Publishing Help

Creating Your Book Listing On Amazon

Okay, so you've signed up for Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) and you're ready to publish your first book. Click on "Bookshelf", then under "Create New Title" click "Kindle eBook".

Fill out all required fields and any others that apply. You'll want to use relevant keywords in your book description and subtitle (depending on the kind of book you're publishing) For instance, my book Hooked On You, my subtitle is "A Fake Marriage Sweet Romance," I chose that because it lists the type of romance and the romance trope that's being used. People who like fake marriage tropes might search for that specifically. They may also search for sweet romance as well.

How do you know what keywords someone might type into a search bar? Well, you can always guess and try out some different ones if you aren't getting many views, OR you can spend a little money.

Publisher Rocket (formerly KDP Rocket) is software that helps you pick the right keywords and actually tells you how many times each month certain keywords are searched for as well as how much money the top books are earning. It does several other things like helps you decide on keywords for your Amazon ads (I'm sure I'll get to a lesson on that later).

Publisher Rocket costs about $100 and it's so helpful, it's worth the money. According to their website, they'll be switching to a monthly subscription soon, so those who spent the hundred bucks will save a lot in the long run.

Anyway, I'm in no way affiliated with Publisher Rocket and I do not get paid to promote their product. I use it and I love it.

Moving on. While continuing to fill out the information on Amazon, you'll be prompted to type the author's name. This is where you'll enter a pen name if you'll be using one. If not, just type your real name. Amazon already knows your full legal name from when you signed up for KDP, so they will know that you are using a pseudonym.

Upload your book where prompted and also your cover. Amazon accepts JPG and Tiff only for image files and quite a lot of different files for your manuscript. They also offer a cover designer option and it's helpful to use for converting your Kindle cover to a paperback cover, but otherwise, I don't advise you to use it.

Once all files are uploaded, use the preview tool to make sure your book looks exactly how you want it to. If it doesn't, edit and re-upload your files. If it looks just as awesome as you hoped, then continue on with your listing.

Next, Amazon will walk you through pricing. You can not charge less than 99 cents without doing some serious arm twisting so if you were hoping to do a free book, it's not easy to do with Amazon.

If you charge less than $2.99, Amazon will only give you 30% royalties. Selling your book for $2.99 to $9.99 will get you 70% royalties. Charging more than $9.99 will put you back down to 30%...it's Amazon's subtle way of discouraging expensive Kindle books.

You'll also see an option to enroll your book in KDP Select. I love this feature and I have all my books enrolled. However, this might not be a good option for you and your book. If you are planning to publish your book on other platforms and not exclusively with Amazon, your book is not eligible for KDP select. You agree to publish your kindle book with Amazon exclusively for 90 days. Each 90 day period, your book is re-enrolled in KDP select unless you cancel. KDP Select allows your book to be available to Kindle Unlimited subscribers. When someone downloads your book through Kindle Unlimited, you do not get paid the same way you would if the person actually purchased the book, BUT Amazon will pay you according to how many pages were read. You are also able to make your book free for 5 days every 90 day period.

The pricing page is the final step for listing your book. When you've completed that, you can hit the big scary publish button and your book will be available for download within 72 hours.

I know I didn't cover every single aspect of Amazon's listing process, so in the future, I might do a separate post about choosing categories for books and choosing keywords without Publisher Rocket. However, in the interest of not writing an entire book, I'll stop here.

As always, please feel free to drop any questions or comments down below!!




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