Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
In today’s Q&A, we are talking about the different options you have for publishing your book on Kindle.
Just a quick disclaimer, we do not work for Amazon or Kindle and are in no way experts on this subject, however we have found some details that may make choosing your publishing option easier.
Do you have a question you want answered on our podcast? We would love to help you!
Click here to ask your question!
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
- The Amazon FAQ for Kindle Publishing
- Have a Question? Ask it here!
Let’s dive into this week’s question!
JOCELYN: Hey y’all, you’re listening to Q&A with S&J.
SHANE: Welcome to the Flipped Lifestyle Podcast, where life always comes before work. We’re your hosts, Shane and Jocelyn Sams. Join us each week as we teach you how to flip your lifestyle upside down by selling stuff online. Are you ready for something different? All right, let’s get started.
JOCELYN: Hey guys, welcome back to this week’s Q&A with S&J. This week’s question is from John Hipes and John says:
“In your podcast, you mentioned that if I decided to Kindle publishing, I can still offer the product on my site. Is this really true?”
Okay, John, well, we want to preface this by saying that it’s always important that no matter who you’re working with that you need to read their terms and conditions fully and that things are subject to change at any time. We are certainly not experts in this realm or we are also not legal professionals so don’t take what we say…
SHANE: And we don’t work for Amazon.
JOCELYN: Yes, so don’t take what we say as the gospel. You need to always check into these types of things before you get started but as of right now, Shane has done some research for you and he has some information.
SHANE: All right, if you’re going to publish on Amazon, like if you’ve got an ebook and you want to sell it in Amazon, Kindle, or something like that, there are basically two services that Amazon offers. They have where you can just publish your book and sell it individually on Kindle but then they also have this like subscription service where you can include your book, like people can pay like so much a month and they can read unlimited books and ebooks on their device.
Basically what happens is you can go in and you can be a part of that but if you do, then you’re not allowed to sell your book anywhere else except through that area of Amazon. Basically, you’ve got Kindle direct publishing where you can publish your book and you can publish it on Kindle. People can buy it, but then you can still offer it over on your website.
Now there are some limitations to that. You have to read Amazon’s terms and conditions to see that, but they also have a new service, that subscription service, that’s called Kindle Unlimited. If you choose to publish in Kindle Unlimited, then you have to make your title exclusive to the Kindle service. Basically, you have the option, you can either sell it one way where you can publish it on your site too or you can choose Amazon’s service where you can make it exclusive on Kindle.
Now they reward you for doing that. I think they give you like more of the money or something like that. You have to go read in the very specific information but the bottom line is this, there is a way to sell it on Kindle and in the Amazon store as well as on your website. We know a lot of people that do this. They have the self publishing setup on Amazon. They also sell it on their website. It’s like an ebook or something like that so yes, you can do that. You just have to read those terms and conditions to make sure you’re doing it correctly.
JOCELYN: The purpose of doing that for most people is just to get exposure. So you have your book on Kindle and it’s available to people who are searching for it but then it’s also available on your website where you’ll make obviously more of a profit from selling it there.
SHANE: Another thing that people do to is they will offer like a smaller version or a part of their book, like Jeff Walker’s Launch. He has a book on Kindle and he basically sells it for nothing. It’s like really, really super cheap which gives basically an outline of his launch sequence or whatever he does to launch a new product but really, that’s just to get it in front of as many people as possible as cheaply as possible. I think he even did a promotion once where he gave it away for free and then he goes over and he draws people back within the book to his website and he has a larger product or a bigger book that covers this topic in more detail. It’s not like you’re trying to get rich off of Amazon and Kindle.
I mean, if you’re selling $2 ebooks, you’re probably not going to make a ton of money anyway but it is a huge audience. I have a friend here in town that wrote a book. He wrote a novel and he could not get it published anywhere. He almost had it with a company and he didn’t feel comfortable with what they were offering him money wise so he just put his book on Amazon and he ended up selling like 30,000 copies of that in six months.
JOCELYN: And that was an actual physical book.
SHANE: It was a physical book, that’s right. It’s a great way to get your stuff out there. Let people find it, let people get it. Get it out there where people are searching for books and then lead them back to your website for other things. You don’t have to just offer your book there or your book here. You can offer two different things, one is introductory and one is a bigger thing but yes, you absolutely 100% can put your book on Amazon and sell it on your website.
JOCELYN: All right guys, we are going to link to the Amazon FAQ where we found the answer to this question. Remember always to look us up if you’re listening to this sometime in the future to make sure everything is still relevant from this podcast and that is all we have for you today. We will see you next time.
SHANE: Catch you on the flipside, bye.
JOCELYN: Bye.
SHANE: Do you have a question about online business that you would like to have answered on a future episode of the Q&A with S&J Flipped Lifestyle Podcast? If you do, it’s super easy to submit your question. All you have to do is text the letters “QASJ” to the number 38470 and we will send you a text message back with a link to our website where you can submit your question.
You can connect with S&J on social media too!
Thanks again for listening to the show! If you liked it, make sure you share it with your friends and family! Our goal is to help as many families as possible change their lives through online business. Help us by sharing the show!
If you have comments or questions, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post. See y’all next week!
Christina Routon says
Hey, ya’ll! I’m a Georgia girl in Texas so I can say that.
The exclusive kindle program is called KDP select. You choose I think the Kindle Direct Publishing dashboard. You only have to be exclusive for 90 days if you choose to be in select, so it’s not forever. During that 90 days you can run a free book promotion for 5 days or a special sale.
Remember that affiliate links can’t be included but you can send the reader back to your site for an offer or to an email opt in page.