Aussie Amazon Author Gets 18,000 Readers

Self-publishing company

Name of self-publishing company: 

What year did you self-publish your book?: 

Let us see your book - insert your book's URL here: 

In what format did you self-publish your book? 

Did you try to find a traditional publisher? 

Did the company properly prepare you for the process? 

There is a lot of information out there - but some of it wasn't obvious. I am in IT, so I was able to figure everything out, but I think a lot of people might have trouble.

Was the cost of publishing adequately explained to you? 

Publishing is free, but you get a percentage of sales for each copy you sell. Their commission structure is a little odd - like the different levels for different countries, and borrowing royalties.

Were you happy with the finished book? 

Yes - it looked exactly as I expected! (Once I figured out how to actually prepare the digital file for Amazon.)

What advice do you have for others? 

Read everything you can. I have set up a site to help others with their self publishing journey (this is not a plug!) because there are some elements that aren't obvious.

My Review 

I would recommend Amazon - both Kindle and CreateSpace for self publishing because there is no financial outlay, and your book will be seen by a large audience. Their KDP Select program also allows people to borrow your book for a royalty, and you can promote your book as free for five days. When I did this, I had 18,000 people get my book, which resulted in some good reviews, which then got me a lot of sales later on. Traditional publishing is getting tougher - I tried several agents and publishers and all said it was really difficult to take on a debut author these days. My plan is to build a profile with my first book, and then go back to an agent for my second one. But either way, I'm no longer limited to waiting on someone else. The only thing I'm not completely sure about with Amazon is the commission structure. You can pick 35% or 70%, but if you pick 70% some of your sales still only give you 35% (and why would you choose to get a lower commission in the first place?). I think it depends on what country the buyer lives in. Also, you don't know what royalty you get on borrows until the 15th of the next month. There is a general pool that all writers get a cut of, but there is no way of knowing how many other people you're competing with. In December, the pool was $500,000 and I got $1.70 per borrow, but in January the pool was $700,000 but I only got $1.60 per borrow.

One other thing, as an Australian author, Amazon will withhold a percentage of my sales for tax, but the tax rules are hard to figure out for me to get this money released. However, this would probably be the case if I was dealing with any US based business. Overall, it's a great way to get your book out there!

Would you recommend this to a friend? 

Valerie Peterson, Book Publishing Guide, says: