Publish a Book on Amazon: The Complete Guide

There are more than a couple of reasons why you should write and publish a book on Amazon.

In this blog post, we will show you everything you need to know about how to publish on the Amazon platform.

If you are an aspiring author, Amazon is by far the best (and easiest) avenue to start your publishing career.

If you are an entrepreneur, online marketer, a fiction writer, a self-help guru, Amazon will help you spread the word about your brand and reach a broader audience in the process.

It can help you get keynote speaking jobs and other types of opportunities.

With a modern world that relies on digital technology, it’s high time for you to take advantage of monetizing your expertise or knowledge on a subject.

You can do so by writing a book for Amazon.

To learn more about how a ghostwriter can get you more speaking opportunities check out this blog HERE

Why Publishing on Amazon Is The Best Option

You can always try to get your book published by one of the major New York publishing houses.

But instead of going through the usual process of finding an agent who will represent you to a publisher…. get paid only around 10-15% for a hardcover book…I know who buys hardcover books anymore?

And around 5-7.5% for a softcover you can go for an Amazon publication instead.

And because there are no middlemen to pay like the publisher, the bookstore, you get between 85 to 90% of the money.

Thankfully there isn’t the stigma there used to be around self-publishing.

It used to be called vanity press but that’s not a term anybody uses anymore.

Why?

Because it’s not vanity to be published on Amazon.

It’s a legitimate way to distribute your book.

And sure… there aren’t the gatekeepers anymore to ensure quality but there aren’t any gatekeepers in a lot of other industries as well.

And they are doing just fine!

In addition, as a business owner or marketer, publishing an eBook is an opportunity to expand your brand.

Meanwhile, a compelling book will spread knowledge, wisdom, and ideas if you’re someone who is committed to helping others.

That is how a self-help eBook works.

If you want to write a business book check out our blog post HERE

If you are more of a storyteller, there is no better way to let everyone know about your novels or any other fiction work than publishing it on Amazon’s Kindle platform.

But how do you do that?

I’m here to help you go through the process with ease.

Before we get started, I’d like to tell you that it isn’t a walk in the park. But if you follow every step here in detail, then you won’t have any problems.

The Rise of Amazon Self Publishing

It’s been 25 years since Jeff Bezos founded Amazon as an online bookseller.

During its lifetime, Amazon has grown to be the most profitable company in the world.

And for better or for worse, it has used its power to bully the traditional publishing houses to change the way it sold its books, relinquishing New York’s grip on the industry, creating a sort of everyman model where anybody has the power to write and publish their own books.

Amazon currently sells about $280 million worth of books.

A staggering sum!

And it’s likely that Amazon isn’t done shaping the book industry as it continually relies on data, AI, and analytics to make publishing decisions.

Amazon publishes roughly one thousand titles a year, making it one of the biggest publishing houses in the world.

But whereas, say, Random House will use an agent and an editor to determine what to do with a particular book (should they market it in the trade publications, should they send the author to a writer’s festival etc) Amazon makes all its decisions based on data.

They will look at books you’ve purchased before and show you titles within the same genre.

Here are some of the ways that Amazon has evolved over the years:

• CreateSpace was a self-publishing company founded in 2000 in South Carolina as BookSurge before being acquired by Amazon in 2005. CreateSpace continued under Amazon until it was rebranded and merged With Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).
• In 2007, Amazon introduced the Kindle, the first e-reader which ushered in the era of digital reading, making it easy and convenient to both buy and read books.
• In 2008, Amazon purchased Audible. At the time, Audible was a book recording startup company that was looking to capitalize on the growing audio capacities of the smartphone. Audible made it possible to download and listen to a book recording anywhere. Today, one in every five Americans has listened to an audiobook in the past year. Amazon introduced the subscription model which has made audible books extremely accessible to anyone with an internet connection and a smartphone.
• Audiobook Creation Exchange (AXC) was created as a marketplace for professional authors, narrators, literary agents could connect and produce audiobooks.
• In 2020, a quarter of the U.S. public read a book on an e-reader, according to the Pew Research Center, one of the largest market research companies in the world.

In the last decade, Amazon has championed the self publishing print-on-demand model that has led to a completely new publishing industry. For example, in 2019, the number of self-published titles reached 1.8 million, almost half of the 4 million titles published.

