It doesn’t need to be a 400-page novel. You can put together a short guide to AI GPT prompt sequences or teach an entrepreneur about selling on Amazon, Walmart, TikTok, or Shopify. How about explaining the best way to start a fire? There’s a market for those topics as well.

There’s a lot of money to be made with self publishing and, of course, Amazon has thrown their hat in the ring.

What is Kindle Direct Publishing?

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) allows you to self publish eBooks, paperbacks, and hardcover books for free, through the Amazon platform. It also gives you the option to expand your book’s availability on a global scale. That makes it more accessible for readers around the world.

With Amazon KDP, you have full publishing rights to your book. That’s not something a traditional publishing house typically allows.

Amazon hit 574.8 billion U.S. dollars in net sales revenue worldwide in 2023 and has an audience of over 310 million customers worldwide. For prospective Amazon KDP authors, the ability to sell (and advertise) in Amazon’s ecosystem can be a great advantage, particularly for those just getting started.

Publishing with Amazon KDP is simple with your completed book appearing on Amazon Stores around the world within days. Not only does the Amazon Kindle platform offer publishing for free, but they also offer physical copies of your book through their print-on-demand service at no cost as well!

What Are the Main Benefits of Amazon KDP?

The most obvious advantage of Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon’s marketplace superpower. The ability to self publish paperbacks for free and at the same time, reach millions of readers on Amazon, is pretty amazing. 

That’s not all!

Here is a list of other very good reasons to take a closer look at Kindle Direct Publishing:

Get to Market Fast

Amazon says that “KDP publishing takes less than 5 minutes and your book appears on Kindle stores worldwide within 24-48 hours.”

Make More Money

Amazon claims that authors using Kindle Direct Publishing can “earn up to 70% royalty on sales to customers in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, India, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Australia and more.” When you enroll in KDP Select you can make even more money through Kindle Unlimited and the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

Keep Control

Amazon KDP allows Kindle eBook authors to maintain control of their rights, set their own prices as well as make ongoing changes to their books.

Publish (a Lot of) Kindle eBooks and Paperbacks for Free

There is no limit to the number of books that you can publish,, even using different pen names and in different categories.

Use Amazon’s Ad Platform to Help Boost Your Book’s Rank

Just like any other Amazon.com product, an author’s books will have a sales rank on the Kindle Store. Amazon Ads might be the best way to quickly influence your rank. 

Amazon Ads are tailored to Amazon’s marketplace and help you to connect with customers through ads that appear in Amazon shopping results and drive discovery of your brand as an author. Because Amazon Ads are cost-per-click, you only pay when customers click on your ad. 

Canopy Management’s PPC Advertising Pros have specific experience helping KDP authors get started with Amazon advertising. 

To begin the conversation, just click here.

What Can You Publish with Amazon KDP?

According to Amazon KDP, content typically published using KDP includes but is not limited to the following:

• Novels
• Book Series
• Children’s Books
• Comics
• Cookbooks
• Journals
• Poetry
• Textbooks

(Keep in mind, KDP does not allow the creation of magazines, periodicals, or spiral bound books)

How Do Amazon KDP Authors Get Paid?  

You can choose between two royalty options that Amazon self publishing offers for each of your eBooks: a 35% royalty option and the 70% royalty option.

Amazon says that, “any publisher, author, or other rights holder can select the 70% royalty option for their individual eligible titles. To select the 70% royalty option for new or existing eligible titles, follow the instructions on the Enter Pricing Information help page.”

To qualify for the 70% royalty option, books must meet these requirements:

• The author or publisher-supplied list price must satisfy list price requirements.
• The list price must be at least 20% below the list price on Amazon for the physical book.
• Titles must be made available for sale in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights.

All books are still eligible for the standard 35% royalty as long as the title meets list price requirements. For full details, see the Pricing Page and Terms and Conditions.

