How to Make Money with KDP

KDP stands for Kindle Direct Publishing, a platform provided by Amazon that allows people to ship their books to Kindle readers and diverse audiences globally. KDP has innovated the way authors distribute their works, making the publishing procedure more accessible, simpler and cost-effective than traditional publishing strategies.

Important Information about KDP

As with any job, it will be important to pay attention to some important issues when starting this business. In this way, it becomes easier to spot some common misconceptions and it becomes easier to get an idea about which topics to focus on. KDP; Like any business, it requires regular effort, capital, knowledge and experience. Capital and regular effort are related to oneself, and one can only help oneself in this regard.

It is necessary to regularly create books and notebooks and to be patient. Anyone who first creates a KDP account will most likely not earn any money for one to two months. However, if they are patient and continue to create books, their earnings will increase day by day.

As can be seen from the graph, monthly earnings have increased almost every month. (The December figures are an exception because of the holidays.) The main reason for the profit is that I produce at least one or two books every few month.

When the number of books increases, earnings will also increase cumulatively. But of course, there are things to pay attention to. It is always necessary to analyze the balance of supply and demand.

Additionally, the reasons why this process takes longer are as follows:

● Preparing a quality book can take a considerable amount of time. This can vary considerably. On average, it takes 5–7 days to produce a quality book using Ai. If you are writing a book yourself, the process can take months.
● The marketing and promotion processes are also time-consuming. It would be unrealistic to expect immediate sales one day after publishing a book. To make sales faster, methods such as social media promotions, Amazon ads and email marketing will be necessary. However, preparing these methods is also time-consuming.
● When purchasing a product, we always check if there are any comments about it and we buy products with a high number of positive reviews. The same is true for books. A book with more positive reviews has much higher sales potential. Since there are no comments on a newly published book, getting even just one or two positive comments will be very important and will impact sales.
● It is also a process that will take time for SEO and Amazon algorithms to rank the book at the top for the right keywords. There is nothing extra to do for this other than waiting.

What kind of books do you want to create?

Amazon KDP is a platform where both low-content and high-content books can be published. There are different rules for low-content books in the KDP publishing process. Therefore, it is extremely important to know the difference. Additionally, this difference can directly affect your income.

What is Low Content?

A low content book is a type of book in which most of the content is arranged as blank or semi-blank pages, pages that users must fill in or interact with themselves, such as scrapbooks, diaries, agendas, planners, puzzle books. These books usually contain little or no written content.

Features:
● Less Written Content: The majority of the book is empty or filled with simple guiding content (dates, lines, boxes, etc.).
● Interactive Usage: Readers are expected to interact by completing or working through the book.
● Simple Design: Most low content books have a visually simple but functional design.
● Target group: Its target audience is generally young children, babies, etc

Examples:
● Agendas and Planners: Includes spaces for daily, weekly or monthly planning.
● Diary Notebooks: Notes can be taken for special occasions, travels or important memories.
● Logs: It offers writing spaces for thoughts, feelings or daily activities.
● Puzzle Books: It includes activities such as Sudoku and crossword puzzles.
● Children’s Activity Books: It may include coloring pages, simple puzzles or educational games.
● Exercise and Health Diaries: Used for tracking meals, exercise routines or health status recording.

Take a look at this page on the Amazon KDP website to understand the concept of low-content books.

What are the rules applied by KDP for books with low content?

● For books with low content, KDP does not provide free ISBN numbers. In this case, it is necessary to either publish the book without an ISBN or to use sites that provide ISBNs for a fee. In general, it makes sense to publish without an ISBN because ISBN is costly. (ISBN (International Standard Book Number) stands for international standard book number. This number is a unique identifier used to identify books and other independent publications.)
● It is not possible to create a series in low content books.
● The look inside feature cannot be used in low content books.

What Steps Do I Need to Take at KDP to Publish a Low-Content Book?

It is necessary to apply the same processes as normal book publishing. The only difference is that you must select the Publish without ISBN option.

Here you can see Amazon KDP general guidelines.

What is High Content?

High content books are books that contain dense and in-depth information and offer detailed texts, analyses, research or comprehensive explanations. Such books usually cover specific and knowledge-intensive topics, such as academic studies, comprehensive research reports, detailed tutorials or technical manuals. These books take more time to prepare than low-content books. Therefore, it is a more detailed content.

Features:
● Detailed Information Presentation: These books cover their subjects in great depth and provide a wide range of information.
● Comprehensive Research: It is based on extensive research and data collection by the authors.
● Academic and Technical Content: It contains terms, theories, and methodologies mostly used in academic or technical disciplines.
● Bibliography and References: Contains an extensive literature review or reference list, allowing readers to learn more about the topic.
● Requires Expertise: It specifically addresses issues that require in-depth knowledge and expertise in a particular field.
● Professional and Academic Use: It is frequently used by academics, researchers and professionals.
● Illustrations and Graphics: It can include visual elements such as diagrams, tables, and graphs to explain complex information.
● Strict Regulation: It requires a high level of editing in terms of grammar, terminology and formatting.
● Long Release Process: The research, writing, editing and publishing processes often take a long time.
● High Pricing Potential: It is often sold at higher prices due to its intense research and information content. In this way, the possibility of making more money from a book increases.

My Personal Views

I personally do not recommend publishing low content books. It is very easy to prepare low content books, so you will have a lot of competitors. In addition, the prices of low content books are generally very cheap. The low prices of these books will both negatively affect your profits and put you at a disadvantage when advertising. For these reasons, I recommend that you prepare and publish a book with high content. In this way, you can become more advantageous in advertisements and your profit rates will increase even more. Additionally, your number of competitors will be much less.

Low Content Examples

Although low-content books and notebooks are produced with a simple content structure, they have an important place in marketing and sales strategies. In order to accurately evaluate and understand the success of such products in the market, it is of great importance to conduct a detailed analysis through concrete examples. In this context, I will examine examples of low-content books and notebooks and discuss critical data such as monthly sales figures of these products, book or notebook names and Amazon Best Seller Rank (BSR). This data is key to understanding the performance of such products in the market and to see which features contribute to sales success. For example, if a particular notebook receives a low BSR score, it indicates that it is a bestseller in its category, indicating high sales volume. These analyzes will enable you to better understand the market dynamics of low-content products and make more conscious investments in this field.

