The Self-Publishing Show (Pt. 2)

Episode Summary: Part 2 of the self-publishing series — the 3 core Amazon tools for getting a book published, on-demand printed, and turned into an audiobook. What You'll Learn The 3 core Amazon self-publishing tools: KDP, CreateSpace, and ACX How Kindle Direct Publishing works and what Amazon takes in commission Amazon's non-Amazon self-publishing competitors worth knowing about What audiobook narrators actually get paid on ACX Part 1 covered writing and editing tools and resources. This episode covers self-publishing directly on Amazon.com: Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), CreateSpace (on-demand printing), and ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange). Competitors to Amazon in Self-Publishing Apple iBooks Store, Kobo Writing Life, Barnes & Noble, Blurb, and Google Play Books, among others. Amazon's 3 Self-Publishing Components Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) The e-book publishing side of Amazon, launched in 2007, and how a book ends up in the Kindle Store. Completely free to use, though Amazon takes a 30% commission on sales. The Kindle Store grew from 500,000 titles in 2010 to over 5 million by this episode. Step 1: create an account and profile on KDP using an Amazon login — worth doing as soon as the decision to write a book is made, just to start exploring the process. Add tax info, bank account details, the book title, and verify rights. CreateSpace Also owned and operated by Amazon — on-demand printing for physical copies of a book, for a fee plus roughly a 40% commission. ACX Amazon's Audiobook Creation Exchange, for turning a digital book into an audiobook. Audiobooks sell through Amazon, iTunes, and Audible (also Amazon-owned). How narrators get paid on ACX — 3 options: Hourly rate — roughly $225/finished hour Royalty split — 50% of all royalties A combination of hourly plus royalty One finished hour of audio equals roughly 9,300 words, and takes the average narrator about 6.2 hours to produce. Show Notes & Links Apple iBooks Store Kobo Writing Life Barnes & Noble Blurb Google Play Books Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) CreateSpace ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange) Related Episodes Episode 72: The Self-Publishing Show (Pt. 1) Episode 74: The Self-Publishing Show (Pt. 3) Read the complete show notes and resources on mikemurphy.ai. Support the show Subscribe To Weekly Newsletter: AI Unplugged Connect With Me 🌐 Website 📧 Newsletter 🎥 YouTube 🐦 X 💼 LinkedIn Comments, Questions & Feedback: [email protected]