Publishing Through Amazon: Everything You Need to Know

okay so first thing – there’s actually like three different ways to publish on Amazon

Most people just think KDP but there’s Kindle Direct Publishing for ebooks and paperbacks, then there’s ACX for audiobooks, and technically Merch on Demand but that’s more print-on-demand t-shirts and stuff. I’m gonna focus on KDP because that’s where I make most of my income and it’s the easiest entry point.

So KDP – you go to kdp.amazon.com and just sign up with a regular Amazon account. They’re gonna ask for tax info right away which freaks people out but you just need your SSN if you’re in the US or they’ll have you fill out a W-8BEN if you’re international. The tax interview thing looks scary but just answer honestly, takes like 5 minutes.

the two main formats you can publish

Ebooks are straight digital – these are your Kindle books. Paperbacks are print-on-demand, meaning Amazon only prints them when someone orders. No inventory, no upfront costs. That’s the beautiful part that wasn’t around when I first started looking into publishing back in like 2016 or whatever.

For ebooks you need a manuscript file – they accept DOC, DOCX, HTML, MOBI, EPUB, or even plain text files. I usually just use Word docs because I’m lazy and it works fine for most stuff. Paperbacks need a PDF, and this is where people mess up because the formatting has to be exact.

wait I should back up – what are you actually publishing

This matters because low-content books (journals, planners, notebooks) are way different than novels or non-fiction books. I do mostly low-content stuff and some non-fiction guides, so my process is gonna be different than if you’re writing the next thriller novel.

Low-content is easier to start with honestly. You create interiors in Canva or PowerPoint or whatever – like lined pages for journals, or prompt pages for gratitude journals. Then you design a cover. Upload both. Done. I made my first sale like 3 days after publishing my first journal and I remember texting my wife at like 11pm because I couldn’t believe it actually worked.

the actual upload process

You click “Create New Title” on your KDP dashboard. Then you fill out the details – book title, subtitle if you want one, author name. Author name can be a pen name, doesn’t have to be your real name. I use like 4 different pen names depending on the niche.

Description is where you sell the book. This needs keywords but also needs to actually sound good. I see so many people just keyword-stuff this section and it reads like garbage. Write it for humans first, then naturally include your main keywords. You get 4000 characters so use them.

Categories – you get to pick two. Choose wisely because this determines where you show up in searches. I usually look at bestselling books similar to mine and see what categories they’re in. There’s also this thing where you can email KDP support after publishing and ask them to add you to additional categories that aren’t available in the dropdown menu. Most people don’t know that.

Keywords – seven boxes for keyword phrases. Don’t waste these on single words. Use phrases people actually search. “gratitude journal for women” not just “gratitude” or “journal”. Think about what you’d type into Amazon if you wanted to buy this book.

pricing strategy because this is where people leave money on the table

Amazon gives you 35% or 70% royalty options for ebooks. The 70% option requires pricing between $2.99-$9.99 and your book has to be enrolled in certain territories. Most of my ebooks are priced at $4.99 or $5.99 with the 70% royalty. That’s the sweet spot for non-fiction and guides.

Paperbacks are different – you get 60% of list price minus printing costs. Printing costs depend on page count and whether it’s black and white or color. A 120-page black and white paperback costs like $2.50 to print. So if you price it at $9.99, you make about $3.50 per sale. The pricing tool in KDP shows you exactly what you’ll earn.

Oh and another thing – you can price differently in different marketplaces. Like your US price doesn’t have to be the same as UK or Europe. I usually let Amazon auto-convert but sometimes I manually adjust if exchange rates are weird.

covers are gonna make or break you

I’m serious about this. A crappy cover = no sales even if your content is amazing. You can use KDP’s cover creator but honestly those look pretty generic. I use Canva Pro for most of my covers now. Costs like $13/month but worth it because the templates are actually good.

For ebook covers you need at least 2560 x 1600 pixels. Bigger is fine. For paperbacks it’s more complex because you need to include the spine width which depends on page count. KDP has a cover calculator that tells you the exact dimensions. Don’t guess on this – I’ve had books rejected because my spine was 1/8 inch off.

The cover needs to look good as a tiny thumbnail because that’s how people see it in search results. I literally shrink my cover down on my phone and if I can’t read the title clearly, I redo it. My cat jumped on my keyboard once while I was designing a cover and somehow made it better by selecting a different font, so… sometimes accidents work.

manuscript formatting isn’t as hard as it seems

For ebooks, keep it simple. Use standard fonts – nothing weird. Amazon’s system converts everything anyway so fancy formatting usually breaks. I use Calibre (free software) to preview how my ebook will look before uploading.

