It’s been a decade-plus since Kindle enters the book market and today, it’s still a much sought after product by shoppers worldwide. This makes it an interesting niche to talk about. To get a wholesome idea on how to make money from Amazon Kindle, we are going to look from two different perspectives – the authors who fuel the Kindle industry and the affiliates who market it.
By the end of this, you should be able to decide which monetization path is most suitable for your endeavors. So let’s dive right into things.
(1) Making Money As an Independent Author
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is the in-house program that lets you create, publish and sell eBooks on Amazon. Anything from classic to cookbooks is welcomed and there are two ways to earn.
The first method is selling through the Kindle store and getting paid in royalties. If a book is priced between $2.99 to $9.99, you make 70% and if it’s priced more than $9.99, you make 35%. You get to choose which royalties based on the price you set.
The second method is to enroll in the KDP Select and with this program, your books will be included in the Kindle Unlimited (KU) selection and the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL).
Your royalty is paid based on the pages a customer reads so the figures vary widely.
Payments are made on a monthly basis but there’s a 60-day waiting time from the point of sales. You can opt for the payments to be made via check and wire transfer which requires a threshold of $100 or direct deposit which doesn’t need one.
The Pros
The most obvious advantage of the program is that it usually takes several weeks to get your book onto the ‘virtual’ bookshelf of Amazon versus the traditional publishing way that could take up to 1 year. Not to mention, once the book is listed, you’re going to get a ton of exposure by leveraging the huge customer base within the marketplace.
To help make the process easier, there are plenty of online resources to go to for guidance. The free training called KDP University can be found on the main site but there are also paid training available, usually conducted by experienced sellers.
Just remember to do some research before committing as some of these are just mediocre training, trying to take advantage of your participation to make extra profit for themselves.
The Cons
By choosing to sell on Amazon, you got to sometimes play with their rules and this is true in the case of exclusivity. According to their terms, you can only sell on the Kindle store and not on other digital platforms. Plus, you are also not allowed to sell on your own site.
When you analyzed the KU payout structure, it seems unjust because it only accounts for the number of pages read. That technically means authors with more pages will earn more regardless of content quality. And get this, if the readers take forever to complete a particular book, you’ll have to wait equally as long to get the full revenue out of those pages.
Lastly, due to the amount of competition and demand for creative writing, you need to constantly work hard to churn out as much content as possible to get that well-deserved exposure and recognition. High power authors have been known to write at least 3000 words per day and some even produce as many as 3 books per month.
(2) Make Money As an Amazon Associate
The Amazon Associate program is an incentive program that pays commissions for referral sales. It lets you cash in on the millions of products on the marketplace without having to own any yourself. Within this niche, there are two things we are interested to promote – Kindle Unlimited and the eReader devices.
Before joining the program, make sure to create a website aimed at book lovers who have a huge appetite for reading or anyone who wants to try eReading for change. You can do so by writing relevant blogs targeting this group of people.
If you haven’t got a website already, use this free tool below to set up one for free.
Once you’ve completed that, it’s time to set up your blog with some content. But first, let’s get to know some of the product features, their relevance in the market and how much commission you’ll be getting.
1 – Kindle Unlimited Membership
- the program started in July 2014 and it’s like Netflix for books.
- it’s basically a subscription that gives access to millions of titles, audiobooks, and online magazines.
- most of the books here are written by independent authors or lesser-known authors who just launched a new book series.
- users can borrow up to 10 books per time.
- the library can be accessed using the Kindle App which is compatible with any mobile devices, not just limited to Kindle devices.
- the subscription comes with 30 days free trial, cost $9.99 per month but can be canceled at any time.
- best for voracious readers or those who want a bigger bang for the buck.
- the program pays a $3 bounty for every free trial sign up you refer to.
2 – Kindle eReaders
- Amazon’s eReader brand that was launched in 2007.
- currently has 3 different models, with price points ranging between $70+ to $250+
- the device also comes with WiFi and 3G options, higher range is waterproof.
- users can only download/subscribe to books listed on Amazon.
- offers a sleek reading experience, almost as good as reading a book minus the bulkiness of it.
- best for tech-savvy users or someone who’s comparing different eReaders in the market.
- direct competitors are Kobo range (by Kobobooks), the Nook series (by Barnes and Noble) and Sony.
