How to Make Money Selling Books: A Step-by-Step Guide

You make money selling books by publishing in several formats, choosing how you distribute them, pricing inside the bands where stores pay their highest royalty, and then publishing more books that lead readers from one title to the next. A single book rarely earns much on its own. A small, connected catalogue sold through the right channels usually does better.

This tutorial walks through each step in order.

What you need before you start

Have these ready before you work through the steps:

• A finished, edited manuscript, or a clear plan for one. If you are still writing, start with how to self-publish a book and come back here.
• A clear idea of who the book is for. Genre and audience affect your price, your format and where you should sell.
• A cover that fits your genre, in the sizes each store asks for.
• Accounts with the stores you plan to use. Each store needs tax and payment details before it will pay you.
• Realistic expectations. Author income varies enormously. For an honest look at the factors involved, read how much self-published authors make.

Step 1: The ways a book can earn money

There are several income routes, and you can combine most of them. Here is how they compare.

Route	How you earn	Main trade-off
Ebooks on retail stores	A percentage of each sale's list price	Lowest production cost, but competing on price
Paperbacks (print-on-demand)	List price × royalty rate, minus printing cost	Printing cost eats into each sale
Kindle Unlimited (KDP Select)	A share of a monthly fund, based on pages read	Your ebook must be exclusive to Amazon
Wide distribution	Royalties from Apple, Google, Kobo, B&N and others	Slower to build; more accounts to manage
Direct sales from your own site	You keep most of the sale price	You handle delivery, tax and customer support
Lead-magnet books	Clients, course sales or service income	The book may earn little or nothing itself
Series and catalogue	Readers buy book 2, 3 and 4 after book 1	Takes time to write several books

Most authors start with ebooks and paperbacks, then decide between Kindle Unlimited and going wide. Direct sales and lead magnets come later, or first if you already run a business.

Step 2: Set up ebooks and paperbacks to sell

2.1 Publish the ebook

The ebook is usually your main earner because it costs nothing to deliver. You'll need an EPUB file and a front cover image. For Kindle, Amazon's published guidance calls for a JPEG or TIFF cover, ideally 1600 × 2560 px.

You don't need an ISBN for a Kindle ebook. Amazon assigns a free ASIN. Apple Books, Google Play Books and Kobo also don't require one for ebooks, according to their published terms.

2.2 Add a paperback

A paperback gives readers a second way to buy. It also makes the ebook price look like good value next to it. On KDP, paperbacks need an ISBN (KDP offers a free one that only works on KDP), and the cover is a single PDF: back, spine and front, with 0.125" bleed on every edge.

Your page count sets your spine width and your printing cost. Estimate it early with the book page count calculator, because a longer book costs more to print and leaves you less per copy.

If you write with Inkora, you can export an EPUB, a print-ready interior PDF in common trim sizes such as 5x8 or 6x9, and a full-wrap cover PDF with the spine width calculated from the page count. You still upload these yourself in each store's dashboard.

2.3 Work out what you keep per paperback

Amazon's published paperback terms pay 60% of list price minus printing cost on Amazon, and 50% below $9.99 on Amazon.com. Expanded Distribution pays 40%. Printing cost depends on page count, trim size and ink, so plug your real numbers into the KDP royalty calculator before you set a price. A paperback priced too low can earn almost nothing per copy.

Step 3: Choose Kindle Unlimited or go wide

This is the biggest distribution decision for ebooks. You can't fully do both with the same ebook at the same time.

3.1 How Kindle Unlimited works

Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service for readers. To include your ebook, you enrol it in KDP Select, which requires the ebook to be sold exclusively through Amazon for each enrolment period. You're then paid from a monthly fund based on how many pages subscribers read. The per-page rate changes every month, so check the current figures in your KDP dashboard rather than relying on old numbers.

KDP Select also gives you access to promotional tools, such as a limited number of free or discounted days per enrolment period. Confirm the current rules in KDP.

Kindle Unlimited tends to suit:

• Fast-moving genre fiction that readers binge, such as romance, thrillers and fantasy
• Long series, where pages read add up across books
• Authors who want one dashboard to manage

Exclusivity applies to the ebook only. Your paperback can still be sold anywhere.

3.2 How going wide works

"Wide" means selling your ebook on several stores. These are each store's published ebook royalty terms (they can change, so confirm in each dashboard):

Store	Ebook royalty (per published terms)
Amazon KDP	70% for list prices $2.99–$9.99 (minus a delivery fee), otherwise 35%
Apple Books	About 70% of list price
Google Play Books	Usually 70% of list price
Kobo Writing Life	70% at $2.99 or more, 45% below
Barnes & Noble Press	About 70% for $2.99–$9.99
Draft2Digital	The store's royalty minus a fee of about 10% of list price

You can upload to each store directly or use an aggregator like Draft2Digital to reach several stores from one account, at the cost of its fee. The publishing guides cover each store step by step.

Going wide tends to suit:

• Non-fiction and slower-read books
• Authors who want readers outside Amazon's strongest markets
• Anyone who doesn't want all their income to depend on one company

3.3 Make the decision

If you can't decide, start with whichever matches your genre and give it a fair test. You can switch later. If you're in KDP Select, you need to let the current enrolment period end without renewing before you publish the ebook elsewhere.

Step 4: Price your books

Pricing is where many authors leave money behind.

