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Episode 73

The Self-Publishing Show (Pt. 2)

January 27, 2017 ·

Ep73: THE SELF-PUBLISHING SHOW (PT. 2) How to Self-Publish a Book (Pt. 2) Episode Summary: Self-Publish on Amazon.com Step 1: Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Step 2: CreateSpace.com (On-Demand Printing) Step 3: ACX (AudioBooks Creation Exchange)

Episode Summary: Part 2 of the self-publishing series — the 3 core Amazon tools for getting a book published, on-demand printed, and turned into an audiobook.

What You’ll Learn

  • The 3 core Amazon self-publishing tools: KDP, CreateSpace, and ACX
  • How Kindle Direct Publishing works and what Amazon takes in commission
  • Amazon’s non-Amazon self-publishing competitors worth knowing about
  • What audiobook narrators actually get paid on ACX

Part 1 covered writing and editing tools and resources. This episode covers self-publishing directly on Amazon.com: Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), CreateSpace (on-demand printing), and ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange).

Competitors to Amazon in Self-Publishing

Apple iBooks Store, Kobo Writing Life, Barnes & Noble, Blurb, and Google Play Books, among others.

Amazon’s 3 Self-Publishing Components

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

The e-book publishing side of Amazon, launched in 2007, and how a book ends up in the Kindle Store. Completely free to use, though Amazon takes a 30% commission on sales. The Kindle Store grew from 500,000 titles in 2010 to over 5 million by this episode.

Step 1: create an account and profile on KDP using an Amazon login — worth doing as soon as the decision to write a book is made, just to start exploring the process. Add tax info, bank account details, the book title, and verify rights.

CreateSpace

Also owned and operated by Amazon — on-demand printing for physical copies of a book, for a fee plus roughly a 40% commission.

ACX

Amazon’s Audiobook Creation Exchange, for turning a digital book into an audiobook. Audiobooks sell through Amazon, iTunes, and Audible (also Amazon-owned).

How narrators get paid on ACX — 3 options:

  • Hourly rate — roughly $225/finished hour
  • Royalty split — 50% of all royalties
  • A combination of hourly plus royalty

One finished hour of audio equals roughly 9,300 words, and takes the average narrator about 6.2 hours to produce.

Show Notes & Links