Do You Want To Self-Publish Your Paperback In Australia?

Do You Want To Self-Publish Your Paperback In Australia?

 

 

Paperbacks

 

Amazon’s domination of the world book market is one of its great attractions and many authors choose it as their preferred publishing platform.

Customers are there ready to buy and pay for books with their credit cards. With just a click, a Kindle eBook is delivered immediately to your Kindle or free Kindle app on your laptop, iPad or mobile device.

Amazon’s gigantic sales platform with its Expanded Distribution puts your book into global markets.  It is regarded as the standard for self-publishing books.

If you are an Australian and you have just published your first-ever book on Amazon you’ll find it’s a great place to start your career in self-publishing.

And you are desperately wanting to hold that paperback in your hand and glory in the excitement of having just published your first book.

 

The challenge

 

As a new author and self-publisher, it’s natural that you’ll want to market your brand in Australia. This being the case it will be in your interest to provide your followers with an additional path to purchase your books.

When you published your book on the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform you would have selected Expanded Distribution. Then when you looked at your listing on Amazon Australia you would have noticed that your paperback was listed at a dreadfully, inflated price.

How will your readers in Australia ever buy your book?

This is serious and very off-putting for Australian authors and self-publishers.

Australian self-publishers do have a problem if they want to publish a paperback in Australia, be able to hold it physically in their hands, show it off to friends, and market it to other Australians.  

Ordering paperbacks from Amazon in Australia is expensive. It’s affected by the exchange rate, the GST and the freight. The cost is prohibitive.

I understand that this is tough for the Australian author and self-publisher.

This downside is that many Australians will decide that it is not in their interest to publish on Amazon.

But it’s not all gloom and doom. There is a way – another option that solves the problem.

 

Another option

 

As I said earlier one of the great benefits of publishing on Amazon is its domination of the world book market.  

Because of its Expanded Distribution, both paperbacks and eBooks have access to worldwide markets through Amazon distribution channels. 

As an Australian author and self-publisher, you do need focus on these global markets because in comparison the Australian market is small. Your books can be sold in the United States, the United Kingdom and many other countries.

However, this doesn’t satisfy that need for Australian self-publishers who want to be able to see, physically hold, and market their book to Australian readers.

Within the Australian self-publishing scene, Australian authors should focus on publishing and marketing Kindle eBooks. There is no issue with the selling Kindle eBooks in Australia using the Amazon platform.

The problem lies with publishing paperbacks.

IngramSpark

 

Australians could think about publishing their paperback with Ingram Spark.

IngramSpark is one of the largest book wholesale distributors in the world and it can be used in conjunction with Amazon. IngramSpark and Amazon work in together as they have a collaborative relationship.

IngramSpark, like Amazon, has relationships with other countries and they help publishers get their books into the wholesale channels of these countries. Its global distribution is very broad.

You can use both IngramSpark and Amazon at the same time. However, you must have your own ISBN.

Not only that do not select KDP’s Expanded Distribution. If Expanded Distribution is selected this will cause a conflict with the ISBN when you upload your manuscript to your Ingram Spark account.

IngramSpark is very big in the United States distributing to Barnes & Noble, Apple, big chains, independent bookstores, libraries, schools and universities. They grant access to their global online and print distribution partners so that indie authors can have their titles distributed throughout the world.

They even distribute to Amazon.

 

KDP Expanded Distribution

 

Do not worry if your paperback is already in KDP’s Expanded Distribution.

You can remove your paperback from Expanded Distribution, set up an Ingram Spark account, contact their customer service team, and have your book transferred from Expanded Distribution to your IngramSpark account.

IngramSpark’s print facility is in Melbourne.  This means Australian self-publishers will save on shipping costs and your paperback (and even your hardback) will be more easily accessible to Australian customers.

To get over the problems of publishing in the Australian landscape publish on both platforms – both Amazon’s KDP and IngramSpark.  

SOURCES

Cutler, Robin 2018    IngramSpark vs Amazon KDP.

Lovell, S.G. Self-Publishing Paperbacks in Australia   

 

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Author & Coach

 

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