How To Do Amazon Self-Publishing for Your Book: Step-by-Step

1. Open an Account of Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) 

Amazon self-publishing starts with creating an Amazon KDP account and setting up that account with your information.

Here’s how to establish your KDP account:

1. Click to https://kdp.amazon.com and register with either your existing Amazon account or your email address.

2. Next, click ‘Update’ in your account information and write down your tax info. It’s important not to skip this step and complete the tax information BEFORE publishing your book!

3. Once the tax information part is done, click ‘Finished,’ then go back to the Home page.

4. Well done! Your account setup is complete.

Since it is your first time signing in here with KDP, you will require to accept the terms of use. You can see your Amazon Author dashboard once you are done with that.

2. Click on Kindle E-book

Now, because this is your first Amazon Self-Publishing, you will not have any titles listed additionally. To add a new Kindle e-book, click on the box that says ‘+ Kindle e-book.’

Pro-Tip

Once you started entering your information, choose the “Save as Draft” button at the footer of the page if you need to stop in the middle.

3 Choose a Book Title

A title of a book is extremely important for any book. Readers start judging your book the instant by just reading the title. And, the title is the first thing that your readers will read from your book. Hence, you need to give your book a title and subtitle (optional).

Although the subtitle is optional here, you should definitely consider having a subtitle that will help you attract more views. Subtitle creates an effective design and helps readers to find your book when searching.

a. Book Hook: 

Your book must have a hook to speak to the reader. It must have a unique tone that grabs people’s attention and serves exactly what they are looking for. This will certainly depend on your personal writing style. But just in case it helps, here are a few common techniques that work great for making your book ‘un-put-down-able’:
– Writing a captivating title
– Adding elements of surprise
– Keeping some endings not too well-defined on purpose
– Minimizing the use of passive voice
– Connecting with the writer emotionally
– Defining and understanding the audience, and writing in a style that appeals to them
– Adding statements that are unconventional or unusual

b. Make a Benefits List: 

The first and foremost thing your reader wants to know is what they will get by reading your book. This is where you can use the Subtitle option to attract readers further by providing compelling information.

c. Crystal Clear Title: 

Your title must be super clear so that the readers instantly get what they will gain by reading your book.

d. Create a Catchy Title: 

Catchy titles are engaging, and bland titles are not. Therefore, a catchy title remains in the human brain easily. So make an effort and be more creative and fun with your book title. An interesting and light-hearted title includes further characters in your book and is also a super technic to draw readers.

The bottom line is, keep the title simple, straightforward, and unique. Do some research on the title relevant to your book type and make sure it hasn’t been already used by a well-known book.

Because, of course, you don’t want to attract controversy for yourself, do you?

Pro-Tip:

Think about a book title that you once were attracted to. Think about why that title was attractive to you, and use that method to create your own title. You can use the alliterations app to make your one easy to read and remember.

Remember, your book’s title and subtitle needs to be magnetic enough to compete.

4. Enter the Author’s Name

Enter the name you want your book to publish under. You can use any Pen name if you wish to, but it should be the exact name you will use on your book cover.

In case there is more than one writer, you can use the

Contributors box by clicking Add Another button.

5. Enter your Book Description

Amazon will let you input up to 4,000 characters in your book description box. This write-up will arrive at your detail page of the book. A description is essentially a brief written narrative that represents what your book is all about. Treat your book description as a selling pitch to capture the attention of your readers.

The description is important because, in many cases, it is the ultimate factor where readers decide whether they will read your book or not.

If you do it correctly, your well-written description can literally sell your book on its own.

It’s a key component of the marketing materials of your book. Even though your book cover and subtitle are supposed to do a great job of this, we all want some more detailed knowledge when putting our money into something.

So what people notice first when seeing a new book:

1. Title

2. Cover

3. Book Description

Here are some tactics to better craft your ideal description:

Spend some time to craft your interesting and eye-catching book description. Make your manuscript stand out to your readers and drive them to acquire your book. Write it nicely.

Pro-Tip

Amazon’s description box allows the old HTML tags if you use them for bold and italics. Utilize them wisely.

6. Verify your Publishing Rights

Choose the radio button that shows: “I own the copyright and I hold the necessary publishing rights,” unless you are not the writer.

Under UK copyright law, you own the right to your work when you first write it in any form.

7. Choose your Keywords

Keywords are precise words or idioms that you use for describing your book. If someone is searching for a book on your subject, they will input one of those keywords into Amazon or Google and look for it to find it.

When you fill in these keyword boxes with some precise words or phrases, you are really saying: “When people enter ‘these words’ in an Amazon or Google search, I want my book to show up.”

For instance, if your book is on the subject of spirituality, you may find keyword like these useful:

And so on.

So in order to make your book display in Amazon and Google search engines, you will require the proper mix of keywords.

Considering Amazon allows you to input only seven keywords per book, you will need a strategy to select your keywords. In that case, use tools like-

1. Publisher Rocket

2. KW Finder

3. Amazon’s Autofill Function

First, make a listing of potential keywords for your book, then use the tools above to check your keyword’s density. The right keywords will have your book rank higher and appear more often to readers.

