend you check the “help” section.
There, you can get a detailed walkthrough of the process involved and of all that you’ll encounter once you sign up for self-publishing. Stuff such as entering your book details, your cover design and how to upload your book is outlined here!
Publish to print
Publishing your book in digital format has advantages and is great. You’ll certainly not run out of copies to sell, meaning that everyone wanting a copy will be able to get it easily. What if your dream is publishing AND printing your book? Amazon’s “createspace” is the answer, because this service will allow you to create, publish and distribute your book in printed format around the world!
Benefits of publishing to print with “createspace” include earning royalties that go to up to 80%, using free professional tools to quickly publish your book, using professional printing services made available to you exclusively through the platform and distributing your book to a worldwide audience, all while keeping total creative control of your work through a non-exclusive agreement!
To start using this service, click on the “get started” button in the “publish to print” box. You’ll be greeted with some testimonials of authors who have had success using “createspace,” the service to get their work published, and on your right, you’ll see a sign up form.
Simply enter your personal information to create your “createspace” account, select your country of residence and select the type of media that you are considering publishing, be it book, audio, video, or a combination of those media. If you are still debating over which media best fits your work, simply select “I’m not sure yet”, and then click on “create my account”.
Now, you are ready to leverage the power of “createspace” to publish your work in a way that was unthinkable before!
Publish to Audio
A lot of people love audio books, because they add depth and emotion to the written contents of books. Amazon gives you the opportunity to explore this innovative way to enjoy written word with “ACX”, or the “Audiobook exchange creation” platform.
Benefits of using “ACX” include high royalties paid for your work, and ample access to top distribution channels online including audible.com, Amazon.com and iTunes. By signing up for the “Audiobook exchange creation” platform to create your audiobooks, you’ll also get easy access to narrators and studio professionals that can aid you in the audiobook creation process.
To start using this service, click on the “get started” button in the “publish to audio” box. Here, you’ll see all the options available to you. This is not only a platform for those looking to publish an audiobook. If you happen to have a talent for voice overs or narration, you can sign up as an actor or producer to upload your samples and find projects that you would like to produce!
If you already have an audiobook version of your book, you’ll only need to upload it to the “ACX” platform to have it distributed on top retail channels. If you want more details about all the opportunities open to you in the “ACX” platform, just scroll down, find out how it works and how you can promote yourself.