How To Use KDP BookShelf: 5 Steps To Create A Free Account With Amazon

Internet advancement has taken over the world. Today, authors can easily publish their books with the click of a button on and Amazon KDP BookShelf (Kindle Direct Publishing) has made the process more accessible than ever. In fact, Publishing your own e-book online is easier and more affordable than ever with KDP. Sounds Interesting? if yes, Read through as we guide you on how to start…

What is Amazon KDP BookShelf?

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is Amazon’s book publishing platform that can be used by any author around the world to self-publish a book online, which readers can purchase as an eBook or print-on-demand book.

Today, Amazon KDP BookShelf is one of the top self-publishing platforms and currently dominates the self-publishing book market.

You see, One of the advantages of Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is its ability to generate passive income. This is one of the reasons I love this business model. But you may want to ask, how can genius authors make money publishing books on amazon KDP?

This superstore has come a long way from its origins as a bookstore. When the company first opened up for business in July of 1995, it used to promote itself as the world’s biggest Bookstore. The e-commerce website was only the first of its kind to attempt to sell books online. The concept was entirely welcome.

However, In 1997, according to the Los Angeles Times, Amazon carried more than 2.5 million titles totalling an estimated sales of $148 million dollars that year alone and had over 1.5 million customers in more than 150 countries.

Today, the same shop that used to solely be a marketplace for books has quickly ramped up and become a one-stop shop for all products.

However, to set the record straight. The expansion of Amazon into new categories does not mean the Kindle Direct Publishing space is no more. In fact, the online book publishing sector is still very much alive and thriving.

For people who wish to either publish their own books or begin their own self-publishing company, getting started with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is an easy and great way to do that.

How Amazon KDP Works

First, it is very important to let you know that one can choose how much royalty one wants to earn from your book. You can either earn 70% or 30% from your book royalty. But some publishers have set their royalty earnings at 70%. So, I would also like you to do the same for your books.

We do not need to tell too many stories about amazon as they are already the online umpire for many authors.

In fact, writers of all disciplines have enjoyed an explosion in career flexibility over the last decade or so with a rise in remote writing jobs. This explosion has led to an increase in publishing eBooks, print books, and more through self-publishing.

Amazon KDP Publishing is a platform for authors to self-publish eBooks and paperback books.
For eBooks, authors can directly upload their book files, and they will appear in the Kindle store as an eBook for readers to purchase and instantly download.

For printed books, authors upload their book files and KDP Publishing uses print-on-demand technology to print the paperback book once it is purchased; the printing costs will be subtracted from the royalties you earn from every book sold.

Here is how Amazon KDP Publishing works:

• Upload your book files to Amazon KDP.
• Publish your book on the KDP platform.
• Readers can purchase your eBook and instantly download it to their devices.
• Readers can purchase your paperback copy and Amazon’s KDP platform will use print-on-demand technology to print and ship your book directly to the reader once purchased.
• Amazon will pay you book royalties per book sold on the KDP platform.

Self-publishing a Kindle eBook on Kindle Direct Publishing is really easy. It takes a few minutes to fill in your details and upload your files. Then within 12 hours, your Kindle eBook will be live in the Amazon Kindle Store.

There are two main steps to take when you want to upload your eBook files

• Step1 – Your book On Amazon KDP

The first section to self-publish on KDP includes these steps:

1. Enter Your Book Details
2. Verify Your Publishing Rights
3. Target Your Book to Customers
4. Select Your Book Release Option
5. Upload or Create a Book Cover
6. Upload Your Book File
7. Preview Your Book

If you already have an Amazon account, you can use your existing login details to log into KDP here: https://kdp.amazon.com/
After you log in to your KDP account, the main dashboard will display. If this is your first Kindle eBook, the dashboard will be empty.

NOTE: Open your text file where you have all your book details then you can just copy and paste your information.

1. Choose the language your book is written in from the Language drop-down menu.
2. Type your book title in the Book Title field.
3. If you have a subtitle, type this in the Subtitle field.
4. If your book is part of a series, type the series name and number in the relevant Series fields
5. Enter the edition number in the Edition Number field. If this is the first edition, you can leave this blank.
6. Type your name in the Primary Author or Contributor field.
7. Type your First and Last name, and choose the Title of the Author. If you do not enter your name here, your name will not display on your book’s page on Amazon.
8. If you want to add the name/s of people who also worked on or contributed to your book, click on the Add Another button.

