Amazon KDP Paperback Publishing - (Is It Worth It?)

About this video

Martinez reviews his December KDP paperback results and argues the platform is worth pursuing. He reports that one book sold 242 units in December and made $696.22 in royalties — correcting his initial recollection that it was close to $1,000 — with a second book making about $300, and he claims that book was doing roughly $100 a day for much of December, had a BSR he describes as averaging in the tens/hundreds of thousands range, and at times got one-day shipping as sales volume rose, compared with slower shipping on Merch by Amazon. Notably, he says those 242 sales produced only about two reviews at first. His main lesson is keyword placement: title is most important (use the one long-tail keyword phrase you want to rank for), subtitle is nearly as important and should be packed with solid related keywords — he says leaving the subtitle blank, as he did on earlier books, makes Amazon’s algorithm work harder and can delay a first sale by months. Next come the seven backend keyword boxes (he currently fills them with 3-4 separate keywords per slot and wants to split-test long-tail phrases there), then the description, which he says also helps ranking on Google. He says he also experimented with AMS ads to learn what his books rank for, and that he only began pushing KDP harder in mid-to-late November after seeing sales pick up.

Key takeaways

• He reports one December book sold 242 copies for $696.22 in royalties, with a second book around $300 — presented as his own KDP dashboard results.
• Put your main long-tail keyword phrase in the book title; it is the single most important ranking element.
• Never leave the subtitle blank: fill it with strong niche keywords, which he says drives noticeably more traffic and sales.
• Fill all seven backend keyword slots with your highest-volume niche keywords, and write a keyword-rich description to also help Google ranking.
• Sales velocity can improve Amazon’s treatment of a book — he observed faster (even one-day) shipping offers as a book’s sales picked up.

Episode details: published January 14, 2020 · 23:11 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are RJ Martinez’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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