Needless to say, KDP's printing costs and royalty calculations are more complicated than I expected.

What I'm really trying to understand is how much Amazon actually keeps from each sale, whether it's a paperback or an ebook.

For those who have published through KDP, what percentage do you actually take home after Amazon's fees and printing costs? Any firsthand experience would be appreciated.

Hello good people. I have some audiobook narrator friends who recently had a baby, and they were telling me last night that it's really hard to land narration gigs right now through publishers like ACX and others. They have tons of experience and titles under their belt, but they're wanting to try to reach authors directly rather than relying on these platforms and auditions.

My assumption is that they could charge authors a lot less than what these publishers are charging while still making the same amount of money that they're making right now.

I'm an aspiring indie author myself, so I was trying to give them advice about what they can do to maybe cut out the middle man and reach authors themselves without being annoying. I just wanted to see if I could crowd-source some advice from other indie authors on what might make them want to hire their services.

So some questions for you all: where did you find your narrator? What was the biggest bottleneck for you getting your audiobook made? Did the idea of finding a narrator intimidate you, and what could have made it easier?

Any advice or relevant experience would be really appreciated.

I wrote a Southern Gothic Horror short story. Its a very unholy Christmas story. Plan to release December 1. Any of yall ever done anything like this? Successful? How did you market it?

I’m a self-published author, and I recently found out my book is being offered on Spotify and Yumpu without my consent. I read somewhere to scan the internet to see whether anyone was distributing unauthorized copies, impersonating me, or doing anything suspicious with my book.

To my surprise, I found two suspicious listings!

The first was on Spotify. Someone had created an episode advertising a free EPUB download of my novel. I had no idea people were using Spotify for things like this! Also I should add that it says that it is read by me... I am certainly not reading my book on any platform.

I submitted a report to Spotify, and they responded. They informed me that they had disabled the user responsible for the listing.

The second was on Yumpu. A user had posted a listing advertising a free PDF download of my book. I emailed Yumpu’s support team explaining that I was the author and had never authorized this. Unfortunately, I still haven’t received a response.

I haven’t confirmed whether either listing actually contained my manuscript because I was afraid of clicking on the link. I know I didn’t publish on either platform yet. Should I be freaking out?

This whole experience has opened my eyes to another side of self-publishing that I hadn’t really considered.

I have a few questions for other authors:

Have you ever found out your books were being pirated?

Are there other websites or platforms authors should regularly check for unauthorized downloads, fake listings, or impersonation?

What is the most effective way to get suspicious or unauthorized listings removed, especially when a website ignores your emails?

Have you used copyright takedown notices, Google removal requests, or other services? Did they actually work?

Most importantly, how can we realistically protect ourselves as independent authors? Are there preventive steps we should take before something like this happens?

***Sorry so many questions!

I understand that no method can completely prevent piracy, but I’d love to hear what has worked for other writers.

I’m learning as I go, and I hope sharing my experience helps other authors become more aware of what’s happening with their books online.

My book is not even doing that well--yet. I feel even worse knowing that someone who really wants to read it may end up getting scammed with my name involved.

I’d really appreciate any advice, experiences, or resources you’re willing to share!

Being new to all this marketing on social media jazz, I’ve followed some professionals in the book marketing space and one piece of advice was to “market your brand, not just your book.”

It made an intuitive sense to me but also…how exactly does one do that? Would love some tips, tricks, specific examples…whatever anyone is comfortable sharing.

I finished it. It still needs a lot of work. The prose needs to be fully flushed out. Some plot points needs to be rewritten. Some ideas need more fleshing out. Some details need to be fixed. Some ideas need to be clarified. The dialogue needs a lot of work. Some scenes and chapters need to be expanded. The dialogue needs a lot of work. The grammar and spelling need an overhaul. The overall tone could use some fixing certain parts.

But all in all it is done. It has all the parts of a story. The beginning, the middle, and an end. It flows well and it follows a consistent story. If you read it you might be confused by somethings but it is a story.

Is it too soon to call it complete and find an editor to get ready for self publishing. I have literally told no one I know about. I'm a little ashamed of how poorly written this draft is. But the idea and the story is complete.

Should I spend a few months doing my best to fix what I know it needs? I have about 6 or more pages of notes and ideas and concepts related to the overall story that I would be handing off as well.

