Many do not yet know that anyone can publish books on Amazon , we do not need to be professional writers or make a large investment. In addition to being simple, the process of publishing and selling your own book on Amazon is fast and free.
Self-Publishing: Kindle Direct Publishing
Amazon KDP is the application that Amazon has developed so that everyone can publish and sell their books. There are two publication possibilities: digital format (eBook) and soft cover book. It’s a great way to reach millions of people without making any initial investment.
Obviously this service has a cost. But it does not require investments. Depending on the type of publication and the country in which you do it, the commissions may vary, but you can take up to 70% of the profit from the sales of your book. The publication and sale of books through Amazon KDP allows you to maintain control over the intellectual property rights, price and subsequent modifications on the work.
Format requirements
To upload the digital document of your book you will not have any problem. However, to be able to sell your book in physical paperback format, you have to comply with some specifications about the page design, indentation and margins , all of them are clearly specified. It is important to know how some texts should be laid out, such as the cover, title page, copyright, dedication and index.
As for the digital file, which is the one that is going to be uploaded to the KDP platform, we must bear in mind that if the file is indented, we must upload it in PDF format. If it does not have indentation, we can upload it in any of these formats: PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF, HTML or TXT .
Book details
Title, description and authors
It is important that the title is exactly the same in all the sections and formats where it appears. It is prohibited to include commercial terms such as “best seller”, “free” or similar. The subtitle should provide additional information about the content and should never exceed 200 characters.
The text of the description of the book is more important than it seems. It really is the first contact the reader has with the book. It is the text that appears on the back cover of softcover books or on the inside flap of hardcover books. As for the authors of the book, there is no problem if there are several authors or contributors to mention them all.
Keywords and Categories
In the world of algorithms, Amazon KDP is not without them. That is why it is important to indicate in the Keywords section of the Edit details section … the concepts or terms that best describe the content of your book. In this way, Amazon will be able to include your book in the corresponding categories and display it more effectively in searches made by users.
The Categories are based on the BISAC code (Book Industry Standards and Communications), from there we will have to choose the two categories that best reflect the content of the book.
Upload and preview your book
One of the last steps is to upload and preview our book. Here we can see the final design , which is what readers will see when they download or buy it. Our ISBN or international standard number of books will also appear. It is the ID of each book, the ISBN is unique for each work and contains registered information such as the number of the edition, the author, the physical properties of the book, number of pages or type of cover.
In the case of eBooks, it is not mandatory to have an ISBN. In the paperback book you will have to acquire an ISBN through the Amazon KDP service itself for free.
Details update
When we want to make modifications we have to click on “,,,” and then on Edit eBook details or Edit softcover book details . This will redirect us to the details page. Then we will only have to make the necessary changes and save them.
It is important to know that not everything is susceptible to being modified . For example, in the case of eBooks we will not be able to change the digital rights management (DRM), the publication date, the title or the author’s name. In the case of the soft cover format, in addition to the fields mentioned in the eBook, we will not be able to modify the language, subtitle, edition number, ISBN, stamp name, ink and type of paper and the size of the print. Anything that involves adding unauthorized changes is considered a new edition that must be published independently.
Deadlines
The most impatient should know that the process of selling a book on Amazon is not instantaneous once you have written your masterpiece. Your eBook’s detail page and thumbnail image will appear in less than 3 days. Pairing on the paperback format will be delayed between 2 and 7 days. The updates, in digital format, will be effective within 2 to 3 days. Sales statistics, for example, are updated every hour, except for the first few hours, which will take between 12 and 48 hours to be visible.
For the physical paperback format, the deadline for the detail page to be active is 3 days in Amazon and 5 days in the rest of the stores, and we will have to wait 3 to 5 days so that we can see that the book is already it’s on stock. As a curiosity, a particularly long term is that of the advertising campaign metrics, which take approximately 14 days to appear reflected.
Sales commissions
To calculate the sales commissions that correspond to us as authors of the book, we must bear in mind that there are different variables that determine the costs of sale and printing. To qualify for the 70% commission we must meet three requirements: that our RRP meets the requirements according to the tables set by Amazon based on the weight of the file, that the RRP is at least 20% lower than the RRP of the physical format and that it is for sale in all geographic areas where distribution rights are available. Otherwise, we will have no problem signing up for the 35% commission program.
Other factors to take into account are included in the soft cover format, such as printing costs. In general, the commission that corresponds to the author is 60% . From this amount we have to subtract the costs of printing the book. On a $ 15 RRP, 333 page black ink book the cost of printing would be $ 4.15, so the profit before tax would be $ 10.85. This example refers to sales in the United States, so in the European case the figures could vary slightly.
