How to publish a notebook on Amazon?
How to publish a notebook on Amazon for the whole world? — I reckon that’s the question I’ve been asked most frequently for several years. Amazon is the biggest sales platform in the world and it allows you to reach customers in many of the wealthiest markets. However, the real kicker is that Amazon offers sales in the American, British, Canadian, and European markets, plus a few other smaller ones. These markets are so crucial because they’re home to hundreds of millions of wealthy customers, particularly in the U.S. market, who are inclined to shop till they drop.
Intro
In the USA, people shop a lot and without unnecessary hesitation. Thanks to this, the demand in these markets is high and, for instance, sales in the American market are incomparably larger than here in Poland. In the US alone, there are 325 million people who are definitely wealthy and are very keen on making purchases. Amazon is an American platform—sales on this platform are pretty big and they’re growing with each passing year. Moreover, the pandemic really gave Amazon a leg up, as a ton of people were practically forced to shop online.
For anyone living in Europe, selling any product in the US is an intriguing idea, as we’re dealing with a huge market, a global sales platform, and a decidedly stronger currency. Selling even simple products abroad (like notebooks), mainly in the US market, can bring significant benefits to a seller living in Europe, even if it’s a drop in the bucket in the scale of Amazon.
Kindle Direct Publishing (formerly Create Space)
Also a very interesting option is that by publishing a book in the form of a notebook through Amazon KDP (Kindle direct Publishing) you do not have to invest virtually any money in products. You can say you operate on a dropshipping basis.
Kindle Direct Publishing prints and ships the products you’ve created digitally to the buyer, and all you see is your seller’s dashboard. Amazon plays a middleman role in this transaction and serves as the sales platform. As the product creator, you get a commission for each item sold and even if no sales are made—you simply don’t pay a dime.
Additionally, selling as an author (even large quantities of notebooks, books, e-books) through Amazon KDP, you don’t need to run a business, as you pay for tax for copyrights.
How does Amazon KDP work?
Amazon KDP is a platform owned by Amazon that handles the publication and sale of e-books and paper books. E-books is a separate matter, which I’ve described in this post. When it comes to publishing so-called notebooks, KDP fits the bill perfectly, as this platform allows you to publish your own product in the form of a print-on-demand paperback. This means that anyone who signs up for Amazon KDP can virtually create their own product, which after publication will be available on Amazon worldwide, that is, for a large number of potential customers.
There’s no need to pour money into product inventory, and the book/notebook itself is sold on a print-on-demand basis. Our products are digitally released and available in the Amazon store in the US, Canada, and also in Europe (UK, Spain, France, and Germany). Only when the customer purchases our product does Amazon then print, package, and ship it to the customer. It’s like selling cars online, but the factory only makes the car when someone orders it, and we get our cut from the sale without getting our hands dirty.
KDP also offers a pretty high cut of the profit to the author of the product in the final retail price (you can adjust the price and profit in the wizard while adding your own product in the KDP dashboard) and that’s why so many people use this platform to sell their products (not just notebooks).
From a seller’s point of view, selling a notebook looks just like selling an e-book. The product is created online (title, cover, interior + a few other details) through the Amazon KDP platform and you see every sale in your dashboard.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a clue who’s buying our products and we never get to see the printing and shipping process, because Amazon is the seller and they never spill the beans about the buyer’s information.
For some people, this might be a downside, since we’re totally at the mercy of Amazon, but I’m of the opinion that this model gives us complete freedom and simply peace of mind. We can sell thousands of products automatically each month and not even get a single email, meaning we’re creating a passive income based on real products.
However, the real dough regularly rolls into our account if our products are up to snuff. What’s more, over time we can also start publishing more complex products or even ghost-written e-books.
How to publish a simple notebook as a book on Amazon?
It’s a pretty straightforward process and it’s worth learning. Over time, you can also expand your product portfolio and release more complex books. Personally, I make a pretty penny from this and just in the pre-holiday period, I raked in about 10,000 zlotys, mainly from simple automatic products in the form of notebooks.
The process of publishing products in the form of notebooks is pretty straightforward, and the Amazon KDP platform is open to everyone — including people from Poland and all over Europe.
The main perks of publishing through the Amazon KDP platform:
- There’s no sign-up fee for the platform and no subscription charges — Amazon KDP is totally free of charge.
- The ability to publish simple products that cost nothing (so-called notebooks and low-content products).
- There’s no need to own a business (at least in Poland, you pay your tax once a year as an author).
- Flexibility — it’s all up to your creativity what products you’ll be selling.
- Publishing even simple products on Amazon is a great lesson in SEO, graphic design, English, and general computer skills.
- Creating a passive income based on real products.
- The opportunity to develop and publish increasingly sophisticated products over time.
When it comes to drawbacks, it’s worth mentioning the following things:
- The publication is in English and mainly for English-speaking markets.
- As of now, Amazon KDP doesn’t allow publishing in Poland.
- You need to be handy with a computer and those who aren’t up to snuff in this area might not cut the mustard when it comes to publishing.
- It’s also worth dipping your toes into creating simple graphics when publishing basic notebooks. However, you can also order graphic jobs from freelancers — especially when creating e-books.
I teach how to publish a notebook on Amazon step by step in my sales course, Product 24, but before you decide to dip your toes in this business, I encourage you to sign up for a free Amazon and online business course, where I lay out exactly how to publish products on Amazon via the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing platform.
The process of publishing a product (notebooks, e-books, and paper books) goes something like this:
- Signing up for Kindle Direct Publishing.
- Filing a US tax form.
