Self-Publishing on Amazon: What’s It Like? (Part I)
“A person who publishes a book willfully appears before the populace with his pants down. If it is a good book nothing can hurt him. If it is a bad book nothing can help him.” ― Edna St. Vincent Millay
You’ve done the hard work: dedicated the hours, blood, sweat, and tears to complete your first manuscript. Bravo! Now though, you’re wondering what to do with it.
You know you want to self-publish for several key reasons. And you’ve spent hours combing the internet and trolling writing forums searching for information on the various self-publishing platforms available. While you’re still not sure of the whole “Amazon-exclusive vs. going wide” debate, you’ve decided it makes sense to begin by self-publishing on Amazon. You can always add other stores later.
Check out the video above if you prefer to get information that way.
You’re Ready to Publish on Amazon…You Think
Encouraged, you log into your sparkling clean new Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) dashboard…and freeze. What are you supposed to do now? What categories does your book fall into? How do you make your book blurb look good? And what do you set your book’s price to?
Set it too high and you might miss readers. Set it too low and you might de-value your book. And what about the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and cover? Should you choose Amazon’s free ISBN and use its Cover Creator feature?
Take a big breath. It’s a lot to wrap your brain around. Let’s break things down step-by-step. Thankfully, other than the ISBN, the rest of what we’ll cover in this article can be changed at a later date.
Today, we’ll be looking at:
- ISBN
- Your Cover
- Book blurb
ISBN: Use Amazon’s Free One or Buy Your Own?
The ISBN is the unique identification number that every book in the world has. It’s what helps customers find and order the exact book they want to purchase. It’s a requirement for each printed book you publish.
That’s an important distinction: it’s required for each printed book you publish. On Amazon, your digital book requires only an ASIN — a free inventory tracking number specific to Amazon.
If you want printed copies of your book, you’ll need an ISBN. Here again, Amazon has a unique offering for authors: you can get a free ISBN through Amazon.
Pros: Good choice if you want to keep costs as low as possible, are not planning to sell anywhere but Amazon, and don’t want the hassle of securing your own ISBN through Bowker. (Bowker is the ISBN registration agency for the U.S.)
Cons: You won’t be able to publish your print book elsewhere with Amazon’s free ISBN. You can’t change your mind later and change to an ISBN you purchased.
Note: If you’re interested in purchasing your own ISBNs, and want to know more about that process, let me know by leaving a comment and I’ll consider writing an article on the process.
What you need to know about purchasing your own ISBNs: while the process is fairly straightforward, the cost is somewhat significant.
An individual ISBN is $125 (as of 2022) while an order of 10 will cost you $295. Purchase 100 ISBNs at a time and you’ll pay $575. If you buy 1,000 ISBNs you’ll enjoy the cheapest per/item price but spend $1,500 in upfront costs.
Books Are Always Judged By Their Covers
The old adage is a lie. Books are always judged by their covers. That’s why you want to make yours the absolute best it can be.
This is another area where Amazon is unique compared to other digital book retailers. It offers Cover Creator software within Kindle Direct Publishing. I created both covers for my first and second books using this software. On a scale of 1–10, I’d rate it at about 4 (with 1 being impossibly hard). However, I believe that the process has gotten easier since I used it 10 years ago.
Another, and perhaps better option, is to find a cover designer for your book. There are a few options to choose from. You can hire someone to make the cover for you from scratch. Or you can buy a pre-made book cover template. The designer will then add your title, author’s name, and tagline to customize it.
Book covers range in cost from very little (check Fiverr for potential designers) to very expensive (hand-illustrated covers are popular in the fantasy and Sci-Fi genres…and are pricey).
Once you have your cover, you’ll simply hit the “upload your cover” button in KDP. The software will allow you to proof everything at the end. And it will tell you if your cover dimensions aren’t right or if there are any other problems cover-wise.
If you run into problems with your cover and/or uploading it, check out this help page on KDP specific to covers. (Note: this link will bring you to a page outside of Medium.)
Your Book Blurb
There have been entire books written about writing a great book blurb. Bryan Cohen knows a lot about this topic. Try listening to some podcasts where he’s been a guest to learn more. Another option is to simply study the blurbs of the top 10–15 books on Amazon’s Top 100 Seller List.
For instance, in the thriller genre there are some commonalities when it comes to blurbs. Look at the type of words chosen (many are action words) where the stakes are set (high), and what will happen to the character if they fail (disaster).
The type of blurb you write or have written for you will differ widely depending on the genre of your book.
Regardless, book blurbs are important. Very important. They’re like the commercials you see on TV — they’re the promise to the reader. They must spark attention and interest. The most important job of a good book blurb? Saying, “buy me”.
Next Up in Self-Publishing on Amazon: What’s It Like?
In Part II of this series, we’ll cover three more important considerations for self-publishing on Amazon:
- Categories & keywords
- Price
- KDP Exclusive or wide publishing
Joy Choquette writes for a living from her home office in Vermont…where she fights writer’s block by spending time with her family and reading. Check out her suspense novels which “turn pages, not stomachs” and are all set in small-town or remote parts of Vermont.
A proud member of the Alliance of Independent Authors (affiliate link) and International Thriller Writers, Joy’s novels have been read on four continents…and counting.
