After putting so much effort into completing your book, the next thing is to publish and make it available for purchase. With Amazon, you can confidently publish your book and tailor it to your target demographic. Here’s how.
How To Publish A Book On Amazon
#1. Create a Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) account.
To publish a book on Amazon, the first step is to create a KDP account, which is quick, free, and simple to do. Go to Kindle Direct Publishing and sign in with your existing Amazon account or create a new one.
When you log in, you’ll see a message at the top stating that your account is incomplete. Before you can upload your book, you must tell Amazon how you want your payments to be fulfilled.
Click on Update Now and do the following:
- Select ‘Individual’ or ‘Corporation’ depending on whether you’re publishing as an author or a firm, then enter your birth date and country of residence.
- Provide your bank account information to receive your delicious, sweet royalties from all Amazon marketplace sales. You must enter the account holder’s name, number, and routing number (the first nine digits on the bottom of your checks) for American accounts.
- To verify your tax identity, do the fast tax interview.
Once you’ve entered all of your information, click “Save” and then “Bookshelf” from the top menu to begin the publishing process.
You’ll be asked if you want to create a Kindle ebook, a paperback, a hardback, or a Series page. This instruction will concentrate on the ebook format, though the procedure includes Print-on-Demand services.
Next, customize your book page such that Amazon customers are tempted to click “Buy now” when they land on it.
#2. Enter a new title and your book description.
The KDP dashboard is separated into three sections: Details, Content, and Pricing, which will be discussed in turn.
You will be requested to supply the following information as a first step:
- The language used in your book
- The title and/or subtitle of your book
- Whether or not it is part of a series
- Whether it is a fresh edition of an old book
- Your author name (pen names are permitted)
- Other contributors’ names (for example, a book illustrator or the editor of an anthology)
Following that, you’ll need to submit a product description, similar to what you’d find on the back of a book. Writing a fascinating book description is an art, so take your time and refine it to the last detail.
Most importantly, ensure that your first line is fascinating, as Amazon only displays a brief preview of your blurb, relying on users to click “Read more” to expand it. Use Amazon’s bold, italic, and bullet list options to make your description aesthetically appealing – but don’t go crazy.
Now that your book is ready to stand out, it’s time to place it on the appropriate Amazon bookshop shelves.
#3. Choose your Amazon categories and keywords.
Keywords and categories are critical for increasing the odds of your book’s success since they help you ensure that your book is found by the proper audience based on what they search for. For your book, KDP allows you to choose two categories and up to seven keywords. Choose the ones that best define your novel. Also, remember that you may modify them afterward, so don’t be afraid to try new things.
As a general rule, choose one wide category, such as Travel, and one specialty category, such as Hikes & Walks. Choose keywords that are closely relevant to the content of your book and aren’t already stated in the title or description. Finally, if you’re creating children’s books, you can specify an age and grade range to better target your readership.
Before proceeding to the next phase, you will be asked if your book is ready for sale or if you want to make it available for pre-order at a specific date. After that, it’s time to upload the actual book files.
#4. Put your EPUB and book cover files on the server.
You’ll need to upload your book file to your KDP account in the following tab. Simply click the friendly yellow “Upload eBook manuscript” button, choose your finished EPUB file, and click “OK.”
Amazon will accept a variety of file types. However, they strongly recommend that you format your work as an EPUB, which will also allow you more control over how it appears on Kindle. Putting a Word document in and trusting Amazon to do the rest is never a good idea.
Check that your formatting is up to par.
Readers can identify who has and hasn’t correctly formatted their work, and making corners will come back to get you. Hiring a typesetter will undoubtedly pay for itself over time. However, if you’re on a short budget, you may prepare and export a beautiful ebook for free using the Reedsy Book Editor.
After you’ve chosen your manuscript, you’ll get a notification stating that it’s being processed. Do not refresh or navigate away from this page! It may take a few minutes for Amazon to upload and verify your book.
After formatting your book to Amazon’s specifications, you’ll notice a small green sign. This indicates that your work has been successfully uploaded. Take a minute to rejoice, but don’t get too carried away – there are still a few crucial tasks ahead.
Upload a captivating book cover.
Without an appealing cover, a book will not sell. Your cover designer should have sent you with a JPG or TIFF version of your front cover in the recommended resolution of 1,000 x 625px for Kindle. Simply select the option to use an existing cover and click “Upload your cover file” to add it.
This process, like uploading the book, can take a minute. You’ll receive another green message after it’s completed.
