Amazon being the world famous platform for aspiring authors and passionate readers is developing new features in order to give whatever the customer desires are. Among many other features, the Kindle Direct Publishing best known as KDP is quite trendy. This is the platform where authors can self publish their book without the burden of approaching a publishing agent. Now the main problem is that many authors don’t know the right way of publishing their work on Amazon. So, today you will get to know a step by step guide to how to self-publish a book on Amazon.
KDP or KDP Select
There are basically two things you have to choose before publishing your book. We have already discussed KDP and KDP Select in detail, but in short will describe it again. Both platforms showcase your work with millions of readers all around the world. They both provide 70% royalties of the book priced between $2.99-$9.99. But a major difference between them is that through KDP Select one has to give exclusivity of 90 days to Amazon. Which means that an author cannot publish their book other than Amazon for this particular time period.Through KDP Select they get all the facilities to market their books manually or automatically.
Publishing Methods
While publishing a book, one should be aware of the formats in which they are going to publish your book in. THey should be edited and proofread properly as once a book is published it can be taken back, instead you have to bring a revised version of the book. So, Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing offers two types of formats: eBook and paperback.
While publishing an eBook, KDP offers a step-by-step process of uploading your file, which can take a long time and also needs some knowledge of coding. But you can simply use a digital file format known as ‘mobi’ which is mostly used by the eBook publishers. But instead of taking all these pressures a professional eBook formatter can be hired in order to avoid any chances of mistakes as this will be worth the money spent.
The format for paperback publishing which is the print on demand option given by Amazon is pretty simple. It can easily be formatted by the KDP’S instructions which can easily be done within a few hours.
Setting up of your KDP account
SIGN UP
Now after knowing in which format you have to publish the book, the part of setting up of an account comes. After opening the KDP registration page one can directly sign in through their already existing Amazon account or if they don’t have an account already, they can sign up through their email id.
Once the account details are established, the format will be the same in both Kindle eBook or paperback. The author has to select the language in which they have to publish the eBook.
TITLE
New users will get an option of adding a new kindle eBook title and from there fill out the details of the Book title and subtitle if any. These are all the last steps which need to be done as one has to choose a title before hand and just type it down while publishing your book.
Readers are more attracted and get inquisitive while reading the title of a book. So, indeed it needs to be compelling.
BOOK COVER
After writing the author’s name that is you or in any nickname you want to publish it under the book cover. Now after the headline, book cover is again the most important thing while publishing a book. Readers are attracted towards the book cover which is somewhat questionable or which tells them that this is the book that they have been looking for.
After entering your name, it will ask about the contributors. In this you actually have to write your co-authors name if there’s any, illustrator, photographer or editor.
DESCRIPTION
After getting attracted towards book covers and titles, readers usually read the book description in order to know more about it. So, the description part is the second most important that needs to be prepared while publishing your book. As it is commonly said a book description can increase the sales of the book.
It’s like if anyone wants to read a new sci-fi book, then they will directly read its blurb and decide whether they can buy it or not. So, this is what the description which needs to be provided in this section for which there’s a limit of 4,000 words.
After this your publishing rights are asked for that you have to tick on the copyright section which explains that the book is in your own words or copy.
In order to increase sales and let people know about your book, keywords are an important marketing tool. So, Amazon asks for 7 keywords which defines your book and is the most searched word by people. The keyword should be precise and easily searchable so that it appears in the feed of those people who wanted something like in your book.
Focus should be on the themes and characters of the book from which keywords can be picked out and is valuable. Keywords can actually be the path to success so it should be chosen precisely. For instance there’s a fiction book related to wizardry with a strong female lead. So, keywords like, witchcraft, magic, female lead, YAb and many such can be used. It depends upon the author what best keywords they are using in order to increase the sales and drive traffic.
CATEGORY
After this you have to choose in which category is your book in, likewise, Fiction, Non-Fiction, children’s book or education related. This is another very critical marketing strategy as people will know that in which genre your book comes under.
The age group is asked after this section for which you have to choose which age group can read your book. If your book is Young Adult then it is certainly not for children. And if your book can be read by any age group then no changes are needed and the section should be left as it is.
PRE-ORDER
This is the last option where you get to choose that you have to publish it right then and there or make it available for pre-order sales. It often opted when there is a marketing strategy in hand, like you already have hundreds of emails list, promotional banners for social media, and other media coverage.
So, pre-order sales can be a great option if you want to create a hype of your book before its release and make readers buy it before it’s even available. It is better as pre-order dates can be a month or even years extended. So, you get a lot of time to market your book.
Book Content Section
After entering all the above mentioned details, you have to fill up the final few questions.
DRM
DRM is basically Digital Rights Management which prevents people from copying the content of your book. It protects authors from uncertified distribution of their book. Through this option you will actually get paid when people will read them otherwise they can opt-out and allow the free distribution of their book.
UPLOAD
In this upload of the eBook can be done immediately or opt for a later option but should be done before the publication date. Within the time being the upload can be checked once again for any impending errors. The Book should be uploaded in an epub file as it should look when people eventually read it.
COVER
The author can choose the option of creating a book cover from KDPs cover creator or upload a file of your own. So, the cover design should be professional and attractive as readers indeed get affected with the book covers. Money spent on creating book cover by a professional can actually be helpful.
After this you can preview the manuscript of your book by Kindle Previewer. Click on Preview on the computer and look at the file through mobi link. While doing this check for any possible mistake or error in cover or the content of the book.
ISBN
KDP doesn’t require the ISBN option as it is a self-published book. But the print book does require, and so one can request for a free ISBN number for the print version from Amazon. After this KDP Select option will be asked for which you can ignore to choose this option.
After this Book lending option comes which needs to opted in order to get 70% royalty. This basically ensures to lend your book to friends and others for 14 days after the purchase. After completing all these steps you can save it as a draft and publish it on the launch date.
Apart from just publishing your book, you need an in-depth knowledge of Amazon marketing in order to see the increased sales of the book. After the release of the book, Amazon authors profile page with a photo and bio needs to be uploaded from which you will be recognized. So start preparing for your book promotion , description, cover and correct any mistakes before finally uploading your book.
