How to Make Money Self Publishing on Amazon

About this video

Note: summarized from the Arabic caption track. Dale Roberts argues that Kindle Direct Publishing is profitable for independent authors, but not the only way to make money on Amazon. Core formats first: ebooks, an easy entry point to a wider audience; print books, which he says hold the larger share of global publishing revenue because readers like owning physical books — paperbacks through KDP Print after CreateSpace merged into it, and also through distributors such as Lulu.com and IngramSpark; hardcovers, which he notes were not yet on KDP Print and could be produced through IngramSpark and Lulu and appear on Amazon; and audiobooks, whose growth he calls astronomical, comparing the market to a gold rush and the Wild West, and warning that authors without an audio edition leave money and audience on the table. Then less conventional routes. Merch by Amazon lets authors earn from branded merchandise — he says he simply wears his own shirts on his channel and viewers buy them — including t-shirts, long-sleeve shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, and PopSockets. Amazon Associates pays a small affiliate percentage when people buy through your links; Amazon itself prompts authors with an Author Central profile to use it, you earn royalties plus a little extra when someone buys your book through your link, and you still earn a small cut if the visitor buys something else instead, such as paper towels or a cat toy. Prime Video Direct, Amazon’s platform for independent video, can extend an author’s brand through a recorded reading or short nonfiction series, but he cautions that producing and uploading is laborious and captions are required and not free, mentioning rev.com, calling it a stricter YouTube. Finally, Twitch, which Amazon bought for roughly a billion dollars by his account, has expanded beyond gaming to artists, videographers, editors, and indie authors; he cites fellow author Melody Casey running regular writing-sprint streams there, with income possible through the affiliate program’s subscribers and Bits, its tipping currency.

Key takeaways

• Diversify beyond Kindle ebooks: print books, hardcovers via distributors like IngramSpark and Lulu, and audiobooks are all presented as major additional income routes on or through Amazon
• Audiobooks are framed as a fast-growing, still-wide-open market; not having an audio edition means leaving money and part of your audience unserved
• Merch by Amazon can monetize an author brand with almost no promotion — Roberts says viewers buy shirts simply because he wears them on camera
• Join Amazon Associates and share your own book links: you earn your royalty plus an affiliate cut, and you still earn if the visitor buys a different product instead
• Prime Video Direct and Twitch are additional Amazon-owned surfaces for an author brand, but video requires real production effort, including paid captioning for Prime Video Direct

Episode details: published March 27, 2019 · 10:24 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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