Fish composition notebook (English) ($6.95)

Hiking Journal (English) ($6.95)

Vehicle Mileage log book (english) ($5.99)

Mood Diary (German) (7.99 euro)

Composition Notebook (English) ($6.99)

As you can see, there are a wide variety of low-content books and notebooks. The majority of these consist of notebooks. However, if we take into account the profit rate, this is quite low. Between 1.5-2.5 dollars are earned from each low-content content. The low amount of this money causes people to be at a disadvantage, especially in advertising. For this reason, I do not recommend preparing any book with low content unless you can find a very specific and niche topic. You can try on niche topics.

High Content Examples

Rare and Interesting Facts You Didn’t Know (English) ($20.99)

Epic Book of Unbelievable True Stories (English) ($11.99)

4,000 Questions for Getting to Know Anyone and Everyone (English) ($12.28)

The Antiquarian Sticker Book (English) ($17.98

Dark Psychology and Manipulation (English) ($15.92)

As can be seen from the book covers, books with high content are prepared much more professionally. Therefore, you have to compete with much fewer competitors. In this respect, you gain a great advantage. Additionally, it is possible to earn $5 to $10 per sale for most high-content books. In general, the advantages of high-content books can be listed as follows:

● The number of competitors is quite low compared to low content books
● Book covers look professional, thus increasing the purchase rate
● You always have the opportunity to sell these books even at a high price.
● Potential to earn more money
● The potential to make money is very high, even if you run high-cost ads

I recommend you writing high-content e-books for several reasons. It takes at most 1 day to prepare a low content book. So the preparation time is very short. Therefore, it is so simple that anyone can do it. The number of competitors is very high. In general, around 1000-2000 opponents is reasonable for KDP. Because competing with 1000-2000 competitors is easy for a beginner. However, in books with low content, there are usually between 5000-10000 competitors. Extraordinary effort is required to surpass these competitors and this is very difficult. It is almost impossible to beat competitors in terms of advertising costs, reviews, etc.

In order to focus on subjects and areas where there are many competitors, it is necessary to produce books many times a day and spend a lot of advertising budget, but there is no guarantee of success. This is not something most people can do. For this reason, I personally do not recommend producing low-content books at all.

For low-content books, it is normal to earn between $1-2.5 from each sale. It is difficult to have bigger gains. Because the selling prices of such books are quite low. ($5.99-8.99) For more detailed information, you can check out this site (this site will let you know your average earnings when you type the number of pages and book sizes)

Keyword Research

For keyword research I am going to be using SelfPublishingTitans, it’s best tool for amazon kdp research.

Everytime you search for some book on Amazon it will tell you a lot of statistics, here’s an example why low-content e-books shouldn’t be done, they’re oversaturated:

As can be seen “dog notebook” There are 8134 competitors for the word. Average BSR is 338.411, Best BSR is 3890 and worst BSR is 1.560.990. The conclusions to be drawn from here are:

● The number of competitors is quite high. 8134 is an impossible number to exceed.
● Average BSR is good. This means that most published books rank well, and it will take a long time for someone publishing a new book to surpass them.
● The average number of comments is 338. Customers also take into account the number of reviews before purchasing a product. Therefore, the higher the review, the more advantageous it is. 338 comments is very difficult for a beginner.

As can be seen “halloween scrapbook” There are 13383 competitors for the word. Average BSR is 256.037, Best BSR is 159 and worst BSR is 915.964. The conclusions to be drawn from here are:

● The number of competitors is quite high. 13383 is an impossible number to exceed. It is even higher than the upper limit of 10000.
● Average BSR is good. This means that most published books rank well, and it will take a long time for someone publishing a new book to surpass them. Also, the best book is ranked 159th. Therefore, the strongest opponent has a very good ranking.
● The average number of comments is 323. Customers also take into account the number of reviews before purchasing a product. Therefore, the higher the review, the more advantageous it is. 323 comments is very difficult for a beginner.

Focusing on long keywords can also be a way to go, you can use this extension to get more search recommendations every time you search for something on amazon.

Also a good way to research keywords and target long tail keywords is using Google Ads Keyword Planner, you can research some long tail keywords with 100-1,000 searches per month or more with no competition

Then create the e-book with your long-tail keyword as the title. You can then try to optimise it and add backlinks to improve its ranking on Google for the keywords, so that when people search on Google, your e-book comes up first. We have several SEO optimisation guides on our website.

What topics/genres should you write a book about

Words whose search volume does not change according to seasons are the best books to work on. If special books are produced for holidays such as New Year, Christmas and Halloween, sales increase only during those periods, but sales decrease significantly in other periods. Therefore, it is difficult to make a stable income. It is necessary to focus on words that consistently have the same number of search volumes and whose data do not change much from month to month.

Examples of words that should not be done and search volumes of words by month:

Examples of words to be done and search volumes of words by month:

You can use Google Trends to find out what is popular.

Some words and topics, such as movies, cartoons, computer games, news and social media, can become much more popular thanks to the effects of events.

Note: It is very important not to use any trademarked words. Paying attention to this is essential.

Examples of trending words and search volumes of words by month:

Quokka animal has become very popular with the influence of social media. There is the potential to increase earnings through a book related to this word. If the sudden popularity of this word becomes permanent, then there is the potential to make money with this word in the long term.

Timon from the movie “The Lion King” and the meerkat have become very popular characters with their humorous and loyal traits.

Due to its unusual appearance, Blobfish has recently become the subject of a social media trend. Also if we go to Google Ads Keyword Planner we can see it also started getting searches on Google:

The anteater came to public attention in a documentary about biodiversity in the Amazon.

Focusing on words with fewer competitors makes it easier to earn more money. We can explain this situation with simple mathematics:

Let’s assume that there are 1000 books on the Amazon site related to the word A. Let’s assume that 1000 customers buy books related to this word monthly. In this case, even if we assume that the probability of each book being sold is equal, we will still have a 1% chance of making a sale.

In the other scenario, let’s say there are 100 books on the Amazon site related to the B word. Let’s assume that 1000 customers buy books related to this word monthly. In this case, even if we assume that the probability of each book being sold is equal, we will have a 10% probability of making a sale.

As can be seen from these two examples, the fewer the number of competitors (other conditions being the same), the higher our probability of making sales will be.

Examples:

There are 93362 competitors for the word “dog book”. This is too much. In general, words with at most 2000 competitors should be targeted.

There are 1987 competitors for the word “bulldog book”. This is a more normal opponent count.

If one or more words are typed into the search button on the Amazon site, Amazon itself suggests similar word suggestions. You can use the extension I’ve provided in this article to get more search results as well.

