An author’s first foray into Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) can be challenging. KDP is not impossible, and Amazon makes every effort to make it easy, but don’t kid yourself; it takes some study.
You may wonder, why KDP? For starters, Amazon has more than 70% of the digital publishing market in the US. (Remember, Amazon started as a bookseller.) Another perk is that KDP has no publishing cost. Naturally, they take their 30% slice out of every sale, but so do agents and trade book houses.
The first step is to get your book in shape, beyond the obvious punctuation and spelling. It will help if you plan the “End Matter” of your book. End Matter is the information included before and after the text of the book—the items at the “ends” of your book. These pieces include the Dedication, the Acknowledgements, About the Author, and a photo.
Amazon has a “book jacket” like tag next to the book’s listing. This is not a time for rambling, poorly constructed sentences. You have very few words to “pitch” your book. Write this blurb carefully and proofread it a hundred times.
Before you publish, learn about KDP Select. It is a renewable 90 day exclusive to Amazon on your book. You can enroll at any time, but the book cannot be available or made available anywhere else while it is enrolled in KDP Select. For the exclusive rights, Amazon has some perks. Amazon controls everything you see on their sites, and KDP Select books get a better book search position. KDP Select allows promotions of your book, such as listing as free for a few days, to increase readership (and hopefully reviews.) Read up on KDP select before you make a decision.
Next Time: Draft2Digital
I found the book Let’s Get Digital to help me understand this exciting but complex market.
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