Is Amazon KDP Still a Good Business in 2023?

Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) has been around since late 2007, but it was in 2010 to 2015 that many regular people were transformed into published authors overnight and actually made Amazon KDP their business.

Those who have been rejected by traditional publishers are some of the biggest fans of the program, but is it still worth the trouble in 2023 and beyond?

5 Reasons Why You Should Continue Your Amazon KDP Business

If you’re having doubts of joining the Amazon KDP community as an author, here are 5 reasons why it remains a solid business model:

1. The Niches are Expanding

In the past, it is common knowledge that fiction outsold non-fiction in the Kindle library. But the genres mostly focused on romance, mystery, and fantasy, so authors like Mike Omer (from the Spider’s Web series and “A Killer’s Mind” fame) stuck to these categories.

Today, many more niches are being put on the spotlight of the Top 100, from the how-to and self-help “aisle”, to the science fiction, young adult, adventure and even inspirational and women’s fiction.

Some of them are still pretty competitive, but since people’s interests are expanding to more categories, it means there are higher chances for your chosen category to be explored by a significant number of people.

2. Better Stats Lead to Targeted Book Goals

By 2018, there were 90.5 million e-readers in the U.S. alone. Imagine how many people have joined the fun and discovered the world of ebooks.

In 2019, the ebook industry earned a whopping $2.04 billion. It’s still definitely smaller than its print counterpart (which took in $22.6 billion revenues that year) though.

What’s interesting is that even if the use of e-book readers has been seeing a decline in recent years, there’s data to support that Kindle books are gaining fans thanks to hundreds of popular book series.

And publishers are raking in cash because of they are able to reel in readers with cheap (or free copies of their) first book, then earn from subsequent books of the series.

3. Removes the Need to go the Traditional Publishing Route

Many people who dream of becoming a published author are crushed when their dreams don’t turn into reality for one reason or another, such as:

• Publishing house not interested in the story
• Author has no connection to any publisher
• Lack in marketing or networking
• Authors who have awesome books, but are unsure how to present their work
• and so on…

With the Amazon KDP route, the rules are totally different. First of all, since Amazon accepts publishers directly, there’s no need to shop around for a publishing house. You wouldn’t have to experience being rejected by publishers anymore.

While you do have to learn how to market your own ebook to improve sales, you can also outsource this task to agencies who specialize in these kinds of things.

4. Amazon KDP Newbies Welcome

This is my favorite thing about Amazon KDP – it levels the playing field between beginners and published authors, or famous people.

Regular people begin juggling real life with writing on the side, until they reach success enough to quit their day jobs. For example:

• Samantha Christy used to be a Computer Systems Analyst and stay-at-home mom before she became the author of “Purple Orchids.” Her husband even quit his job a couple of years later to handle her taxes and other behind-the-scenes of Samantha’s publishing business.
• Alexa Riley is the pen name of two friends (Melissa King and Lea Robinson) who has over 100 romance novels under their belts. Since 2014, these two ladies have been writing “cheesy love stories with a happy ending” non-stop.
• Melissa Leong was a former business journalist who wrote vampire novel “What Kills Me” and got rejected by 20 publishers before uploading it on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing site. She tried to sell it for $3 a copy, but only got thousands of sales when she took it down to 99 cents. You’d think this was a bad thing, since Leong earned less than what she would have earned at $3 a pop. But her decision to reduce the price led to a spot on the Bestseller list, an ocean of fans, and even movie offers.

Aside from the actual writing and marketing authors have to do, there aren’t much obstacles beginner authors have to face in self-publishing with Amazon.

5. Unlimited Opportunities for Talented Authors

Melissa Leong isn’t the only one who had her life turned upside down (in a good way) through Amazon KDP.

Like her experience, many authors whose first book become best-sellers suddenly get a boost in creativity as their fans and sales increase, follow it up quickly with a second part, or another ebook with a completely different story/topic.

The opportunities doesn’t stop at Amazon too! Successful authors usually receive offers for TV or movie adaptations, calls for interviews with the press, features on magazines/blogs, consulting gigs, writing courses/coaching stints, and other opportunities that are found outside KDP.

The Future of Amazon KDP

You know that you can make money online with ebooks, but you’re unsure if it remains a lucrative business in 2020 and beyond. That’s a totally valid dilemma since writing ebooks are not an easy feat.

There will be flops, such as ebooks trying to cash in on the covid19 crisis when some of the best scientists of the world are still trying to learn about the virus. But if you do a little digging and research before you decide on the genre and theme of your ebook, the future of your Amazon KDP business can be bright.

Don’t believe blog posts from people claiming that you can only earn money from Amazon if you have a ton of ghostwriters who would do the writing for you.

If you have content you want to publish, as long as you follow Amazon’s guidelines, there is no limit to the number of ebooks you could release to the “world” and the amount of money you could possibly earn.