Once there was a time where authors only had one option—to send their work off to publishing houses and hope they make the cut. However, in recent years the landscape of publishing has completely transformed.

With the advent of Ebooks, publishing became suddenly a lot simpler, and over the last few years, companies like Amazon have created platforms to help you easily compile and sell books. So let’s say you have a book you’d like to publish (see also ‘How Big Is The Publishing Industry?‘), but you’re not sure where to begin. One of the simplest methods out there is to use Amazon KDP (see also ‘What Are The Top Performing Keywords In The Biggest Niches On Amazon KDP?‘).

But what exactly is Amazon KDP? And how can you set up your very own account? If you’re wondering about this, then you’ve come to the right place!

In this article, we’re going to take you through a step by step guide on how you can do this. We’ve also included a short Frequently Asked Question section to help answer any other questions you may have on this topic.

What Is Amazon KDP?

Amazon KDP (see also ‘How To Create A Bundle For Your Book Series On Amazon KDP‘) is a platform created by booksellers (and now online marketplace behemoth) Amazon, to allow users to quickly and easily sell books online. KDP (see also ‘Everything You Need To Know About Amazon KDP Categories‘) stands for ‘Kindle Direct Publishing’ and the name can tell us a lot about how the platform works.

Kindle (see also ‘How To Create A Table Of Contents For Your Kindle Book’) is Amazon’s ebook store and app that allows users to download a huge variety of digital books from their online store. Kindle Direct Publishing allows authors to quickly and painlessly place their books onto the Kindle store.

It’s important to note here that Kindle Direct Publishing is now an extensive service that allows you to do everything from compiling your book, to listing it alongside vital keywords to help consumers find it, as well as a paperback and hardback service that will print books and send them directly to consumers.

All in all, KDP is one of the easiest ways for authors to quickly self publish their work (see also ‘10 Skills You Need In The Publishing World‘). If you are looking for a way to quickly put out your work, then this is a great choice for you.

However, there are a few steps that you’ll need to take before you can start publishing, so it’s important to correctly set up your account so that you get the best start you can.

How To Set Up Amazon KDP Account? – The Basics

How To Set Up Amazon KDP Account? - The Basics

In this section we’re going to give you a step-by-step guide on how to create an Amazon KDP account (see also ‘How To Publish On Amazon KDP – Step By Step Guide‘). Make sure you follow each step carefully, and if you get lost just retrace your steps to see if you’ve missed anything.

  1. Navigate to Amazon KDP by following the link here.
  2. Decide if you would like to use your existing Amazon account, or create a new one. The option you choose here can depend a lot on how separate you’d like your two accounts to be. Generally, we’d suggest just using your regular Amazon account unless you have a specific reason not to.
  3. Sign in with your Amazon account, or create a new one.
  4. Next up, you’re going to be presented with the KDP terms of service. These are fairly regular terms, however we would recommend taking a look at them so you get an understanding of what you can expect going forwards.
  5. Complete the form for your account. This will ask you for many important details, so make sure you double check them. Because Kindle Direct Publishing will offer you the opportunity to sell your work and be paid for it, you’re going to need to make sure you input the right information—treat this section of the process seriously so that you don’t run into complications in the future.
  6. Complete tax information. Before you can start selling with KDP, you should know that you’ll have to fill out some tax information relative to the country that you’re living in. You’ll need to make sure you do this in order to get access to royalties.

Downloading The KDP Application

Kindle Direct Publishing comes with a free application called Kindle Create that will help you to compile and publish your manuscript.

Let’s say you’ve written a fantasy fiction novel. You’ve probably already done most of the hard work—the writing, the editing, and some basic formatting—but in order for the work to look good on a Kindle device or app, you’re going to need to do some additional formatting. So then, how do we download the Kindle Create program? This is simple!

All you need to do is navigate to this website here and scroll down until you reach the ‘Download Kindle Create’ section. You’ll find it highlighted in bold with two yellow ‘download’ buttons for each version. Make sure you take the time to select the right version.

The first is for Windows 8 machines or later. The second is for macOS from version 10.15 or later. Make sure you select the right one, and then click the download button. From here, you’ll be able to install it onto your machine, and get started creating right away.

Final Thoughts

So if you’ve followed the steps in this guide, you will now have the two major pieces that you’ll need to start compiling and publish your work. All of this is a fairly simplistic process and won’t take you more than an hour.

KDP is an incredible platform for getting your work out into the wider world, and we hope that this guide has helped you to understand the first steps you’ll need to take.

If you still have some questions, keep reading for our section below that attempts to answer some of the most frequently asked questions around this issue. We wish you the best of luck on your publishing journey and hope that you see great success!

Frequently Asked Questions

How Can I Make Sure My Self Published Kindle Book Has No Mistakes?

This is a hard problem to tackle. If you’ve written a long manuscript, the chances are that there will be a lot of mistakes and important edits you’ll need to make before making it available for purchase.

Self-publishing authors solve this problem in two main ways. The first is to employ an editor to help them. The second is to simply edit themselves. Both ways can work.

Can You Make Money From KDP?

You can certainly make money from KDP. There are plenty of authors who make their main source of income from publishing books. However, this relies on having readers who will buy and download your books.

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