Getting Published on Amazon: Submission & Review Process

okay so here’s exactly how the amazon submission thing works

Just walked someone through this yesterday and they got approved in like 18 hours so this is fresh. First thing – you gotta have your KDP account set up obviously, but the actual submission part is way less scary than people think.

Go to your KDP dashboard and hit that yellow “Create” button. You’ll see Kindle eBook or Paperback options. Pick whichever format you’re doing first. I usually do ebook first because it’s faster and then add paperback later but honestly doesn’t matter.

the title and description page

So this first page is where people mess up without even realizing. Your book title – Amazon’s gonna flag you if it’s too long or has weird characters. Keep it under 200 characters including subtitle. I learned this the hard way when I tried submitting a planner with like a massive subtitle and it got rejected for “metadata issues” which is Amazon’s fancy way of saying your title is doing too much.

Description part is important but also you can change it later so don’t stress too much. I usually write something quick, get the book live, then come back and optimize it once I see what keywords are actually working.

Author name has to match what’s on your account OR you need to add it to your author central profile first. Amazon‘s weird about this – they want consistency across everything.

isbn stuff that confuses everyone

For ebooks you don’t need an ISBN. Amazon gives you an ASIN automatically. For paperbacks, you can use Amazon’s free ISBN or buy your own. Here’s the thing nobody tells you – if you use Amazon’s free ISBN, you can ONLY sell that book on Amazon. If you buy your own ISBN from Bowker (like $125 for one or $295 for ten), you can use that same book file on IngramSpark, Draft2Digital, wherever.

I’ve got maybe 40 books using Amazon‘s free ISBN because honestly I wasn’t planning to go wide with those. But my better performing stuff? I bought ISBNs for those so I had options later.

the manuscript and cover upload section

This is where Amazon actually looks at your files. For ebooks you need either a DOC, DOCX, or preferably an EPUB file. PDFs work but they usually look terrible on Kindle devices unless it’s like a fixed-layout kids book or something visual.

Paperback interior needs to be a PDF. Make sure your margins match Amazon’s template – they have templates you can download for every trim size. I usually use 6×9 for most books, it’s the standard size and printing costs are reasonable.

Cover requirements are super specific and this is where like 60% of rejections happen. Your cover PDF needs to be exact dimensions based on your page count. Amazon has a cover calculator tool – USE IT. I’ve eyeballed covers before thinking I’m smart and Amazon kicks them back every single time.

oh and another thing – your cover can’t have anything that looks like Amazon badges or “bestseller” claims or review snippets. They’ll reject it immediately. Also watch out for too much text or images that might look blurry at thumbnail size.

the preview tool actually matters

So after you upload everything, there’s this previewer that shows how your book will look. Don’t skip this. I was watching The Bear the other night and rushing through a submission during commercial breaks – bad idea. Didn’t check the preview and my table of contents was completely broken. Had to unpublish and resubmit.

Check at least 3-4 pages in the preview. Check the beginning, middle, end. Make sure images didn’t shift weird, headers look right, page numbers are there if you included them.

pricing and distribution settings

You’ll pick either 35% or 70% royalty for ebooks. The 70% option requires your price to be between $2.99-$9.99 and there’s delivery fees based on file size. Most of my books are in that range anyway so I always pick 70%.

For paperbacks it’s just based on printing costs plus whatever profit you want. Amazon shows you the minimum price you gotta charge to make anything. My 120-page journals usually need to be priced around $6.99 minimum to make like $2 per sale.

Enrollment in KDP Select – this is the exclusive thing. If you enroll, your ebook can ONLY be on Amazon for 90 days but you get access to Kindle Unlimited and some promo tools. I do this for new books usually, test them for 90 days, then decide if I wanna go wide or stay in KU.

wait I forgot to mention – there’s seven categories you can pick. Choose carefully because you can only have two from this dashboard. You can add more later by emailing KDP support but it’s annoying. I usually pick my most specific categories here to rank better.

the actual review process timeline

Okay so you hit publish and then… you wait. Amazon says up to 72 hours but honestly most of my books go live in 12-24 hours. Ebooks are usually faster than paperbacks. I had one paperback sit in review for like 68 hours once and I was losing my mind checking every hour.

You’ll get an email when it’s live. Sometimes the email comes after it’s already showing up on Amazon which is kinda backwards but whatever.

common rejection reasons I’ve dealt with

Content issues – if your interior is just blank pages or looks like placeholder text, rejected. Amazon actually checks that there’s real content now. Back in like 2018 you could get away with more but they’ve tightened up.

Copyright problems – using images you don’t have rights to, trademarked phrases in your title, celebrity names, that kind of stuff. Even things that seem generic might be trademarked. I got burned using “Meal Prep” in a title once because apparently someone trademarked that specific phrase combination for planners.

Cover quality – blurry images, pixelated text, covers that are too similar to existing bestsellers. Amazon has algorithms that flag potential knockoffs.

Metadata mismatch – your description talks about a cookbook but you uploaded a journal. Seems obvious but it happens when you’re reusing old listings as templates and forget to update something.

what to do if you get rejected

Don’t panic first of all. The rejection email usually tells you exactly what’s wrong. Fix that specific thing and resubmit. I’ve had books rejected 3-4 times before getting it right – it’s not personal, Amazon’s robots are just picky.

If the rejection reason seems vague or doesn’t make sense, email KDP support. They’re actually pretty helpful. I had a rejection once that said “content quality issues” with no details. Emailed them and turns out one page had a weird formatting glitch I didn’t even notice.

this is gonna sound weird but – sometimes just waiting a day and resubmitting the exact same files works. I think different reviewers or algorithms check at different times and one might approve what another flagged. Happened to me with a coloring book that got rejected for “too similar to existing content” then approved 24 hours later with zero changes.

after you’re live

Book goes live and you’ll see it on Amazon within a few hours of the approval email. Sometimes it takes longer to show up in search results though. Like the listing is there if you have the direct link but it won’t come up when people search. Give it 24 hours for Amazon’s search index to fully pick it up.

Your author page might not link automatically. You gotta go to Author Central (separate login ugh) and claim your books. This connects everything and lets you add an author bio and stuff.

Oh and funny story – my dog knocked over my coffee right as I was hitting submit on a book last week and I accidentally enrolled it in KDP Select when I meant to go wide. Had to wait the 90 days because you can’t unenroll early. So maybe don’t have drinks near your laptop during submissions.

One more thing about paperbacks specifically – Amazon might show your book as “temporarily out of stock” for the first day or two. This freaked me out the first time but it’s normal. They’re basically printing a test copy to make sure everything works with their printers before they commit to printing on demand for customers.

The whole process sounds like a lot but once you do it twice it becomes pretty automatic. My recent submissions take maybe 15 minutes total because I have templates and checklists. First one took me like 3 hours because I kept second-guessing everything and reading all the help pages.