Is Amazon KDP Still Profitable in 2024?

[@johnkeillor]

I stopped developing my business strategy over a year ago to bang out my longest novel. During that time, I forgot almost everything. Now I come crawling back to Dale

[@DaleLRoberts]

Welcome back, buddy! Keep at it.

[@ilkercolakoglu]

DALE! You are loved and appreciated brother. Have a nice day.

[@DaleLRoberts]

I appreciate the kind words!

[@jamesgrimm9121]

Always love your content. I definitely think showing folks the potential of having many books and how that could be a livelihood compared to making one or two books and thinking those will make a fortune.

[@DaleLRoberts]

Thanks!

[@brandisedwick1254]

I started KDP in 2022 and I’m a perfectionist (which is actually a problem a lot of the time) so I only published about 15 books in a 3 month period. Then I moved and stopped for a while. I’ve sold almost 1000 books and still get paid every month (although the payments have been getting smaller and smaller). I should’ve never stopped because who knows where I’d be right now. Anyways, I’m getting back on it now and I vow to not stop no matter what.

[@DaleLRoberts]

You've got this!

[@sammyg.92]

Hi Dale, my KDP account was suspended last year after making some changes for the books I had published by that time. After 14 months, my KDP account was reinstated by itself. (I stopped fighting with KDP). And, somehow, I started receiving sales this month pretty much every day. it definitely works if you continue doing the required job so I am back to your channel! Thank you so much for all the guidance and content here.

[@DaleLRoberts]

Oh wow! Glad to hear you resolved the issue and are cooking on the front burner. Well done!

[@sammyg.92]

@@DaleLRoberts Thank you so much! Well, it''s time to dive into it and continue the work. I felt that I lost 2 years for progress but somehow seeing the sales like that makes me do the work more than ever!

[@hyperbrightstudios]

Wow. Just wow. Finally a breakdown of amazon kdp that is honest and matches my actual experience on this platform.

[@DaleLRoberts]

Hey, thanks! More videos like it to come.

[@SDHuston]

Interesting to see how KDP has evolved it's rule based on author exploits. Thank you!

[@DaleLRoberts]

You got it!

[@bawest4]

I have some books published on some of the suggested sites but none of them made me the money like KDP. Thank you for the quick response that says a lot about being trusted

[@DaleLRoberts]

😎🔥 Keep at it then.

[@ChuzpahGoodfellow]

Great video as always, thanks Dale!

[@DaleLRoberts]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@scifidesign2]

yes, KDP is still profitable. However the bottom line is, you have to grow your audience and find new readers all the time. That's where advertising comes in. I now run continuous adverts on Facebook. I am earning a steady income and the money goes up when I publish a new books. You also have to write engaging material to keep readers interested.

[@DaleLRoberts]

No argument here.

[@DanRenaudJax]

What about a person like me. I am writing now at 58 for the first time. I am writing based on my expierence as a counselor of teens and families for over 30 yrs. So my niche is creating itself. Not flash in the pan. I do however want to make money. It is a business to me. My first book is at the editors, my second is about half finished. I plan to write at least 3 more. I will keep going if the topics come to me. These are nonfiction books meant to share help and support for families and teens. Where Are these sites for me to learn and grow from? 16:01

[@DaleLRoberts]

Ooo, start with KDP Jumpstart. That's a good primer for getting into Amazon KDP. That's a simple Google search away. Next, peek through my backlog of videos on this channel and my podcast channel: www.youtube.com/@selfpubwithdale. With over 1,600 videos between two channels, I've got an answer for most every question you might have. Last, pop into my Discord community. There's over 1,000 authors hanging out there everyday who are happy to help and connect with you.

[@FZWbooks]

Thanks for another great video!

[@DaleLRoberts]

Glad you liked it!

[@poetryandpurpose]

very useful - thanks!

[@DaleLRoberts]

Glad it was helpful!

[@stephaniedalportofantasy]

So helpful! Thank you.

[@DaleLRoberts]

Glad it was helpful! Always great hearing from you, Stephanie.

[@Lenavividvisions]

What are the most popular books that do make money

[@DaleLRoberts]

Romantasy is hot right now. Again, Publisher Rocket is going to give you accurate recommendations.

