You've just finished writing your first book, and now can't wait to show it to the world. Then, what should you do now? The self-publishing services offered by websites like Amazon have made it easier for writers to publish their work. After finishing your manuscript, you can browse through Amazon's publishing options to find the format that works best for you, enter key details, set prices and do other things that will make your book market-ready and help you start your career as a publisher. Writer.
Step
Part 1 of 3: Writing and Formatting Books
Step 1. Finish the book
Before you can publish a work through Amazon's express publishing service, make sure that you've polished the work as much as you can. Check the final draft of the manuscript for spelling and syntactic errors, as well as unnecessary or difficult sentence structure. Trim as much as possible to condense your manuscript composition.
- Editing the manuscript carefully is the key to publishing a good book. The easier your work is to understand, the easier it will be for people to accept it.
- Amazon has a strict set of quality standards, so if your book is full of errors, it could be rejected.
- Consider asking someone else, such as a trusted friend or even a professional editor, to check your book before it's sent.
Step 2. Create a Kindle Direct Publishing account
Visit the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) website and click the option to create a new account. There, you can enter personal information, including your name (or the name of a self-publishing company), address, postal code, email and phone number. Amazon will use that contact information to send you important notifications during the publishing process.
- KDP will also collect some basic tax information, including your social security number and NPWP, to manage tax issues and royalty payments once your books start selling.
- If you already have an Amazon account, use the site's login information to create a separate KDP profile.
Step 3. Choose a publishing format
With KDP, you can choose to publish a book in printed form with a standard thin cover or in digital form (electronic book). Consider a better way to present your work. For example, if your book is a young adult thriller, a hardback printed book format might be more appealing. If the genre is self-help, digital formats will be preferred by people who read on mobile devices.
- The amount of royalties you earn will vary depending on the format chosen. Authors get 70% of the selling price for each electronic book sold, and 80% for printed books.
- Amazon will charge a small percentage of each book sold to cover the cost of printing a paperback book.
Step 4. Set the book format properly
If you are writing a book in a standard word processing program such as Microsoft Word, the manuscript will need to be reformatted so that it can display properly in an e-book reader or in printed form. Fortunately, Amazon makes this process easy by providing some useful guides to help you get your work ready without too much of a hassle. Follow the steps on the KDP website tutorial to make your book look more presentable.
- If you want to publish a hardback book, you can also use some of the pre-made templates.
- Using a format such as PDF or MOBI will keep the original composition format of your work when uploading it to Amazon, including any images or additional text elements.
Part 2 of 3: Registering a Book
Step 1. Open Bookshelf in KDP account
Through this hub, you will be able to upload works, register products you want to sell and edit information, as well as check visitor statistics on your product pages. After accessing Bookshelf, find and select “+ Kindle eBook” (electronic books) or “+ Paperback” (thin cover books), depending on the format you prefer.
Step 2. Enter the book details
Next, you'll find several forms to fill out with important information about yourself and your work. This information includes your name, title of the book, a brief description and age range of the reader, and some other information.
- At this stage, you can choose several keywords and categories that match your book to help market the book to your target audience.
- You can also categorize books specifically, such as children's fantasy, or use keywords like "cooking", "blogging" or "travel" to make your book appear in more specific search results.
- Take the time to fill in each item-the more complete the information you provide, the better chance your book will be noticed.
Step 3. Select or create a book cover design
If you already have an image you'd like to use as a cover, you can upload it right away (make sure it's the right size and isn't copyrighted). Otherwise, the design features provided by the Amazon site will direct you to design your own book cover. Make sure your book cover grabs the reader's attention immediately and offers a visual summary of the book's content or main theme.
- Amazon recommends that images uploaded as covers have a height and width ratio of 1:6.
- Consider hiring someone to design the original book cover. A professional-looking cover image will make your book more appealing to potential buyers.
Step 4. Upload your book
Click “Browse” to find the file on your computer, then start the process of uploading the script. This can take a few minutes, especially if you are submitting a fairly long work. You can still make changes to product information after the book has finished uploading – this information will not be published until you agree to have it published.
- KDP accepts most digital file formats, including DOC, PDF, HTML and MOBI.
- Before continuing, don't forget to convert your file to Kindle format if you want to publish an e-book.
Part 3 of 3: Submitting Books for Publishing
Step 1. Check the book cover design and page layout
Use the “preview” function to see how your book ends. Again, watch for spelling or formatting mistakes. This is one last chance to make important changes before you submit the book for publication.
Keep in mind that the e-book will look different on different screens. It's worth reviewing your book on several different devices to see how your book will look on different screens
Step 2. Set the price for the book
Set a price that you think is reasonable. Consider the format of the book, as well as the market for the topic of the book. For example, it's only natural that you charge a higher price for a textbook for theoretical physics than a short e-book for children. Look at similar titles for reference when setting prices for the products you sell.
- There are several types of royalties that you can choose from: 70% and 35%. In the majority of cases, a 70% royalty will result in more money per sale. However, if you opt for a 35% royalty, you will not be charged shipping charges for printed books, and this may be your only option if your market share is not very large or you charge less than $2.99 (approx. drive sales.
- Amazon takes a small percentage of each sale as a “distribution fee” (even for e-book products) for publishing your work online.
Step 3. Publish the book
Once you are satisfied with the list of items for sale, click “Publish Your Kindle eBook” (publish Kindle electronic books) or “Publish Your Paperback Book” (publish thin cover printed books). The uploaded files will then be sent to the KDP or CreateSpace content team, who will prepare them for publication. You will receive a notification when your book has been successfully submitted and when it goes live on the Amazon site.
- It can take up to 72 hours for your book to be ready for purchase on Amazon.
- You can continue to update product information even after your book is officially published.
Step 4. Check sales, inputs and other statistical data via KDP account
Log in to the user portal regularly to see how your book sales are progressing. Amazon provides daily reports for authors who use Amazon's services to publish their work. This allows you to notice how often your books are bought and borrowed on the spot, keeping you actively involved in the business side.
- Create an Amazon author page where readers can find out more about you and the titles you sell.
- Royalty reports are sent approximately every 60 days. This means that if your book is a bestseller, you will start to have a steady stream of income.
Tips
- Publishing a book is very easy, but you should still strive to produce quality work that you can be proud of. Strong writing will help you build a fanatical reader base.
- A captivating and catchy title will stick in the reader's mind, making them want to know more about the book.
- Choose your keywords and book categories carefully. This is important to make sure your book shows up in search results.
- Books on unique topics tend to be more successful in the self-publishing market.
- If you want your book to be seen by more people, consider signing up for KDP Select. Instead of giving Amazon exclusive rights to your book for 90 days, they will use more resources to advertise the book on and off the website.
Warning
- Don't be afraid to ask questions or criticize if something goes wrong during the publishing process. Amazon will also benefit from your book; they will be willing to work with you to make sure the process goes smoothly.
- When you self-publish your book online, your book will not be sold in bookstores.
