Amazon Self Publishing Guide for Authors
Did you know that, as of 2025, Amazon controls up to 80% of book distribution and half of all book sales in the U.S.?
This Amazon self publishing guide will show you why the platform is a first stop for millions of readers shopping for books—and a go-to choice for authors publishing through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).
If you’re wondering, Should I publish on Amazon? or How does the process work, exactly? This blog post has the answers you’re looking for.! Navigating Amazon’s platform is a fairly involved process, but it’s worth the time and effort especially if you plan to self publish more than one book.
If the time and energy it takes to learn the ins and outs of KDP book publishing feels overwhelming or not how you want to choose to spend your time–never fear!
Our book publishing partnership services include white glove treatment in which we handle all aspects of the KDP process for you, handing it over after publication with details on the basics so you can use it confidently as an author. Learn more about our publishing support HERE.
In the meantime, we’ll walk you through the Amazon book publishing process here so you’ll know what is involved and exactly how to launch your book with confidence.
Let’s dive in!
Why Authors and Readers Love Amazon
As you’ve probably experienced, Amazon is a go-to hub for books nowadays. (In fact, Amazon started as a book-selling site in its early days.) It’s a fast, reliable site that’s easy to shop and millions of books are just a click away.
For authors, Amazon KDP offers global exposure, creative control, and a quick path to publishing. You can publish on your schedule, set your own price, and track your book’s performance in real time.
Deciding Between Self Publishing and Traditional Publishing
Like anything, Amazon self publishing comes with its upsides and trade-offs. Here’s a quick look at both.
Pros of Amazon Self Publishing
You keep creative control over your book
Higher royalties (up to 70% on eBooks)
Global reach with instant distribution
Flexibility to update or rebrand anytime
Faster publishing timeline than traditional routes
Cons of Amazon Self Publishing
Involved process that takes time and energy
Upfront costs for professional editing and cover design
Harder to get into bookstores or win certain awards
Reviews and visibility take time and effort to build
If you love creative freedom and are willing to learn as you go (or get support like what we offer at Whale Song), Amazon KDP self publishing is an incredible opportunity for authors.
If you’re early on in your book writing process and still deciding between self publishing and traditional publishing, we recommend checking out these two blog posts:
How to Choose Between Self Publishing or Traditional Publishing: Part 1
How to Choose Between Self Publishing or Traditional Publishing: Part 2
There is a whole section of our founder Jaime’s book The Author Adventure dedicated to choosing your publishing path, and we recommend you check out that resource as well. We also offer an online course through which you can get this content, here.
Amazon Self Publishing at a Glance
If you’re looking for a quick overview of the Amazon self publishing process, here’s a roadmap of what we’re going to cover in this Amazon book publishing guide.
Finalize your manuscript. First you need to write, revise, and have your book professionally edited.
Format the interior pages. You’ll want to format the interior layout and prepare your files for a Kindle e-book (EPUB) and paperback print version (PDF).
Get a great cover. Design a professional, KDP-ready cover or hire a cover designer to help you create an eye-catching cover.
Set up your KDP Account. Fill out your profile, tax information, and payment info.
Research categories and keywords. Choose search terms that will help your book get discovered by the right readers.
Upload your book. Add the title, description, categories, keywords, and PDF files for your interior pages and cover design.
Decide on pricing. Set pricing for your e-book and paperback and choose a royalty structure.
Preview your book. Make sure your book is looking accurate using Amazon’s tool before you submit for approval.
Order a printed proof. This will help you ensure the print quality looks good and there are no errors in the paperback version of your book.
Publish! Approve the book and make it go live on Amazon (and then have a dance party to celebrate!)
Create an Author Central page. This is your author page which will show your bio and any books you’ve published.
Continue to market your book. Promote your book, share about it with your readers, and collect reviews.
Crafting a Professional-Quality Manuscript
First things first, before using Amazon KDP to publish, you need a great book! One of the best investments you can make is hiring a professional book editor to help refine your work. A clean, well-edited manuscript will build your credibility and give readers a great experience (and that’s the whole point, right?!). If you’re stuck on big-picture questions like the structure or pacing of your book, consider having a developmental edit. If you want to shine and polish the wording, grammar, and punctuation, go for a line edit or copy edit. Ideally, plan to invest in both a developmental edit and line edit along with proofreading to make your book the absolute best it can be.
