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Everything You Need To Know About Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing

Making money through writing has never been easier or as accessible thanks to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing!

Do you have a passion for writing that’s gone unfulfilled due to the logistics and concerns with publishing your work? Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing may be your saving grace!

Like how Amazon’s FBA program streamlined the opportunity to create your own full-scale online business, Kindle Direct Publishing, or KDP, works similarly for creators to publish and own their own work without many of the roadblocks associated with traditional publishing houses.

Does this money-making opportunity sound like it might be for you? Let’s dive in deeper to learn the ins and outs of KDP.

What is Kindle Direct Publishing?

Kindle Direct Publishing is a program that allows anyone the option to self-publish eBooks, paperbacks, and hardcover books for free.

This gives anyone direct access to publish on Amazon, including a product detail page for your book and options to expand your book’s availability globally.

A product detail page for a KDP-published book.

What type of content can be published using KDP?

According to Amazon’s KDP Help page, the following content types typically published using KDP include but are not limited to the following:

  • Book Series
  • Children’s Books
  • Comics
  • Cookbooks
  • Journals
  • Novels
  • Poetry
  • Textbooks

Magazines, periodicals, calendars and spiral-bound books are prohibited regarding KDP. If you have questions about whether or not a content type would be allowed, you should contact KDP to clarify the subject.

How much does Amazon self-publishing cost?

Publishing through KDP is absolutely free!

In contrast, traditional publishing in the United States typically ranges from $500 to $5,000! Much of these fees go towards editing, book design services and marketing. Through KDP, these costly elements are thrown to the wayside.

While there’s no fee to publish, Amazon does receive a cut of the revenue created with your content.

How do authors get paid with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing?

Authors receive royalties that are dependent on the type of royalty plan selected. There are two royalty rates: 35% and 70%. Before you do the mental math and choose 70% because you receive a larger cut, you should know there are stipulations to qualify for the 70% royalty plan.

The stipulations for each of the two royalty plans.

As for getting paid, authors just need to verify their identity and include their banking information to receive their monthly royalties.

As for how much do self-published authors make on Amazon? It depends!

At the most basic level, the KDP structure rewards success. If you write the next smash, you can earn royalties well over $1,000 monthly. Most authors earn anywhere from $0 to $500 monthly for their work, which is completely up to the popularity of the created content.

While extremely rare, it can also be rewarding to own the rights to your work, an option that isn’t always the case when submitting work to a publishing house. For example, author E.L. James wrote the best-selling novel Fifty Shades of Grey and actually self-published using KDP.

On top of the revenue generated by its popularity, James sold the rights for what would eventually become a trilogy of movies for $5 million while maintaining some control over the making of the films. Of course, the chances your book becomes a New York Times bestseller and multi-million dollar movie franchise are slim, but it’s equal parts security and motivation to know what the ceiling can be financially if your work succeeds.

Self-Publishing on Amazon Pros and Cons

When weighing the self-publishing on Amazon pros and cons, it’s essential to consider where you’re at with your writing career.

For established authors, the fees incurred by a publishing house may be worth the trouble. After all, these publishing houses offer services such as editing and promotion to help the quality and visibility of the work. Also, publishing houses often offer an advance payment to the author upon completion if the work is likely to earn significant fanfare.

However, this is such a small group that it likely isn’t the case for many with a story to tell.

KDP democratizes authorship by offering to self-publish with zero upfront fees. The speed of publishing (often less than 5 minutes) through KDP is a modern miracle. Additionally, self-publishing on Amazon ensures your book can be promoted and displayed in the Kindle Store. With estimates often ranging around 20 million or so active Kindle readers, this massive audience is alluring for upstart authors.

In short, the pros of KDP are more beneficial for lesser-known authors. The option of publishing work in the first place, visibility from a massive worldwide audience, zero upfront fees, full content ownership, and royalties based on success make it appealing for aspiring authors to get their writing careers off the ground. On top of the digital versions, you can wholesale paperback versions, although you’ll have to pay for the printing cost of each book.

A con for KDP would be the lack of editing and graphic design. If you’ve read books on Kindle and noticed misspellings, poor grammar, imperfect punctuation, or a general lack of professionalism, the lack of editing or approval process can likely be attributed to this. Long-term revenue sharing can also be a drawback, although that’s often a concern with traditional publishing.

How to sign up for Kindle Direct Publishing

Signing up for Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing is a very simple and straightforward process. And once you’ve signed up, you’re virtually 5 minutes away from being able to publish your work.

  1. Select the “Sign Up” button on the Kindle Direct Publishing main page.
  2. Agree to the KDP Terms and Conditions
  3. Fill in the basic information necessary for your profile, payment information, and tax information

Once you’ve completed these steps, you can start publishing your work! The upload process is also quite simple, as Amazon requests information about your work to be visible in the Kindle store and grouped properly to be discovered by readers. In this procedure, you’ll include details about your eBook, content such as a book cover, and set pricing.

After submitting all this information, your work is ready to be published. Congratulations! You can now update your resume with the accurate claim that you’re a published author.

