# Anyone self-published on Amazon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 24, 2011, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952 "2011-11-24T03:53:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/1 "2011-11-24T03:53:32Z")
Having failed to get a publisher or even an agent for my little non-fiction book, I’m considering self-publishing on [Kindle Direct Publishing](https://kdp.amazon.com/). I’ve read all the conditions and everything and am not unhappy with the terms. I have plenty of resources in terms of book format and layout, so I won’t be needing help in that area. Anyone had any issues with the formatting, uploading, publishing, marketing, sales or delivery? Any gotchas I mightn’t have thought of? Has anyone used their ancillary services like On-Demand Publishing, Author Central, Amazon Advantage, Amazon Associates and so on? Basically after general experiences and tips. Oh, and one specific question - how did you decide on a price? Thanks folks! ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/2 "2011-11-29T01:06:19Z")
I know we have a number of published authors on the board … but no self publishers? I am surprised. Vanity press can’t be dead, surely! ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/3 "2011-11-29T01:44:57Z")
A friend of my husband’s self-published his sci fi fantasy book on Amazon. He, I believe, used its on-demand ancillary so as not to be left “holding the bag” (or books), as it were. He also had a tie-in with Create Space. I’m not sure how that worked, though. I know he’s considering putting out a Kindle version with the hope that its lower price will entice more people to buy it. I bellieve his initial listing price was in the mid teens – say, $16.95 for a 200-odd page book. I suspect he arrived at the price after checking the going price for similar books in the genre. I could ask my husband for more details if you’d like. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/4 "2011-11-29T02:29:11Z")
I did, but I don’t have much to say about it. It worked. Note, however, that if people don’t need your product all the time, they can just buy it and return it. That proved to be a problem for me, since shorter products can basically be treated as a try-out. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/5 "2011-11-29T04:32:50Z")
> [@kiz](#): > > A friend of my husband’s self-published his sci fi fantasy book on Amazon. He, I believe, used its on-demand ancillary so as not to be left “holding the bag” (or books), as it were. He also had a tie-in with Create Space. I’m not sure how that worked, though. > > I know he’s considering putting out a Kindle version with the hope that its lower price will entice more people to buy it. > > I believe his initial listing price was in the mid teens – say, $16.95 for a 200-odd page book. I suspect he arrived at the price after checking the going price for similar books in the genre. > > I could ask my husband for more details if you’d like. Obviously I didn’t make it clear - I’m exclusively talking about Kindle publishing, not a real printed book. I’d be interested if he’s gone further with that than I have (basically I’ve read all the online info but not actually done anything yet). thank you! > [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > I did, but I don’t have much to say about it. It worked. Note, however, that if people don’t need your product all the time, they can just buy it and return it. That proved to be a problem for me, since shorter products can basically be treated as a try-out. You’re talking about physical printed books, not digital, I think? ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/6 "2011-11-29T05:08:08Z")
I hear the current prevailing wisdom is that if you are a new, untried author your first ebook should be $0.99, and if it does well you can raise the price a little on subsequent books. I know of one guy who’s done this at Amazon and it’s worked out quite well for him so far. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/7 "2011-11-29T05:43:31Z")
I’ve self published on Amazon, and they have an EXCELLENT forum for Kindle publishers, where you can find threads where people discuss most of the problems you might have and how to solve them, and you can ask questions too of course. I highly recommend joining the Kindle Publishing forums and reading them before proceeding with publishing there. If you like what you see, go for it. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/8 "2011-11-29T11:07:01Z")
I’ve never self-published but I know someone with four Kindle books, horror/crime genre. The first she priced at .99, the most recent $3.99. She’s sold quite a few, but she has five or six active blogs, maintains a very heavy online presence on writers’ boards and generally spends a _lot_ of time promoting herself. Without doing that I doubt she’d have sold many because the writing is really bad. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/9 "2011-11-29T11:44:37Z")
Just curious, but whats the subject of your book ? And by the way good luck, hope it does well. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/10 "2011-11-29T14:25:25Z")
> [@chiroptera](#): > > I’ve never self-published but I know someone with four Kindle books, horror/crime genre. The first she priced at .99, the most recent $3.99. > > She’s sold quite a few, but she has five or six active blogs, maintains a very heavy online presence on writers’ boards and generally spends a _lot_ of time promoting herself. Without doing that I doubt she’d have sold many because the writing is really bad. True dat. You have to be prepared to promote your book if you want it to sell. There will be no one to do it for you. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/11 "2011-11-29T15:31:43Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > You’re talking about physical printed books, not digital, I think? Nope. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/12 "2011-11-29T15:45:30Z")
I have two science fiction novels I self-published on Kindle, but just as digital copies, I don’t offer physical copies. I set the price at 99 cents since I am not a well-known author. Tjhat’s only 35 cents a download profit, but I have been reasonably successful selling them and I’m working on sequels. Hopefully I can charge a bit more for the sequels. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/13 "2011-11-30T00:52:50Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > Nope. Oh … do you mind expanding a bit on > [@](#): > > if people don’t need your product all the time, they can just buy it and return it please? I wasn’t aware that people could return Kindle books? ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/14 "2011-11-30T01:12:39Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Just curious, but what’s the subject of your book ? It’s light-hearted non-fiction; I’ve gathered a bunch of “geographical misfits”; things that didn’t actually originate where you might think (eg panama hat, alsatian dog, guinea pig) and written hopefully amusing and informative short explanations of how they got those names. > [@](#): > > And by the way good luck, hope it does well. Thank you. I’ve been unsuccessful getting any lasting industry interest; one agent was quite keen to represent me for a while and then suddenly (literally one day to the next) went cold after he gave it to someone else to read. So maybe it’s just not very good or interesting :shrug: ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/15 "2011-11-30T12:29:06Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > It’s light-hearted non-fiction; I’ve gathered a bunch of “geographical misfits”; things that didn’t actually originate where you might think (eg panama hat, alsatian dog, guinea pig) and written hopefully amusing and informative short explanations of how they got those names. That’s a subject that’s right up my alley, I love discovering word origins! > [@](#): > > I’ve been unsuccessful getting any lasting industry interest; one agent was quite keen to represent me for a while and then suddenly (literally one day to the next) went cold after he gave it to someone else to read. So maybe it’s just not very good or interesting :shrug: The same thing happened with my husband’s friend – sent it out, it garnered interest with a particular agent, then for no reason the agent dropped him :shrug: OK, the Kindle stuff: Friend had both digital and hard copies made of his sci fi book. The Kindle version, overall, has been more of a success because of its price point ($0,99 – friend isn’t a big-name author either) He’s since published a Kindle version of a personal essay collection as well as a book about antique guns. The antique gun version is selling for a couple of bucks, given that the friend is now somewhat of a “name” because of the sci fi book. I think he told my husband he’s had about 40K downloads of the sci fi book. It’s a good story, the price is right, and it initially got his name out there. I honestly don’t know what he did about promoting it, though. That’s the thing – self-promotion can be very, very difficult, especially for a first-time author. ---
**Author:** ![Woeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Woeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Woeg)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/16 "2011-11-30T14:11:10Z")
Askance, I love that kind of stuff! Please let me know when you publish it, and I’ll buy a copy 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-self-published-on-amazon/603952/17 "2011-11-30T15:50:05Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > please? I wasn’t aware that people could return Kindle books? You can for a very short time. A couple/few days.