Self-Publishing Paperbacks On Amazon And Implications For Australians
Self-Publishing Paperbacks On Amazon And Implications For Australians
Australian authors
You are an Australian and have just published your first ever book on Amazon and you find it’s a great place to start your career in self-publishing.
You are desperately wanting to hold that paperback in your hand and glory in the excitement of having just published your book.
You decide to order in some Author Copies.
In the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Bookshelf you click Order Author Copies and then discover your paperback is not being shipped to Australia. Bumber!
My solution to this problem is to have Amazon ship to my virtual address in the United States.
I use ShopMate which is connected to Australia Post. This organisation receives your parcel from Amazon and then forwards it to your address in Australia. Extra costs of course. They collect the GST and you have to pay for the postage to Australia.
Once you receive your Author Copies, which by the way can take several weeks, you can resell the author copies that you ordered from KDP. Royalties are not paid on these Author Copies.
Australian customers
I’ve given you a solution for getting your Author Copies but what about Australian customers?
Getting Amazon paperback copies in Australia is expensive because of the wicked exchange rate and the postage often costs the same if not more than the book.
How will you ever get customers in Australia to buy your book?
On your book’s listing in KDP, you selected Expanded Distribution and when you viewed your listing on Amazon Australia your paperback/s were priced very high.
This is very off-putting for an Australian customer wanting to buy your paperback and it’s also very off-putting for you as an author living in Australia.
If an Australian customer is a member of Prime they can “Get FREE Expedited Delivery on Domestic Prime eligible items in as fast as two business days AND Free International Standard Delivery on Prime eligible orders over $49 from Amazon US.”
So I guess it is in the interests of Australians to take out Prime membership on Amazon otherwise the costs of buying your paperbacks on Amazon Australia is very expensive.
Is there another solution?
Way Forward
One of the great benefits of publishing on Amazon is its domination of the world book market. Customers are there ready to buy and pay for books with their credit cards.
With just a click, your Kindle eBook is delivered immediately to the Free Kindle app on your device.
Amazon is a gigantic sales platform.
Because of its Expanded Distribution both your paperback and eBooks have access to global markets through the Amazon distribution channels.
As an Australian Author, your focus should be on these global markets because in comparison the Australian market for paperbacks is small. You can be selling your paperbacks in the United States, the United Kingdom and many other countries.
However, within the Australian self-publishing landscape an Australian author’s focus should be on marketing Kindle eBooks. There is no major issue with the selling of Kindle eBooks in Australia.
Another option
To attract Australian buyers another option is to publish your paperback with Ingram Spark.
IngramSpark is one of the largest book wholesale distributors and it can be used in conjunction with Amazon.
Publish both your Kindle eBook and Paperback on the Amazon platform.
Publish your Kindle eBook and participate in KDP Select for Amazon exclusivity.
As well as this you can publish your paperback on KDP but do not select Expanded distribution.
Get an ISBN from Bowker and use this both on the Amazon and the Ingram Spark paperback.
So for your paperback, you can utilise both the KDP Print on Demand(POD) without Expanded Distribution and have the identical paperback with your own ISBN and same ISBN on Ingram Spark.
IngramSpark has a print facility here in Australia so this means there are massive savings to be made on shipping costs for Australian customers and authors.
Author and Coach
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