Amazon lists the most searched words as above. Thanks to these words, we can find suggestions and create new books. This speeds up the ideation process.

What genres you should’t write

Some genres of books have so many publications that it can be difficult for a new author to gain attention or generate significant income:

Romance is a no go. The market is quite saturated, especially in sub genres such as paranormal, billionaire and romantic novels.

Fantasy & Science Fiction books are also oversaturated, there’s no end to them.

Science fiction books for kids are also oversatured, for example here’s amoutn of competitors romance books have:

As can be seen romantic books for women There are 121182 competitors for. This number is extremely high and not at a competitive level. We need at most 2000 competitors to be at a competitive level.

You also shouldn’t write books for genres that can get outdated super fast.

Technology and Software Guides: It is one of the types of books that can become outdated very quickly, especially when written about specific software tools or programming languages. In an environment where technology is rapidly evolving and new versions are constantly being released, such guides may become outdated even within a few months. Authors may have difficulty keeping up with these updates.

Pop Culture Phenomenons: Books written on popular culture events or personalities from a certain period can be risky as interest quickly fades.

With the proliferation of the Internet, books that offer general information (such as “An Overview of World History”) no longer attract much attention. Because this information can be easily accessed online.

World history book There are 129272 competitors for. This is a very general issue. People can learn information on this subject directly from the internet. Additionally, since it is easy to access information on these issues, there are many competitors. That’s why it’s so hard to be successful.

Content at Risk of Copyright Infringement: Words, characters, etc. that carry risks regarding copyright. Using it is quite risky and may even result in the closure of the KDP account.

Information You Should Know Before Starting

There are a few subcategories of information that you should know before you start. This information could either stop you from starting or help you to start.

Book sizes, cost and profit

When publishing books on the Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) platform, it is very important to understand the correct book measurements, costs and profit rates. These factors directly affect the success and earnings of the book.

Amazon KDP offers different book sizes. The most commonly used measurements are:
● 6″ x 9″ (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
● 5.5″ x 8.5″ (13.97 x 21.59 cm)
● 5″ x 8″ (12.7 x 20.32 cm)
Generally the most popular is 6 x 9 inches.

Book Dimensions:

Choosing the right book dimensions for a successful publishing process on the Amazon KDP platform is very important in terms of both print quality and reader experience. There are several factors to consider when determining book dimensions. Here’s what you need to know about book measurements for Amazon KDP:

● Paperbacks:
5 x 8 in
5.25 x 8 in
5.5 x 8.5 in
6 x 9 in
7 x 10 in
8.5 x 11 in
8.5 x 8.5 in
and there are other similar measurements.

● Hardcover books:
5.5 x 8.5 in
6 x 9 in
6.14 x 9.21 in
7 x 10 in
8.25 x 11 in

To examine the book dimensions in more detail, you can check out this page.

Book Cover is Everything

In this competitive environment, there are many factors that contribute to a book’s success, and the role of the book cover is undoubtedly critical. It shapes potential readers’ initial reaction to a book and greatly influences their decision to purchase it.

A book cover is very important for the following reasons:
● The book cover is the reader’s first impression of the book and usually makes a decision within a few seconds about whether to buy the book or not. As readers browse through hundreds of options, a visually appealing cover grabs attention and makes it stand out from other books.
● A book cover is a reflection of the author’s brand. A professional and thematically coherent cover reflects the seriousness of the author and the quality of the book. A cover design that is compatible with the author’s other books makes it easier for readers to recognize the author’s works and create a loyal audience.
● The book cover is also an important marketing tool. Used on social media, email newsletters and other marketing materials, the cover image plays a key role in promoting the book. A striking cover attracts potential readers and provides greater visibility. This helps increase sales.
● A book cover is designed to attract a specific target audience. The elements of the cover (colours, typography, images) should reflect the genre and content of the book. For example, the cover of a science fiction book should be full of adventure and innovative elements; The cover of a romance novel should contain emotional and romantic elements.
● Amazon’s algorithms are shaped by users’ interaction. Books with a high click-through rate on their book cover tend to rank higher in search results. This shows that the design of the book cover directly affects the success of the book in the digital environment.
● A book cover is the perfect opportunity to convey the book’s synopsis and themes in a visual way. The images, texts and colors used on the cover provide clues about the content of the book. For example, the cover of a thriller novel dealing with a dark theme may contain elements symbolizing mystery and danger. These visual cues attract the attention of the relevant readership and shape their expectations.
● A professional cover design increases the perceived value of the book and the author. An amateurish cover can shake readers’ confidence in the content of the book. Conversely, an aesthetically pleasing and high-quality cover highlights the author’s professionalism and the quality of the book, making readers more likely to purchase the book.
● The book cover offers a chance to make an emotional connection with potential readers. The visual and typographic elements on the cover can stimulate the reader’s emotions and begin to draw them into the emotional journey of the story. This is especially important for emotional or dramatic stories.
● If an author has more than one book, a connection can be established between series or similarly themed books by creating consistency in cover designs. This can increase readers’ interest in the author’s other books and stimulate sales. Additionally, books with similar cover designs help readers easily recognize other works by the same author.
● The book cover acts as a tool that quickly communicates the genre of the book. For example, a cover with bright colors and cheerful characters often indicates children’s books, while dark tones and minimalist design often represent more serious nonfiction works or adult literature. This helps readers quickly orient themselves to the genres they’re interested in and avoids misunderstandings.
● Covers that reflect different cultural aesthetics and themes can increase a book’s acceptability in international markets. This is especially important for translated works or books that appeal to a global audience. The book cover offers a way to connect with readers across cultures.
● Book cover design can be adapted to suit seasons or current trends. For example, a bright, colorful cover design for a summer-specific novel or a cold-toned cover for a winter-themed story can capture the attention of readers by reflecting emotions appropriate to the season. This can help the book sell more during that period.
● The book cover can contain visual cues that symbolize the content of the book so that readers can quickly get an idea of the book’s main theme or plot. This is especially useful for engaging the reader and managing their expectations for complex or multi-layered stories.
● The arrangement and hierarchy of the information on the book cover (such as author’s name, book title, subtitle, publishing house logo) is an important factor in attracting the attention of potential readers and processing the information quickly. Highlighting important information and using an easy-to-read layout can increase the book’s perceived value and level of professionalism.

