How To Publish Your Ebook On Amazon’s Kindle

Posted by george on February 22, 2010
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , , , . 92 comments

One of the comments left on a recent post (Kindle Thoughts – A Writer’s Perspective) was from Amanda Evans.  Amanda has been very helpful to me over the last year or so and she has a website called Ghostwriting Uncovered.  Part of her comment was a query regarding publishing your ebook on Kindle.  Sounds like a fine idea to me, so let’s get into it.

Step Number One:  Write a book.

Okay perhaps a bit tongue in cheek snarky, but truly it is the starting point for this venture.  Short books, long books, novels, how-tos, short or flash story compilations are all fair game.

You publish your book through Amazon’s Digital Text Platform site.  The very first and most important step in this process is to download the .pdf Amazon DTP Quickstart Guide Fantastic document, really.  Step by step and so easy a caveman um, writer could do it.  You need to have an account at Amazon, but this is free and takes just a few minutes to register.

After you create all of your account information at the DTP site, you will see an Add New button at the top of the page.

Clicking this button will bring up a screen that will show the four steps you need to complete to publish.  Each will have a red X until completed, then they will change to a green check mark.

Step one is to enter the product details.  Don’t skimp on this section.  Here you add things such as the title and product description.  The more robust your description, the greater chance folks have of finding your work.  Take the time to do it right.  Good descriptions, keywords and categories make all of the difference.  Be as complete as possible.  This is also the section where you get to upload the cover image.  Don’t be fooled – people DO judge a book by its cover so make certain you use an image that is worthy of your book.  Oh, and use an image for which you own the rights, okay?

Next, You need to confirm content rights.  A couple of bullet checks and you’re done with this section, assuming you have the rights to what you want to publish.  If you don’t have the right, bad on you.  Stop right now and go somewhere else.

Moving on to the upload of your book.  The folks at Amazon are very clear on this crucial aspect.  HTML works best.  MS Word is a good second option, but if you try and upload a .pdf file you may be sorely disappointed with the results.  Fortunately if you are using MS Word or Open Office you can save your file as a HTML file.  Once you do that, you’re golden.  Follow the easy steps in step three and upload your file.

Almost Done!

Step four seems easy enough.  Just enter the suggested Retail Price for your ebook. Except pricing isn’t really that easy as my previous post about Kindle indicates.  If you are a new author, you need to make the unfortunate decision about how much money you don’t want to make on your book.  Price it too high and folks may flock to it by the 1′s.  My suggestion?  There is a whole genre, if you will, about 99 cent books.  It is a popular tag and folks will scoop these up all day long.

Once you’ve completed all of the steps click the “Publish” button and wait 24-48 hours to see it show up.  be sure and let the world know by any means available to you.  As well, encourage reviews to help bolster your book’s standing in the Kindle community

Once you start this journey, Amazon has tons of support forums and FAQs.  Most any question you may have is likely to be answered in any of those places.

For myself, the experience has been painless, if not pleasant.  Absolutely recommended.

If you publish over at Kindle, I’d be interested in hearing about your experience.  I’d also be happy to purchase and write a review.

92 comments on “How To Publish Your Ebook On Amazon’s Kindle”

  2. Also, after you’ve uploaded but before you hit ‘publish’ it gives you a chance to look at your book. Take the time to do it. If there’s something you don’t like, make sure you make the corrections in a Word .doc and not the html. Then resave it as html.
    I’ve published three books this way and it really is painless.
    .-= Laura Eno´s last blog ..Different Strokes – #FridayFlash =-.

    Reply

    • Laura,

      Yuppers. Thanks for the addition. The ability to preview should not be taken likely. Don’t assume the conversion did what you wanted it to.

      Great advice Laura. Thanks

      George

      Reply

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  4. Thanks George,

    Really appreciate the post. I had thought about Amazon for my ghostwrting e-book, was going to make it available in paperback but couldn’t find the info I needed. Kindle sounds like a great idea and one that I will take a further look at once I can get some quite time.

