Amazon.com sells billions of dollars worth of books each year, and your title can be on this global bookstore next to established authors. (If you are a published author, then your publisher will need to arrange distribution on Amazon.)
But if you are a self-published author, it is within your control and easier than you think. If I can do it, so can you. Here you can see my self-published, print-on-demand book on Amazon How to Enjoy Your Job
The key is to use a service that you can load your book onto as well as managing some of the promotion if you choose to. The fees for these services vary. You can do it all yourself for free or you can pay them to do most of it for you.
The process works as follows:
1. Upload manuscript. You take your finished manuscript in PDF format and load it onto the website of the service you choose (examples below). You also load the cover.
2. Create sales page. You write your webpage text and add the price, and your royalties are calculated.
3. Order and Review. You order one of your own books to sign off that you are happy with the final product. Then you authorize distribution.
4. Distribution. The files are distributed to the electronic bookstores including Amazon. You see them with a few days/weeks depending on the service.
5. Build Amazon site. You upload images and get testimonials etc, adding more information to your online site. You promote and drive people to buy your book.
6. People buy the book from the site. The order goes to the service who print it and ship it to Amazon who ship it to the customer.
7. Royalties. You get paid your royalties monthly.
Here are a couple of companies you can use but there are other companies who will do this online for you too.
BookSurge
Booksurge is Amazon’s own self-publishing company offering print-on-demand, inventory management and distribution. They can take you all the way from idea to book and onto Amazon with a hand-holding approach, or you can just load your print-ready PDF and cover and go for it. You receive approximately 35% of royalties on retail sales of trade paperback books. The cost price is determined by your book e.g. black and white inner is cheaper than coloured or photos. You can also use Amazon’s own promotional tools e.g. Buy X Get Y program pairing your book with a famous persons (although this will set you back $1000 per month). When you go through the process, you will be guided to upload your files, cover and wording and within a few weeks your book will be featured on Amazon.com as well as Amazon.co.uk.
You can find out all the information at www.booksurge.com
Lulu.com
Lulu offers the same services to Booksurge but it is not owned by Amazon. This doesn’t seem to make any difference to the products they offer at the moment. The books are distributed through Lightening Source and are accessible to many other online retailers. You can load your files and cover and be published on Amazon in the same time frames. You can also be published on BN.com (Barnes and Noble). There is an author community, you can ask questions in real-time online, and you can build a shop front of your own. Lulu has a great FAQ section and that includes detailed information on the required formatting for books submitted for Amazon. Make sure you read this before submitting your document as you may be rejected otherwise. You can find out more at www.lulu.com
I used Lulu.com for “How to Enjoy Your Job” and was very happy with how easy the site was to manage. If you struggle with the technology, or just want someone to do it for you, see Services.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I use Lulu.com to self publish my novel, but I also use CreateSpace.com (Also owned by Amazon) because they are cheaper per copy of each book.
Lulu has been around longer than CreateSpace, they have a friendlier site, they have more help and a bigger community on their forums. So for someone just starting off they might be a better site.
But once you are comfortable with formatting your own book, or have someone to format it for you, CreateSpace allows you to sell your book for less, but keep the same profit margin for yourself.
While LuLu.com is fine for having your book printed, I’d tell you to stay away from having them handle getting the book up on Amazon for you.
After about nine months, my book is FINALLY shown on Amazon, but comes up as “out of stock” constantly. Endless emails to LuLu customer service just get variations on “wait a little while longer for them to work it out” and other boilerplate.
I’m ready to release book #2, and I assure you I won’t be letting LuLu anywhere near it!
Hi all – it is worth checking out http://www.completelynovel.com a new service that is primarily the servant of the Author. This is good as many so-called self publishing sites are primarily and not that transparently simply fronts for publishers, who wish you to part with your money.
I am using CN for my new book ‘The Marketing Manifesto’. They also listed it on Amazon for me, and it all works out rather well. This service is limited to UK. Ireland and France for the time being.
Thank you very much. This was nice and clear: very nice and very clear.
Hi
I’m an independent Portuguese Poet. My editor already edited and printed my book “The Barbs of Passion”. I already have dozens of books, because the contract with the editor obliged me to buy them 50 books.
I already have ISBN and bar-code
How can I juts list them on Amazon?
Thank you for your help?
João
Hi Joao,
I believe you can use Amazon Marketplace for your books – it’s basically like eBay style selling.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1161232
All the best, Joanna
I’m just now getting into this process with my first book being a spiral bound planner/tool. As such, printing on Amazon’s easy-peasey CreateSpace wasn’t really an option (they just do “perfect bound” books as far as I know). So, I too will have to buy a bunch of books up front. (I wasn’t impressed with Lulu’s Amazon commissions or spiral bound quality)
The printer/publisher I am printing through alerted me to Amazon’s fufillment drop ship set up. This allows me to NOT get stuck in the post office sending out copies one by one – yuck! They charge you a little bit, but it might be worth it. http://www.amazonservices.com/content/fulfillment-by-amazon.htm#!how-it-works
Hello,its pretty difficult for those of us in sub-saharan africa to market our inspirational books online.Though i am a talented young writer, and my first publication is titled WHO HURTS MOST?So how can you help me ?
Hi Princewill,
I think anyone with an internet connection now can market and sell online, it doesn’t matter where you are – as long as you are selling ebooks or digital products.
You can publish on Amazon https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin for the Kindle as well as http://www.smashwords.com/ and you can market with social networking and blogging online. Why does location matter now?
hey, i am new author as well and my book will be out next month with publish america… how can i get my book on amazon, because i know i am going to have to promote and push my own books which i don’t mind… i’m just motivated to push my own books and don’t just sit on my butt and depend on publish america, i will appreciate some feedback, thankz….
Hi Charles, as per above , you can publish print books on Amazon through Createspace/ Lulu or LightningSource. You can publish ebooks on Amazon https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin for the Kindle as well as http://www.smashwords.com/
Check this page for lots more info
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/publishing/
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