- Setting up a Euro currency account in any bank.
- Understanding the basics of Amazon and the KDP platform.
- Choosing your niches and ideas for your own products on Amazon.
- Publishing a simple notebook in the form of a book using Amazon KDP’s platform wizard.
- Filling out complimentary data, title, cover, description, category etc. on the Kindle direct Publishing platform.
- The notebook (or e-book, book etc.) pops up within 24 hours (sometimes longer depending on the period and product) on Amazon and is up for purchasing in the biggest markets.
Sign up for a free Amazon and online business course here.
How to publish a notebook on Amazon for the global market in 24 hours — watch the video
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Hi! I’m Tomek.
From Waiter To Millionaire.
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Today, I’ll answer one of
the most frequently asked questions
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on my YouTube channel
and on my blog.
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How to publish
a simple notebook on Amazon?
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To those who don’t know, Amazon is
the world’s largest sales platform
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which sells mainly on Western markets,
like the US, Canada, Europe,
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the United Kingdom
and many minor markets.
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We’ll be mainly interested in
the US, Canadian and the UK markets.
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Why? Let’s take
the US one for example,
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which is an area
where I sell 90% of my products.
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The US is my main target.
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Now, 325 million people live in the US,
each of them making
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much more than Polish people in dollars.
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These people are much more eager
to make purchases.
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It makes the demand on Amazon –
which is one of the biggest stores there –
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very large, so it’s easier for us to sell
something in the US than in Poland.
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If you’re going to sell
some small product
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on the US or global Amazon market,
the demand is very high
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and even if our product will be small
compared to the rest of Amazon,
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for a person living in Poland,
this microscopic sell
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will significantly impact our pockets.
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That’s why I encourage to sell
even small, simple products on Amazon,
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especially the US one, because you can
take a tiny piece of this market
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and earn on it.
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Especially if you add to this
a big currency difference.
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The USD value is still much higher
than that of the PLN.
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That’s why the profits you get in Poland
are very significant.
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Before I get to the steps of publishing
a simple notebook on Amazon,
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I’ll tell you
how to release a simple product.
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You can release such a product –
a simple notebook, a book, etc. –
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through the CreateSpace platform.
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It’s a self-publishing platform
thanks to which you can release
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paper books, simple notebooks,
gift books, handbooks and novels.
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But I’ll focus here on
the simplest notebooks.
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Thanks to this platform,
you’re able to create such a product
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in an electronic form and
CreateSpace Amazon will print it,
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sell and serve the customer,
while you do nothing.
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You only oversee the process
from the vendor panel
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and don’t need to be physically involved
in this process.
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It’s the same as when selling e-books.
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Now, I’ll tell you how to sell
such a notebook on Amazon.
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Amazon notebook.
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First step – registration
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on CreateSpace.
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That is, you register
on the CreateSpace platform,
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which is a self-publishing platform,
through which you can
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release products on Amazon in book form
and other forms, so I recommend it.
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The second step is to fill in
the US tax return.
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That is, you, as a non-US person,
must fill in the relevant information,
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such as that you’re
a Polish citizen and a taxpayer,
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you write your data
and declare that they’re true.
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Thanks to it, Amazon and CreateSpace
know that you’re a non-US person
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and they hold only a bit of a tax,
while the rest you need to pay in Poland.
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Next step – foreign currency account.
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You need to set up
a foreign currency account,
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so that you can
receive payments from Amazon,
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as all the money you earn from Amazon,
CreateSpace, Kindle, etc.,
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flows into your account.
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Fortunately, the days when Amazon
paid in checks are long gone.
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The next step is to
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look for niche and ideas.
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You need to get to know
Amazon platform
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and see what kind of products
are being sold there.
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Check out how
other simple notebooks look like.
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You need to spend a lot of time
on analyzing what Amazon looks like,
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how it works, what sells well,
discovering keywords and other products.
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All in order to know the platform
and be able to come up with ideas.
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The fifth step is the actual
release of the title through CreateSpace.
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Once you register on CreateSpace,
have a declaration, an account
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and know what you want to release,
then you need to add a title
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on our CreateSpace platform
and move on the the next step.
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Which is connected to
what I’ve just written.
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Completing the data.
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That is, when uploading our product –
a simple notebook – to CreateSpace,
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you need to add a data,
such as author or brand of your product,
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keywords, cover and
what’s inside your product.
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In the case of a simple notebook,
the content will be blank or with lines.
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So, you complete all kinds of data
on this platform step by step.
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The next and final step is the
actual publication of the notebook.
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Once you go through all the steps,
you publish your notebook on CreateSpace
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and it’ll appear on Amazon
within a few working days.
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In this way, it’s for sale
on the world’s biggest markets.
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So, even a small product
can give you a passive income
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and you can repeat this selling process.
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That’s how the steps look like.
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If you’re interested in Amazon,
check out my free course – link below.
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I also invite you to a course in which
I show how to publish such a notebook.
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Thanks for watching.
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Don’t forget to subscribe,
click the bell and thumbs up.
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Watch my videos, if you want more info
on Amazon and life improvement.
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See you. Bye!
Contents
- 1 How to publish a notebook on Amazon?
- 2 Intro
- 3 Kindle Direct Publishing (formerly Create Space)
- 4 How does Amazon KDP work?
- 5 How to publish a simple notebook as a book on Amazon?
- 6 The main perks of publishing through the Amazon KDP platform:
- 7 When it comes to drawbacks, it’s worth mentioning the following things:
- 8 The process of publishing a product (notebooks, e-books, and paper books) goes something like this: