It's becoming more and more difficult for new writers to get published by the large publishing companies.
The big publishers want authors who already have a visible platform and who can market and promote their books independently.
More and more authors are asking themselves, if that's the case, why not just publish it myself? Publishing to Amazon's Kindle makes it easy to get your book online easily and quickly.
Amazon pays you royalties (up to 70% at the time of this writing) and handles delivery and collection of payments.
Of course, just getting a book in the Kindle store doesn't mean it will sell.
You still have to promote.
But with Amazon handling the sales and downloads, all you have to worry about is getting the word out.
To get started, you need your eBook (as a Word document), a computer, an Internet connection and an Amazon account.
The following steps will take you through the process of getting published for Kindle: 1.
Write your (original) book in Microsoft Word.
Word will allow you to save your file as an HTML file, which is the preferred format for the Kindle.
2.
Edit your book for misspellings, grammar and typos.
Pass it on to friends who will look through it for errors.
If you can afford it, hire a copy editor.
Amazon doesn't edit ebooks so if you make mistakes, they pass right on to the readers.
3.
If you don't already have a user's account on Amazon, set one up.
Once you have an account, you can publish to their digital platform.
Go to dtp.
amazon.
com and sign in.
Download their DTP Quickstart Guide.
Follow the instructions for uploading your Word document.
Alternatively, you can upload a PDF, a text file, or an HTML file.
PDF files may not display well on the Kindle, so I recommend you go with HTML or a Word document.
Since most people don't write in HTML, Word is the popular option.
4.
Amazon lets you add your book title, description, price, and author bio when uploading your manuscript.
Here's your chance to get your marketing message out there.
What you enter here will show up on your book's Amazon page, so give it some thought before submitting.
If you don't have all the information now, you can save at any point and come back later to complete the publication process.
5.
Through your account on Amazon's digital platform, you can monitor sales and royalties.
Pricing your eBook for maximum sales on Kindle may seem confusing at first.
If you have a lot of competition in your topic, maybe cheap is better, like.
99 to 2.
99.
If your subject is more esoteric, but in demand, you can ask more.
You can always go back and change your price down the road.
I recommend testing your initial price for a month and measuring sales.
Test a new price the next month and measure sales again.
If price didn't seem to matter, go with the higher price.
6.
If you are writing a non-fiction book, it will help your book's sales to include popular search terms in your title and description.
For example, a book on how to repair a leaky faucet should include those words in the title.
7.
Once your book is live on Amazon, consider putting up a Facebook page using the same keywords as in your title.
Do the same with a Twitter account.
Create a community around your topic so that people will see you as a resource and want to follow you.
You'll soon be getting questions on your topic that will give you ideas for your next book(s).