Before doing something, we want to make sure that it is not a waste of our time and other resources. Is self publishing on Amazon worth it or not? Let us find out now.
Today's question has three answers. And you're going to want to stick around for the third answer. Because it is a secret why you will lose money if you stay only on Amazon.
The question that was sent into me today is, is self publishing on Amazon worth it? Now, this is an excellent question.
There are many options and places we can choose to go to. On Amazon or in other locations when we have our book written. We want to make sure that we're going to get the maximum value out of where we publish our book.
So this is a question that many people wonder about maybe you shouldn't go with Amazon. Some people out of principle don't go with Amazon.
They don't want to contribute to a monopoly or other things. There are lots of reasons but let's assume for a second that really we're looking at saying, how can we reach the biggest audience?
And how can we sell our books to most people? Well then, should we sell it on Amazon? Is it actually worth it? That's what we're going to get into today.
Check out this related article: How Much Can You Make Self Publishing On Amazon?
Self-publishing doesn't have to be so hard, check out my free Self-Publishing Secrets Checklist. It will help you get started with your self-publishing journey.
So, is self publishing on Amazon worth it? Well, when I first started I was using some books. I took some courses and added some different tricks to try to figure out where was the best place to publish my books.
And Amazon was the clear winner or at least that's what everybody was telling me at the time. Now I have learned many things. And we'll get to that in the answers.
But for the most part, there weren't too many options that seemed as easy as Amazon at the time. And so maybe Amazon was the right choice for me when I was getting started. But is self publishing an Amazon worth it?
Downside Of Amazon
Let's get into the answers and the first answer is yes, it is definitely worth it. They control 65% of all new book sales. So if you wish to find an audience where people are buying books well Amazon is the best place.
There is no better place to buy your books than on Amazon or to sell your books. Because you have so many people daily who are searching.
And number two, they have a massive audience looking to buy with their credit cards out. Rather already plugged into the system and just a single click a Buy Now button. And they've purchased your book.
And it's very easy to publish on Amazon that's another issue here. So you have this crazy market size. You have an audience who's coming there specifically to buy your books.
They're searching for your books. They have a credit card already established one click away from buying your book so it seems like a no-brainer and it is. It is a no-brainer, it is worth having it on Amazon no doubt.
This is a very easy one but there is a secret here. And we've come to the third answer of the day. It is that you will lose money if you only publish on Amazon.
Check out this related article: Is Self Publishing On Amazon A Good Idea?
So you heard me say it was 65% of the sales were of all new book sales are coming through Amazon. Well, what about the other 35%? Where are they going through?
The answer is they're going through all of the other sites. Now don't get me wrong, Amazon will take your print books and push it through a wide variety of distribution channels.
It's very very wide and works really really well. So you will be already hitting a lot of those markets. But there are other markets that Amazon isn't hitting or isn't hitting in the same way you could get the same reach.
Publish On Different Platforms
That's where Lulu comes in for your hardback books since Amazon will not do the hardback. Ingram Spark for even more advanced distribution. The downside is they charge you $50 to do the books.
But many times they have promo codes to do it on Ingram Spark. And also you have to supply your own ISBN which can be good. If you're depending upon your publishing company that you're going with here.
And finally, if you decide that you want to go wide with your book publishing and you're not going to go Amazon Select with your ebooks, well then Smashwords is the right choice for you.
That gets you the maximum distribution of your ebooks in EPUB format. Which if you're confused about all the formatting, I would highly recommend you go with Jutoh.
Check out this related article: How To Convert Kindle Books To EPUB?
That's the program that I use to do all of my formattings. It is a software that will get your Mobi format for your Kindle, EPUB, and Smashwords which pushes it through all of the other distributors.
And also, it will give you the PDFs for your paperback and your hardback. Imagine this, you can create a single file and it just produces all of these formats automatically for you ready to go.
Just publish them right out on the different platforms, it is really a fantastic software. But the reason is it's because there are a lot of sales that I make and many other authors and publishers make that go through these other networks.
You are going to be losing money if you only go through Amazon. So, is self publishing on Amazon worth it? What have you found?
Tell me below in the comments I'd love to hear about it and check out my other blogs and videos to find more answers to your self-publishing questions.