Make Money Kindle Publishing: Still Viable in 2019

About this video

Dale asks whether Kindle publishing still made money and answers that it can, but the easy era is over. He traces the history he presents: Kindle Direct Publishing began in late 2007, ebook sales boomed around 2010, and KDP Select arrived in late 2011 paying from a global fund — which he claims grew from $500,000 at the start to about $27 million a month at the time of recording. Originally, he says, authors were paid roughly $1.35 to $1.50 when a borrower read 10% of a book, which rewarded very short books unfairly; in July 2015 Amazon moved to KENPC, paying per normalized page read. He says the 2010–2015 ‘publish and pray’ approach — finding a low-competition niche and flooding it — no longer works because readers are more discerning. He also argues ‘Kindle publishing’ is too narrow a label: focusing only on ebooks ignores print books, which he says account for the largest share of publishing money, and downloadable audiobooks, a growing on-the-go market. His closing advice is cautionary: only invest time, energy, and money you can afford to lose, because in his view far more people fail than succeed, and treat the business as building an author brand across formats.

Key takeaways

• Per the creator’s account, KDP Select pay shifted in July 2015 from a per-borrow payment at 10% read to per-page KENPC payments.
• The creator claims the KDP Select Global Fund grew from $500,000 initially to about $27 million a month — treat these as his figures, not verified data.
• The old strategy of publishing quickly into low-competition niches and hoping for sales no longer works with more discerning readers.
• Do not limit a book business to ebooks: the creator argues print brings the largest share of money and audiobooks are a growing format.
• Only risk time and money you can afford to lose, since the creator says failures heavily outnumber successes in this business.

Episode details: published April 10, 2019 · 11:31 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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