Can You Still Make Money With Amazon KDP? – I do!

What is Amazon KDP?

Amazon KDP stands for Kindle Direct Publishing, it’s basically Amazon’s book publishing service where you can create and sell or self-publish your books/work. It’s not only for E-books but you can also publish paperback and most recently, hard cover physical books delivered directly to consumers doors.

After having my first child I was determined not to have to return to the daily grind of shift pattern work. I thought about what I enjoyed doing and possible ways to make money from home with writing. I often have all these ideas floating around in my head and would struggle to stick to one things. However, when I stumbled upon Amazon KDP it definitely had me excited and provided me a new found motivation.

With that…I got to writing my first book.

I spent most evenings once I’d gotten my little one to bed typing away on my laptop, pouring my heart out about my birthing experience, becoming a mum for the very first time and sharing how I felt and recovered. A self-help handbook style form of writing. I used Canva to design my cover after watching Youtube videos about how to do so. The whole process probably took me a couple of months and my book was not very long, I thought something easily achievable to read in a short space of time at a very affordable price would be a no brainer.

The Results

Upon getting the word out a little using social media and talking about it to friends and family I had a few purchases, but after the first couple of weeks the excitement died down and I was no longer making any sales.

Just being completely honest, this will probably be the same for you. If you haven’t done any or much research on self-publishing through KDP then you should expect the same results as me. Friends and family will buy but this is not sustainable or creating a long-term passive income for yourself. You need to really delve into how it works, key words, the importance of the book cover, authors pages, descriptions, Amazon Ads…the list goes on. There’s so much to learn.

If you’re looking for some quick cash and don’t want to be putting in the time then KDP is not for you! I just don’t want you to waste your time, move on and find something else or something you’re passionate about.

Here’s the good news…

If you enjoy writing and have lots of creative ideas floating around in your head…then this could be a money making machine for you, but it’s not going to happen over night.

First, you need to learn; read articles, blogs, watch Youtube videos from people who are already successfully doing this (find videos with more views than subscribers or people who show proof of their results).

How I Succeeded at it…

After my first failure, I didn’t let it break me. I didn’t stop trying, I had more ideas I wanted to pursue and make reality so I took to Youtube. I found content creators with smaller amounts of subscribers with genuine and recent results from Amazon KDP.

I ruled at low and no content books like lined journals, because the competition for these is just too fierce.

I thought long and hard about as a buyer myself, what book would I like? Once I’d thought of my idea and Title, I looked on Amazon for similar products but didn’t find many results or much competition; this encouraged and motivated me further. If you can create something that is an answer to something people are regularly searching for then there’s a good chance they’ll be some good profit in there for you or at least some consistent monthly sales.

I then started doing some important key word research using only free tools online, created my front cover using Canva.

I then released my second book and can say I have sales here and there throughout every month, I just didn’t price it high enough to make ‘mega bucks’ on it…and that’s okay! I’ve provided something people are looking for, I make a small profit from it every month but most importantly I learnt from it for the next idea!

ANYONE CAN DO IT

I’m not a computer whiz, I have no background in technology or writing as a profession, I’m just an average person who decided to try something. If I can do it, so can you!

Please subscribe for the coming weeks posts because I’m going to share with you some tips and tricks I’ve learnt along the way within different categories and niches on Amazon KDP so please subscribe so you don’t miss these.

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