Examples of Good and Bad Book Covers

The first and fifth book covers are prepared quite simply. This can be seen very easily. In fact, the person who prepared the first book probably prepared the cover of that book in 5 minutes. That’s why the rankings of these books are quite bad. (first and fifth books) The covers of the other books have been prepared in detail. The third book is quite remarkable.

The first book’s ranking is lower than the others. Because the book cover was not prepared well and there are no pictures in that book. Images attract attention and impress potential customers. The fact that there are no pictures in the book therefore had a negative effect. In the second book, images and colors related to Halloween were used. And it is quite colorful. It has been prepared in a way suitable for children. The third book is prepared in a different style from the other books. The inside page of a notebook was used as the background of the book cover. This increased the level of interest. The fourth book has a cover related to the book title and the pictures are compatible with it. Therefore, it is a successful example. In the fifth book, a lot of information about the content of the book is given on the cover of the book. This has been quite self-explanatory for customers.

I recommend copying or replicating the designs of successful competitors, but not in an obvious way.

Making Money Without Spending Money will Take Much Longer.

In order for a book to rank better, it must be sold either organically or through advertisements. Organic sales take a lot of time. Therefore, spending money on advertising is another option to speed up this process.

If not enough money is spent on advertising, this will happen:

● Getting your books found organically on Amazon is difficult in a market full of competitive keywords. Relying solely on organic searches without advertising significantly slows down the discovery process of your book.
● It takes much longer to gain recognition as a brand and author without using an advertising budget. Gaining attention and building an audience through social media, blogs, and other organic channels requires patience and constant effort.
● Ads allow you to quickly reach potential readers with specific demographics. An ad-free strategy won’t provide this type of targeted reach, limiting your overall sales potential.
● When you publish a new book, ads can help your book gain attention quickly. Ad-free strategies can result in slower initial sales through organic growth, resulting in a delay in your revenue stream.
● Ads allow your book to attract more attention and therefore more reviews. With ad-free strategies, book reviews can take longer to collect and build trust with potential readers.
● Ads provide important data to analyze your titles’ performance and quickly make adjustments based on market trends. With ad-free strategies, access to such data is limited and it may take longer to make the necessary changes to react to buyer behavior.
● Ads can increase the chances of a book or content going viral. Organic strategies are often limited to less engagement and sharing, making it harder for your book to achieve viral success.
● Ads allow you to easily reach potential readers in different geographical regions. Ad-free strategies typically appeal to a local or narrower audience and can take years to gain a global audience.
● Ad-free strategies limit promotion of book series or related derivative products. While advertising offers an effective way to promote such products in a connected and rapid manner, marketing through organic methods can be slower and less effective.
● Ad-free strategies generally require more time and human resources. This can reduce the time and energy you can devote to other important activities, especially for freelance writers with limited resources.
● Ads provide an opportunity to test different marketing strategies and learn which approaches are most effective. With ad-free methods, such tests are more difficult to perform and may require longer time to evaluate the success of innovative ideas.

As seen in this picture, I started advertising for the United States as of May 2022 (I did not advertise on previous dates). And thanks to this, I have achieved 211 sales so far.

The pictures here show the total money earned from the United States as of April 2022 and how many books were sold. I earned $3867 and sold 1315 books. Advertisements later helped accelerate organic sales as well.

I spent a total of $602 on ads, which generated $3,867. This means that the profit is over six times the investment, which is great.

Translating Your Books/Writing into a Different Language

When publishing books on the Amazon KDP platform, works in languages other than English are thought to provide some advantages. Especially common languages such as Spanish, German and French have a significant readership.

Stocks of books in these languages are more limited than in English. Therefore, the need for new publications that provide diversity is high. Low competition paves the way for work focused on the person and the work.

Because Amazon’s algorithm encourages language diversity, books in different languages can be discovered more easily. It is especially advantageous for small publishing houses and independent authors.

Publishing books in languages other than English can provide many advantages. First, while reader demand in these markets may still be high, the level of competition is generally lower. This allows your book to be discovered more easily and reach more readers.

Another advantage is being able to access readers and markets in different cultures. For example, Spanish writers can reach Spanish readers as well as Spanish readers in different parts of the world, especially those who don’t speak English.

As a result, creating content in different languages can increase your chances of success on Amazon KDP. However, I recommend translating only the e-books you have already created, as AI can now translate them as easily as humans can, so it’s essentially free money.

For example, “penguin book” competitors for French and English:

As can be seen from here, in the USA “penguin book” There are 100000 competitors for the word. It will be very difficult to rank here with a new book.

This book was published on March 13, 2023. 4 people rated this book. This book is sold 1 piece per month. This data is for the US market.

As can be seen from here, in France “penguin book” There are 544 competitors for the word. It will be very easy to rank here with a new book.

This book was published on September 6, 2023. 22 people rated this book. This book is sold in 30 copies per month. These data are for the French market.

The book in the USA has been published previously. But the book in France has more monthly sales. These are books that stand out in the marketplaces of different countries with keywords with the same meaning (in different languages). The conclusion to be drawn here is that if a book on the same subject is written in French, it will be much easier to increase the book ranking and sales amount. Therefore, when only the language of the book is taken into account, it would be more logical to write about this subject in French.

Creating the Book

While preparing a book, we can use various softwares and websites to help us, making the process easier and more practical. We will use Canva to create our e-books as it is the fastest and simplest platform for designing images, PDFs, books and so on. It’s perfect for us as we don’t need anything special.

We will also use Bleed, what is Bleed?

Bleed is a term that refers to the condition where printed elements on a page, such as a picture or illustration, extend to the edge of the page. All KDP related book covers require bleed. However, one can decide for himself whether his interior bleeds or not.

If we are going to use bleed, we need to pay attention to the width and height. Because we will need to increase the size for both width and height.

For example, if we are going to prepare a 6×9 inch book, we need to increase the 6 inch part (width) by 0.125 inches. For the part (height) that is 9 inches, we need to increase it by (0.125+0.125) 0.25 inches. In short, for each book size, if we are going to use bleed, we need to increase the size by 0.125 for the width and 0.25 for the height. Additionally, a similar process is required for the book cover. However, we can examine this in more detail. Because it is possible to make this process easier on Amazon’s book cover draft download site.

You can check this page for book cover calculating.

You can review the situations where bleed is used for some sample book sizes here:

This is the book cover outline for a 100 page, 6×9 inch book. Areas outside the black lines in the red area are included in the bleed area. We should be careful not to put any important text or images in these areas.

What are Margins?

