Amazon KDP: A Writer’s Guide to Kindle Direct Publishing books on amazon

AMAZON KDP: A Writer’s Guide to Kindle Direct Publishing\sPart 1 - Kindle Direct Publishing: An Author's Guide

KDP started the self-publishing revolution
You may sell print, digital, and audio in one spot
Earn royalties of up to 70%
Kindle delivers unparalleled exposure to independent writers
You have to be cool with benefiting a global giant

Part 2 – Publishing on Amazon

Part 3 - Amazon Algorithms

Part 4 - Amazon Book Categories

Part 5 – Amazon Keywords

Part 6 - Royalties and Costs

Part 7 - KDP Select

Part 8 - Book Promotion on Amazon

Guides > Understanding Publishing

Last modified on Sep 23, 2022

 

Amazon KDP: A Writer’s Guide to Kindle Direct Publishing

Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon’s publishing tool enabling independent writers to reach readers globally. In a couple of hours, anyone can establish an author account, upload their book, and sell paperbacks, hardbacks, and ebooks via Amazon - without any startup fee. It’s clearly the most accessible platform for self-publishing writers.

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In this article, you’ll learn all you need to know about the process of publishing on KDP, from putting up your book to understanding keywords and categories. But first, let’s take a bird’s eye perspective and attempt to understand how Amazon has become the go-to shop for self-publishing writers.

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KDP started the self-publishing revolution

Launched simultaneously with Amazon’s ebook reader in 2007, KDP opened up the publishing industry. Readers could now not only purchase independent ebooks via Amazon.com but also straight from any Kindle device.

Thanks to KDP, writers of specialized genres have gained access to audiences that previously could have only reached via conventional publishing.

Indie publishing’s kingmaker

This accessibility has led to successive waves of popular writers who have achieved mainstream success via self-publishing, including E.L. James (Fifty Shades of Grey), Hugh Howey (Wool), and Andy Weir (The Martian) (The Martian). In addition, there are now several additional independent authors — notably in the romance category — who make substantially more than their formally published peers, due largely to KDP’s attractive royalty rates.

Any author may reach over 80% of US readers

Amazon is the biggest bookseller in the world, full stop. While they don’t have the same iron grip in non-English language book markets, one retail news site says that in the US, Amazon owned an 83% market share of ebooks in 2019 — with the remaining 17% distributed amongst its rivals.

If you’re wanting to sell books in the United States and the United Kingdom, KDP is a platform you can’t afford to ignore – particularly after you learn how they can help you reach people across numerous formats.

You may sell print, digital, and audio in one spot

While many people equate “Kindle” with ebooks, it’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the different versions of your book that you may publish via KDP. But let’s not gloss over the simplicity of their digital publishing option…

Instant ebook publishing

Through KDP’s author platform, you can set up an account, upload a manuscript, and publish it before the end of the hour. Of course, you’ll certainly want to format and edit your book to a professional quality beforehand, but the publishing procedure on Amazon is generally extremely basic.

Once it’s live on the Kindle Store, consumers may buy your digital book and read it on their tablets, e-readers, phones, or desktop computers – just as they would any ebook published by a big publisher.

Guide to Kindle Direct Publishing | KDP's homepage interface

Publishing is as easy as uploading a book, adding a few details, and pushing “go.”

Paperbacks and hardcovers via KDP Print

Despite the ebook revolution, paper books aren’t going away. Several print-on-demand (POD) services are available for self-publishing writers who want a gorgeous paperbound copy to put in their bookshelves (or, you know, to sell to paying customers) (or, you know, to sell to paying customers). With POD, a provider will churn out copies only when someone requests them – making this technique a cheap alternative to large-scale print runs.

Kindle Direct Publishing provides a service called KDP Print (previously known as Createspace), which handles print-on-demand. Authors need to submit flawlessly prepared print files (different from the ebook format), after which they may start selling physical copies from their current KDP account.

Get in your readers’ ears using Audible

Indie writers may also get into the ever-growing community of readers who wish to listen to their works via Audible, the world's biggest audiobook distributor (as of writing) (as of writing). Of course, recording, narrating, and creating a decent audiobook does need certain talents and equipment, something not every independent author possesses. One alternative open to Amazon writers is ACX (Amazon Creative Exchange) (Amazon Creative Exchange). In this service, writers may link up with audiobook narrator-producers to cooperate on an audiobook for an equitable share of the revenues. Audiobooks | An author recites her novel, and it is heard around the globe.

As a one-stop-publishing platform, KDP enables writers to concentrate most of their efforts on a single retailer without worry of missing out on too many potential sales – moreover, you’ll only have to manage taxes on your revenues generated from a single source.

As you’ll find later in this article, it isn’t always the greatest choice to sell only on KDP, but it definitely is handy — and the royalties that Amazon gives may be very sweet.

