SEO ARTICLE
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SELF-PUBLISH ON AMAZON
Selling your work as a writer can be hard without an agent or publishing company backing you up. Before the digital age, they were the only options, the only ones with the connections to get your book onto store shelves. But with the internet and the prevalence of online retailers, it’s never been easier or more convenient to market your projects to the widest audiences possible without any middlemen.
Founded in 1994, Amazon.com has become the largest online retailer worldwide. It’s become so prevalent that its name is synonymous with internet commerce. Not only is it convenient to purchase home goods, clothes, electronics, and even food that will be delivered to your doorstep, but it’s also the largest provider of eBooks. That, combined with its comprehensive self-publishing options, makes it the ideal avenue to publish your writing.
There are plenty of online guides explaining, step-by-step, how to self-publish books on Amazon. While they contain the necessary information to get your work out and are available on the website, they often don’t outline the best option for you. There are two ways to publish on Amazon.com, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and Traditional Amazon Publishing. Figuring out which is best for you is vital in your process. In this article, I will review KDP as it is the fastest way for an author to profit, but also the fastest way to get your writing on the market.
BENEFITS OF KINDLE DIRECT PUBLISHING (KDP)
In a nutshell, Kindle Direct Publishing is an easy-to-use platform that allows users to either publish a paperback book or offer an eBook in Kindle format to Amazon customers. There are many reasons why going through Amazon’s KDP system is ideal for independent authors.
Turnaround Time-The old way of getting published was a very time-consuming process. In order to get any traditional publisher to take you seriously, you’d have to get an agent. Getting an agent requires the completion of a full-length manuscript. Once you get that written, you must submit it to agencies and hope that some are interested in taking you on as a client. None of this takes into account the editing process.
Retaining Publishing Rights- Traditional publishers may want you to sign exclusive contracts with them. In doing so, your options in where and how to market your book become limited. Sometimes you can sign some rights to your work away, leading to these companies taking advantage of you financially. Amazon pays higher royalties than most of them and has a much larger built-in audience.
Exposure- Amazon.com reaches people from around the globe. Its tentacles span from North America to Asia and everything in between. Just a few words typed into the site’s built-in search bar are all that separates you from potential readers. In 2021 alone, the site made $33.36 Billion dollars. There’s no telling how much of that came from eBooks or traditional books. There’s no telling how much of that you could earn from publishing through the site.
FINANCIAL BENEFITS OF KINDLE DIRECT PUBLISHING (KDP)
Authors make money from the royalties generated from each book sale through Amazon.com. Royalty rates range from thirty-five to seventy percent. There are specific guidelines and requirements regarding what rate your book qualifies for. Here’s a link that will go over exactly what qualifies for what rate, here.
Once you figure out what kind of royalties you can expect from each sale, you should prepare yourself for how those payments are made. It will take about two months from the time your book is published on Amazon.com before you will see the profits of your work. From then on, the pay comes at the end of every month. What you do need to keep in mind, however, is that there is a minimum dollar amount of earned royalties that has to be met before any money is transferred to you, the author.
Like just about any normal job, there are several options on how to get paid. You can have those royalty payments directly deposited into an account of your choosing. Wire transfers are also an option. Lastly, you can have a check mailed to you from Amazon itself.
Unlike traditional publishing, profits from your work can and generally do come quicker through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). With that said, it’s important to remember that the competition level is high. Unlike an old-fashioned way of publishing where you have an agent and a publishing company advertising and pushing your work, the burden of promotion is on you.
If you don’t want to or simply do not have the time or resources to promote your own work on Amazon.com, you do have another option. KDP Direct is a program that Amazon offers that gives the company exclusive rights to your book. In other words, it will only be available to buy on Amazon’s Kindle eBook platform. That comes with the stipulation that you can not offer your work through any other site or medium.
So why would you want to use KDP Direct? Amazon offers numerous incentives to give that service a try. They will promote your book through Kindle Unlimited. It opens the door to higher royalty rates. And your work can find itself higher in user searches pertaining to the genre you’ve written in. Plus, you can simply give it a risk-free trial for several months before deciding whether it’s the right option for you.
HOW TO FORMAT FOR KINDLE DIRECT PUBLISHING (KDP)
In this article, we will go over how to format your book for KDP using the most widespread program, Microsoft Word. It’s not the only option. You can hire a freelance writer to format it for you. Or there’s a litany of programs online that will do it automatically. But if you want total control over the outcome, a word processor like Microsoft Word is your best choice.
Let us start with a couple of videos that will help you learn. The first is for anyone not familiar with using Microsoft Word. The second will go over the following information in a step-by-step video.
Here’s a list of writing styles that do and do not work while formatting a book for Kindle Direct Publishing through Microsoft Word.
RECOGNIZED STYLES
Bold Lettering
Italicized Lettering
Multiple Headings
Indentations
Standard Fonts
UNRECOGNIZED STYLES
Bullet Points
Tables
Charts
Special Fonts
In order to aid in properly formatting your Microsoft Word Document, you can convert the file to Amazon’s proprietary .kpf format. That will automatically adjust margins, fonts, indentations, line spacing, and headings. This isn’t a magic bullet, however. You might still need to manually edit your book in order to optimize it for Kindle Direct Publishing.
STRUCTURE
Every book published on KDP needs to be properly structured. By that, they mean the work needs to be divided into the right sections. These include a title page, copyright page, table of contents, body, and back matter.
Title Page- The name of your book needs to be perfectly centered in the middle of the title page. Under it, you should list your name.
Copyright Page- You can include your copyright information on the Title Page or have a separate one right after. Your copyright notice can and probably should include the year the work was completed, your name, and a brief paragraph about all of your rights being reserved.
Table of Contents- You will need hyperlinks to different sections of your book. The good news is that Microsoft Word has a built-in tool that can automatically generate this for you. To get there, click on the “References” tab, scroll down to the table of contents selection, click on the arrow, then from the drop-down menu, select, Insert Table of Contents”.
Body- This is the meat of your book. It’s the actual content. You can start it with a preface or a prologue if you wish. Some people like to include introductions or messages from the author. Your work should be broken up into chapters, whether fiction or non-fiction. Make sure to include page breaks after said chapters to help assist with the formatting. Including chapter, titles will also be smart and aid in organization. If you need to include pictures, make sure to use the insert option instead of dragging, dropping, or pasting.
Back Matter- The back matter of your book can include quite a few things. They include appendices, glossaries, bibliographies, sources, epilogues, etc.
PUBLISH THE BOOK THROUGH KINDLE DIRECT PUBLISHING
CONVERT MICROSOFT WORD DOCUMENT TO .KDP
Amazon recently offered a service called Kindle Create. Available for Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS, it can easily be downloaded on this site. There is a series of steps you need to take in order to publish through the free program. It’s all pretty self-explanatory, but I’ll go through the twelve steps quickly.
Upload properly formatted Microsoft Word File.
Click “Continue”.
Click “Get Started”.
Check (or uncheck) selection boxes on the “Suggested Chapter Titles” pop-up menu.
Click the “Accept Selected” button.
Click the “Preview” button.
Choose a theme from the “Theme” option on the navigation bar to the right of the menu.
Once you have a theme, you want to click the “Select” button.
Click the “Publish” button to convert to .kdp format.
Choose where you want to save your .kdp file. Then click “Save”.