Recently, I took it upon myself to gather all my digital marketing tips and advice and get them in book format.  Although this wasn’t an easy task, I chose to get it done – for myself mostly, but I had a little idea to actually get it published – so that people who need the advice could purchase the book for a reasonable cost, and i’d make enough money to get some equipment for my next step – which is either doing some short YouTube videos, or doing some audio clips that would be short enough to ‘absorb’ on the drive to work for most people.

The book is titled “Small Businesses NEED Digital Marketing” – and describes all the tips and tricks that i’ve gathered while helping small businesses get moving online.  I attempt to cover a wide variety of digital marketing topics, from website design, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, creating advertisements, branding your business, business listings, setting up your Google My Business page, and several DIY options available for each of the above topics.

After proofreading my book, I went online to look for a place that could publish the contents and/or print the book for me – so I could sell it on my website.  That’s when I stumbled across Kindle Direct Publishing.  I can’t say how I got started, whether I had to sign in – verify any agreements, or if the first step was to choose options for the book (glossy/color/etc).  What I do know, is that there was a time when I was able to see royalties – and was given an option to choose a higher individual royalty per book, or a lower royalty – and have the book available globally.  I chose the higher royalty, and went along on my merry way.

(Note: I’d like to apologize for the rest of this post – as I had to vent a bit, and hopefully – someone at Amazon reads this review and fixes the process they’ve created.)

The next steps involved me sweating over page layouts, as I had originally written the book in Microsoft Word – which had to be converted to a 6″ x 9″ paper size, which threw all of my images out of whack.  I also noticed that the layout provided by Amazon didn’t allow for page numbers, or headers on each page – which would have been valuable information to have – since I spent quite a bit of time on the table of contents, which references the missing page numbers.

All 172 pages – no page numbers.

As I went to go check on the manuscript and see if I was able to get the page numbers added for the “Second Printing – Now with Page Numbers!!” – I noticed the royalties report.

I was only making $2.11 per copy – on a $25 book.  I’m not greedy by any means, but I had to figure this out – so that I could recommend the service wholly for others who are interested in being published.  The fine print of the agreement says:  “Royalties are calculated after printing and shipping costs.”  Apparently, it costs $21.48 to print and ship my book.  I had the price set at $25 – in the hopes that I’d make $10/copy – and feel good about my contribution to small businesses, as they would have some more information about digital marketing, websites, SEO/SEM…

This is a bit discouraging to say the least.

Amazon sets the price for printing, shipping, and takes a healthy cut of the profits – and i’m left with less than 10% of the cover price.  I had to write the entire book, design the layout, market the book on social media – and the kicker is…

Amazon doesn’t pay royalties until 60 days have passed.  On the end of the second month – they will pay out the first month’s royalties.  I understand this has to do with their policies for returns, printing, shipping, etc. – but it’s a bit frustrating when I have to work so hard to sell the book that they are gouging with their printing/shipping costs off the top, and then gouging me again for the actual profits of the book.  To counter this – and to ensure that I make a little more than peanuts on the work that I already invested – I had to raise the price to $45 (which will take effect sometime in the next 72 hours – so hurry and grab a copy while it’s still $25)

My official review of Kindle Direct Publishing?  

Find another way to get your book published, unless you’ve exhausted your options – or simply don’t care about how much you make for your work, or how long it will take to get paid – or the fact that you’re basically doing all the legwork for a major corporation to bleed you dry.  I don’t get it…  if they set the printing/shipping costs – isn’t that enough?  They have to take more off the top once they’ve established profit?  I mean, Amazon is pretty amazing – but I didn’t think this would happen!

Learn from me – and get your book published another way.  Maybe on a future post, i’ll go over all the alternative options for ‘self-publishing’, so you don’t have to.  : )

Thank you for reading my review – if you’d like to get more inside information on new products online, make sure to come back often – or follow me on social media.

-Nick