One of the biggest self-publishing platforms for authors nowadays has to be, without a doubt, Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Amazon actually got its start as a bookstore. Since then, it’s of course evolved beyond that by a dramatic amount, but Amazon is still a giant in the book market. With its Kindle devices, it has a platform for aspiring writers to self-publish their own books. Not only can you publish to Amazon’s marketplaces, but you can get your books in wider distribution and in other bookstores with Amazon’s tools. For today’s post, I’m going to teach you how to self-publish your next book on Amazon, because it’s actually a pretty easy process!
STEP 1: CREATE AN AMAZON ACCOUNT
The first thing you need to do before you even get started with publishing your book is to make an Amazon KDP account. Now, your KDP account will be an Amazon account by default. If you already have an Amazon account and want to use that, then you can. If you don’t want to use your existing Amazon account, just create a new one to use specifically for KDP.
STEP 2: UNDERSTAND THE DASHBOARD
The next thing that you should do is familiarize yourself with the Amazon KDP dashboard. This is where you will be able to view everything, including your published works, your drafts, your sales reports and more.
The Community tab will allow you to connect with other KDP users to get help with certain issues you may be having. Think of it like an online forum basically.
There’s also the Marketing tab which is what you’ll want to take a look at after you’ve published your works. This will help you set up things like advertisements and more to get more eyes on your books.
STEP 3: CREATE YOUR FIRST WORK
Once you’ve gotten familiar enough with the system and understand where everything is and why it’s there, you’ll want to create your first book. As you can see, there’s a giant “+ Create” button in yellow on your screen, or at least something is there to prompt you to create your first work.
When you click on it, you should get this screen:
There are multiple options you can create, but for this guide, we’ll focus on the Kindle eBook. This is the easiest to start with and should be your primary focus as a self-published author using KDP. Paperbacks and hardcovers take time to format for, so don’t worry about that right now.
STEP 4: CREATE EBOOK
The next step is to actually click on “create eBook.” From here, this is where you’ll actually create your first book!
I’ll go through each tab separately to explain what you’ll have to do in each.
Kindle eBook Details
The first thing you need to do is set the primary language you used to write your book. For most people, it will be English, which is the default language anyways. There are some other supported languages, and I’ve screenshotted what they are below:
After this, you need to fill out the Book Title and optionally, the Subtitle. For my book, you can see that the Book Title is “Soldat” and then the subtitle is Book 2 of The Fallen Age Saga.
If this is your first book in a series, you can Add to series, which will allow you to create a series and add more books to it in the future. If this is a standalone work, just ignore this part.
Next up is the Edition Number, which is only relevant if the book you’re publishing is something like an updated version. You don’t need to put this in if this is your first time publishing the book in its entirety.
Next, you can add the primary author’s name (likely your name) and then add up to 9 Contributors. If you co-wrote the book, it’s a research work, or something similar, this is where you can add more authors basically. You can also add things like an editor, a narrator, a translator, photographer, etc… under the Contributors section.
Next up is the Description. This is where you’ll want to add a small blurb about your book to entice readers to click. This is like when you pick up a physical book and read the back of it. For example, here is the description for Book 2 of my series, Soldat:
Joel Vandernord’s life just got turned completely upside down.
After a series of destructive and violent alien invasions against Earth, the world’s top leaders have mobilized their armies to fight against the mass threat. In order to avoid reinstating a draft, the United States decides to develop a program dubbed ‘Soldat’ that would take death row inmates and place them in the military to be genetically modified and trained to fight.
And the former Blackridge member just found himself at the center of the whole mess.
He’s been falsely accused of murder. But he can’t do anything about it.
And as the world begins to descend into chaos, the threat of nuclear warfare and alien proxy wars continues to decimate the balance of everything.
In what may be the most destructive conflict in Earth’s history, there are more powers at play than anyone could have ever anticipated.
Also in The Fallen Age Saga:
– Malware
You can also add things like reviews, quotes, or if there are other books in the series, like I did above.
Next, you’ll want to set the publishing rights. Chances are, you don’t want anyone to just use your book for themselves, so it’s copyrighted and you own the rights.
The Primary Audience section is where you’ll need to tell Amazon if your book has sexual content and then, if you want, you can set what you think the range of ages that would enjoy your book are. You don’t need to do this and chances are, your target audience will find you by looking up the genre.
You then want to put the Categories that your book falls under, which includes the genre basically and any potential subgenres. Then, you’ll want to add the keywords. The keywords are important as they will help readers find your book. If they look up a medieval dark fantasy, you want your book to show up, which means that one of your keywords must be medieval dark fantasy. Keep these specific and broad at the same time to reach your intended audience.
Then, you have to decide if you want to release your book now or set the eBook up for pre-order. This depends on if you maybe have a launch date and an email list ready to go or not.
Kindle eBook Content
The next step is to fill in the eBook content. The first thing you’ll have to do is to upload your manuscript. This must be in a supported file, such as docx, KPF, EPUB, or MOBI.
Then you’ll need to add your cover. You can either upload one or use their cover creator. I don’t really recommend Kindle’s cover creator, it’s not really that good. Use Canva or Photoshop for this part or buy a book cover online.
A recent addition to the KDP setup is if you used AI or not in your book’s content. This includes creating texts, images, translations, etc… I’m not sure exactly what this means for your book, but if you didn’t use AI, then you don’t need to worry about it.
Next is the Quality Check. You can launch the previewer to make sure everything looks good and Amazon will let you know if there are any quality issues with your file before you proceed.
The next thing is an ISBN, which is like the identifier for your book. It’s basically a barcode like the ones you see on most products. You don’t need one for a Kindle eBook, but if you have one, you can add it.
Kindle eBook Pricing
The next thing you’ll decide is if you want your book to be in KDP Select. This is a program that lets you enroll your book in things like discounts, Kindle Unlimited, and more. This is a great tool if you’re only planning on publishing your book to Amazon.
You’ll then need to list if you have worldwide rights or individual territorial rights to your book. Finally, you’ll need to set your pricing for the book. You can select the royalty plan of either 35% or 70%. Prices that are lower than $2.99 USD will need to select the 35% royalty plan. Prices above that will get access to the 70% royalty plan. The max price is $9.99 USD.
Depending on the primary marketplace you selected, your default prices will be visible in that marketplace’s currency. It will then show you the translation of your prices into other currencies that are supported by Amazon. You can customize these if you want, but chances are, the spot price used by Amazon is more than enough.
Then, you publish the book! It can take up to 72 hours for your book to show up or if you change anything, for those changes to take effect.
That’s it! It’s as easy as that. The hardest part was actually writing your book, so now you can publish and enjoy the rest of the day!
Before you head on out, check out my series, The Fallen Age Saga. You can also sign up for my newsletter to get more information on new posts, new books, and more from me!