Get Ready to Publish

First, unless you want to try your hand at direct sales (I’m not covering that in this program at the moment), Amazon is a given. Approximately 67%–83% of ebooks published are sold through Amazon in this country. While you might not love that fact, if you really want to sell your books, you need to get on the Amazon train.

These figures go along with the fact that 83% of all e-readers are Kindles.

Plus, Amazon has marketplaces in many other English-speaking and foreign countries. Caveat: The self-publishing figures I quote here relate only to the U.S. market.

For self-publishing you have the choice of being exclusively on Amazon (narrow) or publishing through Draft 2 Digital and having wider distribution (wide).

Narrow vs. wide

the Benefits of Starting out Narrow

One of the key benefits of just publishing on Amazon to start with is that the process is quick and painless. Amazon has made it very easy to get your e-book (and paperback) up on their site. You can do preorders with an e-book as well, which helps you create buzz and gives you something to talk about on your author website and in your newsletter (more to come about those vital marketing tools).

Kindle Unlimited

You’ve no doubt seen those flags above e-books on Amazon (see how many of the bestsellers are in that program). Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service that readers can opt into for a fee and it gives them the ability to read any books enrolled in the program without paying more. Essentially, it feels to them as if they are getting free books.

So how does that work for your sales? Amazon clocks pages read to determine remuneration for authors. This may seem a little scary, but for many self-published romance authors, their income from pages read is actually greater than from units sold. In fact, as of this writing, my royalties are 75% from KU pages read.

Why is KU so attractive to romance readers? Because they’re voracious, and if they’re reading a hundred books a year, the cost of even low-priced e-books can really add up.

The catch for authors is that you can only participate if your e-book is not available on any other platform. But don’t worry, you can change your mind after 3 months and offer your e-book to a wider audience. Basically, you renew your participation every three months. Authors do not pay to participate.

Royalties

Unless you are selling your books directly, your income from selling on Amazon or other platforms will be classified as royalties. That means you don’t get the price of the book as income when you sell one. Platforms generally take a platform fee to cover their operations. If you published with a third-party publisher of any kind, they also generally keep a portion of those royalties. (In traditional publishing, authors only get 7% of the price of a paperback book and 25% of the price of an e-book, unless they’ve negotiated something different.)

Kindle E-Books (KDP)

Amazon offers two royalty options for e-books:

  • 70% royalty (minus delivery costs)
    • Available for books priced between $2.99 and $9.99.
    • Amazon charges a delivery fee (based on file size, typically $0.01–$0.15 per MB).
  • 35% royalty
    • Applies to books priced below $2.99 or above $9.99.
    • No delivery fee.

💡 Example Calculation for a $4.99 e-book (70% royalty)

  • Royalty: 70% of $4.99 = $3.49
  • Delivery Cost (assume 0.10 MB file size at $0.15/MB): $0.015
  • Final Earnings: $3.48 per sale

2. Print Books (Paperbacks & Hardcovers)

Royalties for print books depend on printing costs and distribution choices.

Paperback Royalties

  • 60% royalty for books sold on Amazon.
  • Printing cost is deducted from the book price.

💡 Example Calculation for a $12.99 paperback (200 pages, B&W print)

  • Royalty: 60% of $12.99 = $7.79
  • Printing Cost (estimate for 200-page B&W book): $4.85
  • Final Earnings: $2.94 per sale

📌 If using Expanded Distribution (bookstores, libraries), royalty is 40%, making earnings lower.

Hardcover Royalties

  • 60% royalty minus printing costs.
  • Printing costs are higher than paperbacks.

💡 Example Calculation for a $19.99 hardcover (250 pages, B&W print)

  • Royalty: 60% of $19.99 = $11.99
  • Printing Cost (estimate): $8.10
  • Final Earnings: $3.89 per sale

3. Audiobooks (via ACX/Audible)

  • 40% royalty for Audible/Amazon/iTunes if exclusive.
  • 25% royalty if non-exclusive (can sell elsewhere).

Steps to selling on Amazon:

  1. Create your KDP Account
  2. Enter tax and banking details so you can receive royalties
  3. Follow the very clear directions for creating and uploading your book files (but don’t do it yet! More info coming).

Draft2digital

Draft2Digital is a centralized hub for self-publishing across multiple platforms and wider distribution. You can choose where you want your books to be distributed, but if you’re starting out with Amazon, do not distribute to Amazon through D2D.

