Amazon Ebook Publishing: Digital Book Creation Guide

Okay so here’s the actual process I use for creating ebooks on Amazon

Look, I literally just walked a client through this yesterday while my dog was losing his mind over a squirrel outside, so it’s fresh in my head. The whole Amazon ebook thing isn’t as complicated as people make it seem, but there are specific steps you gotta follow or you’ll end up republishing like five times.

First thing – what are you actually writing

Before you even open a Word doc, figure out your niche. I know everyone says this but I spent my first year publishing random stuff and made like $200 total. Once I focused on specific topics that people actually search for on Amazon, things changed. Use the Amazon search bar – type in a topic and see what auto-completes. Those suggestions are literally what people are searching for.

I use Publisher Rocket too (used to be called KDP Rocket) and it’s like $97 one-time. Worth it because it shows you actual search volumes and competition data. But honestly you can start without it, just takes more manual searching.

Writing the actual content

So here’s where people get stuck forever. They think it needs to be perfect or super long. My best-selling ebook is like 8,000 words and makes me around $600-800 monthly. It’s a guide about meal prepping for beginners – nothing fancy.

I write in Google Docs first because it autosaves and I’ve lost stuff in Word before when my laptop died. Just get the content out. Don’t edit while you write, that’s a trap that’ll keep you stuck for weeks.

For structure I usually do:

• Title page
• Copyright page (there are free templates everywhere)
• Table of contents
• Introduction chapter
• 5-8 main chapters depending on topic
• Conclusion or next steps
• About the author
• Also by this author page (even if you only have one book, say “more coming soon”)

Formatting is where it gets weird

Okay so this is gonna sound weird but formatting for Kindle is different than formatting a regular document. Amazon uses this system that converts your file to work on all devices – Kindles, phones, tablets, whatever.

I use Atticus now for formatting and it’s honestly been a game changer. It’s like $147 one-time and does both ebooks and print books. Before that I used Vellum but that’s Mac only and more expensive. There’s also Draft2Digital’s formatting tool which is free but kinda basic.

If you’re doing it manually in Word:

1. Use actual heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2) don’t just make text bigger and bold
2. No extra spacing between paragraphs – use the paragraph spacing settings instead of hitting Enter twice
3. First line indents should be done with the ruler or paragraph settings, not the Tab key
4. Page breaks between chapters using Insert > Page Break, not just hitting Enter a bunch

My client last month didn’t do this right and her book looked fine in the previewer but was a mess on actual Kindles. We had to reformat everything.

Images and extras

If you’re adding images, keep them under 5MB total for the whole book or Amazon charges you delivery fees that eat your royalties. I learned this the hard way on a cookbook ebook where I included like 30 high-res photos. My royalty dropped from 70% to basically 40% after delivery fees.

Compress images before adding them. I use TinyPNG or just export them at lower quality from Canva. Speaking of Canva, that’s where I make my covers and any graphics for inside the book.

The cover situation

Don’t skip this part. Your cover is literally the only thing that makes people click. I use Canva Pro (around $13/month) and they have ebook cover templates. The key things:

• Title needs to be readable as a tiny thumbnail
• Use contrasting colors
• Look at bestsellers in your category and match the style – not copy, but match the vibe
• 3D mockups look more professional than flat covers

Cover dimensions should be 2560 x 1600 pixels minimum. I usually do 2700 x 1800 to be safe. Amazon’s really picky about quality.

Uploading to KDP

Alright so once you have your formatted manuscript and cover, go to kdp.amazon.com and sign in with your regular Amazon account. The dashboard is pretty straightforward.

Click “Create New Title” and choose Kindle eBook. Then you’re filling out like three pages of info:

Page 1 – Kindle eBook Details

Title and subtitle – your subtitle is actually super important for keywords. Like if your title is “Easy Meal Prep” your subtitle could be “Simple Weekly Meal Planning for Busy People Who Want to Eat Healthy and Save Money” – you’re stuffing relevant search terms in there.

Series info if it’s part of a series. I usually plan books in series now because Amazon promotes them together and you can use the first book to sell the others.

Description is where you sell the book. I use HTML formatting here – bold text, bullet points, headers. There are free generators online for KDP description HTML. Keep it under 4000 characters. I do a hook paragraph, then bullet points of what they’ll learn, then a closing paragraph with a call to action like “Scroll up and click Buy Now.”

Categories – you get two main categories but you can email KDP support after publishing to get added to like 8 more. Choose categories where you can actually rank in the top 20, not the massive ones.

Keywords – you get seven keyword phrases. Don’t waste them on words already in your title. Use Publisher Rocket data here or just search Amazon for related books and see what terms those books use.

Page 2 – Content

Upload your manuscript file. Amazon accepts DOC, DOCX, HTML, EPUB, and others. I usually upload EPUB from Atticus because it gives me the most control.

Use the online previewer to check every page. Like actually click through the whole thing. I’ve caught so many formatting issues here – random page breaks, images not showing up, table of contents not linking right.

