The ABCs of Self-Publishing Platforms Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing

According to an article by Nicholas Rizzo in January 2023, 30-34% of all ebooks sold are self-published. Three-hundred million self-published books are sold each year and $1.25 billion self-published books are sold each year. Amazon pays $520 million in royalties to self-published authors each year. Only 1% of audiobooks on Audible are self-published. The global publishing market is expected to grow at 1% CAGR per year, whereas the self-publishing market is expected to grow at 17%. The number of self-published books has increased by 264% in the last five years.

You can read more of his research here: https://wordsrated.com/self-published-book-sales-statistics/.

I started self-publishing in 2008, back when KDP was Booksurge and did a rundown in 2021 of the self-publishing options comparing cost, rights, distribution, services, and payments. Self-publishing continues to gain in legitimacy. Traditionally published authors have had rights reversion so they can republish their backlist. Mid-list authors that were dropped were also able to continue their popular series. There will always be poorly presented books for sale, some are traditionally published titles. However, the tools and guidance for writers has continued to improve to the point where anyone can upload a beautifully designed, edited, and formatted novel. 

Most of my new favorite writers are self-published. I would hate to have missed out on their books. As traditional publishing has faced challenges and contraction, self-publishing has blossomed. There are many options. Some writers prefer to stay with just Amazon with their amazing distribution network. Others choose to go wide with aggregators with equally strong reach in foreign markets.

The information is accurate as of my research date of May 2024. Over the next few weeks, we will take a look at them alphabetically. I will make a master list at the end for easier comparison.

AMAZON/KDP

https://kdp.amazon.com/

Amazon is still the behemoth worldwide distribution platform for books. First, they owned Booksurge, which became CreateSpace, and is now Kindle Direct Publishing. 

They currently have traditional imprints which require agented submissions: Lake Union Publishing, Thomas & Mercer, Montlake, Little a, Amazon Crossing, Amazon Crossing Kids, 47 North, Sky Scape, Two Lions, Amazon Original Stories, Topple Books, Mindy's Book Studio, Amazon Publishing, Jet City Comics, Grand Harbor Press, and Waterfall Press.

They purchased Audible for audiobooks and the book review site Goodreads.

They added Kindle Select for authors connected to the Kindle Unlimited reader subscription program.

They recently began Kindle Vella for short form fiction.

They do not require exclusivity except for titles enrolled in Kindle Select.

They offer many trim sizes for print on demand paperbacks, children's books, and hardcovers in color and black and white.

They have the Kindle ereaders and tablets as well as apps for your phone, tablet, and PC.

Cost: It is free to upload your files and covers. You can change the files at any time at no cost. There are delivery fees for ebooks, print costs for paperback, sales taxes in some cases, and you cannot make your book free unless enrolled in Kindle Select. You decide the price but there are minimums. Amazon may price match. In the small print, they state they can change your price at any time for any reason.

Rights: You retain all rights. They provide a free ISBN (exclusive to their platform) or you can use your own. Whether they provide the number or you do, it needs to be unique to the KDP platform. No ISBN is required for ebooks. They are assigned an ASIN identification number.

Distribution: With expanded distribution your book is available through hundreds of online retailers, bookstores, and distributors like IngramSpark and international stores. They have the widest distribution by far with sales sites in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, Japan, India, Australia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and growing. Austria. The distributors also cover Ireland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania, Slovakia, and Sweden. They can be ordered by bookstores, online retailers, libraries, and academic institutions. There is no guarantee they will be stocked in any specific location, but they are available to order. Books cannot be designated as returnable by bricks and mortar stores. 

Books and ebooks can, however, be returned. Books accidentally purchased from the Kindle Store can be returned within seven days of purchase. You may not be eligible for a refund if a book has been partially read or if they detect account abuse. Once a refund is issued, you won't have access to the book. To request a refund and return content, visit Manage Your Content and Devices. Then select the Actions button next to the title you'd like to return, and select Return for Refund. Amazon's return policy for books typically allows for returns within 30 days of delivery. The book should be in its original condition, and you may initiate the return through your Amazon account. If the return is due to an Amazon error or a defective product, they may cover return shipping costs.