Formatting Your Book
Once your manuscript is ready, the next step in Amazon book publishing is formatting. This step makes sure your eBook and paperback look professional and read smoothly on any device or in print. Many authors choose to hire a professional formatter, since they’ll ensure the fonts, spacing, and layout meet Amazon KDP publishing requirements. Print formatting involves details like trim size, margins, and page numbers, which can be tricky to get right. Our team partners with amazing design pros to make this step a breeze for our clients.
Whether you format your book yourself or hire someone to help you, polished formatting is essential for success with Amazon KDP self publishing. A clean interior design can make all the difference in how readers perceive your book. Plus, this is where you can add flourishes that really make the book feel like it’s yours. Font choices and embellishments like those you see at the beginning of chapters or as page separators can take a manuscript from average to extraordinary, and if you have a lot of images, charts, or graphics, hiring a formatter is nearly necessary (unless you are a pro).
Ensure You Have an Eye-Catching Book Cover
As we all know, readers do judge a book by its cover! Your book cover is your number one marketing tool in Amazon Kindle publishing. It’s the first thing readers see when browsing, and it has to compete with thousands of other titles. We strongly recommend investing in a professional cover designer. A high-quality cover signals professionalism and helps your book stand out in search results.
Setting Up Your KDP Account
Even before your book is complete, you can start getting set up on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. In fact, if you don’t have a KDP account yet, we recommend creating one as soon as you finish reading this blog post!
Creating your account is free and only takes a few minutes. You’ll head over to the KDP website, sign in with your Amazon login, and then fill in some basic information—like your author name, tax details, and payment information so you can receive royalties once sales start rolling in.
Getting your account set up early is a smart move because it gives you time to explore the dashboard, get familiar with where you’ll upload your manuscript and cover, and review Amazon’s formatting and publishing guidelines. That way, when your book is ready, you’re not scrambling to figure everything out at the last minute.
Choosing the Right Amazon Categories
When you publish through Amazon KDP, you’ll need to choose categories for your book. You can think of categories on Amazon kind of like the aisles and shelves at a bookstore. Similar books are grouped together in this hierarchical system so that readers can easily find what they’re looking for. If your book is on the wrong digital “shelf,” your ideal audience may have trouble finding it.
A little research goes a long way here. Spend some time looking at bestsellers in your category, noticing trends in covers, titles, and descriptions. This will help you position your book for success.
For example, let’s say you’ve written a book about meditation practices for highly sensitive people. If you just list it under the broad “Self-Help” category, your book may be harder for readers to find because there are so many other books in that category. But if you choose “Spirituality” as your main category and then include sub-categories of “Meditation” or even “Personal Transformation,” your book will show up where ideal readers are already browsing.
There are software tools you can use to research categories and how competitive they are, but you can also start by searching on Amazon and seeing what books show up in different categories and subcategories.
If one of your goals is to become an Amazon bestseller, you may want to do additional research about categories, too. To start, Kindlepreneur has a great post on how to choose the best kindle ebook KDP category. This is also something our team at Whale Song can help you with, if you’re interested! Just fill out our book marketing inquiry form.
Optimizing Your Book Description, Keywords and Metadata
Your book description, keywords, and metadata are also important for marketing your book. The book description or blurb is the text that shows up at the top of the Amazon listing page. Typically you want your description to have a catchy hook that will pique the interest of your potential readers and lead them to read on and purchase your book. Sometimes authors will include book endorsements or editorial reviews.
To help readers find your book on Amazon, keywords and metadata are important. These are what help people see your book in the results after they search. On Amazon KDP, you can add up to seven keywords or keyword phrases along with your categories and description. These all affect how your book shows up in search results.
Start by doing some Amazon searches yourself for keywords relevant to your book. To return to the example of the book on meditation practices for highly sensitive people, you could search “meditation practices” or “meditation for HSP.”
