Step-by-Step Guide to Self-Publish Through Kindle Direct Publishing

There will be 3 phases in filling out information to get your children’s book to publish into an eBook or hard copy through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). The first phase is filling out the details of your eBook such as the eBook’s title, the author’s name, description, target age readers, eBook’s category, and whether it’ll be available for pre-orders or not.

The second phase is, uploading the contents for your ebooks such as illustrations with the text you’ve prepared in a PDF, Docx, EPUB, or KPF formats, upload the front cover of your children’s book, ISBN and then preview how it’ll look like when it’s ready.

Last and the challenging phase is pricing and distribution. In this phase, you’ll need strategic calculation of how much you’re eBook will cost, whether you’ll be signed for a KDP Select member, where is it going to be distributed, pricing and royalties you’ll be getting from the sales you make, book lending and term and conditions you’ll need to understand.

Before entering more detail about the first phase, you’ll need to sign up or sign in (if you already have an Amazon account). You’ll only need an email or a phone number to sign up for an Amazon account.

Phase 1: Kindle eBook Details

Step one, click on a Kindle eBook

button to begin entering the details of your children’s book.

Then step two, choose the main language that is used in your children’s book.

Next, fill in the title of your children’s book and fill in the ‘Subtitle Column’ in an English translation of the book’s title.

After that, fill in the author’s name that you want to be displayed in the description on Amazon’s site. The name could be your real name or a pen name that you wish people will recognize you by.

If your children’s book was written by more than one author, you could write it down in the ‘Contributors’ column.

Next, write down a short description with max 4000 characters of what is the story of your children’s eBook. Because a book description is a sales pitch for readers, make sure you use attractive words and include some keywords that are relevant to the story and will make the buyer purchase your eBook.

Note that the description box is acceptable writing in old HTML tag for italic and bold words. Make sure you also use this feature to attract readers.

If you’re the author of this children’s eBook you wanted to be published, then choose the ‘I own the copyright...' button. This means you have the copyright of this eBook and it will be protected by the law.

Enter the keywords that related to the content of your children’s eBook and you want your eBook to come up when people type those keywords on the Amazon search bar.

Categories are like genres in music or movies. Make sure you select the most relevant category for your children’s eBook so that people who love to read that category will easily find out. If you want to have than one category listed, you can contact Amazon through Author Central after your eBook is published.

To fill in this information, make sure you’ve done your research for what kind of eBooks are available on the market for each age range especially for those you planning.

The last step for phase one, choose whether you wish to publish it first then people can easily buy it or people will need to wait several days to finally get the book they ordered. For an eBook version, it’s advisable to choose the ‘I am ready to release my book now’ and be prepared for the next phase, Kindle eBook Content.

Phase 2: Kindle eBook Content.

Make sure you’ve enabled the Digital Right Management (DRM) to prevent people from copying your eBook contents and sending it to other people for free.

Then, you need to upload the final version of your children’s book in a PDF format or EPUB. Note that the file must be at least 300 dots per inch (dpi). If the file is less than that, it’ll look blurry. But for the recommended format is EPUB. You could convert your PDF file to EPUB by downloading a Kindle Kids’ Book Creator.

Afterward, you’ll need to upload a cover for your children’s eBook. Hiring professional help to design a front cover is advisable if still unsure what to do and let them do it for you. Make as interesting and attractive as possible, because people do judge the books by their cover.

If you finally get your file uploaded, then you can preview how it’ll look like. The preview will let you know whether the documents fit the page and a layout is a place as it is.

The next section is Kindle eBook ISBN. This is optional and needed to be filled in if you’re planning to sell your book outside the Amazon marketplace or planning to print it in hard copies as well. Because once you publish your eBook through KDP, Amazon will provide you with a free ISBN that only available on the Amazon site.

After getting all those filled in, you’re ready to go to the last phase, Kindle eBook Pricing.

Phase 3: Kindle eBook Content.

KDP Select registers your book with Kindle Unlimited and provides you with other marketing features, such as Kindle Countdown Deals, but the digital version of your book has to be exclusive to Amazon.

No need to worry, you can come back to select this option even after your eBook has been published. But once you’ve selected this option, you won’t be able to sell your eBook outside the Amazon site for proximately 90 days.

It is recommended to choose an ‘All Territories (worldwide rights)’ that will allow your eBook to be available on all of Amazon’s global sites once your eBooks are published.

You’re able to select a royalty either 35% or 70% royalty plan for every eBook sold from the Amazon marketplace. For most authors, they’ll choose a 70% royalty plan, but both 35% and 70% have different pricing and royalty calculation depends on the term and condition applied. Then choose amazon.com as the main market and set the price. Prices in other amazon’s markets will be set based on the exchange rate, but you can manually set each price as you like.

Book lending is a feature from Amazon that allows your Kindle eBook to be borrowed by customers their friends and family after it is being purchased for a duration of 14 days. This feature is available to those who have chosen a 70% royalty plan.

Finally, your Kindle eBook will be ready for Amazon to preview and get it prepared to be on the market that’ll take at least 72 hours. Before it, make sure you’ve read the terms and conditions of the Amazon marketplace.