It’s easy to learn how to publish a book on Kindle, and it’s a free opportunity for every author who has a story to be told. You can publish fiction or non-fiction books at no charge.
Start by selecting your topic and writing your book. Don’t worry about length. It’s more important that you write a good book – with enough details to satisfy your reader – than it is to ensure you reach a certain page count.
Once your book is written, or even during the process, find someone who can create a professional ecover graphic for you. When buyers are searching for Kindle books, the first impression they get is your cover, so it pays to upgrade from a do it yourself status.
When you complete your book, make sure it’s formatted correctly for Kindle. You can write it in Word and save it as an HTML file, or use one of the many tools sold online that format the book for you with ease.
The upload process is quick and easy. You have the option to enroll your book in KDP Select, which gives Amazon exclusive rights to it for 90 days (so it can’t be sold for the Nook or at other online stores). You also get a total of five built in free promotional days, so you can expand your readership and get more reviews during this time.
First, you’ll enter all of your book details, like the book’s name, series and volume information, and write an attention-grabbing description for it. You’ll be able to list the contributors of the book, which would be yourself as the author in most cases – or a pen name if you prefer.
Some of the information is optional, such as publication date or ISBN (you don’t have to have one). Amazon will ask you if it’s a Public Domain Work or if you have the right to publish the material.
Then it will have you categorize your book to a certain target audience by putting it in two appropriate sections. Don’t worry too much about this – just get it as close as you can. It doesn’t mean it won’t get sold in other categories. As customers find your book and help tag it, you’ll cross over into other areas automatically.
You’ll upload your book cover file and the content file, and have the opportunity to preview it in a browser for formatting and other issues. Once you’ve accomplished this, you’ll be choosing what type of geographical rights you want to give, and setting the prices for everything.
After finishing the process of uploading and detailing the rights, you’ll have to wait up to 12 hours for the Kindle creation to go live. Once it is, make sure you set up an Author Central account and add your first book listing under your name!