How Amazon KDP Calculates Royalties

• If you select the 35% royalty option, your royalty will be 35% of your list price without VAT for each unit sold.
• If you select the 70% royalty option, your royalty will be 70% of your list price without VAT, less delivery costs for each eligible book sold to customers in the 70% territories, and 35% of the list price for each unit sold to customers residing outside the 70% territories.

For a full list of the requirements and royalty specifics, visit Amazon’s KDP help site.

How to Advertise Your Book

For the last few years, Amazon’s hyper competitive marketplace has increasingly become “pay-to-play.” If you want eyes on your products, you’re probably going to have to spend ad dollars to reach your ideal customers.

Amazon PPC is the advertising platform where third-party sellers create ads for their products that helps them to increase sales on Amazon. With Amazon PPC, advertisers pay a fee to Amazon when a shopper clicks on their ad. 

That’s the pay-per-click.

Using Sponsored Product Ads

To get started, you’ll set up an ad campaign targeting relevant keywords that your ideal readers are likely to use when searching for books. When a customer searches for one of your keywords, your ad may appear and if clicked, will take them to your book’s listing. Again, you’ll pay a fee each time your ad is clicked.

Some tips for Sponsored Product ads:

• Target both broad and specific keywords relevant to your book’s topic, genre, and potential readership
• Set competitive bids to increase the chances of your ad showing in a favorable position
• Use eye-catching ad creative with compelling book titles and cover images
• Monitor your campaigns regularly and adjust bids, keywords, and ad creative as needed to optimize performance
• Consider enlisting the help of an experienced Amazon PPC agency if you’re unsure how to maximize results

Running ads for your KDP books is a great way to help you reach new customers. With Amazon Advertising, you can create custom ads for readers likely to be interested in books just like yours. There’s no doubt that Amazon PPC advertising has the potential to boost visibility and sales. However, it takes experience and technical expertise to do it properly and achieve meaningful results.

The best PPC agencies have mastered the art of Amazon advertising and are well-positioned to help you achieve success. They analyze every aspect of your business and implement strategies that maximize your ROI (return on investment).

That’s why a good first step might be to reach out to the Amazon advertising specialists at Canopy Management.

Check your book’s eligibility requirements:

• Amazon Creative Acceptance Policy
• Amazon Book Ads Creative Acceptance Policies

Optimize Your KDP Listing for Amazon’s Algorithm 

With over 310 million active users, and 350 million products, how does Amazon keep track of all of those Amazon sellers’ product rankings?

Answer: A very smart machine.

Amazon’s engineers have designed, built, and updated an increasingly sophisticated algorithm to help them determine what products rise to the top of search results.

Amazon’s algorithm rewards ecommerce sellers that take the time to thoroughly optimize their Amazon listings. That optimization is also referred to as Amazon SEO. 

As an Amazon KDP author, your goal is to make that algorithm very happy with your listing.

One way of doing that is to answer prospective readers’ questions well before they are forced to ask. Because of that, Amazon KDP listings should tell prospective customers everything they want (and need) to know so that you rank as high in the search results as possible.

The Amazon Creative Services Team at Canopy Management are pros at making sure that your KDP listing JUMPS off of the page.

To get a closer look at how to improve your own Amazon listings’ SEO (or Search Engine Optimization), here’s a Canopy Management post on the subject.

Amazon KDP Select Can Expand Your Readership

Kindle Unlimited is a subscription program for readers that allows them to read as many books as they want. When an eBook author enrolls in KDP Select, their books are automatically included in Kindle Unlimited.

As a Kindle eBook Author, your books will still be available for anyone to buy in the Kindle Store, and you’ll continue to earn royalties from those sales like you do today.

Amazon says that, “when you choose to enroll your book in Kindle Select, you’re committing to make the digital format of that book available exclusively through KDP. During the period of exclusivity, you cannot distribute your book digitally anywhere else, including on your website, blogs, etc. However, you can continue to distribute your book in physical format, or in any format other than digital.”

