How To Publish on Amazon?

Amazon's Kindle ebook reading device has taken the world by storm. There are millions of these devices in use and sales of electronic Kindle books are now outselling traditional paperbacks. All of this means that more and more people are thinking about publishing their new masterpieces on Amazon.

Obviously you need to have your potential best seller written before you can get it published. The good news on this front is that a lot of Kindle books aren't anywhere near as long as their printed counterparts. A lot of novels are close to what would have been called short stories or novelettes in days gone by. They are designed to be read in one sitting, often during a commute to or from work or in a lunch break. A short spell of fantasy to break up the day.

The same relatively short format goes for a lot of "how to" style books. People don't have the time for long winded introductions and general waffle. They'd prefer to pay a lower price (often $2.99 or less) just to get the meat of the idea.

So don't let writing your new ebook hold you back. If you're a fast writer, there's a good chance you could tap out your next book in a weekend.

Once your manuscript is written, you need to proof read it for obvious errors and typos.
Then you will need to format it for the Kindle. One of the things that catches people out on this is that Kindles don't understand the concept of page numbers. Because there are a variety of screen sizes and users can control the font sizes as well as the way the device is held (portrait or landscape) you shouldn't include page numbers in your book as they are meaningless.

Things like tabs and bullet points don't translate well to the Kindle format either so you need to keep your formatting plain and simple. If you're not sure, there's plenty of advice on the web or people on sites like Fiverr who will convert the book for you.

Your new ebook will also need a cover. Even though this will only ever be seen digitally, we still buy with our eyes and your book's cover (along with the title) are your main sales tool.
If you haven't already got a Kindle publisher account, just follow the signup procedure at Amazon. It's much like any other web signup form and there are prompts along the way.
Then you need to upload your book in the Amazon system. It's here that you'll set your title, upload your cover and the main book itself.

You'll also need to write your own description for your new book. You're allowed up to 4,000 characters (which is quite a lot of words!) and you should use these to your benefit. Talk about what the book is about and make your copy compelling. Look at other people's descriptions if you need inspiration but don't just copy them verbatim.

Finally you need to set your pricing. Most Kindle books seem to be priced fairly cheaply but to get the highest royalty rate from Amazon it's best to keep them between $2.99 and $9.99. Prices for other Amazon sites can be set automatically by ticking a box so you don't need to worry about exchange rates.