- the program pays 4% for every Kindle sale referred. That means, when someone buys the new Kindle Oasis for $250, you earn about $10 in sales commissions. Isn’t that cool or what!
Now, whether you are interested in the subscription or the device, here are some targeted keywords you can use to promote the product and service on your blog. Feel free to use them;
- how to use a Kindle reader
- how to read more for less
- what’s the best e-reader to buy
- Kindle vs Nook review
- how to get free books with Kindle
- my Kindle unlimited library
- Kindle Unlimited vs prime reading
- how to download Kindle books from amazon
- best Christmas gifts under 100 dollars
- is Kindle Oasis worth it
Trend Pattern Worth Noting in the Kindle Niche
With Amazon dominating the eCommerce market, it’s easy to assume that people will buy whatever that’s on the rack. Quick research on the Kindle reading niche, however, shows a somewhat shocking trend.
- Sales for eReaders have been on a decline for the past few years, with popularity only peaking towards the end of the year. People are still reading eBooks except that they can also do so conveniently from their favorite smartphones or tablets without having to switch/upgrade to a new device. This is already evident in the case of Kindle Unlimited whereby you only need the app to access the library.
- According to research, sales for physical books are surprisingly making a comeback as some people find traditional reading more pleasant and less stressful. This would make promoting the eReader or the subscription totally irrelevant to this group of people.
- Meanwhile, a large population can be seen switching from reading to listening to audiobooks instead. Again, these formats can also be accessed through apps and aren’t device-specific. This can provide more convenience for busy people to ‘read’ without taking up their space and time.
If you are interested to explore this niche further, I would recommend checking out the Audible affiliate program (it pays $5 for every new trial referred) and the Scribd app (my personal favorite).
Despite the contradictory pattern, I believe there’s still a market for Kindle. You just need to do some research and adapt to the changes within the niche. Relating personal experience will also boost the authenticity of product reviews so remember to incorporate that as much as possible on your blog.
I sure hope you’ve learned a thing or two on how to make money from Amazon Kindle from this article. Do check out this awesome training for more tips on becoming a successful affiliate marketer and if you have any comments regarding the topic, feel free to leave a comment down below.
I sell a couple of Kindle books and sales have been great so far. When you go with Amazon, you MUST go by their rules and there is nothing much to do about it. And to see results, one needs to constantly put in the hard work and write as much as possible.
Amazon Associate is another program you can make money without owning a book of your own or leverage Kindle products/services as you’ve pointed out. Honestly, I see more people doing affiliate marketing than writing eBooks so I think that’s the better way for beginners.
Hi Kell, affiliate marketing is certainly easier to get started. Instead of publishing a book, you can write blog posts and get every content to rank on the search engines. You can then convert those traffic into sales commissions and keep monetizing for as long as your recommended products serve a good purpose.
As much as I like to write, I do not think that putting my work on Kindle would be a good idea. It sounds like too much work for very little reward. Plus not being able to sell it anywhere else is a big bummer. The Amazon Associate program seems like a better monetizing method though since I can use that on my own website and help my readers if that is what they are looking for.
This was an interesting read since I have published books on Amazon Kindle before. While it is a great tool I have to agree that as an author, you must work really hard to get noticed among the millions of titles out there.
Networking, social media, campaigns, you name it – it’s tough and I was shocked to read that some authors turn out 3 books per month. I can hardly imagine those to be good books. It takes time to write a book, then edit, format, designs the book cover and etc. So three in a month seems unrealistic to me.
I had no idea that Kindle sales were decreasing though. I bet many authors don’t know that. Like you, I also think though that Kindle is still selling. Amazon also offers the option to publish a paperback. Audiobooks are getting more popular. That’s an alternative I need to explore.
Thanks for sharing your experience Christine – great to know you’re a Kindle author yourself. I bet there’s a lot of work behind the scene. Did you follow any training before publishing? Or you just jumped straight in? Would love to know more.
I love to read and write and hope to someday publish my own book. But I don’t know Kindle that well so I just got educated by reading this article. The process seems more technical than I thought. Not having the flexibility of a writer is certainly a downside for me though.
Well, if you choose to publish with Kindle, it’s natural to play by their rules. That’s the only way to get exposure to your book and leverage the customer base.