Here are the basics. First, can you really make passive income with Kindle publishing? If you’re writing the ebooks yourself, obviously, no, you’re gonna have your work cut out for ya. But what if you use a ghostwriter? Then you can just sit back and collect checks, right? Back in the day, maybe, but not today. It’s too competitive. So even if you outsource the actual writing of the books and the cover art, you still gotta market it, advertise, optimize, get reviews, and so on.
Assuming your book’s amazing and you build that early momentum, then, yes, you might actually get to enjoy passive income several months down the road. And if you’re lucky, it’ll last for years to come. But it’s not a guarantee. And since most beginners just slop together their book and cut corners when it comes to their listing and that whole promotional piece, yeah, they might not even make any sales, let alone have royalties just show up in their bank account every 30 days for a decade, right?
Is Kindle publishing just electronic copies of books? Or can it include hardcover and paperback and maybe even an audio version? Well Kindle publishing, itself, refers only to ebooks. However, what most Kindle publishing courses teach is, since you already went to the trouble of creating this book, you might as well turn it into as many formats as you can, and try to make even more sales with it. So yeah, most self-publishers start with an ebook and then roll out a paperback plus or minus an audiobook version.
Okay, why is Kindle publishing better than traditional publishing? It may not be. Just depends on who you are. If you’re JK friggin’ Rowling, of course you’re gonna go the traditional route. But for aspiring authors or the everyday person who just wants to start a side hustle and plans on outsourcing? Kindle publishing is cheaper, faster, easier, and actually doable, ya know? It’s flexible, Amazon’s already got a ginormous global audience you can tap into, you’ve got creative control, and there’s just way less pressure.
Say you actually get a Kindle book written, formatted, cover art done, the whole deal. You list it through Amazon’s KDP service. Now what? Now you have to monetize and market your book. Like I said earlier, it’s too crowded nowadays to think Amazon’s just gonna show your title first in the search results when someone’s looking for a book in that genre. So you have to help those first few sales and reviews along. Ask friends for a favor, use Facebook groups, influencer marketing, Amazon ads, or whatever else.
Then what? Well, again, assuming it’s a quality book and you came up with a catchy title, intriguing cover art, a keyword-optimized description, and all that? Once you’ve built up enough mass, the snowball should start rolling down the mountain and gaining size without you doing much more. That’s where that passive income comes in. Problem is, and I can’t stress this enough, but very few newbies are gonna do those things. They half-ass it and Amazon’s algorithm won’t like that, and it’ll show in the lack of sales.
Now. If you defy the odds and overcome that, how much can you realistically make as a Kindle publisher? I’m sure you’ve seen YouTube ads from guys and gals with a $2,997 course they’re trying to sell ya, claiming they make $10-, $20-, $50k a month, entirely hands-free, thanks to Kindle publishing, right? But most regular people I’ve talked to are lucky to make more than a couple grand a month. And much of that gets reinvested back into the business to try and grow it bigger.