Enable DRM if you want – honestly I don’t bother anymore. People who want to pirate stuff will do it anyway.

Upload your cover as a separate JPG or PNG file.

Page 3 – Pricing

This is where strategy matters. You can enroll in KDP Select (exclusive to Amazon) or go wide (publish everywhere). I do both depending on the book.

KDP Select gets you:

• Access to Kindle Unlimited – people can read your book free and you get paid per page read
• Promotional tools like free book days and Countdown Deals
• 70% royalty option in more countries

But you can’t publish that book anywhere else for 90 days. I usually start with KDP Select for new books to get some traction, then go wide after a few months if it’s not doing well in KU.

For pricing, the 70% royalty is only available between $2.99 and $9.99. Below that you get 35%. I price most ebooks at $4.99 – it’s impulse-buy range but high enough that I’m making decent money per sale. My meal prep book is at $5.99 and does fine.

oh and another thing – set up pre-orders if you can. Amazon gives you a boost at launch if you have pre-orders. I usually put books up for pre-order like 2-3 weeks before they’re done, keeps me motivated to actually finish.

After you hit publish

Takes like 24-72 hours for your book to go live. Sometimes it’s up in like 6 hours, sometimes it takes two days. Amazon’s review process is unpredictable.

Once it’s live, the first thing I do is email KDP support to request more categories. You can do this through the help section. Just say “I’d like to add my book

ASIN [your ASIN number] to these additional categories” and list them in Amazon’s browse category format. There are lists online of all the category codes.

Then I set up an Amazon Author Central account if you haven’t already. It links to your books, lets you add an author bio, track sales rankings, and see some review data.

The marketing part nobody wants to hear

Your book isn’t gonna sell itself. I spent my first few months thinking “if I publish it they will come” and sold like 3 copies to family members who felt bad for me.

Here’s what actually works for me:

Free promos – if you’re in KDP Select, run a free promo for like 2-3 days. Promote it on free book sites like BookBub (the free listings, not the Featured Deals which cost money), Robin Reads, Fussy Librarian. You’ll get hundreds of downloads, some of those people leave reviews, and when you go back to paid the algorithm has momentum.

I just tested this last week on a planner guide I published and got like 847 downloads during a 3-day free run. Sales after going back to paid went from literally 1-2 a day to 8-12 a day. The bump lasted about two weeks then settled at 4-5 daily which is still way better than before.

Amazon ads – I run these on most books. Start with like $5-10 daily budget and use automatic targeting first. Let Amazon figure out where to show your ads. After you get some data, look at what search terms are converting and make manual campaigns targeting those.

Wait I forgot to mention – build an email list from day one. Put a link in the front of your book offering a free bonus (checklist, template, extra chapter, whatever) in exchange for their email. I use ConvertKit but there are cheaper options. That list is how you launch new books to an audience that already knows you.

Common mistakes I see constantly

Pricing too low thinking it’ll get more sales. A $0.99 book makes you $0.35 per sale. You need to sell way more to make the same money as a $4.99 book at $3.50 per sale. Plus cheap books attract people who leave mean reviews.

Not editing. At minimum run it through Grammarly or ProWritingAid. Better yet, hire an editor on Fiverr or Upwork for like $50-100. Bad editing gets you roasted in reviews and kills your sales.

Generic titles. “My Journey” or “Thoughts on Life” aren’t gonna show up in searches. Your title needs keywords that people actually search for.

Giving up after one book. My first book made $23 in its first month. My 20th book made $600 its first month because I’d figured out the process and built a small audience.

Tools I actually use

Since people always ask, here’s my stack:

• Google Docs for writing
• Atticus for formatting ($147 one-time)
• Canva Pro for covers and graphics ($13/month)
• Publisher Rocket for research ($97 one-time)
• Grammarly for editing ($12/month)
• ConvertKit for email list ($9/month to start)

You can start with way less though. I did my first 20 books with just free tools and manual Word formatting. It was more work but totally doable.

The reality of income

My first year I made maybe $2,000 total across like 15 books. Second year was around $18,000. Now I’m consistently in that $5k-$8k monthly range with around 200 books published. Some make nothing, some make $20/month, a few make $500-1000/month.

It’s a numbers game combined with quality. More books means more chances to hit, but they gotta be decent books that solve problems or entertain people.

This is gonna sound weird but I literally have a spreadsheet where I track every book’s monthly income and I kill off the ones that don’t make at least $5/month after six months. Not worth keeping them live if they’re just sitting there doing nothing.

My cat just knocked over my coffee while I’m typing this so I’m gonna wrap up but one more thing – join the KDP community forums and maybe some Facebook groups for self-publishers. You’ll learn so much from people who are doing it. I picked up probably half my strategies from random forum posts at 2am when I couldn’t sleep.

The whole process from idea to published book can take like 2-3 weeks if you’re focused, or 2-3 months if you’re doing it on the side. Either way it’s not that complicated once you do it once. Your first book will take forever and you’ll mess stuff up. By your third book you’ll have a system and it gets way faster.