[@bedtimetwitch2627]

I've been experiencing book block . please can you make a video on that

[@DaleLRoberts]

Once your book is blocked, there’s nothing you can do except try to appeal the issue with KDP support. This is literally what I would say in a video. Find out why you were blocked and how you can avoid it in the future if you have a direct conversation with KDP support. Skip email support. Use phone support or live chat support.

[@timfisher5925]

It doesn't work for me anymore, the reason is that I publish cookbooks and they contain lots of pictures so the print cost is going up and making royalties almost non existent. As print prices are rising in a year or two. I will be better off pulling down all my books and either going only to ebooks or going to a traditional publishing house. Also the print quality is poor for nice pictures unfortunately.

[@DaleLRoberts]

That's too bad. I've never had issue with their print quality, but if you're needing high-quality pictures for a cookbook I can see how that'd be a dealbreaker.

[@timfisher5925]

@@DaleLRoberts The problem is two fold, the pictures do not pop however well I shoot and edit them ,the paper quality is too absorbent. Also the print costs go up each year I went from £3-4 royalties a book to between £1 and 2 so in a year or two the royalty will be so low I will need to increase the selling price so in the long term this is not going to work.

[@DaleLRoberts]

Have you considered direct sales? You can control the quality and keep the costs down. That does mean you'll have to gamble on yourself though.

[@adventureswithtime]

I have 4 kids activity books published through KDP. For the month of May I've been experimenting with promotional TikTok videos (halting all my Amazon Ad for the month). This scheme hasn't worked at all. Do you have a video on how to promote coloring and other kids activity books through TikTok videos? Thanks.

[@DaleLRoberts]

No. I’m just not involved enough in the space to care to throw money at it.

[@adventureswithtime]

@@DaleLRoberts By "invoiced" do you mean monitization?

[@DaleLRoberts]

I meant "involved", autocorrect changed the word without me noticing.

[@cindymbk_93]

@@adventureswithtime if you sell kid books, your target audience must be parents. They are the ones that will be interested in buying your books for their kids. Meta and Pinterest may be better platforms to reach the right audience, while Tiktok targets a much younger audience (I work in marketing btw)

[@OluwashindaraAjayi-s2g]

​@@cindymbk_93what if I do cookbooks and travelling guides which social media platform will be good for me to advertise myself apart from Amazon ads

[@OluwashindaraAjayi-s2g]

Please i have a question Are cookbooks and travelling guides still relevant on Amazon kdp, do they still pay?

[@DaleLRoberts]

Yes.

[@RFK_71]

Newbie to the business. Haven’t started yet. Reviewing the basics of the business. Don’t want to use Chrome extensions because of the reviews of Chrome, but I like the idea of publisher rocket so I may go with that eventually, God willing. I just have to learn how to use the softwares in order to do this business model. But I am ready for the task. I am up in age, but want to keep my self busy with something. It is not mostly about the money, so that is not an issue. Mostly to keep my mind active, etc. Thanks for the information.

[@DaleLRoberts]

That’s a good mindset to have. Never give it up!

[@omeysalvi]

This was a great summary of the KDP eras that I wasnt a part of

[@DaleLRoberts]

Thanks

[@MrSzwierzak]

I was writing book for two years. Hour here, hour there, on the weekends. It was a gruelling task. I had my fun but it wasn't easy. Now I'm hearing about AI writing books. I feel like I wasted two years of my life. I'm going public in two months (last edits) and at this point I think it was mistake. AI will publish hundreds books before I even start to advertise my work.

[@DaleLRoberts]

Don’t worry about the other books. Just tend to your own and the rest will take care of itself.

[@mlp4apc]

I have been writing over 40 years, the last 10 years, seriously and still I don't make a lot of money, but the love of writing keeps me going. When I run out of things to write about, I will be finished, AI or not. You should push for what you want to say and not be discouraged.

[@jorgeferreira3329]

Ai cant write good books without heavy human intervention. As a chatGPT heavy user, i know that for a fact and I wont read any AI writen book. You are just overthinking yourself

[@MrSzwierzak]

@jorgeferreira3329 agree BUT we are just two years into AI revolution. Do you remember mobile phones two years after they hit wide market? They were bricks with three options- calls, messages and calculator. 20 years later- phones have bigger computing power than computers that sent humans to the moon. Don't get me wrong- I don't care if AI can write better than me. I know it can. I write for fun. I don't care if AI take over that market. But I'm a bit worried about those who dream about being a writer in future.

