Amazon cocky-publishing is on the rise. With it existence the #1 retailer for books worldwide, that makes sense.

But if you wind upwards making some errors in publishing on Amazon…let's just say your results as an writer will be less than satisfactory.

After all, the self-publishing industry is pretty sensitive to those making mistakes.

Merely Amazon cocky-publishing is the all-time pick to self-publish and nosotros've made it fifty-fifty easier for yous with this guide for doing information technology with Kindle Direct Publishing.

Y'all no longer need to get through painstaking efforts to land a book deal, which locks y'all into unrealistic deadlines and cuts you out of most of your much-deserved earnings.

You can now take complete control of your book – and its revenues – past cocky-publishing using Amazon's KDP platform.

But many writers go overwhelmed by the affluence of data about cocky-publishing. Information technology tin can be intimidating for first-time publishers. We get it – nosotros were merely like you!

So to ease some feet and uncertainty, we created this step-past-pace comprehensive self-publishing guide for yous to follow in order to get your book published on Amazon'southward Kindle Direct Publishing Network. And if you lot'd similar someone to handle all of these steps for you, you tin can volume a call with our squad to discuss how we can assist you.

Here is your full guide to publishing a volume on Amazon:

  1. How does Amazon self publishing piece of work? (And why information technology's the best choice)
  2. Creating a Kindle Direct Publishing Account
  3. Crafting Your Volume Title & Subtitle
  4. Writing Your Book Description
  5. Choosing the Right Keywords
  6. Selecting the Correct Categories
  7. Uploading Your Manuscript
  8. Creating a Book Embrace
  9. Pricing Your Volume
  10. How Much Does information technology Cost to Publish on Amazon?

Allow'southward get started!

How Does Amazon Cocky Publishing Work (And Why it's the Best Option)

Traditional publishing is on the way out.

This has been the reality for some time at present and for skilful reason.

While traditional publishing had its time and was in one case theonly option for publishing a volume, the new organization of self-publishing levels the playing field. When done right, cocky-published authors can make more money, retain all their rights, and leverage their books in more ways than ever before.

Though traditional publishing is still a viable option for some, Amazon self-publishing is the best option and here's why:

  • Over 70% of books are sold on Amazon
  • 310 1000000 book buyers through Amazon concluding year
  • Those buyers accounted for over $178billion in sales
  • It'south easier and faster with Amazon self-publishing

There are major differences between traditional vs self-publishing with the bulk of authors opting to take their talents to Amazon instead of through i of the Big v publishing houses.

Cheque out the video below to run across why you should consider it also.

In the next few paragraphs, yous learn stride-by-stride how to cocky-publish on Amazon.

[Pssst! Want to encounter some of our students' cocky-published books? Check out the SPS library here!]

Your Complete Guide for Publishing a Book on Amazon (Through KDP)

Sure, anyone can technically self-publish on Amazon, but that doesn't hateful it volition do well and really sell. Y'all have to know the specifics, from setting up your KDP account to the pricing of your Kindle eBook.

If done correctly, you lot can look a successful launch, and with multiple books published this way, you may even brand a living writing books.

Here are our steps for Amazon self-publishing.

#ane – Create a Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Business relationship

Before you tin can get started with Amazon publishing, you showtime have to have an account set up with them.

Here's how to fix up your Kindle Straight Publishing account:

  1. Go to https://kdp.amazon.com and annals with either your Amazon account or with your email address.
  2. Side by side, click "Update" in your business relationship information and make full in your revenue enhancement information. It'due south of import to note that y'all demand to consummate your revenue enhancement information Before you can publish your start book. So don't skip this footstep!
  3. Once your tax data is complete, click "Finished" and return to the main folio.
  4. Your profile is consummate!

With your KDP account setup, keep to setting up the details of your book, as seen in the areas below.

how to set up a KDP account to publish on Amazon

#ii – Cull a Book Title and Subtitle

In your Kindle Directly Publishing contour, you need to fill in the title and subtitle of your volume. While a subtitle is optional, having a practiced subtitle is something you lot should definitely consider to bring in more than views and create stronger intrigue and help people find your book when searching.

Here are a couple tips to crafting a peachy book title:

  • Employ a Book Hook: Your book hook should speak to the reader in a unique voice that grabs their attention and feeds into what they are looking for.
  • List the Benefits: Your potential readers want to know what they volition get from reading your volume. Ane technique is to evangelize the benefits in the subtitle, providing enough tantalizing information to farther concenter readers.

Call back near what you would be attracted to in a book title. Proceed information technology uncomplicated, clear, and unique. Research the title you lot want to use and brand certain it hasn't been scooped up past a high-performing book already.

Y'all don't want to make competition for yourself.

#iii – Write Your Volume Description for Amazon

You need a powerful book description in club for potential buyers to read what it's well-nigh. Amazon self publishing requires more signals than you lot'd initially realize. Even though the cover and subtitle should do a peachy job of this, we all desire more data when information technology comes to putting coin toward something.

