Tag Archives: Amazon

How do I get paid online?

I love all the questions that are being emailed to me by new subscribers, lately. Thank you. One recent question that I want to answer this evening is, “How do I get paid online?” Well, it all depends on which ecommerce site you’re selling digital content through. They are all free of charge to set up. But some companies will send payments directly to your bank account while others will pay you through PayPal.

How do I get paid online by Amazon, Kobo, and Ingram?

How do I get paid online for personal book sales?

You can see, in the above picture, that my books sell through various Amazon sites: Canada, USA, Germany, India, Australia, et cetera. You can also see that Amazon collects payments from each country in that country’s currency. Three months later, it converts that currency into Canadian dollars before depositing it directly into my Canadian bank account. The all happens automatically each month. I don’t have to do anything. I just get paid whenever books sell.

In the free book I give you when you subscribe to this blog, I explain which website link you can visit to set up your Amazon account and start publishing books. When you set up that account, you will also be directed to provide your bank account information to Amazon. It’s quite easy and safe to do, and Amazon gives easy instructions to follow. Then, from that point forward, you’ll get paid for your books wherever they sell throughout the world. Best of all, Amazon will pay you in your country’s currency.

Kobo and Ingram Content Group pay me the exact same way as Amazon pays me. I provided bank account information to each of them when I set up my publishing accounts. And now? They automatically pay me royalties based on however many book sales I make in all the countries they sell in around the world.

How do I get paid online as an affiliate marketer?

Book royalties are only part of the income I earn online. In addition to selling ebooks through Amazon and Kobo, and paperback books through Ingram, I also sell online courses through Udemy. I sell my own personally-designed course titled Self-Publishing Success in Bookstores and Online!, and I earn affiliate income by selling other people’s courses through my website.

How do I get paid online for affiliate marketing?

Udemy, and many other affiliate marketing sites, offer you the option of being paid via PayPal rather than through your regular bank account. This makes account set-up a lot faster if you already have a PayPal account. If you don’t have a PayPal account yet, then you can set one up for free. It will take a few days to establish the account before you can start using it.

Click on this link to view our online course selections related to affiliate marketing: Earn Additional Passive Online Income as an Affiliate Marketer

I have a business PayPal account that is attached to my business bank account and credit card. When I get paid affiliate marketing commissions, I can keep that money in my PayPal account. Or, if I choose, I can transfer it to my regular bank account.

Much like Amazon, PayPal will figure out currency conversion for you. This makes it easy to buy and sell all around the world. How wonderful is that?

How do I get paid online for monetizing my blog?

You may have noticed that, at the bottom of every webpage and blog post on this website, there is an advertisement that looks something like this:

Google AdSense advertisements

Google AdSense advertisements

That’s a Google AdSense advertisement. In this mini ebook, I talk about how you can direct more traffic to your website using pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Better yet, you can earn money on your website through other people’s PPC ads by setting up a Google Adsense account for yourself.

How does this work? Well, the above ad was paid by someone else and placed on my website by Google. Whenever someone visits my website and clicks on any of these ads, I earn a small portion of the money that advertiser paid to place it there; it is paid to me by Google like a form of commission off the sale.

Google Adsense is another easy way to monetize a website and get paid online. Google pays me directly to my bank account like Amazon does. There is no PayPal option here.

So Many Ways to Get Paid Online

You can set up so many different income streams for yourself online. Once they are set up and attached to either your bank account or your PayPal account, then all you must do is drive traffic to the website(s) where you sell books and whatever else. Promote these things online then watch them sell. That’s all you have to do. And the payments will take care of themselves for you just as they now do for me.

You might consider syndicating this content on your own blog. If you do, make sure to attribute the original source so neither of us gets dinged on the SEO front. You can do that by including this line at the bottom of the article: This content first appeared on the PPG Publisher’s Blog and has been republished here with permission.
As a user of this website, you are authorized only to view, copy, print, and distribute the documents on this website so long as: one (1) the document is used for informational purposes only; and two (2) any copy of the document (or portion thereof) includes the following copyright notice: Copyright © 2020 Polished Publishing Group (PPG). All rights reserved.




Book Trim Sizes: What Are Your Options?

book trim sizes

When it comes to book trim sizes, there are a few standards: 5″ x 8″, 5.5″ x 8.5″, and 6″ x 9″. These measurements relate to the width and height of your front and back covers in inches, as shown on the illustration to the right. This book has a 5″ x 8″ trim size.

