How to Publish a Book on Amazon: A Step-by-Step Guide
by Mary Kole | Former literary agent, now a freelance editor, writing teacher, and IP/story developer for major publishers and creators.
As a writer, you’ve worked hard to draft and revise your manuscript and make sure it’s ready for the world. Now, it’s time to get your book out there so people can read and enjoy it. Publishing a book on Amazon is an exciting step in any self-published author’s career. It allows you to reach a large audience of potential readers while also giving you more control over how your book is sold and marketed. Here’s a step-by-step guide to teach you how to publish a book on Amazon.
How to Publish a Book on Amazon: Create an Amazon Author Central Account
The first thing you need to do is create an Amazon Author Central account and a KDP account. Use the same email address for streamlining purposes. These two portals will be the hubs for all of your publishing activities on Amazon—from setting up your profile page and submitting information about yourself, such as an author biography, to managing reviews and sales data. You will also use this account to upload your manuscript and other content related to your book.
How to Publish a Book on Amazon: Format Your Manuscript
Uploading your work to Amazon isn't as easy as clicking the "Upload" button. Your manuscript must be formatted in a specific way to meet Amazon's requirements. Remove any unnecessary line breaks or odd indentations from the text before you upload it. You can either upload a Word file or use formatting software like Vellum or Atticus, which will result in a beautifully formatted book that'll make readers happy and lead to positive reviews. However, these options come at a cost. To me, it seems very worthwhile to create a beautiful product, rather than simply uploading a Word file.
Use The Chicago Manual of Style or MLA format guidelines when formatting your manuscript if possible. Additionally, include a table of contents at the beginning of your manuscript if there are multiple chapters or sections. It will help readers navigate through the text more easily and improve their reading experience.
How to Publish a Book on Amazon: Upload Your Manuscript
Once you’ve created your account and prepared your manuscript, all that’s left is to upload it to Amazon. Start by logging into the KDP portal and clicking “Add New Title.” Then complete the instructions you’re presented with. The portal may ask for a title, author name(s), genre, distinct category, keywords, etc. You don’t have to buy an ISBN number—Amazon will give you one for free if you opt for a print version. Determine which marketplaces you want to serve, as well as your price point—each yield different royalty rates, and Amazon will tell you how much profit your book will make in each territory. When everything looks good, hit ‘publish’ and wait for confirmation. Uploads can take up to 72 hours to go live on the website or you can plan to run a pre-order campaign ahead of time. Congratulations—your book is now available.
Learning how to publish a book on Amazon is an exciting milestone for any self-published author. It opens up a huge market for readers around the world who may not have otherwise been able to find out about or purchase your work in traditional brick-and-mortar stores or online outlets like Barnes & Noble Press or Apple Books (formerly iBooks). How to publish a book on Amazon is easy to do with a little knowledge.
With some preparation beforehand and careful attention during each step of the process outlined above, getting published on Amazon can be simple and straightforward. Before long, you could be seeing reviews from happy readers on the world’s largest e-commerce platform.
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