You can use the “Ebook Preview” function once you’ve submitted the content and cover to see how it will look page by page. Take a moment to double-check that everything is correct: that the entire cover is visible, that the interior looks the same as it does on your computer, and so on. If anything is incorrect, double-check your files and upload again.
You’ll be asked at the conclusion of this section if you have an ISBN number and who you want to list as “Publisher.” Both bits of information are optional, but they are important. You do not need an ISBN barcode to upload your ebook; Amazon will provide one to your book for free. Nonetheless, if you can afford it, we recommend that you always buy your own ISBN since you may register your name as the publisher and keep ownership in case you wish to “go wide” and publish on other stores in the future.
Now that you’ve developed a solid book page, it’s time to properly price your work to maximize royalties.
#5. Determine a pricing range of $2.99 to $9.99.
The first thing you should know about pricing your book is that Amazon offers a 70% royalty fee on ebooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99, and a 35% royalty rate on anything priced outside of that range.
There will be instances when you want to sell a book for a price that is higher than this. Perhaps you will sell the first book in a series at a cheaper price to increase sales of the subsequent books. However, as a general rule, stick to anything that will bring you that delicious 70%.
Amazon calculates your anticipated royalties as you pick your pricing. It deducts a modest “delivery rate” based on your book’s file size and then shows you how much money you’ll make each sale.
You may also use the pricing area to specify different prices for each country in which you want to sell. You can set it to auto if you don’t care about international sales, but you’ll get much better results if you do it manually. Selling globally can significantly increase your sales, so keep a watch on your foreign sales trends and nurture those that emerge.
In this part, you’ll be asked a few more essential questions, beginning with whether you want to enroll in KDP Select, a program that may help your book reach a bigger audience on Amazon.
Choose whether or not to participate in KDP Select.
To make a decision, weigh the benefits and drawbacks of KDP Select: On the one hand, it will help you sell your ebook through special promotions, but on the other, you will lose access to a big portion of the foreign ebook market.
Is selling box sets through Apple Books or Google Play, for example, an important component of your marketing strategy? Or do you want to take advantage of the platform’s regular price promotions (and even the occasional “free” weekend for your book)? Whether or whether you enroll will be determined by your goals as an author and the type of business plan you have for your work.
You’ll also be asked to select the regions for which you have distribution rights (e.g., global) and your principal market, the country where you intend to sell the majority of your books (if you’re unsure, just go with Amazon.com).
Once you’ve supplied your replies, prepare your champagne: the time to press “Publish” has arrived.
#6. Make your book available for purchase.
This is the moment you’ve been looking forward to! Before you dive in, take a moment to go back through the previous tabs and make sure everything is just how you want it by clicking “Back to Content” on the left.
Although you can rectify a mistake after it has been published, it is preferable to double-check the material before pressing the publish button. If you aren’t quite finished, a “Save as Draft” button will allow you to return and finish later. If everything seems good, all that’s left to do is press the “Publish your Kindle ebook” button.
How to Monitor the Sales and Performance of Your Book
When you publish your book on Amazon and it is released, you can change it or track its progress through the KDP website.
At the top of the website, click the “Bookshelf” button, then scroll down to “Your Books.” You may view all of your published titles, as well as their status and pricing, and make changes to the listing, from this page. This is where you would go to update the description or keywords, for example.
To view your previous earnings and book sales, go to the “Reports” option at the top of the website.
How Much Does It Cost To Publish A Book On Amazon?
Using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform, you can publish a book for free. While there is no set-up fee for authors on KDP, shipping and printing costs are deducted automatically from royalties earned on each sale.
Can Nigerians Publish A Book on Amazon KDP?
The site is available globally, including in Nigeria, and provides writers with a handy and simple option to reach a large audience and make money from their work.
How Do I Link My Nigerian Bank Account To Amazon KDP?
Navigate to your KDP account. Complete the two-step verification process. Click Add a bank account under Getting Paid. Select your home nation or area and click OK.
Do I Need Money to Start Amazon KDP?
You may self-publish eBooks, paperbacks, and hardcover books for free using KDP. You will have direct access to your book on Amazon, as well as the ability to construct a product description page for your book.
In Conclusion,
You’re all set! As you can see, publishing a book on Amazon isn’t nearly as difficult as it appears. Your book will be available on Amazon bookshelves soon; it may take up to 72 hours for Amazon.com and up to five days for Amazon sites in other countries. You can now devote all of your efforts to public relations and marketing.
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