How to Release a Book on Amazon

There’s a certain amount of preparation required, so bear with us while we go through some of it.

Part 1

files types and programs for text

• .doc, .docx These might come from Word, Google docs, LibreOffice, Scrivener…
• .pdf This is needed for the interior file.
  • Word can output .pdf – it’s not a page-setting program, but it does a “good enough” job
  • Scrivener helps you organize your ideas, outputs .epub and .pdf
  • Vellum creates gorgeous books
  • InDesign gives you total control, which is probably more than you want.
  • Downloadable converters, such as Calibre (free), will convert .doc to .pdf, .epub, .mobi and more (but you won’t get much control)
  • Online converters (ebook distribution sites) include Smashwords and Draft2Digital and create .epub and more
  • Kindle Create allows you do type directly into the program, format your file, and output a .kpf file which can be uploaded to create the kindle and print versions (but you don’t get much control over details like widows and orphans in the print version)
• .kpf, .epub, .mobi These are digital formats
  • Amazon prefers input from .kpf files (from Kindle Create) or .epub, even though ,mobi is kindle format.

File types for images (interior or cover):

• .jpg, .png, .bmp, .tiff are standard but Kindle Create can’t read .png and .tiff, so you might need to convert them (Paint works)
• .jpg This is what you’ll need for your kindle cover, if you’re going to upload a cover. Otherwise, use the (free) Cover Creator while you upload your book.
• .pdf This is what you’ll need for the cover of a print book if you’re not using Cover Creator. You have to format it correctly so the text fits in the right places on the cover. Best to download a template (from Amazon for example).
• .psd This is what you’ll have if you design your cover in Photoshop. Use lots of layers with the .pdf template on the bottom, then everything else built on top. “Save as” pdf gives you the .pdf cover

If your book has pictures, it will be very expensive to print in color, so you might want to convert them to blank and white. You can use Paint or Photos (Photos is better), but Photoshop gives you more control. You might need, for example, to “dial down” the yellow, in order to make a sunflower stand out against a gray background.

If you know you’re planning to sell only on Amazon, create your “author page” now, and you’ll have direct links to helpful programs and pages. Go to https://author.amazon.com/home? or ask google for amazon author central.

Part 2

Creating the print and epub files.

• First make your Master Document, fully edited, using heading styles for chapter titles, including table of contents.

Now make your kindle file:

• For kindle, import the master document to Kindle Create (download this from https://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Create/b?ie=UTF8&node=18292298011 or google Kindle Create download)
• Then read it – the format is different; this will help you find typos you missed earlier.
  • Make sure you fix the typos in the master document too!
  • Make sure all your images have labels (and aren’t messed up because they’re the wrong format – you can simply replace bad ones)

If you are planning to upload to another site, you might import your master doc to, say, Calibre instead. Download Calibre from https://calibre-ebook.com/download_windows (or google calibre download)

Then make the print file:

• Go to https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834230 to find templates (or, since things move around, Google Amazon paperback manuscript templates)
  • You can download a blank template and insert your text from the master doc, or
  • Download a template with sample content, so you can see how things will look, or
  • Follow the detailed instructions on the page to format your .doc or .docx file correctly.
• Things you will be looking at include
  • Margins (simple – we see them all the time)
  • Gutters (that extra blank space near the glue in the book, so the margins look right when the book has been glued together
  • Fonts – choose larger, simpler fonts for younger readers. Ask google to find out what people are using.
  • Default font and font size is usually good, but
  • Printing a page (at 100% size) is a good way to find out how the “real thing” will look (not on a screen)
• Things you need to take into account are:
  • Title page should be left-facing with no headers, footers or page numbers
  • Copyright page should be on the back of the title page (so right-facing)
  • Contents and other front matter – if these pages are numbered, use Roman numerals
  • First page of text goes on a left-facing page, with page number 1.
  • Use sections to separate “front matter” from “book matter.” Then you can set the starting page of the “book” section to be at number one when you “insert” headers and footers.
  • If you use sections in your book (Part 1, Part 2 etc), they should start on left-facing pages and
  • If there’s a blank page before a section start, that page shouldn’t have any page number, header, or footer info (Word lets you do this by offering “new section starting on odd-numbered page”)
  • Pictures – Word will “anchor” them, but anchors can slip (to the wrong page for example). Maybe add pictures last, or keep them at start or end of chapter with text above and below for simplicity
  • Widows and orphans (pages that start with one lonely word, paragraphs that end with one lonely word, etc). Word lets you add “soft returns” (shift enter) to your “left and right justified” text. That way you can move one word to the next line without starting a new paragraph. Just play around till it looks good. Don’t do this in your master document though – it drives the digital file crazy!