This means around half of all published titles are through non-traditional means.

One huge advantage of republishing is that it means that a book never truly goes out of print.

This is HUGE for authors and means that they can sell copies of their book tomorrow or fifty years from now.

How Much Does It Cost To Publish A Book On Amazon?

Nada!

It’s absolutely free!

Well… nothing good in this life is absolutely free.

Amazon will take a percentage of any sale you make on their online Kindle Direct Publishing platform (formally CreateSpace.)

Depending on what option you choose, they leave you with 60% royalties after the book print price.

If you set your book’s price to $19.99 on Amazon, there will be a $4.85 printing fee. You will make 60% of the list price, and the printing fee will be subtracted from that to give you your total amount.

$19.99 x .60 = $12.00 profit per book.

NOT BAD!!

Especially as I mentioned earlier you don’t nearly make that much through traditionally published books.

So now you’re convinced that Amazon is the way to go. How do you ACTUALLY publish your book on Amazon?

The Step By Step Process To Self Publish Your Book On Amazon

Setting up your Amazon account and selling your book through the platform is straightforward and simple.

If don’t correctly, you can have a successful launch of your book and, depending on your marketing and selling abilities, you can make a substantial amount of money.

I’m sure you’ve heard of some of these authors on the list. Some of them sold the rights to their books to traditional publishing houses but they all started off self publishing.

• Wool Trilogy: By Hugh Howey
• Fifty Shades of Grey: E.L James
• The Joy of Cooking: By Irma Rombauer
• Still Alice: By Lisa Genova
• The Celestine Prophecy: By James Redfield
• Riyria Chronicles: By Michael J. Sullivan
• The Wealthy Barber: By David Chilton
• Ten Tiny Breaths: By K.A. Tucker
• Damaged: By H.M. Ward
• The Martian: By Andy Weir
• Switched: The Trylle Trilogy: By Amanda Hocking

While being a successful self-published Amazon author is not easy, if these authors can do it then so can you!

If you want to make writing books a full-time profession then Amazon is definitely a good avenue for you to pursue.

So without further ado, here are the steps:

1 – Identify Your Target Readers

It makes no sense to write, more so publish an eBook if you are clueless about your target audience.

You must figure out the people who are likely to become your readers because you intend to build a relationship with them.

Once you figure that out, you will have a much better way of reaching out to them.

You will know what interests them and what will make them like your work.

Writing an eBook without a target audience is like writing a letter without a recipient.

2 – Build Your Communications Channels With Social Media.

You probably are wondering, “what has social media got to do with an eBook?”

Whether it’s a personal blog, Twitter account, or a Facebook page, you need a place where your audience/readers can respond and give their feedback on your book.

In a world where the exchange of information happens in a heartbeat, you cannot afford to be labelled as a non-existent writer.

Yes, there is a significant connection between publishing an eBook on Amazon and creating a social profile.

Without a social profile, how will your readers show their admiration and support?

How will you know that your book is generating interest?

3 – Start Writing the Book.

Yes, start writing.

Do it now.

I’d tell you right now that the most challenging part of writing and publishing an eBook over at Amazon is getting started.

But once you find the courage to start typing those first words, you will be amazed at your own pace.

This part here is all about you.

I’m not educating you on what should be included in your book since we all have different specializations and niches.

But the reason why I included this step is that you never can proceed in publishing an eBook if you don’t start writing it.

Your worst enemy here is procrastination. We all suffer from it so don’t be too hard on yourself.

Acknowledge it and do the work anyways.

Protip: A great way to get over procrastination is to post on social media that you’re writing a book. This social accountability will help you (aka force you) to sit down and do the work each day. 

4 – Create an Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Account

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

Here’s how to set up your Kindle Direct Publishing account:

1. Go to https://kdp.amazon.com and register with either your Amazon account or with your email address.
2.  Click “Update” in your account information and fill in your tax information. It’s important to note that you need to complete your tax information BEFORE you can publish your first book. So don’t skip this step!
3. Once your tax information is complete, click “Finished” and return to the main page.
4. Now your profile is complete! Pretty easy, isn’t it!

5 – Put in the Effort and Time in Formatting.