[@barbaramartinez7871]

I always wanted Publisher Rocket but it wasn't available on Chrome. Any idea if it will be available in the future?

[@DaleLRoberts]

I don't think I understand what you're asking. Publisher Rocket doesn't need a browser to function. It's software that stands on its own.

[@I_am_Good_always]

Hi Dale, I know my question is off topic but I've seen Self-publishers have "About" section where they have profile pic and also they can write about themselves. I can't find that option in my KDP dashboard. Any idea?

[@DaleLRoberts]

You can adjust that in your Amazon Author Central Account. Just visit the Marketing tab in your KDP dashboard and you’ll see a section that links out to Author Central. Here’s a video series about Author Central: kzbin.info/aero/PLXCkkWHluK4B7c0Q-fXVEdKsyBUBQC1Ba&si=S-KaOOOB_A9r44Qh

[@I_am_Good_always]

@@DaleLRoberts I just knew it, but I was just confirming it. Anyways, I'll follow the videos. Thanks!

[@theresamcevoy6120]

Genetive AI does not do a decent job. I tried it for a test but please it goes off on a tangent. I wanted to see what everyone was talking about, it is not my style as my imagination is 9 times out of 10 is better than AI

[@DaleLRoberts]

It's getting WAY better and depends a lot on how much you prompt it and what service you use.

[@JamesSedgwick-jp6hh]

Dale is right. It has gotten way better. I am currently working on a novella using AI as my writing partner. I found that fleshing out the prompts in advance is a big help. It's trail and error until I get the gang of it. If I I use it as tool to assist me with my writing then I'm okay with it. It's almost like having a ghost write. Only I CAN work along side of AI ghost writers work alone and I don't know what I'm getting from them until after the work is finished.

[@theresamcevoy6120]

@@JamesSedgwick-jp6hh Thanks for the feedback. I used it as an editing tool as I tend to go through 5-6 edits and I will admit I am very picky about my stories.

[@theresamcevoy6120]

@@JamesSedgwick-jp6hh Thank you.

[@bawest4]

My account was banned for no reason just shut down And told I could never sell on their platform any suggestions on how I can regain my account

[@DaleLRoberts]

The only thing you can do is correspond with KDP through the email notification they send you about your account termination.

[@bawest4]

They banned my account over 12 years ago and when I did respond twice they were not nice I was just hoping finally there was a work around ....thank you

[@DaleLRoberts]

Sadly, no, especially this far out from your banning. Why don't you look into the alternatives? There are a LOT of options out there and some will still get you on Amazon. Here's a video you should check out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJOZY2Zrqq5njLs And, here's one about the best print-on-demand book companies: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jXWnk2mpnrSKe80

[@phoenixsasha2727]

So wait let me get this straight, if someone buys my book but don't finish reading it due to their own inability to focus, I don't get paid?!

[@DaleLRoberts]

You’re thinking of KDP Select. Amazon pays you per page read for that. Anything else, they pay you. So if they buy your ebook or print book, you’ll get paid. KDP Select is not mandatory, so you can always pass. Here’s a deep dive video covering it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p5jaqKCbhbt2gpIsi=vk2DYz1amVzttaX7

[@staci-layne-wilson]

The AI checkpoint is really annoying because it will not give you any leeway. It's either all or nothing. There's no way to choose "some" or percentages. For example, I needed a specific-looking picture frame for my book cover, so I created it with AI. Then I placed a photo of a real person inside that frame. All other elements were NOT AI, meaning it was only about 10% AI, but when I clicked on that option it was forcing me to either say "all AI" or "no AI." So, I contacted KDP to ask about this, and they advised me to click "no." Also, on occasion, I will accept Grammarly's AI-suggested rewording... but I am not using AI to write entire books. They (Amazon) really need to make that question more flexible because they're not gathering accurate data.

[@DaleLRoberts]

Agreed

[@FemaleAussieJackal]

yes. took me 2 seconds to answer that .

[@DaleLRoberts]

Yep.

[@forrestcrabbe]

🤘🍻🤘

[@DaleLRoberts]

Thanks!

[@t.butcher]

Read it now! Mayday! Mayday! 😂

[@DaleLRoberts]

Heyyyy! First comment!