Publish on Amazon KDP: First-Time Author Walkthrough

Okay so here’s exactly how you get your first book on Amazon KDP

Alright so I literally just walked my neighbor through this last month and she’s already got her first book live, so this is fresh in my head. You’re gonna start by going to kdp.amazon.com and creating an account. Use the same login as your regular Amazon account if you want, makes it easier honestly.

The dashboard looks kinda overwhelming at first but ignore like 80% of it. Click that yellow button that says “Create” and you’ll see two options – Kindle eBook or Paperback. Here’s what I tell everyone: start with paperback because once you do paperback, the ebook is literally just uploading a PDF. Way easier than people think.

The book details section is where people mess up

So you’re gonna see a form asking for your book title, subtitle, author name, all that. The title thing is important – whatever you put here is what shows up on Amazon forever basically. Well not forever, you can change it but it’s a pain and takes like 3 days for Amazon to approve.

Author name – this tripped up my neighbor. You can use a pen name, your real name, whatever. I’ve got books under like 4 different names at this point. Just know that once you publish under a name, that author profile gets created automatically and you’re kinda stuck with it unless you contact support.

Description is where you sell the book. This is your book’s sales page basically. You get 4000 characters and you can use basic HTML to format it. I usually do like 3-4 short paragraphs, some bullet points. Don’t overthink this part on your first book, you can change it anytime.

Categories and keywords – this is actually important

You get to pick two categories from their dropdown menu and then you get seven keyword phrases. The categories are limited in that dropdown but here’s a trick I learned maybe year three – you can email KDP support and ask them to add you to up to 10 total categories. They’ll do it, just gotta know the exact category path.

For keywords don’t just put single words. Use phrases that people actually search. Like if you wrote a recipe book don’t just put “recipes” – put “quick dinner recipes for families” or whatever. Think about what someone types into Amazon search bar at like 9pm when they’re trying to figure out dinner.

Oh and another thing – you don’t need to repeat words from your title in the keywords. Amazon already indexes your title so you’re just wasting keyword slots.

The manuscript and cover upload part

This is where it gets real. For paperback you need a PDF of your interior and a cover file. The interior PDF needs to be formatted to the exact trim size you chose. Most people do 6×9 for regular books, that’s like the standard size.

If you’re doing this yourself in Word or Google Docs, just set your page size to 6×9 before you start. Margins matter too – you need bigger margins on the inside where the book binds. Amazon has templates you can download but honestly they’re kinda ugly. I just use 0.75″ on outside, top, bottom and 1″ on the inside margin.

Wait I forgot to mention – page count matters for pricing. You gotta have at least 24 pages for a paperback. And the page count has to be divisible by 2 obviously since it’s printed as spreads.

Cover is the thing that stresses people out. You need the front cover, the spine, and back cover all as one image. Amazon has this cover calculator tool – you put in your page count and paper type and it tells you the exact dimensions. The spine width changes based on how many pages you have.

I use Canva Pro for most of my covers now, it’s like $13/month and has templates already sized for KDP. My dog was literally barking at the delivery guy while I was trying to explain this to someone yesterday so if this seems scattered that’s why.

ISBN situation that confuses everyone

Amazon gives you a free ISBN. Just use theirs. People get all weird about “owning” their ISBN but unless you’re planning to distribute to bookstores it doesn’t matter. The free Amazon ISBN only works for Amazon distribution anyway.

If you use their free ISBN, you can’t publish that exact same version anywhere else technically. But you can just make a different version with a different ISBN for like IngramSpark or wherever. I’ve got books on multiple platforms, just gotta use different ISBNs for each.

Pricing and distribution – this is gonna sound weird but

Amazon forces you to choose between two royalty options for ebooks – 35% or 70%. The 70% option has restrictions though. Your book has to be priced between $2.99 and $9.99 and Amazon charges you delivery fees based on file size. For most ebooks the delivery fee is like 15 cents or whatever.

For paperbacks there’s no choice, you get a fixed royalty based on your list price minus printing costs. The printing cost depends on page count and whether you chose black & white or color interior. Black & white is like $0.85 base plus $0.012 per page or something close to that.