Margins prevent content from bleeding off the page and being cut off during the production process. Top, bottom, and outside margins must be at least 0.25 inches for non-bleed books and 0.375 inches for bleed books. The inside margin size depends on the number of pages because as the number of pages increases, the book becomes thicker, which means the inside margin must also increase.

This issue is for us to leave empty spaces in the pages. However, there is no need to work hard for margins. We can also do this manually. Because there is no need to try hard to leave millimeter areas empty.

What should be taken into consideration before preparing a notebook / book cover and content?

Before preparing a book cover and its content, we will focus on issues such as the subject, the number of competitors, the ease of preparing the book, the prices of the competitors, the quality of the cover, and the difference of the content from the competitors.

To choose the topic we will try to search for keywords that have around 1000-1500 competitors on the site. We will consider words with an average BSR rank of around 400000.

For keyword research I am going to be using SelfPublishingTitans as I’ve already said earlier in this post:

Guinea pig notebook We researched the word and the number of competitors is quite low (224). This is pretty good, but the average BSR rank (1856973) is so bad we won’t use it. We continue to search for keywords.

Guinea pig gifts for guinea pig lovers We searched for the word and the number of
competitors is few (1277). This situation is very good. The average BSR rank is 349035. So
the average BSR ranking is also pretty good. We can use this keyword.

Lets now create a cover, since this is a notebook we will have to calculate the dimensions, for that we should go to this page. As said earlier we will use Canva for creating them as it has millions of photos/fonts and other material we will need.

Download template When we click where it says, we will download a zip file. PDF and PNG files are available in this zip file. We will use the PNG file.

When we examine the PNG image here, we see that we need an area of 17.475 x 11.250 inches for the cover of an 8.5×11 inch notebook with 100 pages.

We will log in or create a Canva account if we don’t have one. Canva is free, but if you want to use Canva Pro there is a fee. But this is not mandatory, it just makes it easier to create more professional books.

To create a book cover with the specified dimensions, we need to click the Custom Size button on the Canva website.

When we click the Custom Size button, we will need to adjust the width, height, and measurement settings. For our example, the width should be 17.475 inches, the height should be 11.250 inches, and we will need to select inches for the measurement unit. After that, we will need to click the Create New Design button.

When you click the Uploads button, you get the opportunity to upload images and photos from your computer to the Canva website. We will upload the PNG image we downloaded with the Download Template option here, and then we will work with this template. This way, we will be able to see the back, front, and spine of the book. We will arrange the images accordingly. This will give us the opportunity to prepare the book cover more easily, as the areas we need to edit will be displayed separately.

When we click the Upload Files button, it will prompt us to select a PNG or JPG file from our computer. This way, we will have uploaded the template to Canva.

Our template will appear here as a PNG. When we right-click with the mouse and click Set image as background, the design will fill the entire empty space, and the area we will be working on will be fully visible. It is important not to place any images, text, etc., in the center area. Additionally, no important details should be added to the border areas (indicated here in red).

Not: The yellow rectangle at the back is the area where the barcode will be placed, and no text or images should be in this area either.

A more detailed view of the draft is here. The left side of the picture represents the back of the book. The right side of the picture represents the cover of the book. The line in the middle is the part that divides these two areas and there should be no pictures or anything here.

If we click the Elements button in the menu on the left side of the Canva website, all the images and photos available within Canva will appear.

We need to select the square under the Shapes section. When we click on it, we can drag the square and resize it. For our example, we will drag three squares onto the design and adjust their sizes accordingly.

We have resized all the squares to the appropriate dimensions and transformed them into rectangles due to the size of the template. Additionally, using the transparency feature, we made these shapes transparent, allowing us to still have the ability to check the details.

When we click on the circle indicated by the red arrow, we will encounter the color changing setting. In this way, we can change the colors of the squares we select as we wish.

We have adjusted the color settings and set the transparency to 100. Now, only the steps of adding images and text remain.

When we click the Elements button and search using keywords, we can use various images and photos. This allows us to create our book cover. When we click on each image, it will appear on our template, and we can drag them as needed.

When we click the Text button in the left menu, it will direct us to the area where we can enter the book title. We can choose any style, allowing us to write the book title in a more professional way

When we click the button labeled A, we can change the text color. With the Super Space button, we can change the font style. The Effects button allows us to make changes to the outer shadow or other effects of the text.

Finally, we will add appropriate images for the notebook and complete the book cover. It is important to ensure that the images are of high quality and that the colors are harmonious.

This is just an example. The design should be much better. Just experiment with it a little and you’ll figure it out.

You can also use Canva’s AI feature to generate images for your book cover. Here’s an example of what it can produce:

You can play more with it and be more creative, for example:

How to Prepare the Content of a notebook?

We will do similar processes with the notebook cover. It will even be easier since there is an area we need here

First, we will determine the dimensions of our notebook. Let’s say you have a notebook with the Bleed feature. In this way, for a notebook of 8.5×11 inches, we will need an area of 8.625×11.25 inches.

By clicking the Create New Design button, we can start creating the content for our notebook.

Note: Since the content of notebooks is generally black and white, we need to be careful not to use colored images. Even if we are going to use a color image, we should not forget that it will appear in black and white on the printer. Because using a color printer will increase the costs significantly. For this reason, it is generally not preferred to provide competitive advantage.

This is the first page of our content. We found all the images from the Elements button and placed them using the drag-and-drop feature. This is an introduction page and includes a section where the person who purchases the notebook can write their name.

For the second page, we will choose one of the pre-designed pages by clicking the Design button, and then customize it. We will select one of the results that appear when we search for “Notebook.”

Thanks to the Elements button, we added a small image to the second page and created our own design. Our notebook will have a total of 100 pages, so we need to copy the second page 99 times. This process is very easy with Canva.

When we right-click on the second page from the menu below, we need to click on Duplicate Page in the section that appears. This will allow us to duplicate the page.

It will be enough to follow the same steps to download both the cover and the content. First, we will click on the share button, then we will click on the download button.

Then, we will select PDF Print from the File Type menu and click on the Download button. This will upload the PDF version of our book. After that, we will upload it to Amazon KDP. These are all the steps we need to follow.

Using Ai

We will do this by creating a new example by adding additions to our previous example. Our previous example guinea pig was to make a notebook about. Now we will try to add very brief information about guinea pigs to each page of this notebook. We will aim to include 1 sentence about guinea pigs on each page.

You can use Deep Seek for this or ChatGPT.