Here'southward what people notice beginning when seeing a new book:

  1. Championship
  2. Encompass
  3. Book Description

A description is essentially a short written narrative that illustrates what your book is virtually. It should exist written similar a sales folio to capture the interest of your reader. Amazon is very sensitive to showing visitors relevant books based on their previous actions.

This is crucial because the description, in many cases, is the final factor that determines whether the reader will read your volume or not. That, and smashing Amazon reviews.

When done correctly, a well-written book description tin can practically sell a book on its own.

Here are some strategies to help arts and crafts your perfect description:

  • Brand your starting time judgement equally enticing as possible
  • Write your description like a sales page or advertisement, non a dry summary of your book
  • Take the description feel personal and empathetic
  • Detail the benefits your reader will gain past reading your book

Here's a great example of a full volume description on Amazon:

Published.BookDescriptionNotes

You tin find more amazing description examples with these books:

  • Champion Mindset: Tactics to Maximize Potential, Execute Finer, & Perform at Your Elevation – Knockout Mediocrity!Past Patrick Male monarch
  • Novice to Adept: 6 Steps to Larn Anything, Increment Your Noesis, and Chief New Skills by Southward.J. Scott

Spend some fourth dimension crafting your eye-communicable volume clarification. It volition make your book stand out to your readers and motivate them to buy your book.

For the best results, we recommend using the Free Amazon Book Description Tool from Kindlepreneur.

This is also a great video virtually how to write an Amazon book description to go sales:

#iv – Choose Your Amazon Keywords

If you want your book to evidence up in Amazon and Google search engines, you lot'll need the right mix of keywords. Since Amazon allows only seven keywords per volume, keyword option requires strategy.

But whatare keywords exactly?

Keywords are specific words or phrases used to describe your volume. If someone was looking for a volume on your topic, they might type one of those keywords into Amazon or Google in order to find it. Amazon self publishing is all nearly becoming relevant in the niche you need to be. This not just gets yous the blazon of readers you want, it also helps tremendously to have the correct visibility.

For case, if your book is almost perseverance, yous might discover keywords like this useful:

  • how to have perseverance
  • what is perseverance
  • perseverance examples
  • persevering
  • persevering when it'due south hard

These are all phrases or words people looking to amend themselves with perseverance would type into search engines in order to find what they're looking for, like in the image below.

amazon self publishing keyword examples

Amazon Keyword Research Tools

  • Publisher Rocket: This is a great tool for comparing Google search results to Amazon. Information technology gives y'all a competitive score from 1-99, keyword results from both Google and Amazon, and how much coin other books are making. You tin can check out this Publisher Rocket Review.
  • KW Finder: This tool gives an analytical view of the keyword popularity using a competitive ranking. You can search for 5 keywords for free per day.
  • Amazon's Autofill Function: Take advantage of Amazon's search box to find good keywords. Amazon's suggestions are based on search history and then you lot want to search for words that are loftier in demand with little competition.
  • Google Search: Google is still the Rex of search, you can hands bank check to encounter if there are authors ranking in search results. Y'all'll want to empathise the best angle even outside of Amazon.

Make a list of possible keywords for your book, then leverage the tools above to examination your keywords. Putting in the time to get keywords right will have your book rank higher and announced more frequently to readers.

#five – Select Your Amazon Categories

Amazon provides a collection of categories and subcategories to choose from. Like keyword selecting, your goal is to look for trending areas that don't take tons of competition.

If you visit your volume folio, these categories will appear partway downwards the page, displaying the rank similar in the image example beneath.

publishing on amazon - choosing categories

These categories are what you will rank as a bestseller in, which is why you want to make sure you selection fitting categories that are specific, just also not super competitive. You want to stand out. That said, these practise have to match the intent of the book y'all wrote.

You can besides check the rankings of the tiptop three books on the offset page of each category.

Amazon sales ranking measures how well a production is selling compared to its competitors. All books that are ranked 2,000 or less are considered to exist highly purchased products in that detail category.

Here are a few tips when publishing on Amazon in order to rank in more than categories:

  1. Inquiry your competitors' keywords
  2. Choose trending categories with lower competition
  3. Acquire boosted categories by contacting Amazon and asking for keyword placement

Unless you take an established writer platform with significant downloads and reviews, attempt to aim for categories with books that rank between 10,000-xxx,000.

Do yous want to know how to rank for ten categories? Cheque out our blog post that details how to go approved for more categories on Amazon.

Nosotros also did a fantastic podcast episode with Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur (and the creator of Publisher Rocket) to teach yous how to notice the all-time categories for you lot. Bank check it out beneath:

#half-dozen – Upload Your Manuscript to Amazon

First, you have to make sure your manuscript is in the correct format to be uploaded to Amazon. Usually, your formatter will practise this for you, merely if you're not sure or have cocky-formatted your book, these are Amazon's recommended formats for uploading your manuscript:

  • Recommended Amazon Publishing Formats:
    • Microsoft Discussion (DOC/DOCX)
    • Kindle Create (KPF)
    • EPUB
  • Supported Formats:
    • HTML (Goose egg, HTM, or HTML)
    • MOBI (stock-still-layout eBooks only)
    • Rich Text Format (RTF)
    • Evidently Text (TXT)
    • Adobe PDF (PDF)

Here'southward how to upload your book to Amazon for publishing:

  1. In your Kindle Direct Publishing business relationship, go to "Your Bookshelf".
  2. Locate and click on "Kindle eBook Actions" side by side to the title of your volume.
  3. Locate and click on "Edit eBook Content".
  4. Click on "Upload eBook manuscript".
  5. Upload your manuscript file on your calculator.
  6. Upload consummate!

