So you've written a book. You've crafted the next great novel, collected your experiences into a memoir, or gathered experts' experiences in a new way. And now you want to get it out there. It's time to learn how to publish an eBook on Amazon with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).
KDP is Amazon's self-publishing tool, and it's a simple way to take your book, turn it into a Kindle file, and start selling it on Amazon. This tool will help you sell your book and pay out the royalties on each sale. It's a great way to write and sell a book, especially if you don't want to pay a fortune to print a hard copy.
But getting through the Kindle Direct Publishing process can be a bit intimidating. So we'll walk you through exactly how to sell an eBook on Amazon.
1. Fire Up Kindle Direct Publishing
Once your book is written, you'll need to head over to the KDP website and sign in with your Amazon account. The first time you sign in, you'll see the terms and conditions.
It's a good idea to read through all of these. There's information on royalties, payments, distribution, and other things you should know. The terms and conditions also reference KDP's Pricing Page, which you'll want to review as well. It contains information on royalties that you'll need to know later—we'll go over that information in a moment.
After clicking Agree, you'll see the KDP dashboard. If you get the error message "Your account information is incomplete", click Update Now to add your address, bank account, and tax information.
Once your account information is up-to-date, you can start writing, creating, and selling your Kindle books!
2. Create a New Kindle Book as an Amazon Seller
To create a new Kindle book, click the + Create button.
You'll now see the Kindle eBook Details screen, the first of three sections you'll need to fill in before selling an eBook on Amazon.
Go through each field and enter the relevant information. Here are the sections you'll need to complete:
- Language
- Book title (and optional subtitle)
- Series information (optional)
- Edition number (optional)
- Primary author
- Additional contributors (optional)
- Description for your Amazon page
- Publishing rights (owned or public domain)
- Primary audience (and optional reading age)
- Primary marketplace
- Amazon Kindle categories
- Keywords (up to seven)
- Pre-order status (optional)
Think carefully about the title, description, keywords, and categories. These are the primary ways that people will find your Kindle book. The description is especially important, as you'll need to include important keywords to help people find your book when they're searching Amazon. Use these fields to your advantage to convince people that your book has value to them.
Everything you need to know about writing and selling books on Amazon, including how to showcase them properly, can be found on KDP University and its publishing guides. Give it a read before you write your description or do anything else as an Amazon author.
3. Format and Upload Your Kindle eBook
After saving your book's details, you can upload your manuscript. But before you do so, consider using Kindle Create (a free downloadable app) to format your manuscript.
It's one of the best pieces of software for getting your eBook ready to sell on Amazon. It automatically detects chapter breaks, adds a table of contents, and lets you format your book with flourishes like drop caps and block quotes.
To download Kindle Create, head to its home page and click Download for Mac or Windows. The app will walk you through opening and formatting your document.
Once you're happy with how your Kindle book looks, hit the Export button in the top-right corner of Kindle Create. This will export your manuscript as a KPF file that you can upload into KDP with ease.
If Kindle Create doesn't work for you, look for alternatives. Formatting your book with Atticus, for example, comes with lots of perks that Amazon's solution lacks.
Whether you use Kindle Create or not, you can upload a DOCX, PDF, MOBI, or other file directly into KDP. Click Upload eBook Manuscript and select your file.
KDP will upload and process the file, and you'll see a notification when the processing is done. With some manuscripts, you can also check potential spelling errors identified by KDP.
Once your manuscript has successfully been uploaded, it's important to check the preview to see how it looks. Scroll down past the section where you upload a cover and click Launch Previewer.
You'll then see a preview of what your book will look like on a mobile device. Use the buttons on the sides of the displayed device to scroll through your book and make sure everything looks good.
Check chapter titles, formatting like drop caps and block quotes, links, and anything else that's more complicated than plain text. If you find an error, you'll need to fix it in Kindle Create or whichever program you used to create your manuscript.
You can also use the dropdown in the top-right of the page to preview your book on different devices—it's a good idea to make sure it looks alright on all three options: tablet, phone, and Kindle eReader. Be sure to check your table of contents, too, to make sure chapters are correctly linked.
If your book is looking good, click Back in the top-left corner to head to the previous screen and continue setting up your manuscript for sale on Amazon.
Adding DRM to Your Kindle Book (or Not)
At the top of the Content page, you'll see the option to enable DRM (Digital Rights Management) on your Kindle book. If you choose to enable DRM, your Kindle book will be locked to a single purchaser.
They won't be able to share it unless they remove the eBook's DRM, which many people don't know how to do. But they can still lend it for a limited time using the Kindle lending program or buy a copy of the book as a gift.
Disabling DRM means people can do whatever they want with your book. Which option you go with is up to you as an author and seller, so if you disagree with Amazon's use of DRM, you can choose not to use it.
Adding a Cover to Your Kindle Book
In the Kindle eBook Content tab, you'll see a section called Kindle eBook Cover. You can use the tools here to create or upload your custom cover.
Select Upload a cover you already have (JPG/TIFF only) to upload a cover you've already designed. Don't forget to check out our tips on designing and making a book cover if you decide to go this route.
