Selling Books

Your Guide to Writing, Publishing and Marketing Books and Ebooks

Publish Your Book on the Amazon Kindle Ebook Reader

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Amazon.com has sold millions of Kindle ebook readers with more being sold everyday. Plus, Kindle ebooks can be read by anyone with the free Kindle app available for the PC, Mac, iPad and many other platforms. That creates a great opportunity for you, as Amazon is actively seeking digital content to sell to Kindle customers, and those customers are avidly downloading books, periodicals, blogs and more.

See the Kindle at Amazon.com

What is a “Kindle”?
The Kindle is a wireless device that makes it easy to purchase and download reading material. It does not have to be connected to a computer, and you do not need to go searching for a mobile “hot spot” in order to connect to the Amazon store. Because it is so easy to buy content, customers buy often.

Although converting your print book to a digital format (ebook) is one possibility, you can also sell content that is not available in printed form. And your content does not need to be a traditional book length manuscript. Many Kindle ebooks are short pieces, such as short stories and articles. You also do not need to get an ISBN to sell Kindle content on Amazon.

Here is how to sell your books to Kindle owners. Start by going to the Amazon Digital Text Platform. If you have an Amazon account, you can log in using the same information. If not, you can set up a free account.

Next, you upload your content in one of the many supported formats. Amazon recommends uploading HTML files, but you can upload your Kindle content as a Word document, text file or PDF. (PDFs are not recommended as there are sometimes formatting problems with PDFs on the Kindle.) You will find step-by-step instructions for publishing your content at Amazon’s Digital Text Platform.

Within a day or so after uploading, your book or other content should be available in the Kindle store.

How Much Do You Get Paid?
You set the price for your digital products, and Amazon pays a 35% to 70% royalty on all sales. Currently, prices from $.99 to $2.98, and those greater than $9.99, receive a 35% royalty. A 70% royalty (minus a few cents as a download fee) is paid on Kindle ebooks priced from $2.99 to $9.99. Although the prices are low, many authors earn as much or more from the sale of a Kindle edition as they would for a book published by a traditional publisher. And some authors have sold hundreds of thousands of ebooks. Author John Locke is the first independently-published author to sell more then one million Kindle ebooks, and most of those sales took place in a five-month period.

The Kindle provides a new way to reach out to readers and sell more of your work. Here are some examples of books available for the Kindle. Shouldn’t your book be there?

Comments

  1. Hi, I’m a writer looking for a way to start selling my books on kindle. I think it would be a great first move for a self publisher and I think I have a lot to offer the readers of kindle…

    I was wondering if you could tell me the step by step process of publishing on kindle I would be grateful.

  3. I don’t have a website. I do have an article/pamphlet, called “Be A Man” I’d like to get out there, because I believe it would be useful in properly and responsibly raising male children (and telling females what they have a right to expect in a man).
    My motivation is altruistic, so I don’t really care how much (or little) money I make (yes, I did say that)–I just want it to be read and used.
    Sometimes I know that you should charge a certain amount, because many people don’t trust “free” things. Like: “What did you pay for it?” “Nothing” “Well that must be what it’s worth”.

    Please tell me what you think,

    Thanks,

    Flip Jones

  6. The author retains the copyright to their work. Amazon simply has the right to distribute the ebook with payment to the author based on the contract terms. You also have the right to distribute your ebook through other vendors, such as BN for the Nook, Apple for the iPad, etc.

  7. Should I attempt to copyright my book prior to selling through Amazon? Or by doing this, does it essentially copyright my work for me? Thank you.

  9. I’m not an author, but someone who enjoys writing stories.

    Is this a suitable way for me to publish some of my work to share to others and to see whether there is a potential market for my work?

    What would be a sensible length for a first offering?

  11. I want to publish and sell a series of articles, one each month, or more frequently, which will be directed at young children through their parents, grandparents, or guardians. I plan to commence with a seven letter series which I wrote to my granddaughter.

    The series will be based in Christianity and teach about love from many angles.

    Is this suitable for the kindle vehicle?

  13. I don’t have a website as yet but do have ebooks to sell.
    They are in PDF and ready to sell I’m just not sure what to do exactly. I don’t want to do it all wrong. I have a paypal account and ISBN number. My ebooks are Self Help, poetry and inspirational so a varied selection built over the years. I’m so frustrated at not knowing the best way to go about things. PLEASE, please help.
    May

  14. May, if you want to sell your ebooks directly, you need a website. Get a webhosting account and use their sitebuilder system. DO NOT use a free site. You have no control of a free site. You could spend time building up your business only to have it taken away. Have your own domain name on your own hosting account.

    The simplest way to sell ebooks from your own website is to use PayPal and e-junkie. Once you have your PayPal account, sign up for e-junkie. PayPal has no monthly fees, only fees per transaction. e-junkie starts at $5 a month with no transaction fees.e-junkie has a shopping cart that integrates with PayPal, and they (e-junkie) handle secure downloads of your ebooks. There are specific instructions at the e-junkie site, but it is basically copying and pasting some code into your website or blog.

    If you do not know how to do this, you can learn. But you have to start. You can’t really do it “wrong” unless you do nothing.

    Good luck!

    P.S. Sign up for the SellingBooks email newsletter. There will be more on this in the newsletter.

  15. I have written childrens stories, and a ‘how to’ therapy dog book. As it pertains to children’s stories there are no illustrations does that make a difference on kindle books? also I am not sure what you mean by pdf file does that mean I need a website?

  19. I kept a journal during my years tour in Vietnam. I had it copyrighted and I had it published to give to my family and friends.It contains lots of pictures to help tell my story as well. My family now insist that it needs to be sold as an ebook available through kindle. Since it is already in book form, how do I go about the process?
    Thanks, Lee