Benefits of Amazon KDP Select

• Earn higher royalties
• Earn your share of KDP’s Select Global Fund when customers read your books from Kindle Unlimited. Plus, earn 70% royalty for book sales to customers in Japan, India, Brazil and Mexico
• You’ll have the opportunity to fully realize your kindle book’s full sales potential
• KDP Select allows you to choose two great promotional tools: Kindle Countdown Deals, time-bound promotional discounting for your book while earning royalties; or Free Book Promotion where readers worldwide can get your KDP book free for a limited time
• KDP Select helps you to reach a brand new audience
• It’s a global marketplace. Using KDP Select, readers can discover your books in the U.S, U.K., Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, India, Japan, and Australia

(Keep in mind that when you enroll your book in KDP Select, you cannot distribute your book digitally anywhere else, including on your own website, blogs, etc. You can continue to distribute your book in physical format)

How to Sign Up for an Amazon KDP Account

Amazon publishing and KDP are a great way to publish your own eBook. You have the opportunity to stand on the shoulders of a giant corporation (Amazon) to help make it happen. Why not take advantage of the incredibly low bar to entry?

Signing up for a Kindle Direct Publishing account is very simple and can have your eBook published in no time! First, click “Sign in.

Once you’ve entered the basic information, you can start the process of uploading your books. 

To begin, go to “Create a New Title” and choose Kindle eBook or Paperback. 

The next window allows you to easily move through the process in three windows, eBook Details, eBook Content, and eBook Pricing. 

In eBook Details,, you can start entering information about your book such as title, edition, author, description, publishing rights, and keywords. 

In eBook Content, you can upload your manuscript, eBook cover, eBook preview, and an optional Kindle eBook ISBN. 

(Be sure to read the KDP Content Guidelines before uploading your eBook)

In eBook Pricing, you have the option to enroll in KDP Select and can then select your royalty rate and price as well as choose the territories in which you want to list your book. 

Next Steps

Amazon’s KDP makes the process of getting started quick and easy. This isn’t just for large, sophisticated publishing houses, it’s perfect for beginners as well.

Amazon’s enormous ecosystem is built to streamline the process and make sure that you reach as many people (readers) as possible. Now’s the time to take advantage of the increasing number of people transitioning to the web for everything from groceries to their next great read.

Remember, Canopy’s team of Amazon Brand Management and Advertising specialists are here for you. After all, we all love a good book!

How Canopy Management Can Help

What would adding 67% more organic sales mean for your brand?

Turns out that when you combine the massive experience of Canopy’s Amazon Advertising Experts with smart tools and tech, you get industry-leading results like this:

• 84% Average Year-Over-Year Profit Growth for Our Partners
• 2.7 Billion in Revenue Managed
• 99.1% Partner Retention Rate

Canopy Management is a full-service marketing agency for Amazon and Walmart sellers. Our team consists of former Amazonians, multi-million dollar sellers, and award-winning experts.

When you consider the many ways that Canopy Management can help you grow your business, you’ll see why selling on Amazon is much easier “under the Canopy.”

• Strategic Growth Planning
• Listing Copywriting Optimization
• Listing Photography
• Product Videography
• Advertising Management
• Customer Service
• Demand Side Platform (Amazon DSP)
• Amazon Posts
• Full Service Management
• Amazon Review Aggregation

The post How to Get Started with Amazon KDP in 2024 appeared first on Canopy Management.

Every day there are exciting new advancements available to online shoppers. Augmented reality, voice shopping, and a variety of social media platform-based commerce strategies make it easier than ever to reach niche marketplaces.

Maybe you’re one of the many that think that a huge ecommerce trend like selling on Amazon might be a good business idea. You wouldn’t be the only one! Apple News recently reported that in 2021, Amazon was adding an average of 3,700 new sellers every single day.