4.1 Stay inside the 70% band for ebooks

On KDP, an ebook priced at $2.99 earns the 70% rate (minus a delivery fee), while one priced at $2.98 drops to 35%. Several other stores use a similar $2.99 threshold. Unless you have a deliberate reason, such as a first-in-series loss leader, price full-length ebooks at $2.99 or above.

4.2 Price to your genre, not your effort

Readers compare your price with similar books, not with the hours you spent writing. Look at the top sellers in your exact category, note their ebook and paperback prices, and land within that range. A price well above the range needs a strong reason, such as a reference book or a specialist professional guide.

4.3 Price the paperback from its printing cost up

Work out printing cost first, then choose a price that leaves a worthwhile royalty and still looks reasonable next to similar paperbacks. Re-check with the KDP royalty calculator any time you change trim size or page count.

4.4 Use price as a tool across a catalogue

Once you have more than one book, prices can do different jobs:

• Book 1 can be cheaper, or even free on stores that allow it, to bring in new readers.
• Later books sit at full price, because readers who liked book 1 are less price-sensitive.
• Box sets bundle several books at a discount compared with buying them one by one.

Amazon doesn't let you set an ebook to $0 directly. Free promotions there usually come through KDP Select tools. Apple, Google and Kobo generally allow permanently free ebooks, but confirm in each store.

Step 5: Sell books directly from your own website

Selling direct means a reader pays you, usually through a payment provider, and you deliver the file yourself or through an ebook delivery service.

What you gain:

• A larger share of each sale than most stores pay
• The reader's email address, so you can tell them about your next book
• Control over bundles, signed paperbacks and special editions

What you take on:

• File delivery and help when downloads fail
• Sales tax or VAT rules for digital goods in your readers' countries
• Driving all the traffic yourself, since there's no store search to find you

Direct sales work best once you have an email list or social following. Early on, point your site to the stores and add direct sales later. Inkora gives each book a public page with an online reader and buy links, which can act as a simple home for a book while you build a fuller site.

Step 6: Use a book to make money for a business

A book can often earn more for a business than it earns in royalties. A lead-magnet book is a short, useful book you give away or sell cheaply so that the right people contact you.

6.1 Pick one problem your ideal client has

Keep the book narrow, such as one process, one checklist or one common mistake. A short book that solves one problem is more useful than a broad overview, and it's faster to finish.

6.2 Decide how it will earn

• Free in exchange for an email address, followed by emails about your service or course
• Sold at a low price on stores, so it acts as a paid business card that buyers find through search
• Printed copies handed out at talks, workshops or client meetings

6.3 Point readers to the next step

End each chapter, or at least the final chapter, with a clear and relevant next step: a consultation, a course or a template. Keep it helpful rather than pushy. Check every fact, figure and claim yourself before publishing, because your professional reputation depends on it.

Step 7: Build a catalogue, not a single book

This is the step that changes your income the most over time.

7.1 Each book sells the others

When a reader finishes a book they enjoyed, the easiest next purchase is another book by you. With one book, that reader has nowhere to go. With five, every new reader can turn into several sales.

7.2 Series make this stronger

In fiction, a series with the same characters or world gives readers an obvious next book. In non-fiction, a set of related guides for the same audience works the same way. Put a short note and the title of the next book at the end of each book, and keep covers and titles visibly connected.

7.3 Marketing gets cheaper per book

If you pay for ads, an ad that sells book 1 also sells later books through read-through, so the spend goes further. More books also give stores more chances to show your name in recommendations and search results.

7.4 Plan your next books now

Decide what books 2 and 3 are before you publish book 1, so you can mention them and write steadily. AI tools can speed up drafting. Inkora, for example, plans each book with an editable outline and keeps a fact ledger and a locked narrator voice so the book stays consistent with itself. You still need to plan how books link together across a series and check facts yourself.

Common problems and fixes

Your book is live but nobody is buying. Check the basics first: cover, title, description and categories. Compare them side by side with best-sellers in your category. A cover that doesn't look like its genre is one of the most common reasons a book gets ignored. Rewrite the description to open with the hook or the problem solved, not with background.

You priced too low and royalties are tiny. Move ebooks to at least $2.99 to reach the 70% band on stores that use it. For paperbacks, recalculate with your real printing cost and raise the price if you're barely covering it.

Kindle Unlimited page reads dropped. Page-read rates and reader behaviour change month to month. Publishing the next book in the series is usually the most dependable way to lift reads across your earlier books. If the genre doesn't suit subscription readers, consider going wide when your enrolment period ends.

Wide sales are slow on non-Amazon stores. Wide usually takes time. Make sure every store has your full catalogue, use store promotions where they're offered, and link to all stores, not only Amazon, from your website and emails.

A paperback was rejected for cover or spine issues. The spine width depends on the final page count and paper type. Rebuild the cover after any interior change, and use each printer's own template. IngramSpark's spine and barcode position can differ from KDP's.

You have one book and you're stuck. Write a short companion book, such as a novella, prequel or practical workbook, and use it to link readers between titles. A second, smaller book is often quicker to finish than a full sequel.

Making money from books comes down to repeatable steps: publish in more than one format, choose your distribution deliberately, price inside the highest royalty bands, and keep adding books that lead readers to each other. Start with one book done properly, then build the catalogue around it. If you use Inkora to draft, check the pricing page for how credits work before planning your next titles.