Welcome back to more facts about Amazon publishing. Not only is Amazon the largest bookstore in the world, it offers authors some amazing benefits that you may not get from a traditional publisher.

Amazon Publishing Royalty Statements are User-Friendly

All publishers will give you a royalty statement but whether you understand it or not is a different matter. With Amazon, you get a monthly royalty statement that is easy to read and understand. And that is monthly; most publishers send statements every six months or yearly. You can't get better than that.

You Get Sales Data Daily From Amazon Publishing

That’s right, every day. Amazon publishing sends sales data on a daily basis for most of the sales that go through their central portal for authors. That is a good thing but it could also be bad as you may develop a tendency towards obsession.

Amazon Publishing Can Pull Some Fantastic Levers

Amazon knows exactly how to shift units. Over the years Amazon has developed a number of promotion methods and continues to develop to this day. You have methods like the Kindle First program, targeted emails, special offers for Fire owners and so on. When you publish through Amazon you get the basic package which would cost thousands of dollars for most publishers to produce and that means, rather than just promotion, you get real advertising.

Amazon May Not Pull All The Levers For You

Like every publisher, Amazon has to decide which books will be given additional support and when they give it. They have a list of lead titles and it's up to them whether your book gets the promotion to push it to that list. However, should your book do really well, they are quick to act and push the extra promotion your way to keep it on the up. And if a method isn’t working for a title, they will make adjustments.

Amazon’s Publishing Tail is Longer Than Many

Many publishers will market for six weeks after a book has been published; very rarely will they extend this. Amazon has a different approach and will continue to promote and market for years.

Amazon Publishing Is Best For Authors With Several Books

Amazon’s positive sides do tend to be aimed at authors who have several books. This doesn’t mean that a new author can't succeed, indeed many have. But the reader knowledge and metrics are in play more when you have several books so, if you already have a number of titles or are writing a book every year, then Amazon could offer you benefits that other writers may not see.

Amazon Is Still A Publisher

Amazon can do wonders for writers, even revive careers that look dead in the water. They can take your books to another level but they do need to make decisions. They are still a publisher and they won't always tell you their reasoning behind their decisions. You won't always be happy with the results but that’s the publishing life.

At the end of the day, if you want to have total control over your publishing, become a self-publisher.