    Thanks again and for the lovely mention of my blog and your kind words.

    Amanda
    .-= Amanda Evans´s last blog ..12 Forums For Freelance Writers =-.

    Reply

    • Hi Amanda,

      Hey, let me know if you go that route, I’d love to see the end result, download, write a review – you know, whatever!

      George

      Reply

  5. Hi George,

    This is great! I’ve been wanting to try to publish on Kindle, and actually read a few other “tips and tricks” documents — but this was by far the most helpful, straightforward, and easy to follow! Thanks, matey!

    Also, thanks to the other commenters here — I appreciate all of your advice!

    Wow, George, you’re going gangbusters! I can’t wait to say, “Yeah, I knew George back in the day.” Don’t forget us little people! (ha ha ha)
    .-= Lori (Jane Be Nimble)´s last blog ..Front Porch: Life Through Mia’s Eyes =-.

    Reply

    • Hey Lori,

      Well, thank you so much! I’m glad you found it useful. I try and cut away a lot of the fat and leave a cut worthy of throwing on the ol’ BBQ. :-)

      I like how folks feel comfortable contributing and adding to the posts, especially when a pertinent piece of info needs added (Like John mentioned).

      And for the record, I’m durned proud to be able to say I know fine folks like you, right here in the day!

      George

      Reply

  6. This is awesome, George!! Thanks so much for taking the time to do this. Eventually, when I get my ebooks finished, I’ll have this fantabulous how-to guide to lead me through the process of making them available for Kindle.

    You’re the bestest! I’m off to share this with the world! ;-)

    *smiles*
    Michele
    .-= Michele | aka Raw Juice Girl´s last blog ..Glass Dharma Giveaway =-.

    Reply

    • Hi Laura,

      I noticed on your site that you have a number of ebooks. If you publish on Kindle, I’d be interested in hearing about your experience.

      Thanks for coming by and commenting.

      George

      Reply

    • Hi Jan,

      Your point is a worthy one. Other than brand recognition, the entire scheme of marketing at Amazon lies with the author. Of course if the book makes any kind of headway then the book appears within several places on the site.

      As to whether I’m happy about them taking 65% of each sale, my ego says, “It’s so cool to see my book on an Amazon page!” My fiscally responsible self says, “Bastards.”

      George

      Reply

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  10. This was very helpful.

    It did leave me with one question: Does Kindle support illustrated books? If I wanted to, say, publish a book that had an illustration for each chapter, would that be possible with this process?

    Reply

    • Hi William,

      I’m glad it was helpful to you. I can tell you that my book has a series of picture prompts and they all converted just fine. For what the medium is, I’m fairly impressed with the detail of the images in Kindle. Obviously they are in black and white but I think they suffice for most applications.

      Cheers

      George

      Reply

  12. My wife is a publisher and she was asking me to do some research on Kindle. Thanks for taking the time to post this, I’m going to have here read the post and she can then make the decision to put forth the effort. It seems like everything is going digital, so best to be on the wave than under it I guess.
    .-= Robert´s last blog ..Industrial Divider Curtains =-.

    Reply

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  20. George,

    Better late to the party than a no-show, eh? Just wanted to say thanks for the post! I’ve started working with an indie publisher and we need to get our books into e-reader formats and selling digitally, so this should be a huge help!

    Thanks again!
    Brittany Taylor´s last [type] ..How Good Writing Happens- Part 1

    Reply

    • Hey Brittany,

      You’re always welcome – no matter the timeframe.
      I hope this post helps you folks along the way, let us know how things turn out!

