I Self-Published on Amazon and This Is What I Learned
EQ Pillar: Self- Awareness - 3 Questions to Reflect on for those looking to self-publish
There may not be a day when we suddenly wake up and feel prepared.
We become prepared by taking the leap anyway.
-Adam Grant (from Hidden Potential)
Hi friends!
I did it. I self-published! I’ve been both fascinated and terrified with the self-publishing feature in Amazon KDP since 2020. I am a visual, and tactile learner- this can make virtual training tricky if I don’t have the ability to ask questions when I make mistakes learning online independently. According to
I’ve been reading that self-publishing can be better than traditional publishing (thanks to Matt Rudnitsky with The Punchy Book Accelerator team), and I’ve been curious to find out:
How difficult is it, really, to self-publish?
What does it cost?
What tools do we need?
So- I decided to dip my toe in the self-publishing pond with something easy. A Guided Emotional Intelligence Journal instead of a full book, gave me the freedom to play around and *fail* before trying with an actual book, or something that would break me if I could not figure it out on my own. I came away with some valuable tips and lessons learned. If you are on the road to self-publishing, or curious about the process- here’s three questions and answers that may help to demystify KDP for you:
How difficult is it, Really?
Your typical Human Resources Representative answer: It Depends.
It does! It depends on your skill level with Amazon, technology in general, your ability to write or create on your own, and your resilience when it comes to trial and error. I have been told I am a patient person. I would agree with this statement, but when I try and fail continuously, without anyone to turn to for guidance or mentorship- my patience crumbles like feta. Thankfully, I turned to The University of TikTok for tips and tricks to self-publish on Amazon kdp, and that did the trick.
To gauge how difficult self-publishing would be from your seat ask yourself:
Do I have a message to write about, or bring to the world?
How open am I to experiencing failure?
If not open to failure, do I have the time/resources ($$) to invest in a coach or mentor?
Now, let’s talk about Cost and Tools.
The great thing about self-publishing on Amazon kdp is that Amazon absorbs the printing costs associated with your book/journal/creation. You can front exactly ZERO dollars and get a published piece of work into the world and available for order within 72 hours on Amazon. Let’s dig into the micro-costs associated with this feature:
To create my Journal, I used Canva, a graphic design platform that has both free and paid options. I use the paid version, which is $12.99/month for access to additional graphics, abilities to save, resize and download my creations. Ask yourself: What is my preferred platform to create on? [Word, Scrivener, Reedsy, Google Docs, Notes, Canva, PhotoShop…ect]
To create something on the web, you are also going to need to factor in your Wifi costs, and your device used: (laptop/desktop/tablet/ipad/phone) My wifi is around $110/month, and we bought my MacBook Air on OfferUp for $500. If you are reading this, you have access to wifi, and a device so you don’t need to financially plan too much to have these resources to create/publish, but you can consider these costs when calculating your book pricing.
ISBN Numbers: for “low content” publications like a journal- Amazon does not require that you use an ISBN to publish- and kdp will generate a standard barcode for you for free. This is not the same as an ISBN. The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a 13-digit number that uniquely identifies books and book-like products published internationally. You may purchase an ISBN (like I did) through Bowker, for $125 per ISBN but this is not necessary. If you are publishing an actual book- kdp will provide an ISBN for you- but there’s a catch: you must publish with the Amazon platform.
Amazon KDP covers printing costs up front, but don’t worry- they make sure to earn it back!
I created my journal in Canva with COLOR. This was a terrible mistake! To print in COLOR = expensive AF. Amazon will ask how many pages your book/journal/creation has, and will calculate a printing cost per unit for your visibility. To print anything in color is pricy. It cost Amazon $12.61 to print one journal of mine. THEN, (no- I’m not done yet) Amazon takes 60% of whatever you charge per unit. This is how they earn and make profit off of covering the up front costs to print and distribute your publishings. They will also politely let you know the MINIMUM amount you can charge per book so that they are guaranteed income. They don’t however, care if YOU generate any income, and the lowest they will allow you to charge, covers the cost per print, and their 60% pay-back cut- resulting in a juicy $0.00 in royalties for yourself. FUN.
My journal costs $25.00 (right now it’s on sale for $23). This is WAY more expensive than I would have liked to price it. There are journals on Amazon that are better, for much cheaper. Please understand that I am not tucking away $25/journal. After Amazon takes it’s cut, I can expect to earn a whopping $2.37 per journal.
