How To Determine if Kindle Publishing Right for You?

Kindle publishing (KDP) skyrocketed in popularity over the past decade once people realized that there was a way for them to become published authors without going the traditional publishing route.

These days, anyone can write and publish their book on the Kindle marketplace. Depending on how good your work is, you can either become a bestselling author or you may not sell any copies. Once again, you’ll need to let the market decide if they like your work.

There are several self-published authors who are making 6 and 7 figures just from publishing Kindle books. It is a very profitable business model, but it’s not for everyone.

What are your goals?

If you’re not interested in books and just wish to make money online, this business model is probably not right for you. While there are marketers who hire out their writing to ghostwriters and still make money with KDP, the really successful ones immerse themselves in this business and know all its nuances.

They are fans of the genres they’re in and love reading books. They know their audience and write for them – because they’re also part of the audience. There is a lot of passion involved. A mercenary marketer who is just in this for the money may see success, but will be limited in growth and longevity in the business.

Are you a good writer?

It goes without saying that you’ll need to be a good writer. The marketplace can be merciless, and since Amazon allows customers to leave reviews, you can bet that people will tell you what they think of your work – more so if they don’t like it.

So, do make sure you can write well and you get a good editor and proof reader to go through your work.

Can you outsource?

To truly make money with Kindle publishing, sooner or later you’ll need to hire competent ghostwriters to write for you. You’ll put your name to the books and sell them as your own.

Writing is a draining and time-consuming process. By leveraging the efforts of other good writers, you’ll be able to scale up much faster.

You may wonder, “But why don’t those writers publish on the Kindle marketplace too?”

An interesting question, but the truth is that some people just love to be freelance writers. They’re not interested in marketing their work. They just want to write and they write well… so hire them to write for you and everyone’s happy.

Fiction or non-fiction?

There’s money to be made in both fiction and non-fiction, but generally, it’s easier to write non-fiction. However, there’s much more money to be made in fiction because the readers are more passionate about the genres and stories.

A fiction reader will buy an entire box set if they love any one of the books in the series. Someone who buys a non-fiction book on the keto diet is probably not going to buy 10 other books on it.

So, there are pros and cons here. Decide which genre you like and go for it.

Putting all your eggs in one basket

Like Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice, “All that glisters is not gold.” In the same vein, as lucrative as Kindle publishing may sound, it would be a good idea to build a side hustle in another online business model too. (E.g. affiliate marketing)

Putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea and Amazon has been shown to make sudden decisions that usually don’t favor affiliates or publishers.

So, by having another business model to back you up, your earnings will not be too adversely affected if Amazon changes things up. It’s good to have another profitable business in place to buffer you against the vagaries of the Amazon scene.

Now that you’re aware of what Kindle publishing is all about and what it entails, do think carefully if it’s right for you and go in well-informed. There’s gold in them thar hills, but there are also pitfalls. So be cautious.