Most indie authors want to publish on KDP, though there are other platforms as well. What follows will get you started and ready to publish your first book.
You can establish your KDP account anytime you want, though it makes most sense to me to set it up when you’ve got your first book ready to publish.
If you’re publishing both print and ebook formats here are the basics of what you’ll need by the time you hit that PUBLISH button.
- A pdf or docx of the print book interior
- A pdf of the paperback book cover. If you want to create a hardcover version, that will require a separate file
- An epub or docx file of the ebook interior
- A tiff, png, or jpg file of the ebook cover
Tools
KDP provides a tool for creating your interior and your cover. I’ve never used either tool so I can’t vouch for how easy or flexible they are. They’re free, so there is no excuse for you not to publish your book.
Here are instructions from KDP on how to format your print book using MS Word.
Here are instructions for formatting your ebook in Word.
Don’t think you are limited to MS Word to create your book. There are a variety of platforms/programs outside of the KDP tools available to help you create your book interior and cover. Read this post on “7 Manuscript Formatting Programs.” The picture above is a page spread of Claiming Her Inheritance (affiliate link) using Adobe InDesign.
Creating Your KDP Account
If you have not yet created your KDP account, go to kdp.amazon.com. If you have an existing Amazon account, you’ll create your KDP account using your Amazon login. That’s how Amazon prefers it, as you can see from the image below.
If you don’t have an Amazon account, click on the Sign Up button. That will take you to another sign in dialog box. Click on the Create your KDP account button at the very bottom. From there, work through each successive window.
Use your real name to create this account. Enter in the required profile information and banking info so you can receive your royalty payments.
And now for the big moment. If you aren’t on the Bookshelf tab, click on Bookshelf at the top of the page.
KDP Dashboard
This is your KDP dashboard, where you’ll create and upload all your books. It’s also where you’ll go whenever you want to make a change in the price or sales copy, and to order your author copies.
To get started on your first book, click on the large yellow button that says +Create. From there, select the option you want and continue to work through each page.
I suggest you have your sales copy written before starting this process. If you don’t enter in the sales copy, KDP will not let you advance to the next page. At that point, you’ll have to save as draft and come back to that page once you have your sales copy.
Here’s a shot of my dashboard.
Yours will look like this once you upload your books. Please note that it’s a separate action to create the paperback, hardcover, and the ebook. The good thing is that KDP auto populates most of the fields once you’ve entered at least one format. You don’t have to publish the book immediately for the other formats to auto populate.
Do not hit the publish button until you are truly ready to go live with your book. Once you hit that button, the book goes into review with KDP. If they find any issue, you’ll get an email that tells you what the problem is. If there are no problems, your book goes live, and you’ll receive an email to that fact.
Not ready to go live? Simply click the Save as Draft button.
At this time, only ebooks can be set for preorder. How far ahead you set that preorder is up to you, though I’d recommend 1-3 months.
When deciding whether to put your ebook in KDP Select (aka Kindle Unlimited), you must remember that you can’t offer the ebook for sale anywhere else. That means you can’t sell it on your own website, or upload it to Draft2Digital, or anywhere. KDP Select means your ebook is exclusive to KDP for a 90-day period. I believe You can choose to let that 90 days auto renew, or set it for manual renewal.
In my opinion the biggest drawback to KDP Select are the royalties paid. KDP pays on pages read (KENP, Kindle Edition Normalized Pages), and the rate is dismal, less than a penny per page. That means if your ebook is 200 pages long, you’d make less than $2 in royalties. Again, KDP pays royalties on pages read, which means if someone only reads 10 pages, then you only get royalties on those 10 pages.
Some genres do better than others in KDP Select, so you might want to give it a try and see how your book does.
Royalties
As long as you have selected direct deposit, KPD will pay your royalties every month. If you opted for check or wire transfer, there are minimum thresholds you must meet before getting a royalty payment.
KDP pays royalties two months behind the month in which they occur. For example, royalties earned in June will not be paid until August. They are paid out on the 29th of the month (in the US) unless the 29th falls on the weekend (or with Feb., doesn’t always happen). In that case, AMZ pays out on the following business day.
You’ll be able to track all this information day by day, if you like, using the Reports tab on your KDP dashboard.
KDP provides a tremendous amount of tutorials for using their platform. You’ll find a full menu of their tutorials on the left of this page.
Happy publishing! If you have questions, leave them in the comments below.
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