Formatting is a huge part of presenting your book.

It can make it look professional or sloppily put together and amateurish.

You’ve heard that saying don’t just the book by the cover?

Well people ALWAYS judge a book by its cover.

Since you’re publishing your book on Amazon, it means there are a handful of tools to use so that it will be compatible with the platform.

There are four available options for formatting purposes. These are:

• KindleGen
• Kindle Previewer
• Kindle Plugin for Adobe InDesign
• Kindle PC/MAC app

If you don’t have the Kindle PC/MAC app and the plugin for Adobe InDesign, then you will have to do with KindleGen and Previewer.

The former is a program that allows you to convert your file into a format designed to be viewed using the latter (in .mobi format).

The “Previewer” is a tool that lets you preview your eBook, the purpose of which is to make sure that the formatting is done right.

If you aren’t sure about your skills in formatting, there’s the option of hiring someone to do it for you.

The reason why many authors choose to hire an assistant is that they don’t have a good grasp of HTML.

It’s no shame to hire an expert because I did have a difficult time with it. Truth be told, “difficult” is quite an understatement.

Be sure to tell your assistant that the final format of the eBook is PRC.

Further Reading

10 Questions To Ask Before Enrolling In KDP Select

How To Write Your Memoir: A 10 Step Guide

The Ultimate Guide to Hybrid Publishing Vs. Self Publishing 

How To Write A Book Proposal 

6 – Uploading Your Book to Amazon 

You only proceed to the upload, it first must be saved in a supported kindle format.

1. Here’s how to upload your book to Amazon for publishing:
2. In your Kindle Direct Publishing account, go to “Your Bookshelf”.
3. Click on “Kindle eBook Actions” next to the title of your book.
4. Find and click “Edit eBook Content”.
5. Click on “Upload eBook manuscript”.
6. Upload your manuscript file on your computer.
7. Upload complete!

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

You can upload the manuscript as many times as you want and the new version will override the existing one.

It’s important to check how your book looks using the “Look Inside” feature once the book is live on Amazon. This feature is often the first thing your prospective readers will click on when checking out your book.

If the formatting is off here, it can deter readers from picking up your book. They will think it’s unprofessional.

Take this extra step to make sure your formatting looks good here too or consider hiring a professional ebook format expert to ensure it looks good.

At this point, I’ll talk about the two ways to upload your work.

The first option is to use Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select.

It’s a program from Amazon that helps first-time eBook authors go through the publishing process with less stress.

Once you enroll in this program, your eBook is locked in for 90 days, where you also get five free promotional days. In these five days, you can hand out your eBook for free.

It will be available in the Kindle Owners’ Library for a total of 90 days.

The Kindle Owners’ Library is only available to Amazon Prime Members, and the privilege of borrowing eBooks through it is only compatible with Kindle devices.

So, a reader with only a Kindle reading app on a different device cannot use this option.

Even if you do not sign up for KDP Select, you still can upload your eBook to Kindle, but you won’t have it in the Kindle Owners’ Library.

Once you upload your eBook using Amazon as a platform, you will have to wait for about 24 hours before it appears on the Kindle store.

It usually takes 72 hours because the details of your book become visible.

There also will be links in your product page on how to purchase the physical edition of your book.

7- Choose a Book Title

In your Kindle Direct Publishing profile, you need to fill in the title and, if appropriate, subtitle of your book.

If your work is fiction, you probably don’t need a subtitle.

But if you have a non-fiction book, especially a how-to or a business book it is strongly recommended that you use a subtitle to capture your reader’s interest.

Here are a couple of tips for crafting a great book title:

Use a 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 Book’s Benefits: Your potential readers want to know what they will get from reading your book. One technique is to deliver the benefits in the subtitle, providing enough tantalizing information to further attract readers.

Lastly, think about what you would be attracted to in a book title.

Keep it simple and clear.

Research the title you want to use and make sure it hasn’t been scooped up by a high-performing book already.

You don’t want to make competition for yourself.

BONUS TIP: Put Keywords In Your Title

This is an incredibly powerful tip since Amazon is basically just one gigantic search engine.

And one way of hacking a search engine is to look at another.

So we can look to Google as a guide here.

When choosing the title for your book, make sure you’re using some keywords that people would search for.

