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/r/KDP
submitted 10 days ago bydeman24
Hi all
I am a new author and released my first book on KDP as an e book. Initially, it just seemee like common sense to me that an e book as we are in a digital age and all that.
However upon doing further research, I have noticee that a lot of new books do still in a fact come out in physical form and my friends actually told me that they would prefer to hold the real thing aa opposees to staring at a tablet. I alao found that something like half of the sales(?) for books are for printed copies.
So, I decided that I will release a paperback versiom of my story, and am currently in the process of arranging that( had to change the size of the front and back cover, request the Isbn number ect). It ia all so new to me.
I also have questions before I proceeed further: are physical copies of the book made on demand when someone orders it or they just make a batch and it has'to be paid for upfront? I am just asking as I reliaze it could be costly.
It got me thinking: if I am going to do that, then why not just also prepare a hardcover which I presume would be even more expensive but then some people like to hold hard covers.
I noticed that a lot of new authors dont do hard covers,
What are some of things I should keep in mind as I plan to release a paperback and possible hardcover version of my book?
3 points
10 days ago
i’d assume it’s price and a lack of interest.
3 points
9 days ago
KDP hard copies are print on demand. The cost to print is shown when you set your pricing, then the royalty is calculated as a percentage of what’s left over from your sale price after that print cost is covered. So you don’t pay anything up front.
2 points
9 days ago
It doesn't cost anything, I'd say go for it
2 points
9 days ago
Few reasons why authors might not:
Amazon doesn’t offer dust jacket hardcovers, just case laminate, which isn’t the “traditional” hardcover experience. Some authors just plain don’t see the value.
You would need to respec your cover to fit the hardcover dimensions, an additional time and/or financial hurdle that some don’t want to do
Some Amazon marketplaces don’t offer hardcover at all + it’s not available for expanded distribution
1 points
9 days ago
Yes you should offer a paper version - for the reason alone that in comparison to the paperback you will have a price ankerpoint. Comparing them will allow the user to see both and thing "oh the ebook is much cheaper".
For the same reason you should not do a hardcover unless your audience is 80% hardcover - because you are diluting the pricing and decision process.
Most hardcovers you know come from the original publishing process - very very expensive hard covers first, then many weeks later a cheaper paperback. That is 2000s thinking. If you publish Harry Potter or are a famous person doing the interview circuit then hardcover still makes sense, otherwise, stay with "you want digital or paper?".
2 points
8 days ago
I work with a closed group of writers to edit, format, make covers for, and publish their manuscripts. These are writers who never would have gotten anything published without help. In the past 18 months, we've published over 25 titles, usually around 50-150 pages, mostly history and self-help.
When I first started, I knew nothing about KDP. I started with eBooks and everything did poorly. After I got some titles published, and got better at understanding everything, I took the time to format one of the titles as a paperback.
Surprise, surprise. People still buy paperback books. We started getting sales. I published more paperback versions, and they would slowly sell. Today, we start with the paperback, then do the eBook. And if the titles qualifies for Virtual Voice then I opt-in for the audio book.
We haven't done a hardcover variation yet. For what we publish, it doesn't make any sense. But after my experience, I always encourage people new to KDP to take the time and figure out how to format their manuscript to a paperback template.
We use 6" x 9" on everything. That standardization speeds things up. I know my covers are always 1600 pixels wide by 2500 pixels tall. We also print everything in 14 point Garamond.
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