Pro-Tip: 

Reread your book introduction to get relevant keywords.

8. Select Two Categories for your Book

Use the “+” buttons to choose two categories for your book and drill down as far as you can.

Here comes another significant marketing decision. Here you plot where readers will see your book.

Amazon provides you with a collection of categories and subcategories to choose from. Like keyword selection, your goal is to look for trending areas with tons of competition.

These sections are what you will rank as a bestseller in. That is why it is important to make sure you select the right and fitting categories. The categories need to be specific and not super competitive. In fact, all you want to stand out, right!

Amazon does ranking measures to find out how well a product is being purchased compared to its opponents. Books that are ranked 2,000 and less are considered to be highly purchased books in that particular category.

Here are some tips on how to rank in more than one category:

Unless you have an established audience with notable downloads and reviews, it’s wise to aim for categories that rank between 10,000-30,000.

Pro-Tip:

You can check the rankings of the top three books on the first page of each category.

9. Choose the Right Age Range (if applies)

Don’t do anything with this box unless your book is for younger readers or teens. If that’s the case, then select each minimum and maximum that applies to your book.

10. Choose your Book Release Option

Unless you already have a long line of buyers lined up to buy your book, you will need a marketing strategy prior to publishing, especially if it’s a non-fiction book.

Book sales are encouraged by advance reviews, media coverage, email lists, book blurbs, and more. These kinds of buzzing are a lot more manageable to generate for a new book, as well as potent.

No matter what date you choose to publish your book, for now, you can keep going by choosing “Save and Continue.” But remember to come back and set your actual date of publishing your book.

Pro-Tip:

Amazon used to have a limitation on KDP pre-order dates, but currently, they can be up to twelve months in advance. Use this information wisely.

11. Select DRM Rights

Make sure that you click on the ‘Yes’ button and enable Digital Rights Management. What it will do is, it will stop people copying your book and forwarding it for free to others.

With DRM turned on, people can lend the book to others for a limited time through Kindle’s lending system. However, they can’t keep it.

However, changing the DRM setting won’t be possible once you’ve published your book.

12. Upload your Manuscript to Amazon

Despite the availability of doc files and PDF options, convert your e-book into a well-formatted epub file and then upload it. Always use the current format of Kindle in order to make your book look good in e-readers.

Formatting a book is not easy. However, doing a good job is important unless you want your book to look unprofessional. For Amazon, e-books need to be formatted a bit differently than any other e-book retailer.

You can preview your book after you load the cover file.

Here are the ways to upload your book on Amazon:

1. In your Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) account, go to “Your Bookshelf”.

2. Locate and click on “Kindle e-book Actions” next to the title of your book.

3. Locate and click on “Edit e-book Content”.

4. Click on “Upload e-book manuscript”.

5. Upload your manuscript file on your computer.

6. Upload complete!

Once Amazon is done uploading your file, you will get a confirmation message. Preview the uploaded file to check and make sure there are no errors.

Make use of the feature “Look Inside” to check how your book looks once the book is live on Amazon.

Wrong or off formatting can prevent readers from picking up your book. So, take an extra step here and make sure your formatting looks good here too. Or you can hire a professional e-book formatting person to ensure it looks good.

Also, the “Look Inside” feature is usually the first thing your proposed readers will click on while checking your book out.

13. Upload your Already Created Book Cover

When publishing a book on Amazon KDP, having a perfectly designed book cover is one of the major aspects to think about. Opposite to what we knew while growing up, people do, in fact, judge a book by its cover. It’s actually one of the most significant restraints.

Seeing your book cover is exactly how people will judge your book at first glance. You like it or not, this is true. And there is a ton of marketing research to back it up. If you want your book to sell out, the cover design has to be magnetic and professional for sure. Make sure that professionals create your book cover, and it stands apart from the rest in your genre or category.

Resist the temptation of designing your own book cover unless you know what you’re doing. Even something as simple as the font can spoil your whole cover. So take this  Self-publishing On Amazon with Canva Book Covers – For Beginners course to make your book cover stand out.

If you want to be considered seriously as an Author, don’t hesitate to hire a professional designer and listen to them.

You can find such cover designers on freelancing platforms. Prices will depend on the level of design, but freelancing platforms can give you loads of amazing graphic designers to choose from! Don’t worry! It’s a potent investment to make your book stand out perfectly.

14. Preview your Book

Once you are done uploading your document and cover, use ‘Kindle Previewer’ to preview your book.

Do not use the “Launch Previewer” button unless you want to launch the book. Instead, go to “Preview on your computer” and install the previewer app according to your system (Mac or Windows). Then download your file and open it through the “MOBI” link. Study and test everything twice. It’s better not to rush through your preview process.

Check your cover image and make sure the navigation works properly. Check every external link and look at every page one by one.

Reading our own book over and over isn’t fun; we get it! But that’s the price of self-publishing.

15. International Book Standard Number (ISBN) and Publisher

You don’t need an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) or a publisher for Amazon self-publishing. Unless you don’t aim to publish your book outside of Amazon KDP, leave these sections blank.

From here, click on the “Save and Continue” button if you want to continue. Your book won’t be published until you click on the “Publish Your Kindle e-book” button on the next screen.