As you can see under the List Price box on the Left, the minimum amount Amazon would allow me to charge for my Journal, is $21.06. That amount would earn me $0.00 in royalties. Lesson Learned: Print Black and White for your first publication. This does not include your cover design. Just the “manuscript”.
Time. “Time is Money”. Time is precious:
Right now, you are the oldest you have ever been, and the youngest you will ever be.
-Elenor Roosevelt
We don’t typically think about time in terms of cost (at least I don’t), but to embark on a new adventure- to explore territory you have never seen before- you should factor in your precious time. Is this a project that you feel called to work on? Are you willing to give up time from another area of your life to learn about this process? Reflect on these questions and if the answer is YES- then the cost of your time = worth it.
The KDP Platform as a Tool:
Amazon KDP is mostly user friendly, but requires that you can crunch a few numbers when it comes to printing dimensions of your book. This was the hardest part for me.
The aforementioned TikTok videos that I used to help me understand navigating Amazon, only displayed how to publish a paperback book. I wanted my journal to be a hardcover (another cost I didn’t realize upfront- and that wish did not come to fruition for this paperback journal), and the dimensions of my hardcover were different than the paperback book that I used as my “teacher template”.
The section where Amazon allows you to add your purchased ISBN is incredibly finicky.
DO NOT ADD YOUR ISBN
…until AFTER you have uploaded both your manuscript AND your cover design (front and back). If for any reason you don’t like the formatting, or need to make changes and want to start over with a new publishing, Amazon will not allow you to “delete” your work- and worse- it won’t allow you to carry your ISBN number over to a new template. So… when you see my journal, you will notice that it is missing an ISBN. Not because I didn’t purchase one. Mine is floating around in no-man’s-land on KDP. **If you happen to be a self-publishing genius here reading this for sheer amusement, please HELP ME save my ISBN! I want it!
That being said… there are PRO’s to self-publishing that include:
Total creative freedom. If you are penning a book (or journal) with a traditional publisher- you can forget cover design. And we all know…we judge books by their cover- even when we are not supposed to. Do you really want your precious project to be wrapped in a cover that you don’t love?
No upfront paychecks = no need to pay back should your book/journal not sell to the astronomical success that we all hope for when sending our blood, sweat, & tears out into the world- you don’t need to worry about paying back a traditional publisher when you self-publish.
No Agent Fees- yes, you do need to forfeit 60% of your publication back to Amazon when self-publishing, but no- you don’t need to pay a person for landing you a publisher when your book comes out. **Important to call out here that Literary Agents are not book marketers- nor are publishers. That still falls to the Author. So, it may feel tough to part ways with your hard earned royalties when it’s going to someone who connected you to a big name publisher- but who is not still “on the job” helping to market/sell your book.
Overall, I learned a great deal about the pains and pearls of self-publishing, and about myself. I have learned how to pivot from creative setbacks, how to leverage resources like Google, YoutTube, and TikTok, and how I can practice enjoying the process of creating. Not everything should be a means to an end. So much of the magic happens in the process. It takes reflection and the ability to be self-aware to recognize how we navigate challenges. This creative endeavor helped me to practice emotional intelligence and now that I can say I’ve done it…it’s not a big scary monster lurking in the back of my mind anymore.
Without further ado, introducing The Guided Emotional Intelligence Journal- now live for purchase (and/or reviews!!) on Amazon. The journal is over 100 pages, spilt into four parts to represent the four pillars of EQ. There are reflective questions, blank space, and lined journal pages for your processing pleasure.
Thank you for being here, for learning with me, and for embracing a Growth Mindset by being brave enough to suck at something new. See you next week for our advice column, and keep your eyes peeled for a much more cost effective Manifestation Journal coming to Amazon by me quite soon!
Digital Hugs,
K. Alexandra
P.S. Do you have questions about emotional intelligence? Every other Tuesday, DPP alternates to our advice column, Ask A (Recovering) People Pleaser. What questions do you have about the Relationships in your life, Personal Development, or healing from people-pleasing? Submit to: Anonymous Google Forms or join the community chat below.
I learned SO much on my first experience self publishing through KDP a year ago. Biggest lesson? When writing a book, do both KDP AND IngramSpark so your work can be published in more places than Amazon. I wrote a whole blog post about it ☺️ And now you have me thinking about making a journal for my next book 😂
This is cool! I want to publish a friendship journal this year. Thanks for your tips 😊