How to Publish a Book on Amazon KDP: A Step-by-Step Guide

You have finished your book, edited it, and built a cover. Now you are staring at Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing dashboard wondering what to click, what actually matters, and what you can change later. This guide walks the whole thing, field by field, in the order KDP asks for it.

Amazon KDP is free. It lets anyone publish an ebook, paperback, or hardcover directly to Amazon with no agent and no publisher, and Amazon simply takes a share of each sale while you keep the rest. Your book can be on sale to readers in over a hundred countries within a few days. If you want the wider view of the whole publishing journey first, start with our guide on how to self-publish a book — this article is the detailed walk-through of the Amazon step within it.

What you need before you start

KDP publishes whatever you upload, so have these three things ready before you log in:

• A finished, formatted manuscript — a reflowable file for the ebook and a print-ready PDF for paperback or hardcover. If formatting is not your strength, professional book formatting produces both from one manuscript.
• A professional cover — front only for the ebook, and a full wraparound (front, spine, back) for print.
• An Amazon account — you will publish through it.

If your manuscript has not been edited yet, do that first. KDP will happily publish an unedited book, and readers will notice.

Step 1: Create your KDP account

Go to KDP and sign in with your existing Amazon account, or create one. It is free, and there is no approval process — you are in immediately. Do not overthink this step; the real decisions come later.

Step 2: Complete your tax and payment information first

This is the step new authors skip and later regret. Before you publish anything, fill in your tax interview and your bank details in your account settings.

If your tax information is incomplete, Amazon can withhold a significant portion of your royalties — up to 30% for authors outside the US — even on money you have already earned. Sorting it out first means every sale pays you correctly from day one. It takes a few minutes and it is the single most valuable thing you can do before uploading a book.

Step 3: Start a new title and choose your format

From your Bookshelf, click to create a new title. KDP offers three formats: Kindle eBook, Paperback, and Hardcover. You do not have to do them all at once — publish the ebook today and add print tomorrow if you prefer.

It costs nothing extra to offer all three, and they link together on a single Amazon listing so readers see every edition in one place. Offering the ebook plus at least a paperback is usually worth it: the ebook attracts price-sensitive readers while print appeals to those who want a physical copy.

Step 4: Enter your book details

This first page is your book's identity and how readers find it, so give it real attention rather than rushing it at upload time.

• Language — sets which marketplace and readership your book is matched to.
• Title and subtitle — enter the title exactly as it appears on your cover; Amazon is strict that they match. Use the subtitle to signal the benefit or genre. Do not stuff keywords into the title.
• Description — this is sales copy, not a summary. Answer who the book is for, what it delivers, and why someone should read it, and open with a hook.
• Keywords — you get seven keyword slots. Fill them with the actual phrases readers would search, not repeats of your title.
• Categories — choose categories that genuinely fit your book. Specific, well-matched categories are easier to rank in than broad, crowded ones.

Your description, keywords, and categories together decide who ever sees your book, so treat this page as part of the writing.

Step 5: Upload your manuscript

Upload the file for the format you are publishing. For an ebook, that is a reflowable file that adapts to any screen and font size. For print, it is a fixed PDF built to your chosen trim size, with correct margins and bleed — get the spine width and margins right, because print errors mean a rejected file or a flawed proof.

KDP will flag issues on upload, but it will not catch everything, which is why the preview step below matters.

Step 6: Upload your cover

For an ebook, you upload the front cover only. For print, you need a full wraparound cover sized to your exact page count, since the spine width depends on it. If you used a professional designer, they will supply the right files; if you would rather hand the whole technical side over, Amazon KDP publishing services cover setup end to end.

Step 7: Preview your book

Use KDP's previewer before you publish. Page through it as a reader would and check for broken formatting, awkward page breaks, misplaced images, and anything that looks off. This is where self-published books most often give themselves away, and it is far better to catch a problem here than in a one-star review.

Step 8: Set your rights, royalties, and price

First, confirm you hold the publishing rights (for your own original work, you do). Then choose your royalty rate and price:

• On ebooks, KDP offers a 35% or 70% royalty. To qualify for 70%, your book must be priced between $2.99 and $9.99 and available in all Amazon regions. Priced below $2.99 or above $9.99, you earn 35%. Sitting inside the higher-royalty range is usually the right call.
• Print royalties run around 50% to 60%, calculated after Amazon's per-copy printing cost — which is why your print price is naturally higher than your ebook.
• You will also choose KDP Select or wide. Enrolling an ebook in KDP Select makes it exclusive to Amazon for 90 days in exchange for Kindle Unlimited income and extra promotion tools — often good for genre fiction and first-timers. Going wide lets you also sell on Apple Books, Kobo, and elsewhere, but skips Kindle Unlimited — usually better for non-fiction or authors with an existing multi-platform audience.

(KDP occasionally updates its royalty terms and price bands — confirm the current figures in your KDP dashboard before setting your price.)

Step 9: Publish, and what happens next

Hit publish. Amazon reviews the book, and English-language titles typically go live within roughly 24 to 72 hours, available to readers across more than a hundred countries. You will get an email when it is on sale.

What you can change after publishing

Here is the reassurance most first-timers need: almost nothing is permanent. Once your book is live you can still fix typos, upload a new cover, retune your keywords and categories, and adjust your price — and your reviews, sales rank, and listing all stay in place through the update. So publish when the book is genuinely ready, but do not let the fear of a small mistake keep you from publishing at all.

Common KDP mistakes to avoid

The errors that quietly cost authors sales:

• Skipping the tax information and losing a chunk of royalties to withholding.
• A keyword-stuffed title that breaks Amazon's rules and reads as spammy.
• Weak categories and keywords that leave the book invisible in search.
• A thin, summary-style description that fails to sell.
• Publishing without previewing and shipping formatting errors to readers.

Every one of these is avoidable with a little care at the right step.

Do it yourself, or have it done

Publishing on KDP is genuinely manageable once you have done it once — for many authors it is a checklist, not a mystery. But if the formatting specifications, cover files, and metadata feel like time taken away from writing, a full-service publisher handles the technical setup and gets it right the first time. Neither choice is wrong; what matters is that the finished listing looks professional, because readers judge it in seconds.

The bottom line

Publishing a book on Amazon KDP comes down to a clear sequence: set up your account and taxes, create the title, get the details and metadata right, upload a clean manuscript and cover, preview it, price it sensibly, and publish. Work through it in order and you will have your book on sale to a global audience — with full control kept in your hands.