After months of hard work, you have finally completed writing your book! Well, that’s great; congrats! Now, you must be looking for ways to make it available to your audience and how to publish a book on Amazon, right? Well, publishing can be stressful and time-consuming. But don’t worry. With the right steps and guidance, you can publish your book on Amazon without any hassle.
So, without further ado, let’s delve in and find out more details.
Key Step On How To Publish A Book On Amazon
Here are some of the key steps you need to follow to publish your book on Amazon with ease.
Finalize Your Book
The first and most important thing you need to do is to finalize your book. For that, you need to make sure that your book is well-written, structured, and free from grammatical and spelling mistakes in order to prevent the chances of getting the book rejected by Kindle Digital Publishing. Furthermore, make sure the content quality meets the highest standards, and hire a professional editor to proofread your book before getting Amazon ebook publishing services.
Create A Kindle Direct Publishing Account
Next is to create a Kindle Direct Publishing account. To do so, you can visit the official website of Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and select the ‘Create a new account’ option. Then, you will have to submit some personal information such as your name, the name of the publishing company, your address, your zip code, your email, and your phone number. This information will be used by Amazon to send your important notifications. Kindle Direct Publishing will also collect tax information, social security numbers, and tax identification to manage the taxes and royalty payments once your book is published and started to make sales.
Choose Your Preferred Publication Format
In this step, you’ll have to choose the desired publication format, as provided by KDP; these options will give you the opportunity to decide whether you want your ebook to be published in the traditional way of paperback or in digital form for e-readers. The authors who prefer using KDP can earn 40-60% royalties from print books and up to 70% from ebooks. However, if an ebook is priced below $2.99 or above $9.99, the royalty decreases to 35% as Amazon deducts about 5% from each sale to cover the printing costs of paperback books.
Get Your Book Formatted Properly
Make sure you format your book according to the standards. If you have written a book on Microsoft Word and now it to get it published either paperback way, or digitally. It is vital for you to format your book properly. This will help you get your book aligned with all the quality and formatting standards of the book. You can also use formats like PDF or MOBI, as these formats will protect the original written composition of your book until you upload it.
Create A Listing For Your Book
- Go to your Bookshelf in your KDP account: First and foremost, you should go to the Bookshelf section of your KDP account. Here, you can upload your book, make and change listings, and see your stats. Once you’re on your Bookshelf, choose either the “+ Kindle eBook” or “+ Paperback” option, depending on which type of book you want to publish.
- Enter Your Book Details: In this next step, you will be taken to a series of forms where you’ll be required to provide essential information about your book, including a short description, age range, and other things. This process is very important as all the information you provide will be used to show how your users will view your book on Amazon.
- Choose Or Create The Cover Art For Your Book: If you already have an image, you can simply upload it but before that make sure its size is perfect and not protected by copyright. When you’re deciding about the cover, you can use a built-in design feature, Cover Creator. The Kindle’s suggested resolution for the book cover is 2,560 x 1,600px. To add it, simply select the option to use a pre-existing cover, and click “Upload your cover file”. Furthermore, ensure that your book cover captures the attention of the readers and it’s theme is aligned with your book’s content.
- Set A Price: Setting the price of the book for the readers is one of the vital elements before uploading or opting for Amazon ebook publishing. Amazon’s royalty rate on ebooks is 70% that are between the price range of $2.99 and $9.99, and 35% royalty rate on any book that’s outside that range.
- Publish Your Book: Once all the elements are covered and you’re satisfied with your ebook listing, click on “Publish Your Kindle eBook” or “Publish Your Paperback Book.” The uploaded files will be forwarded to the KDP or CreateSpace content team, who will be preparing your ebook for publication. Keep in mind that the processing time to publish a book will take up to 72 hours to become available for purchase on Amazon. You can also continue to update your listing even after officially publishing your book.
Check Your Sales, Feedback & Stats
It is important for you to check your book’s sales and feedback regularly by logging into your KDP account. By getting your book published on Amazon, you can receive daily reports that will help you stay informed about the performance and sales of your book. You can create an Amazon author page where all the readers can learn more about you and also know if you have any other books published. Furthermore, you will receive royalty statements every 60 days, so if your book does well, you’ll start receiving income from your sales regularly.
Benefits Of Amazon For First-Time Book Authors
To make a better and more informed decision, it is best to understand the benefits of KDP. Here are some of the compelling ones:
- Promote Your Book Title: Amazon’s KDP will help you promote the title of your book through special promotions.
- Access To International Audience: You’ll get an opportunity to step into the international ebook market. Amazon offers a vast audience, which makes it easier for you to make your ebook available to a large audience and get overwhelming sales.
- Tracking & Development Tools: Amazon provides ease in tracking the sales and engagement of the audience after you publish your book. This helps authors to make informed decisions when it comes to pricing and promotional factors. Furthermore, if you’re a book writer who wants targeted advertising and email campaigns for your book promotion and sales, Amazon provides easy-to-use to make your experience streamlined and stress-free.
Wondering whether you should give all your ebook distribution rights to Amazon?
If you’re thinking of publishing a book on Amazon and give all the rights to distribute your eBook everywhere, there are a few things you need to understand before making that decision. You’ll need to choose the regions where you want your book to be available, like worldwide, and set your target market. Amazon is one of the safest and most reliable. Once you’ve made these choices, you should prepare yourself to hit ‘Publish’.
Final Words
Publishing your book on Amazon is a great way to reach an international audience. By following these key steps, you’ll be able to successfully become a published author without much time and effort. Remember, the journey doesn’t end with publishing, marketing, and engaging with readers, which are key to your book’s success. I wish you the best of luck and a happy publishing experience!
Lastly, if you’re looking to get your book published by expats, you should trust a reputable ebook publishing company for it.
FAQs
Q1: How to publish an ebook on Amazon?
To publish an ebook on Amazon, you’ll need to follow key steps such as finalizing your book, creating a Kindle Direct Publishing Account, choosing your preferred publication format, getting your book formatted properly, creating a listing for your book, and then submitting your book.
Q2: What formats should my manuscript be in?
There are several formats accepted by Amazon KDP, but the most common ones are Word documents (.doc or .docx) and PDF files. Therefore, it’s best to use Word because it makes formatting easier for Kindle eBooks.
Q3: How do I design a book cover?
If you’re new and don’t know much about designing, don’t worry; you can design your own cover by using simple and helpful designing tools like Canva or get the best from professional designers by hiring them. Furthermore, the best part is Amazon also offers a Cover Creator tool within KDP that will help you design your book cover with templates.
Q4: How much does it cost to publish a book on Amazon?
Publishing on Amazon KDP is free. However, you might have to pay for the editing cost, cover design, or formatting if you choose to hire professionals. Amazon takes a percentage of your sales as a commission.