Earn royalties of up to 70%

In the conventional publishing paradigm, writers anticipate a royalty of roughly 5-15% for print books and 25% for digital. For KDP, writers will frequently get 40-60% on print books and up to 70% on ebooks. This means that authors self-publishing with KDP would make five times more than a traditionally published author who sold the same number of copies.

While these percentages are by no means limited to KDP (you can anticipate comparable royalties with Kobo or Apple Books), Amazon is the market leader and has essentially solidified them as the prevalent rates.

Terms and limitations apply

These royalty rates may seem quite enticing to you, but you should be aware of some constraints. For example, the 60% royalty on print-on-demand books would appear a lot thinner if you remove the real printing expenses.

On the digital side of things, the premium 70% ebook royalty isn’t accessible in all markets and requires you to price your item between $2.99 and $9.99. So if you adjust your book’s price to above $9.99 on Kindle, your royalty rate will instantly decrease to 35%. This is fine for most authors (if your ebook costs more than $10, you might be doing something wrong), but if you’re selling a box set — where you bundle multiple books into a single product — you’ll be penalized. In contrast, Apple Books and Kobo have no such price limit.

But before you make any hurried judgments and depart the Amazon ship, it’s worth staying around to see what additional rewards Amazon gives its writers.

Kindle delivers unparalleled exposure to independent writers

As we noted at the outset, one of Kindle’s key advances is that they’ve essentially leveled the playing field for self-publishing writers 一 but what does that mean, exactly?

An algorithm-led shop balances the playing field

Where Apple Books, Kobo, and other online retailers have groups of people that pick new titles to promote (or writers whose backlist they’ll showcase), Amazon doesn’t have a marketing staff 一 instead let their algorithm determine which books to feature and promote.

Why is this good news? Won’t the algorithm only promote popular writers and large new releases?

Well, really, that’s not always the case!

It’s like if The Terminator worked at Barnes & Noble: the algorithm is a merciless book-selling machine that doesn’t become star-struck by big-name writers. It looks purely at data to determine — in its cold, calculating way — which books to put in front of more readers. Indie authors have an equal chance of seeing their book rise in its category — as long as your book page is optimized to generate pre-sales, sales, and user reviews. This may seem like a hefty ask, but it’s lot simpler than contacting up every bookshop across the nation and demanding them to carry your book.

Guide to KDP | The Terminator as a metaphor for Amazon's Algorithms

“I’ll be (paper)back”

The ups and downs of going ‘exclusive’ with Kindle

Kindle Direct Publishing offers free promotional opportunities that can be accessed through their KDP Select program. You can check out our deep dive into KDP Select for all the juicy information, but in short, they include access to:

Kindle Unlimited — Amazon’s subscription-based service (Netflix for books) (Netflix for books)

Kindle Free Promotions – Turbocharge your downloads by making your book accessible for free (for five out of every 90 days) (for five out of every 90 days)

Kindle Countdown Deals — Run a week-long price drop that will see your book promoted in the Kindle store’s Countdown Deals section.

As one would guess, there are small negatives to participating in KDP Select. To get your hands on all these delicious marketing tools, you must make your ebook exclusive to Amazon. This might sound like no big deal (after all, most books are sold on Amazon) (after all, most books are sold on Amazon). However, Kindle’s market share isn’t as all-consuming in countries outside the US and the UK. If you aim to reach the broadest possible audience of readers, then being tied to Amazon — if only for the length of a promotion — might be less than ideal.

So far, the negatives of publishing with KDP may be best defined as “inconveniences” more than anything else. But before you cast your lot in with Amazon, it’s essential realizing the wider picture.

You have to be cool with benefiting a global giant

Monopolies are not a good thing for customers. As Jeff Bezos’s company grows to consume a higher market share of book sales, retail, web hosting services, logistics, streaming entertainment, and consumables, we should be worried about feeding the Amazon beast. However, as anyone who’s marveled at ordering an obscure item and watching it arrive the next day can attest, using Amazon makes things a lot easier.

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“When Jeff realized the width of his kingdom, he cried because there were no more planets to conquer.”

If you’re concerned that you’re contributing to the inevitable Amazon monopoly by selling through the Kindle store, you might be right. But you could also argue that there’s no way to make a living as an author without them and that selling through Amazon is a compromise you need to make, or else struggle to make a profit. If it helps, focus on the fact that Amazon has created a platform that disrupted publishing and tilted the balance of power away from ‘gatekeepers’ and towards creatives.

For others, Amazon’s uneven record of ethics may not be a dealbreaker — but it is something every author ought to consider at the very least.

If you're ready to take the leap, buckle in and move over to the next article in our series. We'll show you the nuts and bolts of publishing your book on Amazon KDP.