You can use their pricing calculator. I usually price my paperbacks at least $2.50 above printing cost to make it worth it. So if printing costs $3.50, I’d list it at minimum $5.99 but probably more like $6.99 or $7.99.

Distribution – just check all the Amazon marketplaces. That means your book shows up on Amazon UK, Germany, Japan, all of them. You get paid in USD equivalent, Amazon handles the conversion.

Review and publish

Before you click publish, use the previewer tool. It shows you exactly what your book interior looks like. Check every page. I’ve caught so many formatting issues here – weird page breaks, images getting cut off, headers on the wrong pages.

Once you click publish it goes into review. Usually takes like 24-72 hours. You’ll get an email when it’s live. For your first book it might take the full 72 hours because I think they actually look at it closer.

What happens after you click publish

So your book goes live and you can see it on Amazon with a real product page. The KDP dashboard shows you sales data but it’s delayed by like 1-2 days. Don’t panic if you don’t see sales immediately, most books don’t sell anything the first few days unless you’re driving traffic to it.

You can order author copies at printing cost. I always order one to check quality before I tell anyone the book exists. Sometimes the colors look different printed than on screen, or the cover coating isn’t what you expected.

Oh wait – you gotta set up tax information before you get paid. There’s a tax interview in your account settings. If you’re in the US just fill out the W-9. Takes like two minutes. If you don’t do this Amazon withholds 30% of your royalties which sucks.

The ebook version if you’re doing that too

Ebooks are honestly easier than paperback. You upload either a Word doc, ePub file, or PDF. Word docs usually convert fine. Amazon’s system automatically creates the ebook format from whatever you upload.

The cover for ebook is just the front cover, you don’t need spine or back. Minimum dimensions are 1000 pixels on the shortest side but I always do at least 2000×3000 because it looks better.

One thing that’s annoying – if you publish paperback first and then add the ebook later, they don’t always link automatically on Amazon. Sometimes you gotta contact support and ask them to link the versions. They usually do it within a day.

My client canceled last Friday so I spent like three hours testing different keyword combinations for an old book and found out you can just keep tweaking keywords every few days to see what works better. Amazon doesn’t review your changes to keywords and categories, they update immediately.

Common mistakes I see all the time

People forget to put page numbers in their book. Looks super unprofessional without them. Just add them in your footer before you export the PDF.

The bleed thing confuses people too. If you have images or colored backgrounds that go to the edge of the page, you need to set up bleed. That means extending the image past the trim line by 0.125 inches. Otherwise you get white edges when the book is cut.

Copyright page – you should have one but Amazon doesn’t require it. Just put “Copyright [year] by [your name]” on the back of the title page. You don’t need to register copyright separately unless you want the extra legal protection.

Not using the preview tool is probably the biggest mistake. I’ve seen people publish books with blank pages, upside down images, all kinds of stuff because they didn’t check the preview.

Also don’t use copyrighted images unless you own them or bought proper licenses. Amazon will catch it eventually and take your book down. Happened to someone I know, they used a photo from Google Images and got a cease and desist like 6 months later. Stick to sites like Unsplash or buy stock photos.

After your first book is live

The dashboard becomes your friend. You can track sales by marketplace, see which keywords are getting impressions, all that data. It’s actually pretty detailed once you figure out where everything is.

You can run Amazon ads directly from KDP but don’t do that on day one. Learn how your book performs organically first. I didn’t touch ads until I had like 15 books published and even then I kept the budget super low at first.

Updates are easy – just upload a new file and it replaces the old one within 72 hours. People who already bought it get notified there’s an updated version available. I’ve updated covers, fixed typos, added content, whatever. No limit on how many times you can update.

That’s basically it. The whole process from clicking “Create” to having a live book takes maybe an hour if you have your files ready. Most of the time is just waiting for Amazon’s review. Oh and make sure your bank account info is correct in the payment settings or you won’t get paid, learned that one the hard way on my third book.