If you’re looking to self-publish, Amazon is a great platform. It is one of the most popular self-publishing platforms, and it tends to be pretty user-friendly. However, the platform is not foolproof—depending on what you’re looking to get out of your published book, there are some tricks of the trade you can use to make sure you hit the goals you’ve set out for yourself.
Writing a book is a long and hard journey, so you want to make sure that you make the right decisions when it comes to publishing (even though, by this point, you may be thinking: Please can I just get this book out there already?!).
Amazon’s platform, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), walks you through most of the steps necessary for getting your book ready to publish either as an e-book, a printed paperback, or both. However, especially if this is your first book, it’s important that you prepare ahead of time. Publishing takes longer than just a few clicks on a website. KDP simply requires that you set everything up and upload/select your choices. Here is a basic overview of the necessary pre-publish steps:
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Write your book with an audience in mind
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Copyedit and proofread your book (or hire these out)
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Choose your book title and subtitle, and how you’ll write your name on the book.
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Gather endorsements for your book
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Draft a book description and author bio
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Design the cover
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Do some research for pricing your book
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Choose your book format (ebook, print paperback, etc.)
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Set up your KDP account on Amazon
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Proofread everything before you hit publish!
Write with your audience in mind
This step may seem a little backwards (if this is a blog post on publishing, why are we talking about writing?), but the publishing and marketing process for your book starts as soon as your book does! You might write a beautiful book—maybe it’s even technically perfect. But if readers aren’t really interested in the book or intrigued by its content, it won’t sell.
The goal with marketing your book is to increase its sales, but it’s a good idea to set yourself up for success by thinking of how you can market your book from the beginning. One of the easiest ways to do this is by researching what market or niche your book fits into. Is it a business book? Is it a hybrid-memoir? Will your book market toward underrepresented groups?
If you go onto Amazon Books and begin clicking through the sections on the far left side, you can find other books that will sit next to yours on the proverbial shelf. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you need to create a whole new genre in order to stand out from the crowd—finding books similar to yours that have done well is a good thing. That means that there is an established market for your book—a group of readers looking for information like yours. Your originality will shine through in aspects like your writing style, the way your ideas are presented, and your ideas themselves.
You can also take the time to write out, draw, imagine, etc. who your ideal reader is. What are they interested in? What do they do for work? How old are they? What are their hobbies? Get as detailed as you can. If you know who your reader is, you know how to find them. For example, maybe your reader spends a lot of time in academic circles, so you’re marketing may begin in those same circles.
If you know who your reader is before you begin, you can tailor everything from your chapter titles and word choice to your book format to the interests of your readers. This makes the book much easier to market because it’s already set up for the reader who needs it—all they have to do is find it!
Copyediting and Proofreading
The most important thing you’ll do for your book before you publish it is to make sure it’s well-written, accurate, and free of typos and mistakes (if you need an overview of what these two types of editing are, you can view our post on types of editing). These mistakes can make your book look unprofessional and even take away from your credibility. If you publish traditionally, the press will take care of these steps for you (particularly copyediting). You want your book to be up to the same standard of quality even though you’re self-publishing (and it absolutely can be!).
While, technically, you can do both of these types of editing on your own, it’s better to hire on help for editing. You’ve been staring at and revising your manuscript for months—maybe even years—so it’s going to be hard for you to spot mistakes. You’re also attached to your work (as you should be!), which will make it harder to cut and rework sections that need it, simply because you don’t want to part with the hours it took to write them the first time. It’s scary to hand your manuscript over to someone else, but trust that another, trusted set of eyes will only make your book better.
Choosing your book title, subtitle, and author name
By the time you’re ready to publish, your book’s title has likely gone through many iterations. But filling out the KDP publishing form is not the time to pick the final title! You don’t want to rush anything. It’s easy to just want to get the process over with once you’ve been working on it for so long, but, if anything is worth investing as much time as it requires, it’s your book! It quite literally has your name attached to it, so make it a good one.
There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for creating a great title. In fact, industry trends change over time. What’s trending this year may not be next year. However, some basic market research can help you pick a title that will stand the test of time.
“Readers just want to know what they’re getting into when they turn to a book description.”
If you haven’t already, go into Amazon or even Google and search for books similar to yours (these are called comps, or your book’s direct competition). Again, don’t deviate from the norm just because you think it will stand out. Industry standards play a part in reassuring readers that the book they’re viewing is well-done and well-researched. If it’s too far off from others in the field, readers may feel that it doesn’t live up to those standards.
Take note of what is similar about all of the titles you’re looking at. Are they short or long? Do they all have subtitles? Are they punchy and shocking, or more straightforward? Use these traits to inform how you write your own title and subtitle (especially when you’re looking at traditionally-published books—their titles were written and approved by industry experts, which makes them a very reliable source).
As far as your name, you’ll need to decide how you want it displayed on your book. Will you include your full name or substitute any initials? Will you use a pen name? Most of the time, your regular old name will work (and that’s usually the best idea). But (historically especially) authors from marginalized groups may wish to add an initial or utilize a pen name to prevent bias. At the end of the day, though, your name is your name, and your name will always be good enough.