      George

      Reply

  21. The hardest part for me is the first step i.e. write a book…I love writing the articles, website content for the websites I design, blogs, but to write a book, I think I will pass on…when I write web content, I know I have to write about the matter and finish it early on so that the readers don’t panic by the size, whereas the reverse is to be done in writing a book…:(

    Reply

    • Denver,

      I feel your pain. Sometimes I think I’ve got it all down to a science. Then I remember, “Crap. I’m not finished with the book yet.”

      Best of luck to you.

      George

      Reply

  23. Thanks for the instruction, George, but I have a problem. You say, “Fortunately if you are using MS Word or Open Office you can save your file as a HTML file,” but I don’t think I can save my Word files as HTML – unless the option: Save as Web page .htm is the same. Is it?

    And should we write our documents single or double-spaced? Headers or not, page numbers?

    It’s in the tiny details that I royally fall on my face. Can you help?

    Thanks.

    Reply

    • Hey Lynda,

      Thanks for getting in touch.

      Great questions.

      Yes, saving as a web .htm document will work but it is not necessary. It will accept a word document. Generally the less formatting the better. Soooo, no headers, no page numbers. When someone reads your book on Kindle, there are no page numbers partly because the font size makes a difference in which “page” someone is viewing. Kindle uses locations rather than page numbers.

      I hope this helps. If there is anything I can do to help then please let me know.

      George

      Reply

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  25. Hey George, I published my book recently on Amazon. It’s been about a week and I have not heard from them. When I log on to dtp.amazon.com it tells me that my book is ready, but I do not see my book when I search for it on Amazon. I figure they are sending me a letter to tell me that I need to copyright it because I heard someone else say that once. Is this true, should I just wait a little longer? Or is there some other action I need to take? Thanks!

    Reply

    • Hi Anjali,

      I wish I could help with this question. I’m not certain how Amazon operates internationally. I’ll toss it to the readers to see if anyone has an answer or knows which way to point you.

      George

      Reply

  27. Hi George. Great article! And as an FYI, either Amazon has changed its policies re: Kindle publishing, or they have a tendency to rip off their authors….though I’m SURE it must be the former. : – )

    About two years ago I decided to use their self-publishing arm to put out a second edition of my book (originally published about 20 years ago). I asked them about also publishing a Kindle edition and they quoted me a fee of over $600! Needless to say, I said no thanks.

    I’m thrilled to discover that, when I find the time, creating a Kindle edition is so easy! Thanks so much.

    Reply

    • Ellen, Thanks for coming by!

      Yikes! 600 bucks? I’d have told them to take a flying roll through a donut hole too! If you end up pubbing with Kindle, let me know. I’d be interested in hearing how the process was for you.

      George

      Reply

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  29. What a great idea! I never thought of doing an eBook for Kindle. I’m about to start videos to upload to my travel site as I live in Hawaii, but an eBook would be quicker and obviously have more outlets. Thanks for the post, I’m off to the beach to write!
    Aloha,
    Cynthia

    Reply

  30. Thanks for a beautiful straight forward writing. i have gotten more than i ever expected. Apart from publishing in Amazon’s Kindle, can i go about selling the hard copy on the the net, is it possible to sell both soft and hard copy in amazon?

    Reply

  31. Thanks for the article. Worth mentioning that there are companies online who will convert and publish a book in Kindle format (and iTunes) for you for free. I used http://www.QBitPublishing.com and they will do everything for you – very easy

    Reply

  32. Hi George,

    Jeremy from Insight Writer here. Just wanted to let you know this is the first time I found your website using Google! haha. I searched for “How much do you make when you sell a book through Kindle” and you ranked #4 for this.

    I assume you are getting some great search traffic by now. Keep up the great work!

    Cheers,
    Jeremy

    p.s. And yes we should catch up sometime. Still using Stumble Upon?
    Jeremy Day´s last [type] ..Success Story- Butter Cream Cupcakery and Their 3-000 Plus Facebook Fans

    Reply

    • Hey Jeremy,

      Good to see you. Hope all is well. Naw, not on Stumble so much anymore.

      Neat to know I’ve been “googled”!