You will be able to add the first and last name of any of the following:

• Author
• Editor
• Foreword (the name of the person who wrote the Foreword)
• Illustrator
• Introduction (if someone other than you wrote this)
• Narrator (for audiobooks)
• Photographer
• Preface
• Translate

NOTE: If someone else designed your book cover, you can add their name as the Illustrator

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8. Copy and paste or type your book’s description in the Description field.
9. If you are publishing an original work that you wrote, click the second radio button, indicating that it’s not a public domain work.
10. The next section is your keywords. These are the terms prospective buyers will use to find your eBook in the Kindle Store.
You can enter up to 7 keywords – double keyword phrases count as 1 keyword, e.g. self-publishing and self-publishing is considered 1 keyword.
11. Click the Set Categories button, and choose the category for your book there are many.
12. Amazon defines a browse category as the section of the Kindle store where users can browse their books.
13. If your book has a specific age group, choose the Age Range using the relevant Minimum and Maximum drop-down buttons
14. If you are ready to go live with your eBook, click the first radio button.
15. If you are not ready, and want to make use of Amazon’s pre-order service, click the second radio button: “Make my book available for pre-order.”

Files Uploading On Amazon KDP

1. Choose the option you want by clicking the relevant button.
2. Click the Browse button and select the Word file, or the Kindle Create file of your eBook on your computer’s hard drive, and upload it.
3. A message will display after your book file is uploaded.
4. kindle direct publishing manuscript screenshot
5. Click the Launch Cover Creator button
6. If you have your cover image available, Click the Save changes and continue buttons.
7. Click the Browse button and select your cover image on your computer’s hard drive, and upload it.
8. You now have the option of previewing your Kindle eBook.
9. Click the Launch Previewer button.
10. If you are satisfied with your eBook, you can click the Save and Continue buttons.
11. Alternatively, if you see something that’s not quite right, you can fix the error in your Word file, and re-upload your file again.
12. Once all of the tasks in Step 1 are completed, you can move on to step 2

• Step 2 –Pricing and Right On Amazon KDP

This second part publishing of your book on Amazon KDP is focused on your author rights and the pricing of your book, as well as a few other logistics.

1. Verify your publishing territories
2. Set your pricing and royalty
3. Kindle Matchbook
4. Kindle Book Lending
5. Optional – KDP Select Benefits

Publishing Territories

• You have the option to select only certain territories to sell your book in.
• Click the relevant (Worldwide rights – all territories) button.
• Setting Your Book’s Price on
• Click the View Service button to check the pricing for other books similar to yours.
• At the bottom of the graph, you have the option of accepting the suggested price or declining it, and returning to the page you were on.
• If you don’t accept the suggested price, you will return to the Rights and Pricing page, and you will need to enter your List Price manually.
• Scroll down and view all the currency prices, and check the exclusions.
• Book Lending allows your customers to lend your book to friends and family after they have purchased it, for a period of 14 days.
• If you are satisfied with everything, you can click the Save and Publish button. If you are not ready to publish your eBook, click the Save as Draft button, On your dashboard, you will see that the status of your eBook is now In Review, and you cannot access your book details.

Finally, that’s it your book is now uploaded and published to KDP

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Why Publish On Amazon KDP?

There are numerous benefits to self-publishing your book on KDP. The Amazon KDP Publishing platform has helped revolutionize the publishing industry, by giving authors the opportunity to make it easier to publish a book and create a sustainable book business.

These are the benefits you get from KDP Publishing:

1. Wide distribution: Amazon’s platform is huge, which means authors can tap into global markets across the United States, Europe, and Asia.
2. Higher royalties: With Amazon, authors can earn higher royalty rates than they typically would through traditional publishing houses. Depending on the type of book you sell on Amazon, royalty rates can be as high as 60%.
3. Author rights: Even though you publish your book to KDP, you retain the rights to your book through Amazon’s non-exclusive agreement.
4. Quick publishing time: Typically, with traditional publishing, books can take a very long time to get to market. With Amazon’s platform, the KDP publishing process is very quick.
5. No inventory: Long gone are the days when authors had to purchase printed copies of books upfront in order to sell them. With print-on-demand technology, books are printed as they are purchased.

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