Paperbacks need margins and bleed. Bleed is the extra space around the edges that gets trimmed. KDP provides templates you can download – just pick your trim size (6×9 is most common for non-fiction) and page count range, download the Word template, and paste your content in. The margins and bleeds are already set up.

Page count matters for printing costs so don’t add a bunch of blank pages just to make it look bigger. I aim for whatever page count makes sense for the content plus maybe 5-10 pages of front matter (title page, copyright, table of contents).

ISBN stuff that confuses everyone

For ebooks you don’t need an ISBN – Amazon assigns an ASIN automatically. For paperbacks you can get a free ISBN from Amazon or buy your own. The free one means Amazon is listed as the publisher. If you buy your own (like from Bowker in the US), you’re the publisher and you can use that ISBN to distribute elsewhere too.

I just use the free KDP ISBNs because I only sell on Amazon anyway. Saves money and hassle. If you wanna be in bookstores or libraries later, then yeah, buy your own ISBNs. But starting out? Free is fine.

after you hit publish the waiting game starts

Books go into review. Usually takes 24-72 hours. Ebooks are faster, like 12-24 hours usually. Paperbacks take longer especially your first few because they’re checking quality more carefully. I’ve had books approved in 6 hours and I’ve had some take 4 days. Just depends.

If they reject it, they’ll tell you why. Usually it’s formatting issues or cover problems. Fix it and resubmit. Don’t panic – my first three books all got rejected at least once.

Once it’s live you can’t change the interior content without unpublishing and re-uploading. You CAN change the cover, price, description, keywords, and categories anytime. I’m constantly tweaking keywords based on what’s working.

KDP Select vs wide distribution

This is a whole debate in the publishing world. KDP Select means your ebook is exclusive to Amazon for 90 days. In return you get access to Kindle Unlimited (readers can borrow your book and you get paid per page read) and you can run free promotions and Countdown Deals.

Wide distribution means you can sell on Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, etc. More reach but way more work managing everything.

I do Select for most of my books because like 80% of my income comes from KU page reads anyway. The US market especially is huge on Kindle Unlimited. Every 90 days it auto-renews unless you opt out. You can always switch later.

advertising and visibility because publishing is only half the battle

Amazon Ads are built into KDP. You can run Sponsored Product ads where your book shows up in search results and on other book pages. I usually start with automatic targeting at like $5/day budget and see what happens. The system learns what works over a couple weeks.

You’re not gonna make money immediately on ads – this is the thing nobody tells you. My first month running ads I spent $200 and made back like $80 in royalties. But those clicks and impressions helped my book rank higher organically, and by month three I was profitable. It’s a long game.

Also there’s this whole thing with getting reviews. You can’t buy reviews (Amazon will ban you) but you can use their Request a Review button in your KDP dashboard 5-30 days after delivery. One click sends an automated email to the buyer asking for a review. I do this for every sale.

tracking your sales and data

The KDP dashboard shows sales with like a 2-day delay. It’s not real-time which is annoying when you’re obsessively checking (which you will be at first, everyone does). You can see units sold, pages read in KU, and royalties earned.

There’s also a sales report you can download that breaks everything down by marketplace. I download this monthly and track it in Excel because I’m a nerd about numbers. Helps me see trends and figure out what’s selling where.

Payment happens about 60 days after the end of the month you earned royalties. So money you make in January gets paid end of March. You can choose direct deposit or check or wire transfer. Direct deposit is easiest.

common mistakes I see all the time

Not checking the preview file before approving – always download and check the digital previewer for ebooks and the print previewer for paperbacks. I’ve caught typos and formatting issues that would’ve been embarrassing.

Picking bad keywords because they just guessed – use tools like Publisher Rocket or even just Amazon’s search bar to see what phrases autocomplete. That’s what people are actually searching.

Giving up after the first book doesn’t sell – publishing is a volume game especially with low-content. I didn’t make consistent money until I had like 15-20 books up. Now I’ve got over 200 and they all contribute something.

Not reading the content guidelines – Amazon has rules about what you can publish. No public domain content unless you add substantial value. No misleading titles. No copyright infringement obviously. Read the guidelines, seriously.

Expecting overnight success – this isn’t a get rich quick thing. It’s a build passive income slowly thing. My first year I made maybe $1000 total. Year two was $8000. Year three jumped to $25k. It compounds if you keep publishing and learning.

Oh wait I forgot to mention – you can publish in multiple formats of the same book. Like I’ll do an ebook version and a paperback version of the same content. They link automatically on Amazon so customers can choose. Some people only buy physical books, some only digital. Why not capture both?

The whole process sounds complicated written out like this but once you do it a couple times it becomes pretty routine. My first book took me like 3 weeks from idea to published because I was researching every step. Now I can publish a low-content book in an afternoon if I need to. You just gotta start and learn by doing.