What am I looking at cost-wise to self-publish? I'm thinking about going this route because I want to retain rights to all of my characters and worlds.

Hi! I'm a first-time publisher, and I've done a fair amount of promotional material for my book. It is a parody book. I'm struggling to find a good outlet to promote it, I would appreciate any tips / help!

Title was getting too long, but for those who have done this, if I form an LLC after publishing, how does the process of moving from a DBA to LLC work with regards to already published books/already purchased ISBNs? This is for U.S. authors specifically!

There was sparse info I could find about it online, but it seemed like if you purchased ISBNs under a DBA, even if you formed an LLC or transitioned the DBA into an LLC, the ISBNs would not be usable by the LLC. Is this true? And with regards to books already published, do you have to go in and change all the publishing information?

Originally I was going to start an LLC before publishing, but due to how costly it is and obviously this being my first book, most advise against the high investment until you're receiving money. Which I would agree with. But I do plan on transitioning into an LLC at some point, so understanding this process in advance would be very helpful! I was about to purchase my ISBNs so wanted to ask this first.

I've done in-person sales/signings as a solo author and for multi-author events in a lot of places this year. Some go better than others for me, you never know.

One store that I had a particularly good turnout for as a solo author invited me to also join a multi-author event.

This event was awful. The other authors there were nice enough as people. We were friendly to each other. But I write smutty romance, and one of the other authors is a religious and children's author. This person was literally singing religious songs on a ukulele every few minutes the whole time.

I could see people in the store actively avoiding us. Some people came up to talk to that author, which makes sense - the music matches their genre - but I only sold 4 books when my last appearance at that store sold 24.

I ended up packing up early. I have enough religious trauma in my own background that being stuck next to that music for hours was getting unbearable. I'm going to stick with solo events at that store moving forward.

So, I'm preparing to publish my first science-fiction web novel in 2027, and I'm starting to research commissioning an artist for the cover.

My plan is to serialize the story on sites like Royal Road, Scribble Hub, and Honeyfeed, then eventually release completed editions through Amazon KDP, Apple Books, Kobo, and possibly paperback.

My question is: How do you handle all the different cover sizes and aspect ratios?

Do you commission one large, high-resolution illustration and adapt it for each platform? Do you ask the artist to provide multiple versions? Or do you hire a separate cover designer to handle formatting and typography?

I'm aiming for an anime/light-novel-style illustrated cover, with a budget around $250–$350.

I'd love to hear how other indie authors handle this, especially anyone using the same artwork for both web serialization and commercial books.

Thanks!

Considering doing some direct printing again. I got turned off of it seeing reviews of Lulu’s output supposedly being worse than KDP’s. (less black text, washed out covers, more printing errors, not less) I thought BookVault didn’t do the US, or got out of it, but I see now they do, and are competitive, cheaper even for some. But they had some bad reviews too. Does anyone here have current experience with either or both of them, or any others I’m forgetting about? I’d consider doing direct print jobs for runs of 100-1,000, but I don’t want to deal with fulfilling them all on my own, and I assume using a dropship to help with that would make it unprofitable overall, so I’m sticking with PODs that are direct fulfillment for now.

Hoping some of you will have some feedback from recent usage of either of them or others that you like. Thanks!

I've been seriously considering getting an audiobook made for my most popular book, but I know that will be a big investment that has no guarantee of paying off. Now that KU (now K+) offers virtual voice audiobooks, do you think that will mean fewer people will be willing to pay for an audiobook? I'm not willing to use virtual voice, since it's off-putting to many readers/listeners (including myself), not to mention the ethical issues.

Also, any advice or experiences with making an audiobook would be appreciated. If you've done it, was it profitable, or did you regret it? What route did you go, and did you do royalty share? I've toyed with the idea of narrating it myself, but I'll likely just take the route of hiring someone, since I doubt I can train myself to speak slowly enough for it, and I don't want to screw it up (also, I know it will be an incredible amount of work, and I could use that time to write/market instead).

Hey all!

I just hit publish on my audiobook and it got approved in less than a day which took me by surprise!

The problem is, I have no idea what to do now for visibility.

What's your best tip to gain traction on audiobooks? Anything I should absolutely know about?

Thanks in advance!

