10 Things I Wish I Knew BEFORE Starting Amazon KDP

About this video

Note: summarized from the Arabic caption track. Dale Roberts lists ten things he wishes he had known before starting Amazon KDP. He says he quit his job after a first royalty check of just over $20 and struggled months later. (1) Reviews: direct review swaps backfired — he says Amazon’s July 2015 purge removed reviews from his books and permanently revoked his ability to leave reviews; he now uses an honest-review call to action in the book, an email list, and newsletter swaps. (2) Marketing is mostly time, not ad spend: he wasted money on ads and promotion sites, while one of his best covers cost $5 and outsold a fancier replacement; he advises saving 10% of earnings to reinvest. (3) Publishing is free but quality is not: his first book went out unedited with a self-designed cover and it showed; he now prioritizes a professional editor and never rushes. (4) Vet advice: a ‘10X’ trick that jumped readers to a book’s end to inflate pages read earned him an account warning; check a source’s experience and currency. He promotes his free launch checklist, claimed used by over 10,000 authors. (5) Choose KDP options for the long term: he wasted $50 on a third-party ISBN tied to the seller’s brand, learned Expanded Distribution runs through Ingram and preferred going direct via IngramSpark, and, by his account, earned more testing a book wide after two years in KDP Select. (6) Print pages persist: after unpublishing his first paperback, the old listing stayed live via third-party sellers, with its bad cover and old reviews — so proof-check everything. (7) Print-on-demand quality varies: he has seen pale gray ink, crooked cuts, and bending hardcover covers; always order a proof before publishing. (8) Focus: after a year and a half scattered across pen names, he concentrated on fitness, building over a dozen permafree ebooks funneling readers to his flagship 90-Day Home Workout Plan. (9) Own your audience: an email list started in 2015 improved his launches and repeat sales. (10) Amazon is not a partner: after losing review privileges and a later account suspension, and a print royalty cut he cites from 60% to 50% for books under $9.99, he publishes wide and diversifies.

Key takeaways

• Never do review swaps or chase reviews desperately: Roberts says Amazon’s July 2015 purge stripped reviews from his books and permanently removed his own ability to leave reviews
• Marketing is mostly time before it is money — build an email list, use your community and content, and save 10% of book earnings to reinvest in paid promotion; his best-selling cover cost $5
• Free publishing still requires investment where it counts, above all a professional editor; vet advice sources for experience and currency, and avoid shortcut schemes like the 10X pages-read trick that earned him an account warning
• Choose KDP options deliberately for the long term — your own ISBNs versus free ones, Expanded Distribution versus going direct to IngramSpark, and KDP Select exclusivity versus publishing wide
• Amazon controls the platform and changes terms, including the print royalty cut he cites from 60% to 50% for books under $9.99, so build an owned audience and diversify across platforms

Episode details: published September 8, 2026 · 18:15 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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