If in fact you can picture yourself selling on Amazon, this might be the perfect time to reach out to CANOPY Management to help you with your ecommerce journey.

CANOPY Management’s team leverages experience from across all corners of the Amazon industry to help you build your business and gain market share. This allows you to keep your hands on the wheel of your Amazon business while at the same time benefit from the wealth of experience and expertise of the CANOPY Management team.

If you’re looking for something else, this post details six more online-focused ecommerce industry ideas that can offer an additional source of income. With a little luck and hard work, one of these seven opportunities might just help put a shiny new car in your garage.

To begin with, we have a three letter acronym that’s been on the tips of many over the last few years: SEO.

1. Start an SEO Consulting Business

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It involves using web page optimization strategies such as keyword research, and link building to build marketplace authority and generate organic traffic through search engines like Google.

SEO consultants help businesses improve their online visibility. If you possess a solid knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), maybe 2022 is the ideal time to assemble a consulting business to cater to companies with websites.

As online business skyrockets, (along with the reluctance of some Covid weary shoppers to visit brick and mortar stores), the importance of SEO has increased right along with it. For all those businesses, the problem is that most of them have no idea how to tweak their content in order to make sure that they are found by prospective customers.

Companies are spending large amounts of money on ad spend in a race to get to the top of the page, take those SEO skills and see if you can benefit right along with them.

2. Merch by Amazon

If you have an untapped (at least by Amazon) creative background, Merch by Amazon is an easy online selling idea to consider. Simply upload your artwork, choose a product type and color, and add a product description. Then, Amazon will create a product page and when customers buy your product, Amazon handles production, shipping, and customer service – all with no upfront costs.

• Amazon pays you a royalty on every product sold
• Don’t worry about unsold stock. Amazon will print your product after each sale using world-class print technology
• All of Amazon’s products are eligible for Prime Shipping so your customers can receive orders quickly
• Use Amazon’s analysis tools for insights on your best-selling designs

3. Sell Handmade Goods

For the last few years, experienced Amazon sellers have been using craft sites such as Etsy to see into the future of ecommerce. Many times, Etsy’s trending products would soon become the next hot Amazon product.

Whether you paint, run a jewelry business, or craft handmade furniture, selling handmade products online has become a closely watched marketplace. Now, Amazon has taken advantage of the craft industry’s growth.

Amazon Handmade says that “Artisans from over 80 countries are following their passion and selling their craft on Amazon. Together, we are growing craft communities and successful businesses.”

Amazon Handmade is Artisan only. Amazon is building a shop of genuinely handcrafted goods

After joining Amazon Handmade, creating your shop and listing products is free. When you make a sale, Handmade will deduct a 15% referral fee.

4. Become an Affiliate Marketer or Niche Influencer

Affiliate Marketer

Ever wonder about all those Instagram personalities constantly promoting products in their Stories and Reels? In many cases they’re well paid, affiliate marketers.

Affiliate marketing involves promoting products or services online. Affiliate marketers share them in their blogs, posts, and social media feeds. They earn commissions when someone converts through a unique referral link or code.

Of course, Amazon has their own affiliate marketing program. The Amazon Associates Program helps content creators, publishers and bloggers monetize their traffic. Amazon says, “with millions of products and programs available on Amazon, associates use easy link-building tools to direct their audience to their recommendations, and earn from qualifying purchases and programs.”

Have an online presence? Maybe it’s time to use it to your advantage.

Niche Influencer

Almost everything that I’ve written above about affiliate marketing is also true of “Influencers.”

The months we’ve all spent cooped up inside as we navigate our recent global challenges has significantly increased our screen time. One thing that has become clear is how Influencers have rapidly become an important connection between ecommerce business and sellers and buyers.

Influencer marketing is growing exponentially, with projected revenues of $13.8 billion in 2021, and 67% of brands using Instagram for this type of marketing.

