How to Publish a Book on Amazon By Yourself
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You have finally written a book, and you are ready to show it off to the world. You can’t wait to find readers, so you need to know how to publish a book. You have two options for publishing a book. You can go the traditional route with an agent and a publishing company, or you can self-publish your book.
Getting an agent and landing a deal at a publishing house is a long shot, even for the best writers. Even if it works out, it could take years before your book sees shelves. Publishing a book on Amazon is so much easier, and you can get in front of readers immediately. That means it won’t be long before people are raving about your masterpiece.
Before you can earn those rave reviews, you need your book to hit virtual shelves. Let’s dive in, so you can find out how a book is published.
Phase 1: Preparing to Publish a Book
1. Make Sure Your Book Is Ready for Readers
Before you consider how to publish a book, make sure it’s ready for your audience. Read over it again and see if you can improve upon it.
If you need some help, check out our guide on how to write a book. Then, you can polish up your masterpiece
2. Hire an Editor
When you publish a book, you want it to be perfect. Typos or grammatical errors could derail your opportunity to become a bestselling author. Also, your book could have continuity errors that will turn readers away. Hire an editor to look for any issues in your book. You don’t have to go to a publishing house to discover an editor. Post a job on an online job site such as Upwork; many people use Upwork for help when publishing books.
3. Design a Professional Cover
Amazon has a cover creator that you can use if you want a basic cover. You don’t want a basic cover, though. You want a cover that entices readers and gets them to plop down money for your book. The cover should be simplistic yet professional, and the title should be clearly printed in an attractive, easy-to-read font. The design should also be geared toward your audience. Each genre has a specific style for the cover. For example, romance novels typically feature a picture of the couple on the cover. On the other hand, if you wanted to know how to publish a booklet, your cover would be far different.
Just like the editor’s job, you’ll want to outsource this task. You can find a designer online on a website like Upwork.
4.Make Sure Your Book Is Properly Formatted
If you don’t like handling the details, you can go back to Upwork and hire someone to format your book for you. However, you can save some money by following the guidelines Amazon has put forth for self-published authors. It explains how to set the paragraph indentations, change the line spacing, format your titles, and more.
Phase 2: Publish a Book
Once your book is ready to go, it’s time to actually learn how to publish a book!
1. Create Your Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Account
Amazon is the perfect place to publish your book. First, you need to create an account. If you already have an Amazon account, you can use it for your KDP account. If not, you’ll need to create a new KDP account.
When you create your KDP account, you’ll also need to submit your tax information. This is vital since Amazon won’t pay you unless it has the tax info.
If you want to go the do-it-yourself route, follow the KDP guidelines.
2. Enter Your Title
Once you create your account, you can go to your KDP profile and add your book title. Also, add the subtitle if you have one.
3. Enter the Book Description
Before you buy a book, you read the descriptions. If the description hooks you, you buy and read the novel. The same is true for your audience. Enter an enticing description that will get people to buy your book. If you aren’t sure what to include, go back and read the book descriptions of some of your favorite books. Think about what drew you in and mimic that.
4. Select Your Keywords
People will use keywords to search for books like yours. Think about the keywords people will use and add them to your account. You can add up to seven keywords for your book. When you come up with your keywords, go to the Amazon homepage and type them into the search results. Make sure that the drop-down menu brings up relevant results. If not, your keywords are off the mark.
5. Choose Your Categories
Amazon lets you select categories for your book. You need to choose accurate and specific categories, so people can easily find your book. The easiest way to do this is to search for books similar to yours. See what categories the authors listed and use those.
6. Upload the Book to KDP
Now things are getting exciting. It’s time to upload your book to your KDP account. Just head to “Your Bookshelf” and find your book. You’ll see “Kindle eBook Accounts” next to it. Click on it and then select “Edit eBook content.” Then, follow the instructions to upload your book.
7. Set the Price
When looking at how to publish books, this is one of the most exciting parts. You get to choose how much to charge. Consider starting with $2.99 a download. You can slowly increase it until you get it up to $9.99.
8. Promote Your Book
Now that you know the answer to, “How are books published?” you have another question: “How can I make sales?” To make sales, you need to promote your book. We offer a Premium Book Promotion that can help you boost your sales. If you want to blow past the competition, book your promotion today.
Now you know how to publish a book. Put these steps into action, so you can build a list of happy readers.
