Why You Should Still Publish Your Book on Amazon Despite All the Challenges

A handful of my videos have recently focused on how to avoid Amazon as an author. Every one of them had the caveat that I don't actually recommend avoiding them as an author. But I get why you might want to. Amazon has been a real challenge to work with, but it's not that simple nor that strategic to skip Amazon as an author. If you're wondering whether you could or should avoid Amazon as an author, well, this video is for you. Hi, I'm Julie the Book Broad, Founder of Book Launchers. We're a professional self publishing services with writers, writing coaches, editors, designers and a team of marketers to support you in your author journey. Today we're tackling a critical why should authors still publish on Amazon despite the increase in terminated accounts, reviews removed, increased squeeze on author's margins, and more authority? Well, like it or not, Amazon has been a big facilitator for self publishing authors. While they didn't invent self publishing, they have sure made it so much easier to reach your audience and make a profit without a publisher. We as authors actually have Amazon to thank for a lot of things. Amazon's reach is unmatched. It's one of the world's largest retailers offering your book potential access to a lot of people and and when you self publish, you just have to meet their specs and you can upload their book, set the price and start selling. There's no gatekeeper in between. Of course if it's the audiobook through acx, you can't set the price, the setup is accessible and you no longer are required to have a publisher or even print thousands of books and set up a warehouse account or sell from your garage. This is huge and Amazon is to thank for the ease that has been brought to our ability as a self published author to sell a book. Okay, so success on Amazon isn't as simple as upload and it sells. It does require you have a beautiful book with smartly researched and presented metadata and there's a whole lot of work that goes into that. But that's what we do at Book Launchers. If you're a nonfiction author writing or marketing a book to build your business or your brand, we can help. Our books, courses and our full service team, from our writers and writing coaches to editors, designers and marketing professionals who pitch you for podcasts, live appearances, media run ads and more, are all focused on your bigger picture goal with your book. We surround you with care and support as we guide you through the process. If you want to chat with us, go ahead and fill out the form you'll find at the link below. Okay, so the next thing is earning the proceeds, sometimes called royalties, but it's not technically right. It's really proceeds after fees and print costs. So with Amazon KDP, authors can earn up to 70% on ebook prices, which we can complain all day long about the cost, but if you remember, if you had a traditional book deal, you'd be smiling if you made 10% on each book sold. Third, Amazon's distribution network. It allows you to reach audiences all over the world. I still feel like Ingram is a better option for most global distribution. And using an ebook aggregator service like Draft 2 Digital gets you better ebook reach and gets into libraries and more. But if you only used kdp, you're still reaching so much more of the market than if you just sell books from your website. Fourth, Kindle Unlimited. While I don't personally use this program because it requires exclusivity with Amazon, they do provide Amazon with strategies and tools to boost book exposure and sales, including Kindle Countdown deals. And of course they have Amazon ads, which all of us can use, which is certainly a profit center for them. But when it works, it really helps you sell a lot of books too. So it's got challenges. But despite those challenges, Amazon remains a pivotal platform for authors. The reach, the control, the distribution network, Kindle Unlimited opportunities, print on demand, no garage full of books, promotional tools. All those things make it worth using. And by the way, good luck trying to avoid them anyway, unless you only sell direct. We have tried for some of our clients that were adamant that they not sell on Amazon, and it still ended up on Amazon through the secondary market. And if they upload their print book to Ingram, they still end up on Amazon because Ingram doesn't let you opt out of Amazon. So you're probably still going to end up on Amazon, even if you don't want to. So what you can do, though, is support other distributors and ensure authors have options for selling their books in the future by not only using Amazon, but using all the platforms. Okay, speaking of that, here's the video I shared on avoiding Amazon as an author, and this is the one YouTube thinks you must see. Both are pretty darn good, if I say so myself. So after you comment and say hi on this video, choose one of these videos and head on over there.