HOW TO PUBLISH A MONEY MAKING COOKBOOK ON KINDLE AMAZON

Last Updated on October 9, 2020 by Jordan Alexo

Hey there! Welcome to the last part of the six episodes cookbook series that was created just for YOU. You made it to the very end. I’m sure with all the knowledge I shared with you throughout this cookbook guide that you are ready to take your publishing business to the next level.

If you haven’t checked out the others, you are missing a great deal. Hurry now to the pages of parts 1 through 5. I mean, don’t you want to bang that buck?

1. How To Self-Publish a Delicious Cookbook On Amazon
2. How To Find Crazily Profitable Kindle Keywords
3. How to Design a Stupendous Cookbook Cover
4. How to Structure a Best Selling Cookbook

So yeah, if you’ve been experiencing difficulty with sales of your cookbooks on Kindle Amazon, or you need some hacks to step up your publishing game, or you’ve never really known how to go about publishing on Kindle. I’m really excited to share with you somethings I’ve learned from years of publishing on Amazon. Trust me, you won’t regret it so, sit tight!

How To Publish A Money Making Cookbook on Kindle Amazon [Video Guide]

STEP 1) Select Paperback Or Kindle eBook On Your Dashboard

 In this post, I am about to explain how to publish a Kindle e-book. I chose only to mention this option because publishing a paperback is similar. But if you want more details about this last part, then read here.

Actually, after publishing your eBook, most of the content is copied and pasted to the paperback option. However, there are a few differences you shouldn’t forget. So, how about we quickly talk about those differences.

Differences Between Kindle eBooks And Paperback Publishing

1. Pricing: You obviously understand that you shouldn’t price your eBook and paperback at the same value. The least you should sell any paperback is $16. The selling price can go up depending on the number of pages, quality of your cookbook, etc.
2. File Format: the formating for a paperback is different from that of the Kindle eBook. A paperback needs to have the appropriate sizes for print. You either read my other post where I explain this process or hire a professional on Fiver.com. Usually, their services cost around $5 to $10.

Note: You could also pay for a designer service on fiver.com in getting your cookbook cover done. It is also really cheap. And if you want to try it out on your own, check out part 4 of this cookbook guide for the step-by-step process.

Back to Publishing On Amazon…

STEP 2) Fill In The Kindle eBook Details

Book Title

Your book title should essentially be the main keyword of your book.

 Why is this important? If your books rank well, they will make a good amount of sales even without advertisement. I don’t use Amazon ads for my eBooks because you usually sell them at $2.99; Therefore, the profit margin is too small, and often you end up with unprofitable campaigns.

Ads campaigns can still work for paperbacks since you can sell them a higher sales price and return the advertisement’s investment.

Subtitle

In coming up with a subtitle, you can choose about one or two other related keywords (outside your main keyword) that you would like to rank organically on Amazon. I wouldn’t recommend that you add many keywords here; otherwise, your subtitle will look like crap to your customers. Example:

“50 Delicious Paleo Recipes For Paleo Diet Beginners” 

Some publishers may think they are smart by stuffing many keywords, but as you may see, that sounds like garbage!

Instead, you would be better off with “50 Delicious Paleo Diet Recipes For Beginners.” This subtitle would still rank for all the same keywords, and it looks more pleasing to the eye.

Series Number

This information is only needed if you intend to make a book series; otherwise, leave it blank. A book series is a great way to group similar books, making it easier for your readers to find them. Also, you can add keywords here to help your books rank for more searches on Amazon. You could later make them into bundles. 

Contributors

You should include the author’s name and other contributors if there are any.

Description

Your description isn’t supposed to review your published book but, it should tell the customers why they should get your cookbook out of the pool of options they have before them, like the benefits they’d get from your book, etc. The two cases are entirely different.

• Start with a catchy intro that would lead them on and make them read the description to the end.
• Mention the custom problems faced that the book can solve.
• Talk about what they gain from buying and reading your book. You should include at least five bulletin points.
• After the bulletin point section, ensure you bring it down to a relatable level, e.g., let your customers know they can follow your book’s guidance without prior experience. These last lines help to remove any doubt they may have in their minds.
• To conclude, add a call to action, such as “Scroll up and press the buy now button to get your book today!”

Your description is not supposed to let out what exactly is in your cookbook; otherwise, they will just search it on Google. It should be like vague tidbits that would leave them wanting more.

If you think you can’t come up with a good description on your own, you can get writers to do this for you at urbanwriters.com (which is the site I use) and use my coupon code JA5 to get a 5% discount on your orders. Another place you can get someone to do this for you is fiver.com.

Publishing Rights

Tick the box… You’d know what to do.

Keywords

Add several related keywords.

 How do you get keywords that would sell?

Input your main keyword into the search bar on Amazon, and while you’re at it, you’d see different possible search options. What you don’t know is, those are the most searched terms by customers with that keyword.

Another way is to input your complete book title in the search bar and click ‘search.’ From the search results, you can use 2-3 author names that rank well so that your book pops up when someone searches those names.

You get to know the books published by authors based on the number of reviews they have.

The next thing is to copy all of the search options and names unto your notepad. After which, you’d paste them in the bars provided under ‘keywords.’ Besides, you can always input more than one keyword in each bar.

If you are still short on keywords, you can check out the word cloud on KD Spy (for other keyword options you can combine. Just so you know, in the word cloud, the bigger the font of the words, the more frequently they appear in the book titles.

Categories

If you are trying to figure out which categories are best for your book, you can check out categories; used for other books in the same book niche as your book. You only have two slots so, use them well!

Age and Grade

I like to use a minimum of 16 and a maximum of 18+. It’s a cookbook so, I don’t think it should go lower. However, if it’s like a children’s book, it definitely has to be lower.

You can also fill in the grade if you want (it’s optional). I use 8th to 12th grade usually.

Then you click on ‘Save and Continue.’

STEP 3) Adjust The Settings For Your eBook’s Content

Digital Rights Management

 I pick the ‘Yes’ bar always. It allows readers to share your book with other people which, is a good promotion strategy. You never can tell if those other people would end up purchasing more than one of your cookbooks.

Manuscript

Use this option to upload your eBook manuscript, i.e. your eBook file.

Kindle eBook Cover

Here, you select ‘Upload a cover I already have.’ It should be in JPG/TIFF

Right after that, you want to do is launch the book’s preview to see if the format and all looks great.

STEP 4) Set The Price Of Your Cookbook

KDP Select Enrollment

This is an Amazon program that has some features you might find helpful. One of them is the 5-day free promotion, where your readers can upload your book without paying (and, of course, zero sales). I did this in the past when I hired people to write reviews for my book to boost sales but, not anymore.

Enrolling for the KDP Select means that you can’t upload that same book on other websites for the first 90 days and, it just didn’t work well for me. I prefer to make money with my book from day 1. 

Territories

Choose the geographical location where you would like your book to be published. I usually go with all territories.

Royalties

I choose 70%, but you may set at 30% if you want to price your book at $0.99. This last option is useful, or free promotion mentioned earlier if you’re going to offer your book to your email subscribers or other people in exchange for a review. 

Price

The standard price is usually $2.99

And voila, you can now publish your Kindle eBook.

Last Thoughts

Cookbooks are a great way to start making money on Kindle Amazon. Over the past two years, I did around 30K, mostly selling them. With all that we’ve talked about, you are now fully equipped. Go out there and be the best you can be as a self-publisher.

If you have any other questions or advice you’d like to share with others, then feel free to leave it in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!