      George

      Reply

  33. Thank you for so concisely setting out how to do this!
    Do you really think that reading for kids will go the way of the ebook? I know that it would be a great way for a traveling parent to have reading material for their kids, but I hope that folks will still want to buy books for kids as special gifts. Should I even go to the expense of self-publishing a traditional book? And there’s a question above re can you sell both a traditional and ebook on amazon I’m anxious for you to respond to!

    Reply

    • Hi Joyce,

      I think that ebooks are inevitable for schools. I too am a big fan of books and I will continue to build my daughter’s library. At this point, I’m not certain I would self publish a traditional book. Things are just too volatile right now. The answer is yes, you can have both for sale on Amazon. A lot of authors do that.

      George

      Reply

  34. Just wondering if you would please elaborate a bit more on how to produce a “cover” for your ebook. Just point me in the right direction, if you would please. Thanks.

    Kathy Young

    Reply

    • Hi Kathy,

      I use a high quality .jpeg that reflects the theme or topic on the book. For the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo, I went up the highway and snapped a few images of the 100 mile marker because the story takes place around Hundred Mile. Once you have a good image then you can use software to overlay text. I love Photoscape. It’s free, easy to use and has tons of effects. Keep in mind the image dimensions necessary and double check to make certain your cover is easily readable, even at small resolutions. dimensions for Amazon are:

      Recommendations for the size of your cover art:

      Horizontally: minimum of 500 pixels
      Vertically: maximum of 1280 pixels

      Per the kdp.amazon site.

      I hope this helps. Let me know if you need anything else, and thanks for stopping by.

      George

      Reply

  35. I went through the instructions, George, but I’m still stumped. I wrote a short story and want to put it Kindle, but what about rights? I don’t know which ones to check. And how do I know if I have rights in other countries, and if I don’t, how do I get them?

    Thanks so much,
    LC

    Reply

    • Hi Lydia,

      On the book details page you will be asked if you have the rights or if the book is in public domain. If you wrote the short story, you have the rights. I’ve not done anything internationally so it would be hard for me to answer that but I know Amazon has the UK and DE sites up and they may be good resources for you. Good luck and let me know if you find anything out about the rights in other countries.

      George

      Reply

  36. Hey George,

    Great information! I apologize if you may have answered this already in prior responses. I write children’s short storie’s books– as in I type it up on my computer till I can figure out how to publish. I recently came upon how to self-publish with Kindle. The steps look pretty easy. Is there anything else in particular I need besides my book to upload? Also, can you tell me where I can get a cover for my book? And finally, I do not have any illustrations for my book or pictures. Any recommendations on how I go about this process that is if you feel it is necessary. Any help is very greatly appreciated.

    John

    Reply

    • Hi John,

      Thanks for coming by. If your word processing doc can be saved as a .html then you are ready to publish as far as Kindle goes. With that said, if you are thinking about a children’s picture book you may need to rethink publishing options since generally, most ebook readers don’t like text/pictures. In that instance you may be better off with a Publish on Demand (POD) scenario.

      In terms of a cover, choose a .jpeg you think works that will fit the size requirements listed on the Amazon DTP site.

      Best of luck to you!

      George

      Reply

      • Thanks for the reply George.

        I don’t necessarily need pictures for my book just a front cover. I was wondering on how can I go about choosing a book cover. Is there specific websites for book covers? What if I choose a book cover that may already be in use? I hope I’m not sounding too un-intelligent here. Once I get a book cover and place it with my book, am I good to go to publish it on Amazon? Or do I need to get it copyrighted or grammar checked, etc.? I do appreciate your help! You are also welcome to email me.

        John

        Reply

      • Hey George,

        Any advice you have on trying to locate an illustrator for my children’s ebook would be very much appreciated. :-) .

        Please let me know at your earliest convenience.

        Thanks!!