Browse any bookstore, and you’ll see there are all kinds of different shapes and sizes of books to be found. Some of these books use a thick, glossy paper for their interior pages. Others use a thinner uncoated stock. In the traditional (trade) publishing world of corporate publishers with big budgets, they can afford to print large quantities of books on offset printing presses. This enables them to use any paper stock they want to use for their book covers and interiors. And if they want a uniquely-shaped book that stands out from the rest, they can pay to have special die cuts created to achieve that result.

As I discuss inside 3 Book Printing Tips for Indie Authors, today’s publishers (self-publishers) have more choices than we had when I started my publishing career 25 years ago. If you want to print 1,000+ books straightaway and pay the lowest possible cost per unit, you can still use offset printing. Alternatively, you can choose to print smaller quantities of books using two different digital printing solutions: print-on-demand (POD) and short run printing.

The Pros and Cons of Print-on-Demand (POD) Printing

Online worldwide book distributors, such as Amazon and Ingram Content Group, utilize POD and short run digital technologies to sell physical books online. In other words, they won’t print and store any physical copies of your paperback/hardcover book in a large warehouse anywhere. Instead, they’ll store only the digital cover and interior files that you’ve uploaded to their sites; and they will print, bind, and ship only as many copies as someone buys from them at any given time, saving you from having to print any upfront copies whatsoever. If someone goes to their site to buy ten copies of your book, then ten copies will be printed, bound, and shipped to that buyer. If another person buys only one, then they will print, bind, and ship only one—hence the term “print on demand.” This is a definite pro, isn’t it?

Now here are the cons: digital printers can only handle certain paper sizes and weights. Because of that, you’re limited to the following book trim sizes, binding types, and paper stocks/colours if you wish to sell your books online (which most of us do nowadays). The below specs come from Ingram Content Group’s Lightning Source® division.

Book Trim Sizes for POD Books With B/W Interiors

Trim Size Inches Trim Size mm Binding Types Available Page Range Paper Stock Priced as
5 x 8 203 x 127 perfect (paperback) 18 – 1200 white small
perfect (paperback) 18 – 1050 crème small
5.06 x 7.81 198 x 129 perfect (paperback) 18 – 1200 white small
5.25 x 8 203 x 133 perfect (paperback) 18 – 1200 white small
perfect (paperback) 18 – 1050 crème small
5.5 x 8.5 216 x 140 perfect (paperback) 18 – 1200 white small
perfect (paperback) 18 – 1050 crème small
case laminate (hardcover) 18 – 1050 crème small
cloth – blue or grey 18 – 1050 crème small
jacketed 18 – 1050 crème small
5.83 x 8.27 210 x 148 perfect (paperback) 18 – 1200 white small
perfect (paperback) 18 – 1050 crème small
6 x 9 229 x 152 perfect (paperback) 18 – 1200 white small
perfect (paperback) 18 – 1050 crème small
case laminate (hardcover) 18 – 1050 crème small
cloth – blue or grey 18 – 1050 crème small
jacketed 18 – 1050 crème small
6.14 x 9.21 234 x 156 perfect (paperback) 18 – 1200 white small
case laminate (hardcover) 18 – 1200 white small
cloth – blue or grey 18 – 1200 white small
jacketed 18 – 1200 white small
6.69 x 9.61 244 x 170 perfect (paperback) 18 – 1200 white small
7.44 x 9.69 246 x 189 perfect (paperback) 18 – 1200 white small
7.50 x 9.25 235 x 191 perfect (paperback) 18 – 1200 white small
7 x 10 254 x 178 perfect (paperback) 18 – 1200 white large
case laminate (hardcover) 18 – 1200 white large
8 x 10 254 x 203 perfect (paperback) 18 – 1200 white large
8.25 x 11 280 x 210 perfect (paperback) 18 – 1200 white large
8.268 x 11.693 (A4) 297 x 210 perfect (paperback) 18 – 1200 white large
8.5 x 11
(A4)		 280 x 216 perfect (paperback)
case laminate (hardcover)		 18 – 1200
18 – 1200		 white
white		 large
large

