Amazon KDP to offer proof copies and author copies

[Brian G Turner]

Amazon KDP is now offering cut-price proof and author copies for those authors publishing paperbacks:

Proof Copies | Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing

Author Copies | Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing

You can order up to 5 proof copies, which come watermarked on the cover as "Not for resale" and are also missing their ISBN. These are intended to be ordered before approving your most recent uploaded file for public publishing.

For author copies, you can order up to 999 at a time, which - in theory - should make it far easier for authors to buy copies to take to events and even local bookshops. Unfortunately, when I tried the system it looked like it was being shipped from the USA to the UK, as my book was charged at £4.42, but the postage was over £6 - making the total far more expensive than the book's normal price - and that's with me as an Amazon Prime member.

Perhaps some tweaks remain to be made to the system ...

 

[EJDeBrun]

Sounds like a step in the right direction anyways. They'll probably work out an UK printer eventually if there's enough interest.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Thanks Brian. It's basically the same deal we used to get through NaNoWriMo.

 

[Amelia Faulkner]

Unfortunately, when I tried the system it looked like it was being shipped from the USA to the UK, as my book was charged at £4.42, but the postage was over £6

Out of interest what's the shipping on 20 or 50 copies?

Don't forget there's no VAT on paperbacks, so at least Parcelforce won't charge you £12 for the pleasure

 

[Cathbad]

Out of interest what's the shipping on 20 or 50 copies?

You can check shipping rates on any number of books by going thru the ordering as above, but just don't go to check out.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Out of interest what's the shipping on 20 or 50 copies?

I just tried it for 10 author copies - at checkout I was being charged just over £10 for postage, even though I'm an Amazon Prime customer.

 

[Luiglin]

I've just tried this and had two options. Expedited delivery for 5 copies was going to be £8 but normal delivery was only going to be £4.

By default it puts expedited. The difference is it gets to you 3 days earlier.

 

[Brian G Turner]

By default it puts expedited.

Well spotted and my bad - no wonder the delivery fee was so much.

 

[Amelia Faulkner]

You can check shipping rates on any number of books by going thru the ordering as above, but just don't go to check out.

I can't, because I have no paperbacks in KDP. Mine are all in CreateSpace.

 

[Cathbad]

I can't, because I have no paperbacks in KDP. Mine are all in CreateSpace.

That's where mine are. Hadn't realized we were talking KDP paperbacks. Oops.

 

[sknox]

About how much time does shipping take (all USA)? Anyone have experience with it?

I'm trying to schedule a release date and want to have a look at the printed copy before I actually click Publish, to give me a chance for last-minute panic.

Also, while I'm at it, does anyone use book formatting--either as a template or hiring someone? Any recommendations?

 

[Luiglin]

About how much time does shipping take (all USA)? Anyone have experience with it?

I'm trying to schedule a release date and want to have a look at the printed copy before I actually click Publish, to give me a chance for last-minute panic.

Also, while I'm at it, does anyone use book formatting--either as a template or hiring someone? Any recommendations?

I downloaded the Amazon template and had to spend an afternoon making sure that the layout worked. The end printed copy looks real good though.

I mainly did it to get a copy for my Dad. He'll never read it but was chuffed to bits.

The others I gave away to family but did sell one to someone at work... without resulting to poisoning their tea first.

 

[Edward M. Grant]

Also, while I'm at it, does anyone use book formatting--either as a template or hiring someone?

I use a template I created myself. It's not that hard to do basic print formatting, even using a word processor like Word or LibreOffice. But, for more complex formats, you'll want to use a real formatting package or pay someone to do it for you.

I use LibreOffice and the big limitation is that it won't shrink the space between words to avoid hyphenation, only expand it. A proper formatting program will do both, and the results can look much better.

 

[sknox]

>use a real formatting package or pay someone to do it for you.
Any specifics on either of these?

 

[Guillermo Stitch]

That proof copies arrangement doesn't sound as good as Creatspace if it's the cover that's watermarked. With the latter it's the final interior page which I much prefer - the book still makes a handsome object to give someone as a gift or ARC and you can order 5 at a time as well.

Author copies is a great idea though.

 

[picklematrix]

Lack of proof copies was a massive mark against KDP. I certainly wouldnt want a book to go live without having held a proof copy in my hands beforehand.