Your work will be included in the Kindle Store, and you can share your work on social media or advertise with options like KDP Select to boost the visibility of your content.

For more about KDP, check out our post from an author who shared his journey of Amazon self-publishing.

How To Self-Publish Through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing

There are plenty of ways to make money on Amazon, with Kindle Direct Publishing standing out as an opportunity for those with a passion for writing. Fresh off the release of his debut book, Dylan Hughes shares a four-step guide based on his recent experience with Kindle Direct Publishing.

Going back to my third grade days, writing and coloring in blank hardback books, I have always loved writing. When I was even younger than that, I would take my kids books and write down their contents onto blank sheets of paper (someone should have taught Young Dylan about copyright infringement). 

When I was about 14, I finally took my talents to the internet, blogging about sports. Once I started, I fell in love and have been at it ever since.  

I have known for a long time that I want to become a professional writer. I knew I wanted to go to college for journalism and I did that, graduating last year with a Sports Journalism degree from IUPUI. While I was a little lost career-wise after graduating, the end-goal remained clear: I wanted to write professionally.

After months of struggling to find even an entry-level writing job, I threw in the towel and took matters into my own hands. First, I began my Substack newsletter, Heavy Pockets, where I write words weekly on what is interesting to me in the business world—as well as personal development stuff here and there. I also publish at least weekly on Medium.com on the same topics.

I have enjoyed doing that for the past five months. In late November, however, I didn’t feel like I was doing enough. So I made a snap decision: I was going to publish a book.

I have dabbled with the idea of writing a book for years now, but it was always something I looked forward to doing in the distant future. I had no idea what to write about, the process to go through to get it published, or how long it’d take. It felt like I was best suited to stick with blogging about dumb sports stuff online.

On that November night, though, I wasn’t willing to just toss the idea out. It felt right. Before thinking about anything else, I just started writing.

Step 1: Write the Darn Thing

Whether in writing or elsewhere in life, a lot of people get held back by the minutiae. Writing a book sounds hard. Editing it, making a cover, and finding a place to publish it is just too much to stomach, especially considering that stuff comes after actually writing all of those words.

So don’t worry about that other stuff! Write the book and worry about that stuff later.

You don’t have to write the entire book before researching how to publish it. But at least get the ball rolling and build some momentum. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you can write 1,000, 2,000, or 5,000 words. A handful of sessions like that and you’re either done with your book (if it was short like mine) or making great progress to getting to that finish line.

Step 2: Edit and Prepare

In the self-publishing world, this may be one of the more difficult steps. In my case, I was lucky enough to have a friend—who happened to edit our college newspaper—and my mom—an English major—edit my book. Alongside myself, a  perfectionist when it comes to my writing.

If you are not as confident in your editing skills and/or don’t have the supporting cast to help you out, there are surely editors available for hire on places like UpWork and Fiverr. If you aren’t looking to spend money, though, having a handful of friends read a chapter or two each and giving light feedback is better than nothing.

Once you feel confident in your words, it’s time to move over to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).

Step 3: Prepare the Manuscript

Amazon makes the remaining steps fairly easy. Which is great, since you just spent all that time working on the hard part: writing the book.

Head over to the KDP website, click “Your account” in the top right-hand corner of the screen (after creating an account, of course), and navigate to the “Bookshelf” menu located towards the top of the screen.

You will then see the “Create a New Title” section, which lays out your remaining steps in publishing your book—whether it be an eBook or paperback (it will later give you the option to do both).

After choosing your desired form of book, you will then start filling out the necessary information for the book, such as the title, subtitle, description, keywords, and categories, among other things.

Once that step is complete, you will be asked to upload your manuscript and cover. 

For the manuscript, I would recommend using Kindle Create (download here). This makes it easy to format your book to properly satisfy Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing standards and make it look as good as possible. You can also make edits to your writing through this tool if necessary.

For the cover, some people like to use Canva (which has a free version but more options through its subscription). I personally just used Kindle Cover Creator, which gives you some basic and decent-looking options. They also give you some options that they created on their own (I chose this option after doing a bad job making my own cover). It may not help your book stand out, but it that doesn’t concern you, it is a very easy option.

After that, set your price and you’re ready to roll!

Step 4: Start Sharing!

Once everything is complete and submitted, Amazon will review your submission and publish within 72 hours (or get back to you if there is something wrong). My submission took less than 12 hours to go live.

After it goes live, congrats! You’re finally done and you can now share your awesome work with your friends, family, and followers.

Want more helpful Amazon news, updates, and tips and tricks sent directly to your inbox? Drop your email below!

Now that you’re done writing your book, take a look at mine: From One Young Soul to Another.

2020 was hard for most people, and it wasn’t any different for me. While I didn’t lose my job or a loved one to the virus, I still faced many challenges that hurt my brain and heart for the majority of the year. After I felt mostly recovered, I took the lessons I learned from those challenges and turned it into a book, hoping to help young people struggling with similar issues. I feel that anyone struggling with relationships, employment, identity, or self-confidence could take something positive away, no matter the age.

And if not you, maybe a loved one would benefit.

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