What comes up when you type in those keywords? What do you notice about the books that are in the search results? You can also look at what keywords similar books in your genre are using. All of this research is going to help you decide what words and phrases to weave into your title, subtitle, and description.
Pricing Your Book on Amazon
With Amazon Kindle publishing, you’ll choose between a 35% and 70% royalty option depending on your book’s list price. Most authors aim for the 70% royalty, which generally applies to eBooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99.
Paperbacks have their own royalty structure, typically 60% minus printing costs.
The key is to find the right balance. Price your book too high and new readers might scroll past; price it too low and you may undervalue your work. A sweet spot for eBooks is often $3.99–$6.99, while paperbacks tend to fall between $12.99–$18.99 depending on the length of the book (which impacts print costs). Hardback books are priced a bit higher usually.
Don’t be afraid to experiment. Amazon makes it easy to adjust prices if you want to run promotions or test what works best.
Uploading to Amazon KDP
(1 day to one week)
When it’s time to upload your book through Amazon KDP self publishing, you’ll log in to your account on Kindle Direct Publishing and then fill in the important details like your title, description, and keywords. You’ll also set your categories and pricing.
You’ll need to upload finalized PDFs for both the interior pages and the cover.
While the upload process itself isn’t complicated, it’s worth giving yourself at least a week to work through it. Thankfully Amazon’s dashboard makes it easy to log in, add some of the info, save your work, then log out if needed and come back later. So you don’t have to do the whole upload process in one sitting.
These steps can feel a little tedious but are crucial for ensuring your book looks polished once it’s published. During the Amazon upload process you’ll want to use the preview tool to catch any formatting issues and double-check that the interior and cover are looking how you want them to.
And if you find that the whole process is a bit too detailed or time-consuming and you’d like to offload those steps, just reach out to us! We love doing Amazon uploads and helping streamline the publishing process for authors.
Amazon’s Review Process
(24-72 hours; sometimes longer)
Once you’ve uploaded your manuscript and cover through Amazon KDP publishing, your book goes through Amazon’s review process.
This stage usually takes 24–72 hours, though delays can happen if there are formatting issues or missing information.
During this time, Amazon checks that your files meet their technical and content guidelines, ensuring your eBook or paperback is ready for distribution. Once your files are approved, you’ll have the option to order a printed proof (for paperbacks) before your book goes live. It’s important to factor this review period into your launch plan, since it can impact your release date.
Printed Proofs
(5-10 days to receive the proof once you’ve ordered it, plus the time it will take you to review it)
If you’re publishing a paperback, ordering a printed proof is one of the smartest steps you can take.
A proof gives you the chance to hold your book in your hands, flip through the pages, and catch anything you may have missed on-screen. Amazon KDP self publishing proofs typically take 1–3 business days to print, plus another few days for shipping, so expect 5–10 business days at least.
Build in even more time if you’re outside the U.S. or ordering during busy seasons like the holidays.
While some authors skip this step to save time, reviewing a printed proof is invaluable for spotting formatting errors, checking print quality, making sure the color on the cover looks good to ensure your book looks as professional in print as it does on screen.
Keep in mind that any proof copies Amazon sends you will have a "Not for Resale" watermark band across the front cover. This is to distinguish that the book is a proof, and not yet finalized.
Going Live With Your Book on Amazon
(24-72 hours for eBooks, up to 10 business days for paperback books, unless you’ve already been approved a few weeks prior to your launch date)
After review and proofs, the final step is hitting publish and officially making your book available on Amazon. Most eBooks appear within 72 hours, while paperbacks can take a bit longer, up to 10 business days.
Once live, your book will be listed in Amazon’s marketplace, searchable by title, author name, and keywords. Keep in mind that it may take a few additional days for Amazon’s algorithms to fully index your book and for it to appear in category rankings or search results. That’s why it’s smart to upload and approve your files before your planned launch date, giving Amazon time to process and display your book correctly.
Publishing Tip: Don’t wait until the week of your launch to upload your files. Build in at least 2–3 weeks of buffer time before your official release date to allow for Amazon’s review process, printed proofs, and any last-minute adjustments you need to make.