I just started making a living off kdp but its still very low income, and I've been seeing a lot of posts about leaving kdp recently, id just really like to know what plan you guys have, no shade I just might follow you but I haven't seen any promising angles elsewhere

Hi everyone!

I'm working on a children's book and was pretty set on going the self publishing route and started reading many comments and suggestions on this thread which gave me so much useful info (thanks, everyone!).

But I've been thinking... do any of you who self publish have experience with using a literary agent? What prompted you to not continue with an agent and pursue self publishing? I would love to hear your experience on that path.

I've read here about the tiny sums that authors make after buying ads and doing all their own promotion, etc. etc. One author who I follow reported they were selling books but had not yet turned a profit after factoring in their ad buys.

I understand that getting an agent is difficult... yesterday I read that at any of the traditional publishing houses it's common for an agent to receive hundreds of queries every month. I can't even imagine how to stand out in that crush. So I guess what I'm wondering is how many of you who self publish tried to get an agent and abandoned the quest because of the terrible odds? Thanks to anyone who can shed some light on the pros and cons of pursuing an agent versus tackling designing your own book on Kindle, etc. I appreciate any insight or advice.

I launched my book (UK-set mystery thriller) on 29th September and I was anxiously trying to get reviews in the weeks and months leading up. Now the dust has settled, I thought I would let you all know how it went.

Library Thing

• Cost: Free
• ARC readers: 4
• Reviews: 3
• Cost/review: £0

But only posted on Library Thing site, which hardly anyone uses. Great, enthusiastic reviews, though!

Gemsy

• Cost: Free (free trial, but you have to review someone else's book too)
• ARC readers: 2
• Reviews: 2
• Cost/review: £0

Mostly set up for low-content books. Hard to find people who want to review a novel.

Instagram

• Cost: Free
• ARC readers: 1
• Reviews: 2
• Cost/review: £0

Found a reviewer who didn't want me to pay her! I think she used AI to write the reviews, and possibly to read the book, but I'll take what I can get. And how did I get 2 reviews from one reader? She also reviewed book 2 without being asked!

Book Siren

• Cost: £19.41
• ARC readers: 8
• Reviews: 3
• Cost/review: £6.47

Storygraph

• Cost: £51.95
• ARC readers: 207
• Reviews: 5
• Cost/review: £10.39

Got a weird content warning about adult-minor relationships from one reviewer. There are no characters under 18 in the book... and no relationships.

NetGalley

• Cost: £115.95
• ARC readers: ?
• Reviews: 4
• Cost/review: £28.99

But this isn't really a fair costing because I got a week of NetGalley as part of a BookBuzz package that also included an author interview, a press release and some nice graphics. It was mostly the reviews I did it for, though.

BookSprout

• Cost: £29
• ARC readers: 2
• Reviews: 1
• Cost/review: £29

And what a review! 😱 One star because a character from Glasgow couldn't understand a character from Fife. (They have wildly different accents and dialects, in case you don't know.) There will always be some person giving you a one-star review for a stupid reason. Fortunately my average on GoodReads is just over 4 stars, even with that expensive one-star review 😂

So in conclusion, BookSiren was my best paid result, and Storygraph was worth doing too, especially as some of those 200-odd readers may read other books in the series. Gemsy and LibraryThing are definitely worth doing, as they're free, although they have more limited reach/numbers. I don't think I would do NetGalley or BookSprout again - just too expensive. Instagram is a hellhole but I did get a smidgen of traction. Apart from that, friends and family are the best resource.

I've got Hidden Gems set up for next month so I can report back about that if you found this interesting or helpful.

I'm curious how many have heard of it or have signed up for it. Any red flags? These kinds of sites are becoming popular (already on Ream and enjoy it a lot!), so I'm curious.

Thanks!

Hi All,

I’m a newly published romantasy author and a longtime lurker! I’m desperately in search of advice on how and where to market my book because, honestly, I have no idea what I’m doing lol.