This will help strangers find your book when searching for information.

For example, my book is called ‘On Copywriting: How To Make Money Writing.”

I definitely have some very searchable terms in that title and so when people look at anything writing and money-related my book will be among the search results.

8- Choose Your Categories

Amazon lets you pick which categories you want your book to be placed in.

This is extremely important for people searching for your book or for people searching for a topic that your book covers.

For example, let’s say your book is called “The Quick and Dirty Paleo Diet.”

You want to make sure that you choose the category NONFICTION > SPECIAL DIET COOKBOOKS

Remember, just like it is extremely difficult to compete on the first page of Google for a generic term like “business” or “fitness,” the same is true for Amazon.

Get ultra-specific with your categories instead of choosing a broad category, and you’re more likely to be found on Amazon.

Here are some general rules when it comes to choosing categories:

Be accurate. Choose the most accurate categories based on your book’s central topic or storyline. Do not choose one category that’s explicitly fiction and another that’s explicitly nonfiction, or mix categories such as Fiction or Nonfiction. Amazon of course doesn’t like inaccurate categorization that misleads or manipulates readers.

Be specific. Choose specific categories instead of more general ones. Customers looking for specific topics will find your book more easily. We’ll display your book in the general categories as well. For example, a book in the “FICTION > Fantasy > Historical” category will also show up in searches for general fiction and general fantasy. Choose a “General” category only if your book is a general book about a broad topic.

Don’t be redundant. Choosing a single category will display your book in a variety of searches, so don’t list your book in a category and its sub-categories. For example, don’t choose “FICTION > Thriller > True Crime” and “FICTION > True Crime.” One specific, accurate category is more effective than a redundant second one.

9- Write Your Book Description for Amazon

You need a powerful book description in order for potential buyers to read what it’s about. Amazon self-publishing requires more signals than you’d initially realize.

Even though the cover and subtitle should do a great job of this, we all want more information when it comes to putting money toward something.

Here’s what people notice first when seeing a new book:

• Book Title
• Author
• Front Cover
• Book Description

A description is essentially a short written narrative that illustrates what your book is about. It should be written like a sales page 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 book or not. That, and great Amazon reviews.

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

Here are some strategies to help craft your perfect description:

• Make your first sentence as enticing as possible. Think of it as a movie synopsis. Would you want to see that film?
• Write your description like a sales page or advertisement, not a dry summary of your book
• Think about keywords again. What terms will your ideal reader search for?
• Write the description using emotional and descriptive words.
• Detail the benefits your reader will gain by reading your book

10- Create Your Book Cover

When it comes to publishing a successful book on Amazon, having a perfect book cover design is one of the most important aspects to get right.

Contrary to what we were told growing up, people do, in fact, judge a book by its cover.

It’s actually one of the biggest draws or deterrents depending on how much thought and effort you put into the cover.

Make sure that your cover is created professionally and that it will stand apart from the rest of the books in your genre or category.

You can find cover creators on freelancing sites such as:

• 99 Designs
• Fiverr
• Happy Self Publishing
• Upwork 
• Freelancer
• 100 Covers
• Reedsy

Prices will depend on the level of service, but these sites will give you plenty of amazing graphic designers to choose from!

It’s a great investment that will make your book stand out perfectly.

Make sure to do your research regarding what type of book cover does best in your genre.

Autobiographical books, for example, will be a lot different than a business book or even a fantasy novel.

I highly recommend that you choose a graphic designer who understands physical printing as well as digital.

If you want to create a physical copy as well then you need to make sure the dimensions are correct for printing.

If you want to learn more about how to become a bestseller then read this blog post HERE

11- Price Your Book

A question often asked is: “How much should I be pricing my book at after the initial launch is over?”

This is up to the author, but generally, the best range to have your book priced is between $2.99 to $9.99.

The royalty payments vary depending on the country, but you can learn more on KDP Select pricing page.

One popular strategy for beginners is to price your book at $2.99 and gradually increase it by $1 per week.

At some point, your sales will begin to dip.

And while that’s normally a negative statistic, for this case, it confidently tells you the perfect price of your book that guarantees a profit.