Part 3

Covers

• Go to https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/cover-templates to generate a cover template (or google amazon print cover template)
  • You’ll need to input the page size and page count.
  • The download is a zip file. Find the .pdf cover that’s got instructions in English and follow them
• You can open the .pdf with photoshop.
  • Remember to keep everything between the colored guilde-lines
  • Remember to leave a blank space for the barcode (or be sure to insert your pre-purchased barcode in the right place)
  • Add layers, hide them, move things, keep things, try things out.
  • Move text closer to the line above, further away, rotate it, etc.
  • Then “flatten” all the layers
  • Remove the “color profile”
  • And save as .pdf

Part 4

Preparing the files

• Put all your files in one directory so you can find them easily:
  • .kpf kindle interior file
  • .jpg image for kindle cover
  • .docx interior file (you still need to add the ISBN, so you’ll make the .pdf later)
  • .pdf cover for paperback (if you’re not using Cover Creator)
  • A document with all the information you might need:
    • Title, subtitle,
    • Contributor names
    • Page size, page count, paper type, cover type (glossy or matte)
    • Short description
    • Maybe short author bios to add to the description

Uploading the files

• Go to https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/ and log in with your amazon account (or google amazon kindle print)
• On your “dashboard” click the + next to add new kindle book.
• Follow the instructions. Fill in the details VERY carefully – they will reject your book if you mistype anything
• Upload the .kpf interior
• Use Cover Creator or upload the .jpg front cover
  • Oddly, they won’t let you preview the book. I guess they’re telling you it’s bound to be right because it’s a .kpf file.
  • There’s another free Amazon program, kindle previewer. They’re probably assuming you’ve used it (even though it doesn’t have the cover)
• Choose keywords and categories
• If you bought ISNBs (expensive) you could input one here, but we’re using kindle’s free identification for our books
  • If you bought ISBNs you MUST input the title and publisher and author names correctly or they will reject your book.
• Set a price. We use 35% royalties to avoid any issues with payment for downloads.
• When you okay it, you’ll be asked if you want a print book too. Say yes.
• Lots of the questions (including keywords and categories) will have already been answered.
• Say yes to the Amazon ISBN (or type in your own).
  • Once you have the Amazon ISBN, add it to your .docx file and create a new .pdf
• Upload the (new) .pdf interior
• Use Cover Creator or upload the (flattened) .pdf cover you created in photoshop
• Preview the file – This time they’ll let you. Make sure
  • The margins and gutters look right. If they don’t, you probably forgot to “mirror margins”
  • The contents look good (they may say they removed unreadable text from them, but that’s fine)
  • The images look good (they may say they’re not good enough. It’s up to you to decide, but they usually work fine)
  • The cover contents fit between the lines
  • The ISBN is correct
  • Any headers and footers and page numbers look right.
  • Then approve the proof
• Next comes pricing. Remember, Amazon does not publish books out of the goodness of its heart:
  • They’ll tell you a print price. This is the price we, logged on as Cedar Mill Library, pay for your author copies. We can’t get Prime delivery on author copies, and it’s recommended we add at least $1 per copy for postage, hence the price we set at the last meeting.
  • On the next page you’ll see the “minimum” sale price.
    • At that price, the purchaser pays for printing. Amazon gets its cut. And the library gets zero.
    • At a higher price, the library gets the royalty. They will show you what that royalty will be with each price you input. Play with it.
    • If you click on the box for distribution, that minimum price goes up. That’s because more people need to be paid: Amazon as the distributor,and  another bookstore as the seller. And then, last of all, the library getting (minimal) oyalties.
    • Again, play with the prices. You’ll see the library gets truly minimal returns off sales through Amazon distribution, and the higher price will probably dissuade people from buying from Amazon too, so… we’ll stick to no distribution and just sell on Amazon.
    • In any case, bookstores don’t want to buy when Amazon’s the distributor. Why pay their competitor?

Amazon will email you to tell you the kindle book is available. Next day you may get an email to tell you the print one’s okay, or to say they’ve rejected it. if it’s rejected, don’t panic. Just look very very carefully at the (usually obscure) rejection letter and try to imagine what they might mean. Google everything, fix it, and try again.

Part 5

Amazon Author Pages

• If you have an amazon account, you can “claim” your author page.
• Go to https://author.amazon.com/home or google Amazon author pages (these things move around)
• Log in with your amazon account.
• Your new book, if you were listed as an author, should appear there in a few days.

But they’d never let us list 20 authors. We put your names in the details, so you should have no problem “proving” you’re one of the authors. If you want to add other books (this one for example)

• Click on view books, then “add a book”
• Type in the name of the book and hit search.
• The new author central has some bugs and might give you a million different copies of the same book, with no way to tell which copies are real and which are aliens posing as booksellers trying to sell your work for $3,000. It’s a pain, and hopefully they’ll fix it. But in the meantime, just click on the first copy of the book you want to add.
• Click add this book
• They’ll list the “authors” and ask if you are one of them. If you are, great. If you’re not, click “my name is not here” and they’ll ask you to contact them.
• Click on “contact us” until you get to a “how can we help” page.
• Choose “author profile” and “add a book”
• Choose “send email”
• Find your book on Amazon and identify it by the ISBN or ASIN as well as the title in your email. (They’ll give you an email template to fill in)
• Your name will be in the contents list of the book. So tell them that
• Send the email and you’ll probably hear back next day (unless they’ve slowed down). Then the book will be added to your page.

Whatever you do, don’t panic. You can always add an author image, author bio, and even links to your blog to your Amazon page while you wait for them to add your books. Just play with it, and be patient. Enjoy!