I have been publishing through Amazon since day one. Let me tell you how I started and whether or not is self publishing on Amazon free.
Today's question has three answers and the third answer is something you are going to want to stick around for. Because I'm going to tell you why free can cost you a lot of money.
So let's get into it. The question that was sent in today was, is self publishing on Amazon free? Now, the person who sent this is wondering, "okay, I have written a book and now I'm thinking I want to self-publish it onto Amazon."
Perhaps Kindle or Print-On-Demand or maybe you want to go through ACX and make an audiobook out of it. "But I want to put it on there, how much is it going to cost me to post it onto Amazon?"
"I've heard that some sites cost money and maybe Amazon also is one of these sites where it's going to cost me money to self-publish my book." You want to know the answer to this specific question and that is exactly what we are going to answer today.
But before we get into the answers, grab a copy of my free Self-Publishing Checklist where I tell you the tools I'm using. I tell you the order in which I do it that has made it possible for me to publish 170 books. I make thousands of dollars off of self-publishing.
I think you would find this checklist very useful for your self-publishing. If you're just getting started or been doing in a while and wondering maybe you're skipping some steps. Maybe you are not using good enough tools, this will definitely help you out there.
So, is self publishing on Amazon free? Well, when I first got started, I can tell you that my self-publishing was not for free. I ended up paying for editors and I got coder designers.
Check out this related article: How Much Does Self Publishing Cost?
I was paying for people to do the formatting and messing it up on Fiverr. Then having to go back and forth and eventually having to figure it out myself. I was paying for advertisements.
I paid for this and I paid for that. But in terms of self-publishing on Amazon itself, just putting those products out there, that was absolutely free. It costs nothing to put your books out there.
That includes whether or not if you have the audio files. You can put your audio files out there assuming you have a Kindle. Kindle costs nothing to put out there and the Print-On-demand absolutely nothing. You don't pay for the review process.
You're not paying for the ISBN codes as you do on other sites. Like Lulu and Ingram Spark where we have to pay for some of these elements. Either the review process or the copy they send you.
It Is Absolutely Free
You need to have the proof copy, for example in Lulu and on Ingram Spark, you are recording for the review process and the ISBN code. But KDP Print does not require any of that. So this is something you are going to want to pay attention to.
That is one of the reasons why many people like to publish on Amazon. They are just destroying the competition by making sure of the pricing, and free is a very good price. So that is one of the key reasons why people like to go with Amazon.
So, is self publishing on Amazon free? The answer is yes, it is absolutely free. That's something you're going to want to consider.
That's why I would recommend you always start off. If you're just getting started self-publishing, make sure you get your Kindle book onto Amazon on KDP or Kindle Direct Publishing. It is where we are going to want to start with that book.
Check out this related article: How Much Does Self Publishing On Amazon Cost?
But if you do it for free, you're going to lose a lot of money and that's the problem. If I say free, I mean the whole process of self-publishing. You're just going to write something, you're going to put it in some format.
You are just going to put it out there and shove it onto Amazon. They'll even put the cover out there for you for free. They'll make a cover based upon your title and everything and just shove it right on there.
Now, you won't make any sales and that's why it's going to cost you a lot of money. But you can do it all for free. But then what's the point?
Why would you put any of this work into it if you didn't want to make more money back than you put into the book? Maybe you just want to get your ideas out there. It may be right for you and when you're first getting started, free may be the best option.
Even though free, you can invest some time to get the quality to be better for your book to increase those sales. But free is definitely an option when we're dealing with Amazon. But let's get to the third and secret answer of the day.
That is to make money you need to pay money. Now I know that seems like, "well I should be able to get stuff for free." But it doesn't work out this way, the other issue is you're not going to figure out how to optimize your book yourself.
You're not going to guess this, this isn't something that, "oh, I just one day woke up and knew exactly how to make my book most appealing to my readers." There is a whole science to this nature of what it is that makes people wish to buy the products and services that you're offering.
And getting it formatted to increase sales in other words. All of these steps require a series of tools all the way back from choosing the right market which I use KDSpy. For my formatting, I use Jutoh.
I'm Using The Perfect Tools
These are the tools that I use regularly to make sure my books are going to sell. To do my cover, I do it through Fiverr. I know there's been a lot of experiments lately on Fiverr.
I can tell you that some of the covers are just fantastic. They cost very little, $20 or something. So that is the person that I'm using to create these books that I have done over the years.
Then finally, we run ads against the books on Amazon. Then we push our books through other platforms. But regarding Amazon itself, if you are following the right optimization steps and you're going through the process in the correct order, then you're going to see your book start making sales.
It's going to make a lot more sales. But notice none of these things I just said were free. So you can publish for free but why would you want to do that if it's going to cost so much?
But at least putting the book out there is free. You have to make sure that your description and all of these other things are exactly perfectly in line. You are writing to a market that wants to buy your book.
These things are not obvious, so paying for courses can be very beneficial to most people. In fact, the average author is only making a thousand dollars a year. Most likely they have not taken these courses.
Maybe they took creative writing courses or something. But the fact that your book is amazing, it doesn't matter if nobody buys the book. If you only have 1 book then you are not going to make enough there.
But if you keep on coming out with books, each book has a percentage of a chance to sell each day. If you're in the right markets, you're going to see those sales piling up.
So this is exactly the route you're going to want to go to maximize the sales that you're getting on your books. So, is self publishing on Amazon free? What have you found?
Go ahead and let me know below in the comments. I respond to every comment that comes in. I would love to hear about it.
Have you found that it's free or maybe you've discovered that you can do it completely free? Have you discovered maybe you have to pay some money if you want to pay Amazon to do some services for you?
I would be very interested to hear what exactly have you found? Check out my other blogs and videos for more answers to your self-publishing questions.