For this example, we can write the following sentence (I will write it in English, but you can write it in any language you prefer):

“Write 200 sentences that describe and praise guinea pigs. These sentences should highlighttheir adorable features, unique personalities, intelligence, and the joy they bring as pets. Focus on their friendly nature, their ability to form bonds with humans, and the fun behaviors they display. Mention how easy they are to care for, their playful nature, and how they make wonderful companions. Express admiration for their cute squeaks, soft fur, and curious eyes. Include sentences that emphasize the calming and therapeutic effects guinea pigs have on their owners. Celebrate their small size, their gentle temperament, and the happiness they bring to any home.”

Sometimes, we will need to click buttons to make the artificial intelligence write more. Here, we click the button that says Continue generating. This will allow ChatGPT to generate more sentences for us.

Now, we will copy and paste the sentences here one by one onto each page in the notebook we prepared. We do not need 200 sentences, but it will be advantageous for us to have extra sentences in case we do not like some of the sentences.

We will return to the Canva website and open our first design again. Then, we will make some adjustments to this design. This will help us further develop our notebook. We will add a sentence related to guinea pigs on each page of the notebook.

As you can see, we will drag the shape we chose into our ready design. Then, we will select a font from the text field and write or copy the sentence we found with artificial intelligence there. Finally, we will drag and drop the shape and text appropriately.

When we click the Duplicate Page button, it will copy the page. Then, we just need to change the text on the new page while leaving everything else the same. By repeating this process, we can reach 100 pages and complete our notebook.

Note: Amazon KDP has a detailed article on the use of artificial intelligence. You can review it here.

Advertising

The effectiveness of ads on Amazon KDP for your books is of great importance because in today’s digital age, it is becoming more difficult than ever to stand out among millions of books and attract the attention of potential readers. At this point, Amazon Advertising comes into play and helps you bring your books to the target audience.

Advertisements not only draw more attention to your book; They also directly affect your sales and income! We can say that with the increasing interest in your book, the increase in your sales will be inevitable. The increase in sales figures positively affects your Amazon ranking, increasing interest in your book and allowing more readers to discover it. Thus, thanks to advertising, you will start a successful process for your book!

It should be noted that it is important for advertisements to be effective, but the right strategies must be implemented. You should start by identifying the right target audience and prepare an eye-catching cover photo and an attractive promotional text; You should also choose appropriate keywords and manage your advertising budget in the best way. Amazon Advertising gives you comprehensive analytical tools to help you track the performance of your ads and make improvements as needed. By using these tools, you can constantly increase the effectiveness of your ads and maximize the success of your books.

In conclusion, ads on Amazon KDP are of great importance; Because it gives your books more visibility and helps you meet the right readers while increasing your sales and supporting you in achieving success in your writing career. By making effective use of advertising, you can maximize the potential of your books and stand out on the Amazon KDP platform.

In order to use Amazon ads, we first need to have a KDP account. Once we have a KDP account, we click on the Marketing button.

Then, we click on Choose in the rectangular area labeled Amazon Ads. This will display a list of countries where we can run ads.

For our example, we will use ads for Australia. Then, we will explain in detail why we chose Australia. We select the ad button with the .au extension.

● Other countries are as follows:
amazon.com – USA
amazon.co.uk – United Kingdom
amazon.de – Germany
amazon.fr – France
amazon.it – Italy
amazon.es – Spain
amazon.ca – Canada
amazon.com.au – Australia

Then, we click on the Go to Ads Console button. This will take us to the website where we can manage our ads. During registration, a login screen may appear, and here, we may be asked to fill out some tax-related information and details like our bank card. These are simple steps. I recommend using a Visa or Mastercard, as these cards usually work without any issues.

A page similar to this will appear on the Amazon ads registration screen. We will need to fill in our information from here. This information; Our name, surname, email, address, tax number, tax office name, payment method and card information. Every month, Amazon sends us an email invoice for the amounts we spend on advertising. This is why we need e-mail and other information. If we fill out the information here completely, we will be more comfortable in terms of accounting. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to this issue.

Why might Amazon Australia advertising be an advantage for us?

There are many advantages to advertising on Amazon Australia. Someone new to Amazon KDP may not have a lot of money, so it is important for this person to think of a solution. Here are the benefits of advertising on Amazon Australia:

● Less competition:
Australia’s book market is smaller and less competitive compared to countries such as the USA and the UK, because Australia’s population is smaller than these countries. While the population of Australia is approximately 25 million, the population of the USA is 328 million and the population of the UK is 66 million.

The disproportionately small number of readers in Australia results in a small number of writers and publishing houses operating here. Because many authors and publishing houses prefer to focus on large markets such as the USA or the UK, which have a wide readership and higher sales potential. This situation leads to a lower level of competition in the Australian book market.

Having a small number of authors advertise in Australia is a huge advantage for authors because authors have to compete with hundreds or even thousands of authors when advertising in other markets, and as a result it can be quite difficult for books to get noticed and stand out.

Lower advertising costs also result in a lower level of competition in Australia. While authors receive fewer views with the same advertising spend in the USA or the UK, they can get more views with the same spend in Australia and deliver their books to a wide audience. This allows authors to get a higher return on their advertising investment.

● Lower advertising costs:
Low advertising costs in Australia play an important role in book marketing strategies for authors. Less competition in Australia compared to other major book markets generally leads to lower advertising prices. This allows authors to buy more ad impressions with the same advertising budget and deliver their books to a wider readership.

While you might pay $1 to start an ad in the US or UK, you could probably pay $0.50 or less for the same ad in Australia. In this case, you can attract twice as many potential customers with the same advertising budget in Australia, and lower advertising costs allow authors to optimize advertising effectiveness and help them manage marketing spend more efficiently.

Low advertising costs in Australia are a huge advantage, especially for independent authors and small publishing houses. These authors and publishing houses often have limited marketing funds and place great emphasis on making the most of every advertising spend. Thanks to lower costs in the Australian market, these authors can reach wider audiences and increase book sales.

Reduced advertising costs allow writers to experiment with a variety of advertising formats and strategies. For example, while a writer has to focus solely on Amazon Sponsored Product Ads in the USA, he can also test different ad formats such as Amazon Sponsored Brand Ads or Display Ads in Australia, thanks to more affordable costs. This situation provides the author with the opportunity to diversify his advertising strategy and determine the most effective advertising formats.

