Has anyone ever used Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) to self-publish your work? W

1. 78

   philliposted 10 years ago

   Has anyone ever used Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) to self-publish your work? Was is easy to use?
   
   Has anyone ever used Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) to self-publish your work? If so, was it any easy process, did it sell and how did you promote? What kind of book? I want to publish a children's book with illustrations.

   replyreport
2. 70

   craftdrawerposted 10 years ago

   I have used it to publish crochet and knitting pattern books with photos and once you learn the basics it's easy to use.  They have a lot of helpful videos and advice on the KDP website and there is also a free book put out by Amazon to download to show you how (note you don't need a Kindle to download the book) The book is ASIN B007URVZJ6 on Amazon it really is helpful.

   replyreport
   1. 78

      philliposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the ASN. I will check this out and get a better idea of how I should construct my book. That just may save me time and problems on the back end. Thanks a lot!

      replyreport
3. 87

   Billie Kelpinposted 10 years ago

   Philli, I have a hub about publishing a children's ebook.  I think you have to go to my profile because I'm never sure if we can include links to our hubs in our answers here.
   
   Publishing my children's ebook and print book was enormously rewarding, BUT I have lots of thoughts to add.  I published about 2 years ago with bookbaby and never looked at their helpful promotion guidelines until yesterday!! I found out that I could have gotten free reviews by respected reviewers. So I definitely am going to follow that avenue immediately. When I read that I thought, "Opps, what if the review is bad?"  No worries. They will give you a review and if it's a "4" or a "5", they will list it on their website, otherwise, they'll just send you their response.  I am only now exploring this.  You're exactly right PROMOTION is EVERYTHING.  (Well not everything).  (Right now I'm reading "77 Ways to find Readers for Your Self-Published Book" - excellent).
   If at all possible, I might think about getting a print version.  Until I got the print version, I had ZERO interest, even from friends and family.  Of course, I had to take a loss because I only had $600 to spend for 100 copies of a flimsy glossy paperback. (24 color pages)  BUT my book is at Lefty's in San Francisco on Pier 39.  (It reaches a niche market of little left handers).  I wanted to go to kickstarter for funds, but the person that was going to make a video for me, didn't have time.  (PS udemy.com has information on making a great video for kickstarter.  I've given $5 here and there to various kickstarter campaigns which actually got funded. I wish I would have followed through with that and got enough funds for a nicer print version.
   Bookbaby is the publisher I used for the ebook even though I could have done it myself.  Bookbaby will get you into the Apple store, Barnes and Noble for Nook, and lots of other places that going with KDP can't get you. Bookbaby has an EXCELLENT guide to publishing that is available online before you publish (I think I have a link in that hub) AND, at the time I published, they had EXCELLENT phone service for any questions. 
   
   I wouldn't worry too much about selling right now because once you have your book out there, it's there forever. Even two years later, I'm hopeful that if I FOCUS on my book and not 92 other things, it will sell. Visit "Lucky's website" from my hub and feel free to email me about the mistakes I made along the way and what I would do differently the next time. Billie

   replyreport
   1. 78

      philliposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Wow! Thanks for the detailed response. This is a lot of information. I had not heard of Bookbaby until now. I've since read up on them and there are lots of self-publishers that swear by them. They seem to have a lot of checks in the "pro" column.

      replyreport
4. 43

   DDEposted 10 years ago

   Hi phili I have a few kindle reads published and have had good sales. It is easy to have your work published. The promotion is the hardest. I have The Simple Uses  of Herbal Teas and Indian Spices which looks like the most popular title thus far. and a few more   Your idea sounds helpful and a  good title. You can check out my work on DEVIKA PRIMIC  on Amazon.com to view my kindles and have an idea. I promoted via Facebook, Twitter  also the free promotion helps  out well.

   replyreport
   1. 78

      philliposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      The few Kindle reads that have good sales....what is a few and is it enough income to support you (if this is too personal please do not feel pressured to answer and I apologize in advance). Thank you for your encouraging response.

      replyreport
5. 70

   LoisRyan13903posted 10 years ago

   Yeah I published a fantasy novel through it and it was pretty easy.  All I had to do was upload the document which I wrote with word.  But I am not sure how it is if you are including illustrations.  I promoted through sites such as Twitter and Facebook.  The sales haven't been that great because the title is not search engine friendly.  Most of my sales I got were through review swapping, where one person buys a book and does a review and you do the same.  So I really did not make money since I spent aabout the same on other books.  I am working on some home remedy books and think these will go better because it is more search engine friendly.

   replyreport
   1. 78

      philliposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the response. How did you get into the review swapping. Did you just search the internet until you found reviewers or was there some kind of reviewer network that you joined?

      replyreport