If you're a first-time author, you have a lot of choices to choose from. Find out below where you can publish your book to a good market.
Today's question has three answers. The third answer is a secret that will prevent you from seeing your revenue go to zero or possibly go to absolute zero. Where you stop making them money completely.
So let's get right on into it. Today's question is, where should a beginner or the first-time author publish? This is an excellent question.
Because there are an awful lot of different options available on the market. You could go with Amazon KDP. You could go with Ingram Spark. You could go with Smashwords and you could also go with Lulu.
There are so many choices and that is overwhelming. And this is the challenge, not knowing where to start as a beginner or first-time author. It can cause you to do nothing.
Check out this related article: Is Amazon The Best Free Online Option For Self-Publishing?
That is the one thing here at selfpublishingmadeeasynow.com, we don't want to do. We want to make sure that we are moving steadily through the process.
But before I answer this, you can check out my Self-Publishing Secrets Checklist. You will find that for free. And that will help you with your self-publishing journey.
When I first started, I started with books. I listen to podcasts. I started all sorts of stuff trying to figure out where exactly is the correct starting point.
I started with Amazon. Then, I moved on afterward to some of the other ones. There wasn't really since Amazon is the biggest.
It seemed pretty straight forward. But was it the right choice? Let's take a look at the answers.
Concerning To Amazon
So the first answer is, Amazon is exactly where you want to start. It is the biggest book publisher in the entire planet.
In terms of getting your books out into the biggest markets that are spread throughout the whole planet, Amazon KDP should be your starting place if you are a beginner or a first-time author.
Number two, the format you do it on Amazon it should be Kindle. So it's easiest to do that. I use a program called Jutoh.
It is outstanding. It's best for doing the formatting for your books. And it gives you the ability to get it into the Kindle format.
It also lets you create it into ePub. If you want to do it on Smashwords and other places, push through other ebook formats. It can even do it as a PDF. If you want to sell it directly to your customer.
You have all of your paper books. So it'll put them also in the PDF. So you can get it onto the other platforms.
That's what I use. But Kindle is the starting place that brings us to the secret. And that you should not stop at one location.
Check out this related article: Why Did My KDP Account Close Without Any Notification?
You should always assume your account can be shut down. Amazon has done it to tons of people. One day you see the money coming in.
Suddenly, they literally can just flip a switch. And say, you violated the terms of services.
I've seen people's accounts get shut down very quickly. They will not say exactly what it is, that was broken.
By the way, if you ever get a notice like that from Amazon, you need to contact them immediately. Much of what is done is robotic.
If you do not contest the claim that's being made, so, within 3 days, they can literally shut your account down permanently.
Significance Of Amazon
So what is the key there? The key is not staying just on Amazon. Make sure your books are being pushed through other places.
I use Lulu for my hardbacks. I go through Ingram Spark for my other paperbacks as well.
So I'll also do paperbacks on Amazon Print-On-Demand. That gives you flexibility.
The funny part of it is even if your Amazon account is shut down for some reason, they will still sell these other books on Amazon through the other companies.
Check out this related article: How Do You Publish A Book On Amazon?
These other publishing companies, they'll continue to do it the other thing. The advantage of going with Amazon is to make sales on your books.
Running ads is incredibly powerful. You're going to need to be able to run ads. To do that, you're going to want to make sure that they are on Amazon so that you're able to run it against those products.
And if you want to do audiobooks, which of course you should be doing. If you aren't doing them, let me just tell you, you need to be doing it.
You're going to want to run your audiobooks as well through there. You need to have the Kindle version of the books available.
To answer your question as quickly as possible, here it is. Yes, you want to start with Amazon Kindle books.
Then after that, you should move on. And move off of the Amazon platform for at least the paperbacks.
So what have you found? Did you find someplace other than Amazon to be more useful? Or maybe you did find Amazon.
Go ahead and let me know below in the comments. Check out my other blogs and videos that are answering your self-publishing questions.