Kindle books you receive as a gift are eligible for exchange for an Amazon.com Gift Card before acceptance

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GQTT4W3T5AYK7L45

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834280

Services: You can set up your author profile, linking to your blog and website, on Author Central in the US and in most of the foreign Amazon store sites. You should create your author page and link to all of the books that are yours and contest any that are not to avoid confusion.

They allow pre-orders.

There are marketing, promotion, and ad options. Your book is suggested by their algorithm online and in promotional emails. Amazon has many advertising and marketing opportunities with a huge database of articles to assist you in all aspects of book formatting and cover design. They have a service to help you choose categories and keywords.

They have a way to connect your books in a series.

They have software to help you create your product called Kindle Create. They have templates for covers and interiors. They have a virtual proof to view when you upload. You can order a printed proof. You can order author copies at a discounted rate. They have added a series tool that generates all of the books in a series when there is a search. 

They have the Kindle Select/Kindle Unlimited plans which allow readers to pay a monthly fee and have unlimited access to the books enrolled in the program. Subscribers currently pay $11.99 per month. They advertise 4 million digital books, audiobooks, comics, and magazines. They can read and hold onto up to 20 titles at a time before returning them.

Payment: You cannot make your title free unless it is enrolled in Kindle Select. There are minimum prices based on print cost and e-book delivery cost, but you set your price. The royalties run from 35% to 70% depending on the distribution option. If you enroll your paperback in Expanded Distribution, the royalty rate is 40% of the book's list price effective in the distribution channel at the time of purchase, minus printing costs, applicable taxes, and withholding.

Digital Books enrolled in KDP Select will be eligible to earn 70% royalty for sales to customers in Brazil, Japan, Mexico, and India. The List Price you set for Brazil, Japan, Mexico, and India must also meet the 70% List Price requirements for sales to customers in Brazil, Japan, Mexico, and India. If your Digital Book is not enrolled in KDP Select or you do not meet the 70% List Price requirements, you will earn 35% royalty.

Royalties are paid every month, approximately 60 days after the end of the month in which the sale was reported (90 days for Expanded Distribution). You are paid royalties monthly by Direct Deposit (Recommended), Wire Transfer, or Check.

Sales data is updated daily. You can run sales reports at any time.

If you enroll in Kindle Select, you are paid a fee depending on percentage of pages read. ACX/Audible pays 25 to 40% royalties. They review the size of the KDP Select Global Fund each month to make it compelling for authors to enroll their Kindle eBooks in KDP Select. They announce the fund monthly in our community forum. The share of fund allocated to each country varies based on a number of factors, such as exchange rates, customer reading behavior, and local subscription pricing. Author earnings are then determined by their share of total pages read. They are able to earn a maximum of 3,000 Kindle Edition Normalized Pages(KENPC) read per title per customer.

They do not permit authors to offer, or participate in marketing that incentivizes Kindle Unlimited (KU) customers to read their Kindle eBooks in exchange for compensation of any kind. This includes payment (whether in the form of money or gift certificates), bonus content, entry to a contest or sweepstakes, discounts on future purchases, extra product, or other gifts.

In the small print they say they can change your book price any time for any reason and this had led to some authors feeling disgruntled. They do price match, so if you use other platforms and post lower prices, your sales price will drop on KDP. 

The price at which we sell your Digital Book may not be the same as your List Price. For instance, we might sell your Digital Book at a lower price to match a third party's price for a Digital or Physical edition of the book. Or, we might match Amazon's price for a Physical edition of the book.

