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Guest Post by Heather Erdmann
Did you know that Amazon KDP Publishing is one of the fastest, easiest, and most rewarding ways to get your book in print?! No longer are you limited to listing used books by other authors, but you can sell books on Amazon that you have written yourself. This complete self-publishing company allows you to control the publication of your own books in both print and e-book formats. The days are over when your only options are to go through literary agents or wait patiently for replies (or worse, rejections) from major publishing companies to see your name on the cover of a book. In this article, we will walk you through some of the basics of getting started to sell books on Amazon with KDP Publishing.
Getting Started to Sell Books on Amazon
Amazon KDP Publishing allows you to self-publish your own novels, children’s books, non-fiction books, journals, cookbooks, poetry books, and more. You will have the option to have them printed in paperback, hardcover, and/or e-book formats.
Once you finish writing and editing your book, you need to ensure it is formatted correctly for printing and publication. Amazon KDP Publishing offers tools, guides, and resources to help you do this. (See links below.) There are a lot of decisions to make such as trim size (or what size you want your book). You also need to decide on the cover design and fonts. Layouts for both the interior and exterior of your book. What content you want to include in your front and back matter such as title page, copyright page, endnotes, endorsements, author bio, etc. You will also need to decide what you would like to include on your back cover. This includes book description, endorsements, your publishing company name or logo, and an author photo or bio.
Interior formatting and cover design can be complicated for those new to self-publishing. But, you can hire professionals to handle these tasks at reasonable costs if you’re not comfortable tackling them yourself. You can get recommendations from fellow authors, or local or online writing groups.
How Does Amazon KDP Work?
After you have your book written, edited, formatted, and a cover design ready, you need to set up an Amazon KDP Publishing account if you haven’t already. This is important because it will not only allow you to upload your books for printing and publication, but it will also verify your banking and tax information so you can begin to collect royalties.
You will calculate royalties at 40-60% of the list price minus printing costs for print books, depending on whether you sell with standard distribution or expanded distribution. Expanded distribution is where bookstores and libraries can purchase your books for their own sales or lending. You can choose both options, and the royalties will be paid at 60% for standard customer orders and 40% for expanded distribution orders. Hardcover books are not available for expanded distribution.
You will receive royalty rates of 35-70% for e-books, minus a delivery cost that averages approximately $0.06 per e-book, depending on the territories where you sell your books.
How to Self-Publish a Book on Amazon
Now that your book is ready for publication and your Amazon KDP Publishing account is set up, you can finally start selling your book on Amazon. Furthermore, this is an exciting opportunity to reach a wider audience and share your work with readers around the world. First, you will need to upload your manuscript and cover files to Amazon KDP Bookshelf. This is the dashboard where you will manage your book files, pricing, content, and keywords that tell Amazon where to show your book in customer searches. It will also allow you to make changes to each of these areas as needed which is one of the best things about self-publishing. You control the content, pricing, and promotion and can make adjustments anytime as needed or desired.
The Amazon KDP Publishing Bookshelf area also lets you order proof copies of your book once you upload it so that you can check it over before officially publishing it and offering it for sale to the public. It usually takes a few days after uploading your book and ordering the proof copy to receive it. If everything looks ok, you are ready to publish!
Moreover, the Amazon KDP Bookshelf area also allows you to order author copies of your book. You will get them at a discounted rate which you can use for giveaways or in-person sales.
Sell Books on Amazon
Once you publish your book, your new task will involve ongoing promotion and marketing to share your words with the world! One of the first steps to start selling your book on Amazon is to set up an Author Page on Amazon’s Author Central. This gives readers a glimpse into your credentials and the books you have available. Moreoever, they can also follow you which notifies the customer anytime you publish a new book.
Amazon offers many other helpful marketing tools including a KDP Select program. Here, you can enroll your e-book and offer discounts and promotions as well as paid advertising options.
Selling books on Amazon with KDP Publishing is a great way to get your book in print faster. Giving more control over the publishing and promotion processes.
About the Author
Heather is a Christian wife, mom, dental hygienist, devotional writer for Lifeway, and best-selling author. Her current books include:
- “Unlocking the Mystery of Marriage: Loving Your Spouse the Way Christ Loves the Church”
- “A Week in the Word: Dig Deep into God’s Word One Passage and One Week at a Time”, which is an inductive Bible study journal that lets you take any passage of Scripture and explore it deeply, so you can more readily apply it to your daily life.
Her experience includes online training from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Biblical Counseling Institute. She has written devotions and Bible studies for women, taught children’s Sunday School, VBS, and women’s Bible studies.
Get bible study resources for women at her website Good Portion Promises.
Resources for Amazon KDP Publishing Guide
- Start publishing with KDP
- Format Your Paperback
- Format Your Hardcover
- Format Your eBook
- Set up your KDP account
- Royalties for Amazon KDP Publishing
- Amazon KDP Bookshelf
- Author Central
- Advertising for KDP books
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