It is rare to find a question relatively easy to answer. If this were a Yes or No answer, there would be no point in either reading or writing this post. You want explanations, examples, and facts.
So, The Answer Is?
…..very much dependent on what you have written and what you want to happen next.
PUBLISHING AS THE CREATIVE WRITER
As a creative author, you want to be read and appreciated not only for your ideas but also your craftsmanship. You create and mold characters, places, and situations. Your book must be read by many people and discussed in book clubs, and over social drinks. You want your name to be known. The most important thing is that you are seen and recognized as a writer.
Amazon Works Fast
As a creative writer with a book ready to be read and three ideas for new books which you know you will be starting very soon, you want the finished book to slip into your readers’ hands.
BANG!! As fast as you can upload your gem, Amazon will put it into an ebook before you even determine the selling price. Setting your book up for hard copy printing is almost as fast.
WHOOPS! Early and Trivial Costs to the Creative Writer
I strongly suggest before you upload your work, you have already taken care of your cover design. You should certainly have the book professionally proofread. If you get all of this done using Google search, all of the pre-publishing chores can be managed for a few hundred dollars. Remember, we are not discussing quality, we are discussing only the necessary tasks to accomplish before uploading to Amazon.
What Should I Expect To Earn
How do I set a fair price, one that will make me money but not be so exorbitant that I will sell nothing? In this arena, Amazon is indeed your buddy. Remember, Amazon makes money on volume so the more books you sell, the more money they will make. If you sell few or no books at all, to them, it is just rolled into the cost of doing business. If your book takes off and becomes a real blockbuster, you and Amazon will do very well.
If you use Amazon’s pricing guidelines, you can make a fair return (Note: Fair Return is not GOOD. Fair Return is FAIR). Amazon will return you 70% of sales when your book is priced between three and ten dollars. So, if you price your book at $5.00, you will earn $3.50 for each book sold. So, if you sell 500 books, Amazon will pay you $1,750. If you want to live off your writing, you are going to have to sell a lot more books and probably be almost finished with the next book and already planning the third and fourth.
WAIT. What just happened?
It’s called reality tempered with a reasonable business model. Your basic costs to get published are minimal. Your possible returns are reasonable. To make really good money, you are going to have to do some serious marketing of your writing as well as be working on your next book. For you, Amazon publishing and the self-publishing industry might not be what you want.
PUBLISHING AS AN ENTREPRENEUR!
At heart, you are more of a creative organizer than an author of great fiction. You would rather write the next “How to Win Friends and Influence People” than “War and Peace.” Your book is not over two hundred and fifty pages. It is organized into easily read descriptive paragraphs each written as a step necessary to be taken to achieve a self-proclaimed goal. In most instances, you, as a writer, have defined that goal for your reader. Most often the goal is to make more money or start and succeed at your own business.
Planning is Everything
Your book is literally the blueprint for your business life. You cannot afford to err in how you define and write your book. Your cover design and good, clean editing(proofreading) are mandatory for your success. Do not scrimp in either area. A misplaced comma might be funny, but it can come at the cost of lost followers, which is lost revenue.
Is Your Book A StandAlone Or A Motivator
Amazon is ideally suited for the Entrepreneurial writer. More than most, you are an educational writer. You are moving the reader from mediocrity to at least the first levels of serious financial and emotional success.
Good Entrepreneurial writing is never Standalone. Looking at such a classic as “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” you might think it is the perfect standalone book. That book assured the author of constant appearances in front of corporations and speaking groups. While the book may have cost a few dollars, the revenue that flowed to the author as a speaker was incredibly high.
In today’s market, your success with Amazon has nothing to do with the number of books that Amazon sells; at least not from that book. A good marketer gives that book as a gift. It is a well-crafted hook to show your reader how engaging with your class and your second book will move him up the path to a much better life.
Summarizing Toward An Answer
Amazon is definitely the right choice for writers who see their writing as a step in a well-developed marketing plan.
For example, Amazon is a great choice if you teach a class that promises positive results to your prospective clients. If your book points to a result rather than being a work of value all by itself, Amazon is a fantastic partner. If you write your book both convincingly enough and offer it at either a reduced price or as a gift, your clientele will buy into your class and almost certainly buy the books associated with your class, almost as fast as you can upload them to Amazon.
If you write like a storyteller, Amazon will certainly publish your book for a very fair and reasonable price. Even if you produce an excellent book, there is a very good chance it will remain available on Amazon for a very long time, earning you and Amazon very little. The sad truth is, if you publish on Amazon, you need a marketing plan. If you push your book really hard, you just might become successful.