There’s lots of steps to follow when publishing your ebook, but they’re not complicated. Hopefully what I’ve shared below will help you avoid the pitfalls I stepped into.
If you’re starting with this article, you may want to read part one first.
The devil is in the details
The first step is entering your ebook’s details. Most information here is pretty straight forward. Pay particular attention to your book’s title and description. Spend some time writing your book’s description, since it is often the write-up here that makes or breaks a sale. Next, add the contributors information. If you are author and illustrator, be sure to indicate that and select both. Make sure your contributors are complete.
Your publishing rights
Is your story and/or illustrations entirely your (and your contributors, if any) own work? If so, say so. Otherwise select “this is a public domain work.” A public domain work is one where no one owns the intellectual property; it is public for all to use. All the works of Shakespeare are public domain.
Target your book
In order for your book to show up in the Amazon Kindle library and do well, you need to carefully select two categories and up to seven keywords. It’s here that I encountered a pitfall that cost me a month of little to no exposure. The category list that is displayed when you click on the “Add categories” button are known as the BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications) list. I found it far easier to go to the BISAC website and work through the categories there, choosing two of the most relevant categories. Then transfer your choices to Amazon’s KDP category list.
Next are your keywords. Carefully select up to seven keywords that best describe your book. Try and think like a customer and select words that a potential customer would choose. However, if you would like your book to appear in specific categories, you need to place at least one of the keywords found here in your list of seven.
Take your time picking your categories and keywords. They will make you or break you. I can’t stress this enough.
Upload your book cover
If you’ve gotten this far, you should have a cover ready to go. Be sure to read the product image guidelines. The resolution of Amazon Kindle cover files are currently 1563×2500.
Upload your book file
Select your book file and upload it here. Choose whether you want “digital rights management” (DRM) enabled. I did some research on this and determined that for my situation, opting out of DRM was best for me. You must be sure of your choice because you cannot change it afterward. Visit the KDP community forums and ask questions. Please note that even though you can’t change your DRM setting, you can upload new versions of your book at any time (if you spot an error or you want to change something).
Here you can save your work in progress and continue, or save as a draft to pick up at a later date.
I’ll cover rights, royalty and pricing in part three, next Tuesday.