The Amazon Prime Trick for Review Copies

Like the idea of free overnight shipping for review copies of your own book?

$2.39 for Overnight Shipping?

ARC = Advanced Reader Copy

In fact, it's possible if you have an Amazon Prime account and set your books up with KDP.

Here's the scenario.

You just published a 228 page B&W paperback.

The cost to print it is $3.59/copy.

The lowest price you can sell it for on Amazon is $5.98.

When you do set your price at $5.98, you will not earn a royalty, but you get the ability to order your book via Amazon prime which is 1-day shipping!

The cost to print the book is included in the $5.98:

I recommend this route for the first 30-60 days of the 'soft opening' of your book while you are gathering reviews. Then, when you are ready to 'launch' your book, you set the price back where you want. The more reviews you have, the higher the price you can charge, but I recommend aiming for a $5/book profit.

PS: Keep in mind there's nothing to stop you from publishing an ARC edition on Amazon. Once you are ready to make it ready for the world, replace the cover and update the interior. All those reviews you worked hard so hard for will stick. That's the magic of print-on-demand!

The KDP Alternative - Snowfall Press

An alternative is Snowfall Press, who I love to use for ARCs and printed proofs, but the lowest cost shipping they offer is Media Mail (which takes about a week) @ 3.67 plus the cost of printing ($3.96) plus a per order packing fee ($.85). They typically ship orders within 3 days of receiving the order. The total cost to ship 1 book to 1 reviewer (228 pages) is $8.48.

Also, unfortunately the books you buy at Snowfall won't reflect the cherished 'verified purchase' on Amazon (which carries more weight in their ranking algorithm).

Hope you find this trick helpful!

To your self-published success,
Brian Schwartz
brian@selfpublish.org