How to Publish a Book on Amazon KDP: A Step-by-Step Guide

What you need before you start

• A finished, edited manuscript: a clean file for ebook, and a print-ready file for paperback or hardcover.
• A finished cover file, sized correctly for each format you plan to publish, ebook, paperback, and hardcover all have different cover specifications.
• A book title, subtitle, and description written to actually explain what the book is about and who it is for.
• Your tax information on file with Amazon before you publish, so royalties are not withheld once the book starts selling.

The publishing steps

Once your files are ready, publishing itself is mostly a matter of filling out the details correctly: creating a new title, choosing your format, uploading your manuscript and cover files, setting your categories and keywords, and choosing your pricing. Amazon offers a 70% royalty rate for ebooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99 available in all regions, books priced outside that range earn a lower 35% royalty.

After you submit, Amazon typically takes anywhere from a few hours up to 72 hours to review and publish a new title, after which it becomes available for sale globally.

Where authors run into trouble

• Formatting errors that only show up once the file is uploaded, table of contents links that do not work, inconsistent chapter styling, or a print file with the wrong trim size or margins.
• Weak metadata: vague categories, no real keyword research, and a description that summarizes the plot instead of hooking a reader.
• Publishing before the manuscript is fully proofread, since fixing a live listing after the fact is more disruptive than fixing it before submission.
• Skipping the tax interview step, which can result in Amazon withholding up to 30% of royalties until it is completed.

Where a publishing partner actually helps

KDP itself is free and does not require a publisher. What a full-service publishing partner adds is everything that happens before you hit submit: professional formatting for every format you're publishing in, category and keyword research so the right readers can actually find your book, and a set of eyes making sure the listing is built correctly the first time.