Once Amazon finishes uploading your file, a confirmation bulletin will be sent and you lot tin preview the uploaded file to check for any errors.

Yous can upload the manuscript as many times as you desire and the new version volition override the existing.

Information technology's important to check how your book looks using the "Look Within" feature one time the book is live on Amazon. This characteristic is often the start thing your prospective readers will click on when checking out your volume.

If the formatting is off here, information technology tin can deter readers from picking up your book. Have this extra footstep to make sure your formatting looks good here also or consider hiring a professional ebook formatter to ensure information technology looks good.

#7 – Create Your Book Cover

When information technology comes to publishing a successful book on Amazon, having a perfect book comprehend design is ane of the most important aspects to go right. Opposite to what we were told growing up, people exercise, in fact, judge a book by its cover. It's actually one of the biggest deterrents.

Your cover is exactly how your book will be judged at kickoff glance.

Make sure that your cover is created professionally and that it will stand autonomously from the residual of the books in your genre or category. With our new done-for-yous cover design services, we can actually handle your volume's pattern for yous. You can click hither to book a call with our team and find out more than about these washed-for-you lot services.

Yous can observe cover creators on freelancing sites such as:

  • 99 Designs
  • Happy Self Publishing
  • 100 Covers

Prices volition depend on the level of service, only these sites will requite y'all plenty of astonishing graphic designers to choose from! It'due south a great investment that will make your book stand out perfectly.

Depending on what program they're in, Self-Publishing School students tin have the cover designed for them or receive a list of qualified, trusted volume cover designers they tin can work with straight in order to get a worthy comprehend.

Make certain to do your research regarding what blazon of book cover does best in your genre. If you write fantasy books, for example, it will be a lot different than writing a memoir or fifty-fifty historical fiction.

#8 – Price Your Volume

A question often asked is: "How should I be pricing my book afterward the initial launch is over?"

This is upward to the author, only generally, the best range to take your book priced is between $ii.99 to $9.99.

The royalty payments vary depending on the country, just you can learn more than on KDP Select pricing folio.

One popular strategy for beginners is to price your book at $ii.99 and gradually increment it by $one per calendar week. At some point, your sales will begin to dip. And while that'due south normally a negative statistic, for this example, it confidently tells you the perfect price of your book that guarantees a profit.

Hither are the 4 principal pricing strategies to consider in order to exist competitive and sell books:

  • Know the cost of your competitors. Compare the list cost of your book to the books around you and determine if you lot would exist able to sell your volume for a higher toll.
  • Know the size of your followers. Famous authors can charge a lot for their books because they have a large following. Your volume should be priced lower to encourage new readers to purchase your work, if you're not in this category.
  • Determine price based on the size of your book. Size does thing when information technology comes to books. Don't accuse $20 for a 75-folio book. Customers volition immediately be turned off by the lack of content at that price point.
  • Measure price based on reviews. Reviews bear a big weight on influence, and is social proof that your book has been read and well received. Therefore, a book with more reviews (g+ reviews) tin be priced college compared to a book with fewer reviews (xxx+ reviews).

Yous tin get legitimate and honest book reviews from:

  • Your personal launch team
  • Amazon'southward acme reviewers
  • Fans of your social media page
  • Personal e-mail list
    • Adding a annotation to get out a review in your volume

How much does information technology cost to publish a book on Amazon?

Nothing! It's free to publish a volume on Amazon through their online Kindle Direct Publishing platform. You pay no upfront costs, but Amazon volition take a portion of your book'southward earnings to print, leaving you with 60% royalties later the book print price, which is why authors are making more than at present than e'er before.

If you set your book'southward toll to $17.99 on Amazon, in that location volition be a $.85 printing fee for 100 pages, plus $.012 for each additional page. Yous will brand 60% of the list toll, and the press fee volition be subtracted from that to give you your full amount of earnings:

$17.99 ten .lx = $10.79 royalties per book

Decrease the printing price from your royalty rate to get our take home pay (based on a 300-page book):

$10.79 – $3.25 = $7.54 take-home per book

So while you lot don't pay annihilation to publish through Amazon, they practice still charge for the volume's printing costs.

Amazon Self Publishing Summed Up

If you want to self-publish on the biggest online retailer, you'll demand to understand how they work. SPS understands this well and coaches our students well in the Become A Bestseller program. Experiment with these strategies to pinpoint the toll for your volume, it will drive long-term success.

The book outline template below can aid you lot become a jumpstart on formatting correctly.

Think, you lot tin can also volume a call with our team to find out how we can do all these steps for y'all and ultimately go you published on Amazon!

CHAT WITH OUR TEAM

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