Marketing Your Book After Launch
Getting your book out into the world is a huge milestone and it marks the start of a new chapter: marketing! (I know, did you think we were done yet?)
Self publishing on Amazon is an involved process and requires authors to also build a platform for promoting their books (see Author Platform 101 for more information on this). Amazon is popular; and that means it’s a very crowded marketplace.
To stand out, not only do you need a high-quality book with a high-quality book cover, but you also need to be willing to market your book consistently, engage with your readers, and think long-term about your book’s visibility. Success on Amazon isn’t just about hitting “publish” and then expecting the algorithm to do the work for you.
Every self published author needs a smart promotion strategy behind their book, too. (If you’re feeling lost and uncertain about where to start, fill out our inquiry form for more information about how we can create a custom marketing plan for your book.)
Start close to home by sharing your book with friends, family, and your inner circle. Then branch out—grow an email list, connect with readers on social media, and consider tools like Amazon ads to expand your reach.
You could also reach out to bloggers, podcasters, or influencers in your niche for interviews and reviews. Ask your beta readers or launch team to leave honest reviews once the book goes live—those first impressions matter.
Above all, go at your own pace. Focus on building real connections and sharing your message with heart. When your excitement is genuine, readers will feel it too. If you need help, reach out to us!
Setting Up Your Amazon Author Central Page
Once your book is live, don’t forget about creating your page on Amazon Author Central. This is like your author “home base” on Amazon. It’s where readers can see all of your books, learn about you, and follow you to get notified of future releases.
Setting it up is simple. You’ll just need to fill out your bio, upload an author photo, and provide links. Having a polished author page helps build trust and adds a layer of professionalism so definitely take the time to set it up.
Amazon Self Publishing Mistakes to Avoid
Here are some best practices and common mistakes to avoid making as a first-time author using Amazon KDP.
Don’t skip professional editing or cover design. These are the top reasons readers don’t take a book seriously.
Narrow down your category choices. Don’t just pick “Self-Help”—drill down into niches like “Personal Transformation” or “Creativity.”
Don’t ignore keywords. Without them, your book is basically invisible in Amazon’s search engine.
Order a proof copy and look it over very carefully. What looks fine on a screen can look totally different in print. (Our founder Jaime has had to go through significant edits to both of her books after physical proofing due to design issues!)
Put effort into your marketing. Even the best books need marketing to get traction.
Learning More About Amazon KDP
This Amazon self publishing guide covers the essentials, but if you want to dig deeper, there are so many excellent resources out there for indie authors.
Kindlepreneur (Dave Chesson): A beginner-friendly blog full of tutorials on keywords, categories, ads, and more. Dave also created Publisher Rocket, a handy tool for Amazon keyword research.
ALLi’s Self-Publishing Advice Blog: Run by the Alliance of Independent Authors, this site shares trusted how-tos, industry news, and vetted service recommendations.
The Creative Penn (Joanna Penn): Joanna shares self-publishing and marketing tips, plus insights into the business side of being an author, through both her blog and podcast.
Jane Friedman: A respected publishing commentator offering in-depth analysis of both traditional and indie publishing, including Amazon KDP trends.
David Gaughran: Known for books like Let’s Get Digital, David’s blog dives into Amazon algorithms, ads, and ethical marketing.
Conclusion: Your Amazon Self Publishing Journey
Amazon KDP has made self publishing more accessible than ever before. You have the power to share your story or message with readers across the globe, keep creative control, and earn higher royalties than you would through traditional publishing.
This Amazon self publishing guide has walked you through each step of the process: polishing your manuscript, formatting your files, using an eye-catching cover, choosing categories and keywords, pricing your book, uploading to KDP, ordering proofs, and finally going live. We’ve also covered both the pros and cons of Amazon KDP publishing.
We hope this Amazon self publishing guide gives you the clarity and confidence you need to take the next step with your book.
If you’re ready to take the next step but don’t want to navigate the process alone, our team at Whale Song offers customized Amazon publishing support. We can’t wait to hear from you and learn more about your book and the story you’re ready to tell!
