STOP Selling Your Books on Amazon KDP! Do THIS Instead...
About this video
Sean argues against advice to stop selling on Amazon KDP and sell books only on your own website. He says the two common objections — Amazon takes a cut, and KDP can ban you — do not outweigh Amazon’s traffic: he claims more than 70% of all US book sales are made on Amazon, with millions of shoppers browsing daily whom Amazon can recommend your book to, whereas a new website has zero traffic. Selling direct means building the site, paying for domain and hosting, handling delivery, inventory, payment processing, customer service, marketing and software fees — all things Amazon handles for print-on-demand sellers. On bans, he says in over 8 years he has never been banned, terminations he has seen almost always involve rule-breaking such as trademark infringement or misleading titles/descriptions, and most cases in videos are suspensions resolved by emailing KDP. He also argues no business or job gives 100% control. He cites KDP homepage data that total KDP KU author earnings for November were $57.1 million, up from $19 million when he started in 2016, which he presents as proof the market is expanding. He concedes direct selling can make sense for creators with a huge audience, email list or following, but says for most beginners Amazon’s simplicity and free traffic are worth the fees.
Key takeaways
- Creator claims more than 70% of US book sales happen on Amazon, so leaving it means losing access to millions of daily shoppers and Amazon’s recommendations
- Selling on your own website requires handling site creation, domain/hosting, delivery, inventory, payments, customer service and marketing that Amazon handles for KDP sellers
- Creator says he has never been banned in over 8 years and that terminations almost always involve rule violations like trademark infringement or misleading titles/descriptions
- Creator says most account cases shown in videos are suspensions, not permanent terminations, and are resolved by contacting KDP
- Creator cites KU author earnings rising from $19 million in 2016 to $57.1 million for November as evidence the KDP market is expanding, not dying
Episode details: published January 27, 2025 · 14:12 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Sean Dollwet’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.
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