Stepping Outside the Amazon KDP “Vanilla Only” publishing model
I’ve been a writer for over 30 years, and a professional writer and editor for 20 years, with some years completely funded by full-time freelancing. In 2016, I put my first book of poetry up on Amazon, using Create Space. I now have 20 books on Amazon.
I love the self-publishing, Print on Demand model; I can publish as fast as I write. Except for the 2018 forced march from Create Space to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), it’s been relatively easy and intuitive to become an author and a publisher
I also coach first-time authors how to get to the finish line and up into the Amazon bookstore (one of my rookie clients has a 2018 book that rose to #7 in its category and the top 10% of the Business Success/Self-Help category, without gaming the system with mutually-reciprocating purchases; it’s just a strong title).
But what if a Amazon Vanilla, a 6" x 9" portrait-view, no-color-interior, light paper-stock form factor is not the best way to present your narrative?
San Francisco Photographer Dwayne Newton and I recently crossed this chasm with “Siren Call SF,” a coffee table book with 24 of my poems and 24 of Dwayne’s images, paired thematically to present a nuanced view of what most tourists lamely call “Frisco” and “San Fran.” It’s also a book for City residents to see the 7x7 peninsula anew.
To properly represent our work, we need an oversized book (8.5" x 11") in horizontal landscape format, with four-color interior pages and a thicker paper stock to support Dwayne’s high-end images. That’s a non-starter for Amazon’s Single Format approach. What to do?
Thanks to a referral from veteran book designer John Miller of Lawless Media, we are working with a commercial printer to deliver 300 copies of our coffee table book later this spring. To expand on the ice cream analogy, we can now serve Rocky Road, Fudge Ripple Almond or Pralines & Cream (my fave).
Here are a few things you’ll have to handle differently off the Amazon reservation:
- Procure Your own ISBN # and Barcode, which also allows you to select a Publisher Name.
- No KDP Cover Wizard. Hire your art school attending nephew, or go on Fiverr for $30 and let somone in Macedonia design your cover with unlimited changes and for $20 more gives you the source file.
- Be prepared to pay a 50% deposit, cash-on-the-barrel up front. As a newbie publisher, I don’t see you getting any supplier payment terms. This is COD Land, baby.
- Eight-week lead time. No more weekly turnarounds
- Get better at promotion and selling. Think pre-sales. You’ll have a box of books in your bonus room that will be taking up space and causing marital tension until you unload them. No more printing one copy at a time at no cost.
Check with me in April, when the dust as settled. I will suspect that I will be as happy as I am now. I have alternatives.