Additionally, from time to time your book may be made available through other sales channels as part of a free promotion. It is important that Digital Books made available through the Program have promotions that are on par with free promotions of the same book in another sales channel. Therefore, if your Digital Book is available through another sales channel for free, we may also make it available for free. If we match a free promotion of your Digital Book somewhere else, your Royalty during that promotion will be zero. Unlike under the 70% Royalty Option, if we match a price for your Digital Book that is above zero, it won't change the calculation of your Royalties indicated in B above. If you lower the List Price of a Digital Book while it is available for pre-order, they will charge customers that pre-ordered that Digital Book before the price decrease the lower price. Your Royalty will be based on the actual price they charge customers as a result of our Pre-order Price Guarantee, net of refunds, bad debt, and any VAT, sales or other taxes charged to a customer or applied with respect to sales to a customer.

Amazon continues to expand its reach. It is by far the epublishing powerhouse. Easy to use. I have never had a problem with sales or royalty payments since I started working with them in 2008. I still sell books that I haven't marketed in a long time. Not that I recommend ignoring your books. 

Next week, we look at Apple Books.

As always if you find this information helpful, share it, like it. If you want more free information, sign up to follow the blog on blogger or the Story Building Blocks Facebook Page. Free tips and tools are also available on my site https://dianahurwitz.com/.

KDP and AI Rules

When it comes to book creation or cover design, there is no question some writers and designers are using Artificial Intelligence. Regulation follows the advent of any major shift in creation. So, what are the rules when publishing through KDP using AI? How do they know it is AI? What will they do if it is AI-created? Let's take a look.

1. Can AI created text and art be copyrighted? 

Short answer, no. Since AI pulls from many copyrighted materials to make its word and art salad, your spin on the AI site is not considered an original work. Therefore, you cannot upload it to any site and claim copyright: not on KDP, Deviant Art, nor any stock photo sales site.

2. What is the difference between AI created versus AI assisted?

AI assistance can come in the form of answering questions, doing research for you, and helping you outline your novel. There is nothing wrong with assistance. There are software and books and blogs to help you outline a novel, do research, etc. I have a whole series on Story Building Blocks to help you outline your novel, build your characters, and your world. That kind of assist is okay. The line is drawn when AI creates the content for you, in part or in whole. If you are copying and pasting content AI has created, it is not considered an assist. It is considered plagiarism because of the sources AI was trained on.

In regard to covers, if you go to one of the many delightful AI art sites and say "I need an image of a fantasy village with dragons," you cannot use the resulting image for your cover. The work around to use AI only to assist is to make a collage of what you want a village or dragon to look like, upload it to AI to make it fleshed out, then put it back in your photo manipulation program and make changes. That makes it "original" to you. Just a brief detour to say, you have to pay for commercial licensing for most stock art and fonts. Just because it appears on a "free" site does not mean you have a commercial license for it. Those "free" sites are tricky that way. Free for personal use, yes. Free for a product you sell, not necessarily. If you have a commercial license for stock art, you can manipulate it for your cover. Same with a special font.

KDP requires you to inform them of AI generated content (text, images, or translations) when you upload you title or republish a title. You are not required to disclose AI-assisted content. So, what's the difference?

Per KDP's website:

"AI-generated: We define AI-generated content as text, images, or translations created by an AI-based tool. If you used an AI-based tool to create the actual content (whether text, images, or translations), it is considered "AI-generated," even if you applied substantial edits afterwards.

AI-assisted: If you created the content yourself, and used AI-based tools to edit, refine, error-check, or otherwise improve that content (whether text or images), then it is considered "AI-assisted" and not “AI-generated.” Similarly, if you used an AI-based tool to brainstorm and generate ideas, but ultimately created the text or images yourself, this is also considered "AI-assisted" and not “AI-generated.” It is not necessary to inform us of the use of such tools or processes. You are responsible for verifying that all AI-generated and/or AI-assisted content adheres to all content guidelines, including by complying with all applicable intellectual property rights." KDP "

3. Can I use AI to translate my novel?

Not if you upload your content and tell AI to create a foreign language edition. It's important to note that AI sites, even Google translate, cannot be relied upon for accuracy. You really should have a native speaker or trained translator assist you. If you rely on ChatGPT, that's on you.