Are you comfortable in front of a camera? Might be an ideal time to try a little Livestream Selling. Already huge in China, Top online shopping shopping influencers star on their own shows that sometimes last three to four hours. Instead of the pre-negotiated fee that traditional influencers are offered, in addition to an “appearance fee, Chinese live shopping influencers frequently receive a percentage of the sales that are made during the livestream itself.

And now, Livestream selling is growing throughout the rest of the world.

Influencers help brands promote their online store and earn their money through social commerce and brand sponsorships. In most cases influencers use their already-large social media following to create ecommerce and brand momentum for clients.

This is one more way to monetize those “friends” of yours.

5. Publish Your Own Book

Do you like the idea of seeing your name in print? If so, 2022 is a very good (and easy) time to write that book you’ve always wanted to. What’s great is that it doesn’t need to be the great American novel. Want to put together a short book of poetry, teach someone to sell on Amazon, or explain the best way to start a fire? There’s a market for those topics as well.

And, of course, Amazon has thrown their hat in the ring.

Amazon’s KDP allows you to self-publish eBooks, paperbacks, and hardcover books for free. It also gives you the option to expand your book’s availability on a global scale. That makes it more accessible for readers around the world. With Amazon KDP, you have full publishing rights to your book, which is not something a traditional publishing house typically allows.

6. Fulfillment by Amazon

There are many different ways to sell on Amazon, but the one that everyone thinks about is Fulfillment by Amazon or FBA.

Amazon has one of the most advanced fulfillment networks in the world. With Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), you store your products in Amazon’s fulfillment centers, and Amazon picks, packs, ships, and provides customer service for your products.

When you list products through FBA, qualified listings are displayed with the Prime logo and are eligible for free shipping. (Loved by Amazon customers)

FBA leverages the Amazon customer service network stretching around the globe, managing customer inquiries, refunds, and returns for your FBA orders.

Amazon has done a lot of the legwork for you, and between Prime shipping and Amazon’s brand recognition, you’ll be standing on the shoulders of ecommerce giants.

7. Consider Selling with Amazon “Business”

Alibaba who?

OK, maybe it’s not going to replace Alibaba as your B2B go-to, but Amazon has recently begun accelerating the promotion of its own B2B platform as it positions itself as a one-stop destination.

Amazon Business can help online sellers take advantage of Amazon’s ecommerce network (and Amazon Prime benefits), but on a completely different platform, business to business.

Amazon B2B ecommerce offers:

• The ability to sell products available only to business customers
• Changes to search that make it easier for buyers to find your products
• Pricing and payment features that simplify the process for buyers purchasing your products in larger quantities

Not to be outdone, ecommerce platform Shopify recently launched Shopify Plus as well as new features that will allow B2B wholesalers to set up and manage their operations in one place.

Your Ecommerce Goal is Different Than Amazon’s

Amazon is happy if everyone is a little bit successful. After all, they are going to get paid one way or the other. However, you are uniquely focused on the success of your own product. You are in COMPETITION with the rest of the sellers in your niche. 

That’s where CANOPY Management comes in. 

CANOPY Management leverages their experience from across all corners of the Amazon industry to help you scale your business, and gain market share. This partnership allows you exacting control of your Amazon business. At the same time you will benefit from the wealth of experience and expertise of the CANOPY Management team. 

CANOPY Management refers to itself as a “full service” Amazon Marketing Agency. When you take a look at the list of the ways in which CANOPY Management is able to help you grow your Amazon business, you’ll know why.  

• Strategic Growth Planning
• Listing Copywriting Optimization
• Listing Photography
• Product Videography
• Amazon Advertising Management
• Customer Service
• Demand Side Platform (Amazon DSP)
• Amazon Posts
• Full Service Amazon Management
• Amazon Review Aggregation

Are you looking to expand your income stream, or transition away from your primary career? It’s a new year and with the growth of ecommerce, this rising online-selling tide is going to lift a lot of boats. Now is a great time to reap some benefits yourself! 

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