Here are the 4 main pricing strategies to consider in order to be competitive and sell books:

Know the price of your competitors’ books: Compare the list price of your book to the books around you and determine if you would be able to sell your book for a higher price.
Know the size of your audience: Famous and well-known authors can charge a lot for their books because they have a big following. They have fans on social media and an email list. Your book should be priced lower to encourage new readers to buy your work, if you’re not in this category.
Determine price based on the size of your book. It’s usually a bad idea to charge $25 for a 50-page book. Customers will immediately be turned off by the lack of content at that price point even if what you’ve written is the best thing ever and will immediately impact their life!

12- Should You Enroll In KDP Select?

Kindle Select is kind of like when you date exclusively.

You get the benefits of a committed relationship but things aren’t always as rosey as they may seem.

With KDP Select you can enroll in a 90-day program to Kindle ebook, giving you the opportunity to reach more readers through Amazon searches, and Kindle promotions.

Some of the other benefits are:

Higher Royalties. Enrolling in KDP Select makes your eBook eligible for 70% royalty earnings on sales to international customers in Brazil, Japan, India, and Mexico.

 Kindle Unlimited – KDP Select also enrolls your eBook in Kindle Unlimited, a monthly subscription program that allows Kindle owners to essentially borrow books in much the same way as they would a library.

At the end of the 90-day period you can choose to renew or seek other options aka, Kobo, Smashwords, and Apple Books.

13- What is Kindle Unlimted?

Kindle Unlimited is like Kindle Select  as it is a service that allows subscribers to read as many ebooks as they’d like for $9.99 a month

Think of it kind of like the Netflix or Spotify of books.

When authors enroll in Amazon’s Select program, their books are automatically made available to readers on Kindle Unlimted.

Because of the ease with which readers can find books and the ability to try out many books without having to pay full price for them all, Kindle Unlimted has become an extremely popular program over the past couple of years.

In fact, it has become such a go-to for readers that for many popular genres, it’s almost impossible for a book to rank well on Amazon if it’s not listed in Kindle Unlimited.

14- A Word On Copyright

One of the best things about Amazon is that you keep all copyright associated with your book.

This means that you have the right to translate your book into Chinese and sell it in China or Hindi and sell it in India.

You can turn your book into an audiobook or the cover design into an NFT.

This opens up multi streams of income as the ways you can sell your book are almost endless.

This isn’t the case for traditionally published book as the publisher usually forces you to sign over most, if not all, rights to your book, leaving you at the whims of the publisher.

Lastly, this probably doesn’t need to be said but just make sure that you own the copyright to the work you are publishing!

15- Get Book Reviews

LIke it or not, reviews carry a big weight on influence on whether readers will buy a book or not.

Just like any other product or commodity, reviews are social proof that your book has been read and well-received and therefore more people will likely buy it.

The same goes for getting on bestseller lists.

Nobody likes to take a risk with their time or money (at least very few people) and so they like to know when they pick up your book, they know what they are getting.

This means a book with more reviews can be priced higher compared to a book with fewer reviews.

So how do you get more reviews?

It isn’t easy but here are a few suggestions to get legitimate and honest book reviews:

• Your personal launch team
• Amazon’s top reviewers
• Fans of your social media page
• Personal email list
• Adding a note to leave a review in your book

It may be easy to buy reviews off of someone from Fiverr or some other company that promises you 5-star reviews but Amazon will more than likely take them down.

That means you are wasting your money.

Getting reviews is a slow and time-consuming process but if you’re in it for the long run then it’s definitely worth it.

Final Thoughts on How To Publish A Book On Amazon

Publishing your book is a daunting task.

It can be scary to put yourself out there like that.

But hopefully, this post has covered everything you need to know about Amazon and will help you publish your book with ease.

Remember, you have done something that most would-be writers only dream about so give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.

Whatever happens from here, you are now a PUBLISHED author!

So sit back and pop open that campaign and congratulate yourself.

Amazon has some really great resources if you get stuck.

You can take a look at their help center HERE

If you have any questions about the process, don’t hesitate to reach out.

We are more than happy to help.

Further Reading

Hybrid vs Self-Publishing 

How To Write A Book Proposal That Commands 6 Figures 

Top 10 Podcasts for Writers

The Complete Guide To Self Publishing