4. How can they tell?

This is probably the most critical part for anyone wishing to slip under the radar. The answer is filters and algorithms that can identify AI-generated content and plagiarism. Do they make mistakes? Yes. Can you appeal? Yes. There are filters for art and filters for writing. It is similar to the plagiarism filters. So, don't be like the cut and paste thief. You could get sued by Romance Writers of America. Some filters can recognize paraphrased plagiarism too, in case you wondered. If you are caught plagiarizing, your account is deactivated. They are not, to my knowledge, doing that with AI-created content.

There are programs and filters for plagiarism and AI content. Most require an account and payment. There are many plagiarism sites not listed here. These serve as examples.

Turnitin states it can detect paraphrased AI content and ChatGPT generated content and Quillbot paraphrasing with 99% accuracy.

TraceGPT, also referred to as AI Plagiarism Checker & ChatGPT Content AI Detector, is part of PlagiarismCheck.org. You must make an account to use it.

Winston AI integrates with Blackboard, and Google Classroom, and can be used by businesses to detect plagiarism. Can also give you a readability score. It can scan documents, pictures, and handwriting. Can be used with Google, Edge, and Firefox.

Hive is a free AI content detector for text, image, and voice.

GPTZero detects ChatGPT, GPT4, Google-Gemini, LLaMa, and new AI models.

Originality.ai is a plagiarism and fact checker.

Does KDP run every file through a filter? I couldn't find a clear answer. I know they run a grammar and spelling filter for the virtual proof.

5. Why are AI-generated novels sold on Amazon?

A recent speaker bragged that he wrote and published 7 books with AI in the past year. I looked him up. The books are there. I have seen obvious AI created covers on traditionally published books too.

How is that possible given KDP "doesn't allow" AI work? Well, it kinda does.

“While we allow AI-generated content, we don't allow AI-generated content that violates our Kindle Direct Publishing content guidelines, including content that creates a disappointing customer experience,” Amazon spokesperson Ashley Vanicek says.

That's a non-answer if I ever saw one. Which is it? You do or you don't? The answer is, you probably aren't safe from plagiarism or copyright infringement claims, but they won't stop you from trying.

Under the current guidelines, authors are required to disclose whether their book contains AI-generated content by checking the box on upload. You can mention AI-created in the book description or author's notes.

KDP Content Guidelines

So, you can, in fact, sell it through Amazon.

Why allow it at all? I suspect they are gauging whether AI-generated books will make them money.

I use AI spins for character creation. I start with a paper doll created in Photoshop and spin it on NightCafe then refine it in Photoshop. There are always identifiable artifacts. AI is horrible with hands, ears, and facial features. It adds extra limbs. It is bad with images that look real instead of drawings. The resolution can be quite poor, so you have to paint over it anyway. I have played with keywords for days before I get anything remotely usable. If I knew animation, I would prefer to make images that way. Sadly, I don't have those skills. Yet. I have grown leaps and bounds with Photoshop over the past five years. I get that people don't want to take the time to learn. I prefer stock images I manipulate which I pay for when I create a cover. If AI can spit it out, I can recreate it on Photoshop. I prefer to pay the original artist or photographer and font designer for a commercial license when possible.

It may be tempting to create a bunch of books with ChatGPT if you need cash. However, writing is only half of the job. Marketing and publicity are the other half. If you upload a book to KDP or any other platform, it sits there unnoticed for 90 days until it falls off the algorithm entirely. You need a platform and your reputation is on the line. You will have to work just as hard to sell an AI created book as you would one you wrote. There is no fast easy cash in the publishing business. Is that the reputation you want? Are you willing to risk the ramifications if you unknowingly plagiarize someone else's work?

In summary, just because you can doesn't mean you should. Someone presented a monkey-created painting as fine art. "Experts" oohed and aahed about the lines and colors and said it was worth millions. They were humiliated when it was revealed the painting was by an ape. I imagine the reaction would be the same if it was revealed that ChatGPT wrote your book. So, proceed with caution.

As always if you find this information helpful, share it, like it. If you want more free information, sign up to follow the blog on blogger or the Story Building Blocks Facebook Page. Free tips and tools are also available on my site https://dianahurwitz.com/.