Gather endorsements for your book
When it comes to self-publishing, this is often an optional step, but it’s also a great way to make your book stand out and gain some credibility. All you need is anywhere from one to three short (positive) reviews of your book and its contents from other experts in your field. For example, a book on performative activism may benefit from reviews by a university professor or researcher on activism, another expert who’s written on the topic, and the head of a nonprofit for a similar cause.
You’ll need to make sure you can either send your manuscript as a PDF or in print (this doesn’t have to be a printed book—it can be a spiral-bound book or even printed and held together by some binder rings). Then, you simply need to contact experts in your field and ask them if they would review your book for a blurb on the back cover. These are usually around 50-100 words (but can vary). Make sure you also give them a date to complete the blurb—people are busy, and they may not bring it to the top of their list without a time limit.
If you know any relevant experts personally (or even as a friend-of-a-friend), that’s a great place to start. But many experts or organizations like to be supportive of other voices in their field if they have the time, so reach out to anyone you think would enjoy the book! They may simply not have enough time, but they will often be grateful to hear about it. You can even send them a finished copy once it’s printed.
Draft a book description and author bio
Nearly every book cover out there has these two components (and they’re two of my favorites!) Though they seem pretty self-explanatory, you do need to put some thought into them.
The book description is what goes on the back of the book (occasionally inside a cover) and describes what your book is about to potential readers (and book buyers). Whether I’m pouring through a Barnes & Noble or a used book store, I always turn each potential purchase around and read the book’s description. Your book’s description should provide information on your book’s overall plot and hint at which genre the book falls into, but it should leave enough to the imagination that a potential reader decides to continue by purchasing and/or reading the book (so no spoilers!).
Readers just want to know what they’re getting into when they turn to a book description. But, once again, your back cover is still book marketing! Make your story sound intriguing—draw readers in and leave them wanting more (AKA the rest of your book).
Your author bio can be as formal or laid back as you’d like, though I’d look up others for inspiration before drafting your own. Most are a brief description of who you are, where you’re from, and other pieces you’ve published (if you have any). Save your author bio when you’re done writing it, as many authors will just polish off their previous one before adding it to their next published work.
Design the cover
Easier said than done, I know. But most people have a sense of what they want the cover to be even as they’re drafting their manuscript. In fact, simply imagining what you envision for your cover is a good place to start.
I’m still going to point you, once again, to other books in your field for inspiration. Pay attention to whether similar titles are very graphic-heavy or have more pictures of faces (even of the author). Do most of them have bright, bold colors, or are they more muted? How does each book differentiate itself from the others? These are all things to keep in mind when designing your own cover.
However, this is another aspect of publishing that is best done by a hired professional. Unless you have experience in the field of publishing and cover design, hiring on someone who does will make sure that your book looks professional. Your designer may even help you bring your real vision for the cover to life by helping you curate the emotions and intrigue your readers feel when they pick up your book for the first time.
Note: check out KDP’s guidelines as far as cover formats they will accept.
Research pricing for your book
At the end of the day, you often have the power to price your book at whatever you feel is best, though certain preferences on KDP may come with additional requirements. But, you guessed it, you’re going to need to take a look at other books in your genre to see how they price their books (is it starting to sink in how important genre is before you even write your book?).
A price on par with others in your genre or niche will let readers know that your book’s quality is on par with others in your genre. Plus, you can choose what price is best strategically—maybe you price your book a dollar below the others as incentive toward buying yours. Maybe you make it a tad more expensive to portray the time and research you invested into your book. Or you can keep it on par with others and let your words and marketing speak for themselves.
Set up your KDP account
Once you’ve prepared everything you need to publish your book, you’re finally ready to get on the platform and get started. Head over to kdp.amazon.com and sign in with your Amazon account (naturally, if you don’t have an Amazon account, you’ll need to create one). Then set up your email/username and password.
Then you’ll set up what is essentially a mini publishing company under your name (your legal name—not your pen name). Select “Individual” as your business type, input your birthdate, select your country of residence, and enter your mailing address for royalty payments (you can also set up direct deposit once you’ve created your account).
From here, go to your “Bookshelf” and create your book in your desired format. Then, you’ll follow the steps (for which there are many tutorials online, including from Amazon itself). If you’ve followed all of the steps for this post, you should have no trouble.
Proofread, Proofread, Proofread
It goes without saying that, before you hit “Publish,” you should double and triple-check that everything is spelled correctly and free of typos. Mistakes like those can make a huge difference in your book sales in the long run, and they are a “tell” for self-published titles. You’ve worked hard and invested so much time and money into your book, so make sure no stone is left unturned!
Author and publishing services
Phew! That was a lot of information. If you’ve made it this far, you’re either feeling confident about the journey you have ahead, or you feel so overwhelmed you don’t know where to start. There is a lot more to publishing a book than what meets the eye. There’s a reason there are so many people who make it their profession!
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: nothing is more worth investing in than you, your expertise, and your book. Should you decide you’d like assistance with this process, we offer everything you need to get through the publishing process with as little stress as possible. DAS Author Services can even publish your book (that means 100% of this stress is off your hands)!
But, whether you’d like a manuscript review, copyediting and proofreading, cover design, and assistance with querying traditional publishers, we’ve got you covered. And, if you’re feeling confident enough to take publishing on your own, I hope this post has helped you get started.
