Welcome back, it's time to look at the different types of self-publishing that Amazon offers.

One of the most efficient and cost-effective methods is to publish eBooks, allowing your audience to download the book immediately onto their reading device. Amazon makes this easy with their Kindle Direct Publishing program which is completely free to use, although you do need an Amazon account.

The KDP program offers a number of advantages:

You can have your book uploaded in minutes and ready for sale within a day or two.

You set your price and the book rights remain with you.

You keep 70% of the sale price for every book you sell; the rest goes to Amazon.

You can modify your book whenever you want.

You can also use print-on-demand if you want to have a print version of your book, an option you will find in the Kindle Direct program.

There are a few differences. The print-on-demand self-publishing option gives you 60% of the sales and not 70%, plus you also have to pay Amazon the publishing costs per sale too – this is deducted from your royalties.

If you have the budget and you are self-publishing for Kindle, then it makes sense to offer a print version too. The royalties may be lower but it's another audience and more money in your pocket with no extra work.

Once you have got to grips with the KDP program, have a look at the next level up – KDP Select. This takes you one step further, with a larger audience and the potential to make more money. Learn the standard version first though; KDP Select has more guidelines to follow and these are a little stricter.

Marketing Your Products

One of the most important things to selling your book is to create an Amazon author page that really grabs the reader's attention. Adding a detailed description tends to convert more browsers to buyers; you should also make sure you do some keyword research and use the right keywords in your descriptions. That way when searches are run on Google or Amazon, more people will see your book in the search results - this is very important when you come up with your book title.

Another thing that is vital in selling a book is the reviews that you get. Most people check out the reviews to see what other readers thought of the book before they purchase it but how do you get reviews as a new author?

You can give your book away to people in exchange for honest reviews; look for experts in your topic or others in the industry and ask for their honest feedback. Use your social media accounts, your website blog, any platform you can think of to market your book. Join book forums and drop your book into the conversation; comment on relevant blogs and link back to your book. It all helps.

Read on for part 3 as we look at the final ways that you can use Amazon self-publishing to make money.