This option is good if you want libraries and bookstores to be able to order your book through Ingram Publisher Services.

Note: if you’re going to sell your paperback eventually on Draft2Digital, upload it to D2D before you upload it to Amazon. There’s an ISBN glitch if you don’t.

You’ll notice a huge difference in royalties through D2D compared to Amazon. That’s largely because of Ingram. For instance, my book The Dressmaker’s Secret Earl which I’m charging $12.99 for the paperback on Amazon earns a royalty there (60% after the printing costs) of $2.86 per unit sold.

The same book at the same price on D2D gets a royalty of $.38. That’s slightly better than the expanded distribution option through Amazon, which is $.26.

When you upload your manuscript and cover for print, always get a physical proof to look at before you approve it.

That’s another difference between Amazon and D2D: Amazon charges only the printing cost for a proof, plus shipping. D2D charges more, and shipping charges are also higher.

For instance, my 2 Amazon proof copies for The Soprano’s Daring Duke cost $5.90 each. The shipping charge for three of them was $4.77 and there was sales tax. It all added up to $23.70.

I ordered one proof copy from D2D and it cost $6.65, with $5.60 shipping (no sales tax, although I don’t know why…) so my one book cost $12.25.

The Amazon copies come with a band across them that says “Not for resale.”

The ones from D2D do not.

A print proof lets you check that the wraparound cover is correct and that the interior formatting is good.

Another reason to order a print proof is to read it yourself and pick up any random typos. Text looks very different in different places, and it’s a great final check. And…

Your book is getting real 😊

The other compelling reason to order a print proof? For the sheer joy of holding your book in your hands. Have someone take a picture of you with it! Post it on social media, send it to your e-newsletter list.

You are getting so close!

Pricing Your Book

This is one of the decisions you’ll have to make when you upload to either Amazon or D2D—or both. There are a couple of things to consider when you make this decision, which is by no means irrevocable. When you self-publish, changing the price on your books is one of the easiest things to do. However, you want to give your book a good chance of success by pricing it optimally at the beginning. Why?

Perceived value

You may think that putting your first e-book up for $.99 will make more people buy it. After all, you see e-books in your category selling for that much.

But readers (especially if they don’t know you yet) are just as likely to think that if it’s cheap, it might not be any good. It also lowers the perceived value of choosing to read it through Kindle Unlimited.

Chances are those $.99 e-books were at a higher cost to begin with and have been discounted to provide a “loss leader,” or to get readers to buy the first book in a series and go on to purchase the rest of them at the normal price.

Royalties

Amazon has two royalty levels: 35% and 70%. Only e-books priced between $2.99 and $9.99 qualify for the 70% royalty level.

There will come a time when you want to discount your e-book for a promotion—if you’re fortunate enough to get a BookBub deal, for example. But you should be strategic about it. When your second book comes out, for instance, discounting the first can be a good strategy. There’s a time and a place for what are called “perma-free” books, but not until you’ve established yourself a little.

Pricing your print book

Print book pricing varies depending on the length of the book because of printing costs. There will always be people who prefer to have a book in their hands—and you can hand sell them at events for whatever price you want. But I’d avoid super high pricing. That will definitely depress sales.

Because there’s a cost of printing involved, you’ll rarely find paperbacks discounted much below $10 (unless they are novellas or really short novels). You still want to leave some room for discounting when you set your original price.

Running Price Promotions

Price promotions can be a good way to stimulate sales after your initial launch. You can change your price at any time on both Amazon and D2D.

If your book is enrolled in KDP select, you have an additional option of doing a countdown deal, where you offer the biggest discount on the first day and then increase the price over a few days until it goes back to the original price. This is another reason to enroll in KDP Select, at least for the initial three months.

A couple of additional considerations

This may seem small at the moment, but Amazon lets you upload new files for your books up until 4 days before the publication date you choose, for both e-book and paperback. D2D charges $25 to upload a new paperback file once you’ve approved the previous one and it goes up for preorder. After that, you can upload revised files once every 90 days at no charge.

All in all, it’s a personal decision. If you want to make the most revenue, opt for Amazon only for both print and e-books. If it matters that your books are available on multiple platforms, choose Draft2Digital. And you can always start with just Amazon and then expand later if you choose.

You can also de-list your ebook on D2D if you decide to go back to just Amazon.