While low advertising costs allow writers to run long-term advertising campaigns, in markets with high advertising costs writers often have to focus on short-term campaigns and cannot strive for long-term advertising. However, low costs in Australia allow authors to run longer-term campaigns and get their books in front of readers on an ongoing basis. This increases brand awareness and provides the opportunity to achieve more stable sales in the long term.

For authors, low advertising costs make it easier to invest in seasonal or seasonal campaigns. For example; An author can increase sales of their holiday-themed books by advertising heavily in Australia during the Christmas holiday period. Likewise, by increasing advertising budgets during a particular book fair or literary event, authors can gain more visibility and sales during these special times.

● Promotions for the Australian market:
Creating special promotions for the Australian market can be an effective way to increase book sales. A good strategy could be for Amazon to offer special offers and discounts for readers in Australia. Within the framework of such promotions, you can use special programs in Australia such as Prime Reading or Kindle Unlimited to bring your books to a wider Australian readership and increase their sales.

It is also possible to organize special campaigns on national days or holidays in Australia. For example, you can highlight books associated with events such as Australia Day or Anzac Day and offer special price discounts. During these periods, you can create offers that will attract the attention of Australian readers and increase their desire to purchase.

We examine a sample advertising campaign in Australia

I organized an advertising campaign for 4 books on the same subject as Amazon advertisements in Australia. Now let’s examine this data together.

I organized 3 advertising campaigns for 4 books. I spent AU$27 for the 1st ad campaign, AU$1.19 for the 2nd ad campaign, and AU$0.32 for the 3rd ad campaign. The total of all expenses is AU$28.49. ($18.08)

Examining and understanding some menus from here will make our job easier. We will examine it in more detail later.

Impressions: impressions
Top-of-search IS: Ranking at the top of search results (%)
Clicks: Clicks
CTR: Click-through rate (%)
Spend: Expenditure / Expenditures
CPC: Cost per click
Orders: Orders (quantity)
ACOS: (Advertising Spend / Sales) x 100

What we should aim for is to easily rank at the top of the search results and have a click-through rate as high as possible. If we easily rank at the top of the search results, this means there are fewer competitors and the cost of advertising is cheaper. A high Impressions number means that Amazon has displayed our book in different places multiple times through the ads.

If the Clicks number is high, it means that the impressions are yielding positive results. This indicates that the ads shown in relevant places are being clicked on, which is the situation we should aim for. CTR is the percentage of clicks shown relative to the number of impressions. The higher this percentage, the greater the likelihood of success. We can keep the Spend amount low at the beginning, but later, if the profit margin we are targeting continues in the same way, we can always increase this amount. What’s important here is running a profitable advertising campaign.

CPC is related to how much money we spend per click on an ad. This amount is determined through an auction, and Amazon provides us with information about it in advance. Amazon gives us a range of minimum and maximum values for how much we are likely to spend on a book or keyword. We then choose a value based on this. Orders refers to the number of books sold through the ads. Of course, we should aim for a high number of orders.

ACOS is the ratio of advertising costs to the revenue generated from sales. We can think of it like this: let’s consider a scenario where the advertising cost is $100, and we make a $100 book sale. In this scenario, the ACOS would be 1. Now, let’s consider another scenario where the advertising cost is still $100, but we make a $10 book sale. In this case, the ACOS would be 10. As seen, ACOS is higher in the second scenario, and the revenue from sales is lower in this scenario. Therefore, we should always aim for a scenario with a low ACOS. Generally, the lowest ACOS is found in Australia. Additionally, the target ACOS should typically be no higher than 40, but there are some exceptions to this, which will be explained later.

If we look at the advertising campaign for the four books I’ve made on the same topic as a whole, we will see that the total amount spent is 28.55 Australian dollars. The ACOS for this campaign is 4.98. The Impressions are 22,131, and the Orders are 34.

There are some conclusions to be drawn from this. For example, the ACOS is very low for the current situation. This means we have the potential to increase our advertising costs by about 10 times. This is a very successful advertising campaign because the highest ACOS we should aim for is typically around 40.

Since the ACOS is currently so low, our profit margins are quite high. This situation gives us the ability and strength to create profitable ads, even with a very low advertising budget.

We spent approximately 28 Australian dollars on advertising to promote 4 books on the same subject. This amounts to an average of 18 US dollars. We earned a total of 211 dollars from these books. So, in total, we earned back 11 times (211/18) of the money we spent. This is quite profitable. Also, what should be considered here is that the effect of the advertisement sometimes appears later. We will examine this with an example scenario.

For example, let’s say a person buys a book for his child after seeing it in advertisements. Let this child be 7 years old. And the person who buys this book should have a sibling and his sibling’s child should be 7 years old. If the person who bought the book through advertisements likes it very much, he will tell his brother the same. And in this way, we will make an advertisement for free. Thinking more comprehensively and in detail like this will always have positive effects for us in the long term.

34 books were sold through advertisements. As can be seen here, a total of 77 books were sold along with other effects. That means 43 more books were sold. The share of advertisements in all these sales is also quite high.

The round button on the left will be the main section we will examine. We will generally only deal with this section. Other menus are not that important.

The Single Country button is used when we are analyzing ads for a single country.

The Multiple Countries button is used when we are reviewing ads for multiple countries. This allows us to view all the ads we’ve run across different countries in one table.

The Products button is used when we want to analyze our advertising campaigns based on the books. In other words, it’s a method to do book analysis instead of analyzing the ad campaigns themselves.

The Settings button allows us to make automatic adjustments related to the budget we haven’t spent.

Spend refers to how much money we’ve spent on ads. It can be expressed in dollars, euros, pounds, etc.

Impressions refers to the number of views or times the ad has been seen.

Orders refers to the number of books sold through the ads.

When we click on the Columns button, a menu will open that allows us to manually adjust the table where we will analyze the data.

Generally we will select and use these settings;
● Start date
● End date
● Budget
● Cost type
● Impressions
● Top-of-search IS
● Clicks
● CTR
● Spend
● CPC
● Orders
● ACOS

We have previously discussed the meanings of most of the terms here, but in addition to those, we will now examine the concepts of CTR and CPC.

CTR stands for Click-Through Rate.
If we look at it in terms of a formula, it would look like this:
(Number of Clicks / Number of Impressions) x 100
For example, if our ad has been viewed 2,000 times and received 20 clicks:
CTR = (20 / 2000) x 100 = 1%
The higher the CTR, the more successful our advertising campaign is.