A little background: I published on 10/11, and I’ve had what I feel are some really great results so far! I sold out at my first signing, sent out 30 ARC copies to influencers and readers that helped generate a lot of new followers and interest, was recently interviewed by two local newspapers, and have even been invited to be a featured author at a local convention in Nov. I’m incredibly grateful for everything that’s happened so far, but I’m starting to feel so burnt out on marketing. I want to reach more readers and get my book into more hands, but I feel like I’m missing a step somewhere. I’ve tried trial reels, and they’ve been total flops. So, I’m turning to y’all for help! The wiki page has been so helpful for so many things I’m just looking for a little more advice! Have paid ads worked for you? If so, which platforms have you found the most success with? Has anyone worked with a good PR company they’d recommend? Are there any marketing strategies you wish you’d known about when you first published?

Please feel free to share any advice, experiences, or resources you have! I know every author’s journey is different, so please don’t get me wrong I’m 100% already doing more than I ever dreamed I would, and I’m genuinely so happy with the success I’ve had so far. I just want to keep building on that momentum without completely burning myself out in the process.

I joined a site called IndieAuthorNet to promote my book. Whenever I join a new site I use Apple’s “Hide My Email” function. This generates a new random email for use with that site. If the site is breached or leaks it’s easy to see because the spam starts flooding in to that address. It’s trivial then to filter them or just disable the address.

So waddayaknow a few weeks after signing up my inbox fills up with low effort AI generated spam urging me to promote my book through some bullshit service.

So be warned. IndieAuthorNet leak your emails out to spammers who prey upon self-published authors. I’ve not deactivated the address yet but I am filtering it and collecting the incoming addresses of the spammers. I’ll figure out something fun to do with them at some stage.

I self-published my book in February 2026, then on Amazon KDP in July 2026 and I have no idea how to promote it. I genuinely have no money and promoting it on Instagram did NOT work... Any advice ?

Hi! I recently released my first book on Amazon/Kindle, and have seen some page read activity but not much else by way of sales- and so I want to evaluate the package. I would love feedback on the blurb so I can do some tweaking and testing. All thoughts are very much appreciated!

Blurb:

Noelle Anderson can’t afford distractions. 

Determined to prove that her breakthrough ski racing season wasn’t a fluke, she returns to Ridgefield Mountain Academy for her senior year of high school with her sights set on the international stage. But her recent breakup—and even worse, the fact that everyone at the Academy seems to be talking about it—is threatening to derail her focus. When Noelle strikes up an unexpected friendship with Jake Halifax, captain of the local high school hockey team and someone firmly outside the Academy orbit, she sees the perfect opportunity to rewrite the narrative with a fake relationship.

The goal is simple—convince everyone she’s fine so she can focus on training. But Jake, who’s navigating college decisions of his own, has an unsettling habit of seeing straight through her defenses. Against her better judgment, Noelle catches herself revealing the cracks in her carefully constructed walls, which is a dangerous impulse when your career depends on controlling milliseconds. As pre-season pressure mounts and Noelle and Jake get closer, she has to confront the fact that she doesn’t know how to let somebody in without losing her edge. 

If she slips now, the future she’s spent years chasing could disappear in an instant. And for the first time, she has two things to lose. 

Hello!

I’m new to this whole thing of being “professional”. I’ve been writing for years, but I was never in the moment of my life where I said: “okay, I want to publish my book.” But now, I feel like I’m ready, and I finally want to self publish since I don’t have the kind of money to hire people.

For the writers who write in Google Docs, I’m going to print my book in the future for editing, but I don’t know in what layout I should? I know that I have to do double spacing so I’m able to comfortably write down things on it. But should I print it in US letter or A5?

Interested if the following seems correct based on your experience.

Odds are about the same for:

1) Any sales for a self published book without any promotion, organic or paid marketing
2) Getting a traditional agent, publishing deal, and the book on the shelves of major bookstores
3) Winning a $50,000 lottery

These are each like randomly pulling a black marble out of a jar with of lots of white marbles. Exact number of marbles in each jar varies, but each is an extreme long shot. Happens every day, but for a very limited number of people.

4) If a self-published author follow marketing best practices (e.g., writes a series of books, builds an audience that can be communicated with using an email list, wisely invests the time and seed money in organic and paid marketing, etc.), they get to pull a new marble out of the jar periodically. Success becomes a process, not a single random event. But they have two jobs, author and marketer.

For above comparison, assume the book is a high quality, well edited, aligns with its sub-genre, and has a high quality cover that looks good at thumbnail size, etc.

Agree or disagree?