As many know Amazon offer a self publishing service, the end result being a book that is available to purchase through Amazon and read on your Kindle device or similar.
Amazon portray this on their sign up page as a ‘fast and easy way to self-publish your books for sale in the Kindle Store.’
Kindle Direct Publishing
They go on to state:
With Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) you can self-publish your books on the Amazon Kindle Store. It’s free, fast, and easy. Books self-published through KDP can participate in the 70% royalty program and are available for purchase on Kindle devices and Kindle apps for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, PC, Mac, Blackberry, and Android-based devices. With KDP, you can self-publish books in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian and specify pricing in US Dollars, Pounds Sterling, and Euros. You will also find useful information on our active community forum.
Whilst there is much debate at the moment about Amazon’s grip, and intentions, on the publishing market I feel they offer a good solution for unknown authors to test the water and begin to gain an audience for their work.
As a new author I am currently reviewing several different self publishing services but am focussing on Amazon first. At first glance it appears the only real obstacle (and not a big one at that) is getting your book in the right format for upload. I have found the following to be a very thorough and useful guide as to how to publish with Amazon and what steps you need to undertake in order to get your book ready.
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help
It is highly recommended that you follow these self publishing guidelines as it will be the end-user who suffers if you book is formatted badly. This will only result in bad reviews and low sales.
Here is a video that walks you through the basic steps to publishing your book once you have formatted your book and are ready to go:
I intend to review the guidelines very thoroughly and begin bearing this in mind whilst I am completing the final edits to my book and preparing it for launch. I will place any useful pitfalls and quick wins I find on this blog.
Andrew Butterworth 