Many people believe that self-publishing a book on Amazon means Amazon ‘owns’ it. They think they’ll lose their rights to the work.

That’s simply not true.

Does a bookstore own the rights to a book if they agree to stock it on their shelves? Of course not. And Amazon is nothing more than a bookstore in that sense. Even to say you ‘publish’ a book there is something of a misnomer.

Amazon simply provides the infrastructure for you to publish your eBook direct to the public. That’s why their self-publishing division is called KDP – Kindle Direct Publishing.

And you can do it essentially for nothing – zip, zilch, nada. Why? Because they take a cut of the profits on your book each time a copy is purchased and downloaded. Fair enough in return for the infrastructure and global storefront they provide.

The only limitations they place on your eBook (beyond it not having content which is illegal) are:

• They add an ID called an ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) to your book listing which is not transferable. You can’t use it on other eBook sites. You’re better off buying an ISBN anyway and using that.
• If you make use of their free Kindle Create software to format your book, the resulting KPF file (Kindle Package File) can only be used to upload your book to KDP. But you’re quite welcome to format your eBook using Word or a similar word processing program and upload that file.
• If you choose to enroll your title in the Kindle Select program, you must make your eBook exclusive to Kindle for as long as you choose stay in it. There’s nothing making you stay and several benefits from joining. You can read about it here.

But otherwise that’s it.

When you publish a book on KDP/Amazon, you’re doing nothing more than putting your book on their shelves.

And if you’re still unsure, consider this – would internationally best-selling authors allow their books to be placed on Amazon if doing so reduced their rights? Would multi-national publishing companies allow their rights to be reduced when they put books from their contracted authors on Amazon?