To use KDP's tools for creating your own cover, select the first option and click the Launch Cover Creator button.
As you'll find out, Cover Creator has a lot of terrible stock images. But if you can find one that doesn't stand out as awful stock photography, you can tweak it to make a great cover for your Kindle book. Alternatively, you can upload better images.
Here are a few of KDP's suggested designs.
As you can see, they're not stellar. But by browsing images and tweaking colors and fonts, you can actually come up with something halfway decent.
Of course, you're always going to get better results by hiring a professional. Using a service like Fiverr to hire a freelance designer, or using one of the top eBook cover design services, is a great way to have an expert design your book cover so that it sells well on Amazon's competitive market.
4. Price Your Kindle eBook for Sale
Before leaving the content page, you can add an ISBN to your book if you have one. However, Kindle books don't require them, so you probably won't need to worry about this.
However, if you start looking into how to write and sell a printed version of your book on Amazon, you will have to learn about normal and KDP ISBNs. If you're still not sure, check out KDP's help page on ISBNs.
Back to setting up your eBook, when you hit Save and Continue, you'll go to the pricing page. The first thing you'll have to choose is whether you want to enroll in KDP Select. This is an important choice, so we'll talk about it in detail.
What Is the Difference Between KDP and KDP Select?
If you enroll in KDP Select, your book is automatically included in the Kindle Select Global Fund, Kindle Unlimited, and the Kindle Storyteller contest. All this will increase exposure for your book—even more so with the exclusive access you get to KDP promotional tools for eBooks. It also lets you earn bonuses and higher royalties.
But there's a key requirement you'll need to meet to be eligible for KDP Select. You will have to agree to sell your book exclusively on the Kindle store, which means you won't be able to sell it on any other eBook store—not even your own website.
You're basically trading exclusivity for the potential of increased earnings from your eBook, though you can still sell a print version elsewhere. There's no guarantee that you'll earn more by taking this path either.
If you weren't planning on selling the digital version elsewhere, you have nothing to lose by signing up. Keep in mind, however, that you can of course choose 70 percent royalties for a long list of countries, that's without signing up to KDP Select. Whatever the case, you can remove or re-enroll your books in KDP Select whenever you want.
Kindle eBook Royalty Options
Once you've decided on whether you'll enroll your book in KDP Select, you can move on to the rest of the pricing options.
You'll first need to let KDP know your primary marketplace, and if you hold worldwide or territorial distribution rights. Unless you're licensing your content, you probably have worldwide results. But you should read about KDP's eBook distribution rights anyway.
Now comes an important choice: your royalty level. You can choose to earn either 35 or 70 percent royalties on your book. Most people will choose 70 percent because... well, you get more money.
But it's important to realize that there's a big restriction placed on books at this royalty level: they have to be priced between $2.99 and $9.99.
Most authors probably won't have a problem with this. Short books, however, or large ones like textbooks, might suffer from being priced in this bracket.
You also have to pay a download cost per book, which depends on the size of the file. When you enter a price into the List Price box, you'll see this cost under the heading "Delivery".
If you have a very large book, this can cut into your royalties, and you may want to choose the 35 percent option. This will probably only apply to massive books with large images, but it's worth keeping in mind.
Setting the Book Price
After choosing your royalty level, you can set the price of your book. If you chose the 70 percent royalty level, you're limited to between $2.99 and $9.99. If you chose the 35 percent level, you can choose almost whatever you want. Note, however, that you can't set a book to be free.
Choosing the right price for your Kindle book is going to depend greatly on the subject matter and target market. Unless you're an established author, you'll probably want to price it toward the lower end of the spectrum.
Revisiting KDP's Terms and Conditions
The final step in the pricing section, and the whole publication process, is to read the terms and conditions again. Just click the link to access the document.
Here KDP also informs you that your title will be available for purchase within 72 hours. After spending ages writing it, you finally get to sell your book on Amazon.
Saving Your eBook as a Draft
If you're not quite ready to publish your book yet, you can save it as a draft with the Save as Draft button. You'll now see your book in your dashboard, where you can open it or change further options.
5. Sell Your Kindle Book on Amazon
Once you're done with all of the above steps, you're ready to publish your eBook on Amazon. Just hit Publish Your Kindle eBook at the bottom of the page, and Amazon will handle the rest.
As already mentioned, it can take a few days for your book to hit the shelves on the Amazon store. But that's all there is to using Kindle Direct Publishing.
The process is actually very easy, especially when you consider how difficult it used to be to write and sell a book. Now, you can just hit a few buttons, and your book is off to the digital printing press.
As an official published author, you can now start promoting your book, going on international book tours, and booking talk show interviews (possibly). The sky's the limit.
Kindle Direct Publishing: Get Published and Sell Books
If you're looking into how to write, publish, and sell an eBook on Amazon, KDP is your best bet. The straightforward interface, bevy of options, and simple pricing scheme make it great for aspiring authors and long-time pros alike.
It's not the only way to get your book out into the world, but because Amazon has cornered the market on eBooks, it's one of the most viable options for individuals. With Kindle Create and the KDP Select program, you can take advantage of Amazon's resources to make the best book possible, and get paid for it.