Book Trim Sizes for POD Books With Colour Interiors

Trim Size Inches Trim Size mm Binding Types Available Page Range Paper Stock Priced as
5.5 x 8.5 216 x 140 saddle-stitch (paperback) 4 – 48 white small
perfect (paperback) 24 – 480 white small
case laminate (hardcover) 24 – 480 white small
cloth – blue or grey 24 – 480 white small
jacketed 24 – 480 white small
6 x 9 229 x 152 saddle-stitch (paperback) 4 – 48 white medium
perfect (paperback) 24 – 480 white medium
case laminate (hardcover) 24 – 480 white medium
cloth – blue or grey 24 – 480 white medium
jacketed 24 – 480 white medium
6.14 x 9.21 234 x 156 saddle-stitch (paperback) 4 – 48 white medium
perfect (paperback) 24 – 480 white medium
case laminate (hardcover) 24 – 480 white medium
cloth – blue or grey 24 – 480 white medium
jacketed 24 – 480 white medium
7 X 10 254 X 178 saddle-stitch (paperback) 4 – 48 white large
perfect (paperback) 24 – 480 white large
case laminate (hardcover) 24 – 480 white large
8 X 10 254 X 203 saddle-stitch (paperback) 4 – 48 white large
perfect (paperback) 24 – 480 white large
case laminate (hardcover) 24 – 480 white large
8.5 x 8.5 216 x 216 saddle-stitch (paperback) 4 – 48 white medium
perfect (paperback) 24 – 480 white medium
8.5 x 11 280 x 216 saddle-stitch (paperback) 4 – 48 white large
perfect (paperback) 24 – 480 white large
case laminate (hardcover) 24 – 480 white large

Related Reading: Book Binding: What Are Your Options?

You might consider syndicating this content on your own blog. If you do, make sure to attribute the original source so neither of us gets dinged on the SEO front. You can do that by including this line at the bottom of the article: This content first appeared on the PPG Publisher’s Blog and has been republished here with permission.
As a user of this website, you are authorized only to view, copy, print, and distribute the documents on this website so long as: one (1) the document is used for informational purposes only; and two (2) any copy of the document (or portion thereof) includes the following copyright notice: Copyright © 2019 Polished Publishing Group (PPG). All rights reserved.

Audiobooks: Your Own Voice or Someone Else’s?

Audiobooks: your own voice or someone else’s?

When in comes to audiobooks: your own voice or someone else’s? That’s the question. Many of today’s independent authors choose to convert their paperbacks/ebooks into audiobooks using free do-it-yourself tools like Audacity. But, for a more professional touch, you may want to hire a voice-over artist.

Audiobooks: Your Own Voice or Someone Else’s?

Audacity is a free tool you can use to convert your ebook to audio by recording yourself reading your book. According to a blog post titled “Should You Turn Your Book Into an Audiobook on Audible?” by Matt Stone, Audacity is a decent tool for do-it-yourselfers who want to produce an audiobook as cost effectively as possible:

It’s some trouble no doubt to do it yourself. But like anything else, once it’s done and behind you, it doesn’t seem like such a big deal. A decent audiobook can be created in about 40 hours (based on a 50,000 word book, much less for a shorter book), and really only requires a decent USB microphone (usually $50-100) and a free program called Audacity. That may not produce rock-your-socks-off audio quality, but it’s certainly enough to give your readers a positive listening experience, and enough to get you in the audiobook game. That is, of course, if you have a decent-sounding voice. (Stone, 2017)

Your alternative is to hire voice-over talent—which can be found from the long list of freelancers on Fiverr—to produce a professional, musically-scored audiobook for you. The site displays a long list of both male and female talent to choose from, at all different price points. And Fiverr has controls in place. They ensure you’re happy with the result before your funds are released to the freelancer as final payment.

The Choice is Yours

Whichever way you choose to convert your book to an audiobook is fine. It’s all up to you and your budget, of course. Once you’ve done it, you can upload the audio files to Audible, Amazon, and iTunes in one fell swoop via ACX, and begin selling your audiobook online. Or you can save the audio files on your own website or CD for direct distribution to your targeted clientele.

Sample audiobook with professional voice-over and music scoring:

Sample home-made audio using my iPhone recorder:

Related reading: [eLearning Industry] The Virtues Of eBooks And Audiobooks In eLearning

You might consider syndicating this content on your own blog. If you do, make sure to attribute the original source so neither of us gets dinged on the SEO front. You can do that by including this line at the bottom of the article: This content first appeared on the PPG Publisher’s Blog and has been republished here with permission.
As a user of this website, you are authorized only to view, copy, print, and distribute the documents on this website so long as: one (1) the document is used for informational purposes only; and two (2) any copy of the document (or portion thereof) includes the following copyright notice: Copyright © 2019 Polished Publishing Group (PPG). All rights reserved.