You can now self-publish your book directly on Kindle and reach readers from all over the world just by following our step by step guide on how to publish on Kindle.
Technological advancement has paved our way to global reach and connectivity. Amazon’s Android powered e-book reader device, called Kindle, attained yet another milestone in its long list of innovations by introducing its self-publishing feature to the world.
That’s right. You can now self-publish your book directly on Kindle and reach readers from all over the world just by following our step by step guide on how to publish on Kindle.
How to Publish on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
Step 1: Creating Your Text
Creating your text involves all the normal processes of writing your book as a softcopy on an MS Word document. Of course, there are more programs you can use for this.
If it is a novel that you are writing, then you will make sure that it is compelling and the storyline evolves as you add characters to the plot. All great novels have a preface, an introduction, properly organized chapters, a climax and an ending. You can even look at some of the major bestsellers on Amazon to have a clear idea on what genres and themes are most popular with the readers.
Similarly, if you decide to work on a non-fiction book, you can divide your text into proper chapters, sections and subsections to make it easier for your readers to follow your thoughts.
Always be sure to include a title page, copyright page, acknowledgement page, table of contents, page numbers, headers and footers and images to give your book a clean shape.
Adding a book cover is equally important, so give the design of your book proper time and attention.
Step 2: Formatting Your Text
Formatting on Kindle is a little different as compared to normal formatting of books.
Even though Amazon accepts Word, ePub, plain text, Mobipocket, HTML, PDF and rich text formats, it is advisable that you use a formatter that understands what format will work best for the retailer that you choose. Let me give you an example: Amazon states that it is possible to upload a word-file and that they will create an eBook file from that. But this will be done automatically by a computer and it doesn’t always look good. If you use a professional formatter, they can ensure the quality.
If you are looking for a professional formatter, click here.
Step 3: Publishing on Kindle
To self-publish your book on Amazon, you first have to create an account here. Sign in and register your tax information with Amazon so that tax is automatically deducted from all the royalties you receive from the sales of your e-book.
Now click on bookshelf and add the title of your book. Fill out all the necessary information about your book and upload the book cover along with your main .doc file.
You can set a price for your book and choose how much royalty you want to collect from its sales.
Once you have filled in all the necessary details, simply click ‘save and publish’ to see your e-book go live in the Amazon bookstore. If you would like a step-by-step YouTube guide, where we explain what to do and what not to do, click here.
Step 4: Promoting Your Book
There is no point in publishing your book if no one is going to buy it. This is why promotion of your e-book is equally important.
You can promote your book by either requesting people to write reviews or by sharing the link via social media. You can also have a company create a book trailer for you (the more visual you are, the better it is and a video works better than a picture or plain text), or promo materials. You can also create a website to promote your book.
Always remember…
Even though it is the cover and title of your book that will grip the attention of readers, what will keep them going is the content of your book.
So, make sure that what you write is either well-researched (if non-fiction), or comes straight from the heart (if fiction) and is proofread for spelling and grammatical errors.
We hope you will find our step by step guide on how to publish on Kindle a useful read. If you need more information on Kindle Direct Publishing then please feel free to contact us.
Looking for a self-publishing guide?
If you are an author and looking for more tips on how to publish and market your book, click here.
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