Completing a manuscript is just the first step to becoming a published author. The second phase, the process of converting that manuscript into a finished, sellable book, is not as simple as many first-time authors think, and that’s why Amazon Book Publishing Services is a separate business.
This article explains what these services entail, what parts are most important, and how to determine if they’re worth the investment for a specific project.
The Actual Offerings Provided by Amazon Book Publishing Services
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is Amazon’s self-publishing platform, where anyone can upload a manuscript and have it available as an ebook or paperback in a day or two for free. It is quick and easy to access, and is a much faster and easier alternative to the traditional publishing process, which often includes agents and extended submission periods.
But KDP is not a publishing house, it’s a distribution platform. It does not edit manuscripts, design covers or promote finished books. The delay between uploading a book and it becoming a sale has led to a wide range of Amazon book publishing services.
These services are provided by independent companies, freelance professionals, and publishing consultants and usually include the services that KDP does not provide for the author: manuscript formatting, editing, cover design, metadata optimization, keyword research, and promotional strategy. Authors can outsource a single part or the entire process.
The Components That Matter Most
Not every publishing help is created equal and not every author requires all of them. Below is a breakdown of where the investment goes and why each component is important.
Editing and Formatting: This is usually regarded as a must. Even a good story is hard to believe if the manuscript is poorly typed. Professional formatting guarantees the book will look great on Kindle devices and in print, including margins, chapter breaks, and front matter.
Book Cover Design: In a world where readers are scrolling through endless grids of book thumbnails, a cover must make a quick impression before it’s out of sight. Book cover design services are available because most authors, whether or not they are good writers, do not have a background in visual design, and a self-made cover looks like that. A well-crafted cover tells the reader about the genre, tone and production quality before they get to the description. Cover design is one of the most important investments an author can make, especially in the fiction genre, such as romance, thriller, fantasy, where cover art is particularly important to readers.
Metadata and Keyword Optimization: This includes the process of choosing the right categories, keywords, and book descriptions that make a book appear in Amazon’s algorithm to those who are searching for it. Even if a book is well written and well designed, it can be lost in the search results due to poor metadata.
Book Marketing Services: Publishing and marketing are two different skills. The services that are usually provided in book marketing involve the launch strategy, ad campaigns on Amazon, building an email list, sending advance reader copies (ARCs) to reviewers, and social media promotion. This is where the reality of what happens on Amazon’s marketplace often falls short of expectations: many new authors think that sales will just start rolling in after the book is published, but it’s a big, competitive marketplace and visibility doesn’t just happen.
Identifying The Need For These Services
It depends on the author’s objectives, budget and skill level.
If you’re writing a memoir for your family, or a passion project that you want to be read primarily in print, the full service package is typically not required. With a good freelance editor and a simple cover design, a book can be created with KDP’s free tools without a lot of money.
If you’re an author who wants to write more books, make more money, or compete in a popular genre like romance or self-help, the math changes. In these categories, professional book cover design services and book marketing services are not just add-on features, but essential components of the business. Readers of genre fiction have come to expect a certain level of visual polish, and they are very sensitive to cover conventions, amateur design work is easy to spot, a result of years of algorithm-driven browsing.
Time is also a factor. There’s a significant amount of time that needs to be invested in learning design software, studying how Amazon runs their ad campaigns or optimizing their categories, time that could be better spent writing more books. Outsourcing these jobs isn’t necessarily a lack of skill but a matter of time allocation for the most valuable tasks for many authors.
Evaluating Providers
There are some bad guys in the self-publishing services business. Beware of companies that offer “guaranteed bestseller” packages that are nothing more than a template cover and a few pre-scheduled social media posts for a hefty price tag. Before hiring a provider, it’s important to look at their real portfolio, read other authors’ independent reviews instead of those posted on their website, and be skeptical of any guarantee of sales, even Amazon can’t guarantee sales.
A measured approach can begin with one component at a time, for example, one book’s cover designed by a freelance designer, test the results, and then build on that. The same goes for marketing; a small, well-targeted Amazon ad campaign will often give you more valuable information about what works than a big, “full service” campaign.
Conclusion
Amazon Book Publishing Services is not one product, but a set of separate services, each of which serves a different purpose that KDP does not provide. Editing maintains the credibility of the writing. In a world that is highly visual, book cover design services can help make a book competitive. Book marketing services are the link between a completed book and readers who are actively looking for it.
Whether an author needs all of these services, some of them, or none depends on a single distinguishing question: is the goal to publish one book, or to build an ongoing author career? The former typically requires only solid editing and a professional cover. The latter generally benefits from the full toolkit, budgeted for accordingly, since a well-written manuscript alone is often not sufficient to gain visibility on Amazon.