CPC stands for Cost Per Click.
If we examine it as a formula, it would look like this:
Total Ad Spend / Total Number of Clicks
For example, if we spent $10 for 20 clicks:
CPC = 10 / 20 = $0.50
Our goal is to optimize the CPC to get as many clicks as possible for the lowest cost.

The advertising process can sometimes be seen as complex. This process can be confusing, especially for a person who has just set up an Amazon kdp account. However, it is not that difficult. Our basic logic should be to just think about advertising steps by dividing them into small parts and then think about all these small parts as a whole. Advertising for a longer period of time and in a more planned manner will make the whole process much easier. However, first of all, we need to know all the terms about advertising in detail and learn to analyze the advertising steps correctly

There are also training and articles prepared by Amazon regarding advertisements. You can check it out from the links here:
https://advertising.amazon.com/en-gb
https://advertising.amazon.com/library/guides/authors-guide-to-sponsored-products
https://advertising.amazon.com/solutions/products/sponsored-brands

When we click on the Create Campaigns button, the ad creation page will appear.

From here, we need to choose between Sponsor Products or Sponsor Brands.

Usually, we will advertise using the Sponsor Products button. Sponsor Brands is more for advertising our author profile, meaning it is related to branding.

Click on the Continue button under Sponsor Products.

We will see a table like this. In the Ad Group Name field, we write a name for our ad campaign. This will make it easier for us to review later. We can write it in any language that we can easily understand.

From the Products menu, we select the book we want to advertise. We can either search for it manually or use the ASIN. By clicking the Add button, we add our books to the ad campaign.

With Automated Targeting, Amazon handles all the ad processes for us, and we only set a cost-per-click range. This method can be effective, but in this case, we don’t have control over the process. We are leaving all the stages to Amazon. As a result, in some cases, our ad budget may not be used as efficiently. We might want to consider alternative methods as well.

When we choose Manual Targeting, we are presented with the options of Keyword Targeting and Product Targeting.

With Keyword Targeting, we advertise using specific keywords. For example, if we create a monkey-themed notebook, we can use keywords like money notebook for kids or blue monkey notebook. We can enter these keywords manually by clicking the Enter List button, which will open a space where we can type the words. Alternatively, by clicking the Upload File button, we can directly upload an Excel file containing the keywords we have prepared.

There are also Broad, Phrase, and Exact buttons for keywords. The meanings of these terms are as follows:

Broad match: In this situation; Synonyms, plurals of keywords and keywords with similar or similar meanings are also included in our advertising campaign. To give an example monkey notebook Let it be one of our keywords. Broad match If we use it, our alternative words can be: gorilla journal, monkey note book, primate notepad.

Phrase match: This refers to the situation where there may be other words before or after our keyword. Our keyword again is monkey notebook let it be. In this case, our alternative keywords could be: cute monkey notebook, monkey notebook for kids, monkey notebook for children.

Exact match: This includes words where the exact keyword is searched or very close variations of it are used. Our keyword again is monkey notebook let it be. In this case, our alternative keywords are monkey notebook ve monkey notebooks it could be.

We are for now Broad, Phrase and Exact We will mark all the buttons. We can then examine the best performers and choose only the best among them to organize a new advertising campaign.

Suggested bid: It is a bid range that Amazon determines based on the past performance or competition level of the selected keyword. In this case, Amazon arranges everything itself. Custom bid: It is the bid amount we determine ourselves for the keywords. For example monkey notebook If we want to bid $0.75 per click for the keyword, we can write this directly.

Default bid: This is the option that allows us to set a general bid amount. For example, when we set $0.5 for all our keywords, this means we will have the same cost per click for all our keywords.

We need to prioritize options where the power is always in our hands as advertisers. Because Custom bid ve Default bid We can choose options.

In this screen, there is an example of the keyword entry table. Here, we can write as many keywords as we want. Writing the words one below the other will give more accurate results. Finally, when we click the “Add Keywords” button, the keywords we have written will be added to our advertising campaign.

In this screenshot, we have added the keyword “monkey notebook” to our advertising campaign as an example. We have done this by selecting all the options: Broad, Phrase, and Exact. As seen in the screenshot, on the right side, Amazon has provided recommended bid ranges for each option. For example, for the Broad bid, Amazon suggests a bid range of $0.21 to $0.31. If we place a bid of $0.31 or $0.32, it will be easier for us to surpass the competition, as the advertising system works on an auction basis. We can apply the same strategy for other bids as well. In every case, we will aim to outbid the competition.

Product targeting is an ad type that allows us to target other people’s books. In other words, this type of ad enables us to place our books in specific sections of similar books by other authors.

The notebook we see below is a very good example of this type of advertising. In this case, if someone does not like the first notebook, there is a high potential to purchase the other notebook below.

Here, we will add books one by one using the ASIN numbers of our competitors’ books or notebooks. The process is actually the same as adding keywords; the only difference is that instead of keywords, we will use the ASIN numbers of competing books.

Bid adjustments: In this way, we can ensure that our offer automatically ranks higher in some places with some percentage advertising cost increases. It’s not a setting I usually use very often. However, you can use it in situations where competition is very high. Campaign name: This is the name we will write in our advertising campaign. This is the name we will give as we wish so that it will be remembered. Daily budget: It refers to the maximum daily advertising budget that should be spent. It is recommended to enter at least $10.

This screenshot is related to sponsored brands and is about advertising our author profile. This topic will not be discussed in detail, as it is typically a type of ad campaign that popular authors should run. However, you can try it with low budgets if you’d like. We will generally be using the sponsored products ad type.

Further

Amazon and creating E-Books is full of opportunities in general, your brain is your own limitation, you can make free e-books and then fill them with affiliate links and use services like Draft 2 Digital to post that free e-book on 20 websites, there are such services that can post it on even more, then you also post it on few marketplaces like Gumroad, ask few friends or use services like Rapid Workers for people to search for them and download them so that they rank up higher, heck you can ask your friends to search for ur books and buy them and you give them the cash back or you can ask strangers on reddit to buy them and you give them 5$ bonus, so if they buy a book you sell for 10$, you’d give them 15$.

You can even put them diffirent title on each site and try to target google keywords that are searched with no copmetition so that you get bunch of downloads from there. Heck you can make those free books, get them promoted and ranked by amazon and other sites where you’d promote a premium version of that same book, so make an amazing free e-book and decent premium book, so it will be a great sales funnel.

Options are unlimited I’ve sold books outside Amazon in the past as well, e-books can make you money for years to come if set up right.