        Reply

        • Hey George,

          Just checking still if you know how i can go about getting pictures or illustrations for my children’s ebook. I have written my first children’s book but need to figure out how to add illustrations to it. Any help is appreciated. You can also email me if you would like. Thanks George!!!!

          Reply

  37. I’m in the process of writing a series of e-books on the insurance needs of retired folk. I am editing the first draft of the first book right now. I am thinking of offering them at both my web site and on the Kindle. Is there any problems with offering the same book at Kindle and independently?

    I’m thinking that 34 % of something is better than 100 % of nothing.

    Reply

    • Hi Tim. I don’t believe it is an issue, although checking the fine print at the KDP site is not a bad idea. My ebooks are available on Smashwords and I have two of them also at Kindle while Smashwords hammers out an agreement with Amazon. No problems thus far. My wishes for big success for ya.

      George

      Reply

  38. Hi George,
    Very helpful tips..
    Does the manuscript get any makeovers/comments from Amazon with regard to grammar etc., once it is submitted?
    Thanks

    Reply

  39. Great article! I tried publishing my first book on all of the major retailers, but Amazon has brought the best results by far. They seem to have the easiest upload system to use as well.
    Thanks George!

    Reply

  40. George,

    I’ve just published a novel on Kindle, but already, after just a couple of weeks, it seems lost in the ones that have followed it. Unless the book is somehow advertised, I’m not sure how prospective buyers are going know the thing actually exists. How do you publicise your work on Kindle?

    Dick.

    Reply

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  42. George,

    I’ve just published an adventure story on Kindle. It’s my interpretation of a story I was told and believe to be the greatest escape story I have heard. It’s called Pelican, and I’d be interested to hear what you think of it if you have the time.

    Dick.

    Reply

  43. Hi George,

    I just happened upon this site. I’m interested in publishing a couple of e-books on Kindle that I’ve already self-published. They’re basically photo books that have a line or two of inspirational/humorous text per page. I came upon this quote of yours here: “With that said, if you are thinking about a children’s picture book you may need to rethink publishing options since generally, most ebook readers don’t like text/pictures. In that instance you may be better off with a Publish on Demand (POD) scenario.”

    Eek! That’s very disappointing to read. Do you know if anything has changed in this regard since you wrote this statement? I know of a couple of e-books that use a lot of photographs (both are about landscape photography) and they seem fine but I had a look on my PC since I don’t even own a Kindle. Basically I would have a photo per book page. The other thing though is that I would like the books to be in landscape format rather than portrait. Do you know if this would be a problem?

    Thanks very much for any advice you can give.

    Reply

    • Peggy,

      The publishing over at Amazon has changed a lot over the last year and the images not be as much of an issue as it was in the past. And now, the Kindle Fire has color and even touts some new childrens picture book features. Kindle Direct Publishing has some great resources in terms of forums and such. I’ll go research it a little bit and it may be worth it for you to spend some time there as well.

      I’ll get back to you with what I find out.

      George

      Reply

    • Hi Peggy, if you find out any interesting info please let me know. I am currently having my children’s book illustrated and having the illustrator format it for me for amazon. I hope to have it come out before Christmas! :-)

      John

      Reply

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  45. Hi, I have written a 900 page “bodice ripper” and because I am not a published author I haven’t a cat’s chance in hell of getting anyone to read it (literary agents/publishers) so I am going to publish on Kindle. I have found a lovely picture on clip art which would be perfect for the front of it and I have written the name of the book and my “nom de plume” (Kate Scarlett) on the front. Do you know if I would be able to use this without getting into bother over copyright?
    Thanks for this blog by the way, it is really helpful

    Reply

  47. Thanks for your step by step on kindle e-book. I enjoy every bit of your comments and follows your advice which help me to have my first published title: Going Green For More Cash by Sunday Itodo.

    The book is now live on Amazon Kindle. It cost only $1.

    I would like to hear from you

    Reply

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