Amazon launched KDP in November 2011. At the time, there was no competition in the eBooks space. There were a few small publishers, like Smashwords, but nothing else.

So Amazon had a huge opportunity to dominate the market. And they did just that. Today, over 90% of books published are sold through Amazon.

The idea behind KDP is simple: Amazon wants to make it easier for people to publish books. They know that most people buy books online, and they want to offer authors another way to reach readers.

So, Amazon set up a system that allows authors to upload their work and sell it directly to consumers without having to go through a publisher.

How It Works

The platform enables writers to sell their ebooks directly via Amazon.com. Once uploaded, it takes just a few minutes to set up and start selling.
You won’t need to pay any costs initially to register with KDP. You just need to sign up and enter the title of your book, and upload your ebook file. From there, you’ll be able to choose how many copies you want to print, and what price you’d like to charge per copy.

Benefits

KDP offers a range of benefits, including easy author registration, fast turnaround times, and access to millions of potential readers around the world.

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing gives authors the ability to self-publish their work without having to worry about distribution, marketing, sales, or anything else.

The benefits of choosing KDP include:

• Fast publishing times – You can upload your manuscript and start selling immediately.
• Easy access to readers – Your book is published directly to Amazon’s Kindle store, where millions of customers browse every day.
• More exposure – Your book appears on the front page of the Kindle Store, and people can find your book even if they’ve not heard of it before.
• Better pricing – When you sell your book through KDP, they handle everything from editing to formatting to cover design to uploading to the Kindle store. They take care of all the hard stuff so you can focus on writing great stories.
• Access to Amazon tools – If you’re looking for ways to improve your book, check free resources like the Kindle Paperwhite Reading App, Kindle Unlimited, and Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

Signing Up

You can create a new Amazon Kindle Author Account without having any books published yet. Simply go to www.amazon.com/kindlepublish and click “Create New Account” to get started.

After signing up, you’ll receive a confirmation email containing a link to your new author account. Clicking the link takes you to your new author account where you can begin uploading your book(s).

The Dashboard

The dashboard is where you manage your books. You can see how many copies you have sold, how much money you’re making, and even view sales reports.

There are four main sections within the dashboard, each one representing a different area of book management.

1. Your Books

This section gives you information about your books, including the number of books you have published, how many people read them, how many reviews you have received, and how many times they’ve been downloaded.

2. Author Page

Here you’ll find information about you, including the email address etc. You can add new and update contact info. Clicking on the pencil icon next to your name allows you to make changes to the profile.

3. Sales Reports

Here, you’ll find detailed sales reports broken down by day, week, month, quarter, and year. This is great because you can see exactly how well your books are doing. If you notice a dip in sales, you can make changes to your marketing strategy to improve things.

4. Inventory

You can add inventory here, which allows you to keep track of what you still have left to sell. When you reach zero inventory, you won’t be able to sell anything else until you replenish your stock.

Setting Up Author Page

Once your Amazon KDP account (see also ‘Should You Use Your Own Personal Account For Amazon KDP?‘) is up and running you should create your Author Page. To do this you will need to head over to author central, which agree page provided by Amazon and provides a useful marketing tool.

The author page is important as it lists your titles in one place plus it gives you space to list your basic information with a space to explain who you are and what you do. It also connects with readers looking for books on Amazon.

To create your Author Page on author central, you need to join author central, but this takes just moments to complete.

Amazon pulls your information in from your account, so the entire process is fairly automated. Once you confirm your author identity, Amazon will connect any book you’ve already published to your page.

Once you’ve confirmed everything, Amazon will email you a url to your author page setup screen, where you’ll be able to add your headshot, bio, blog posts and even your speaker or appearance schedule if you have one.

Creating A Book Listing

Once your account is set up and you’ve worked on your author page, it’s time to start uploading your book to Amazon.

To start the process go to your Bookshelf on Amazon and select “Create New Book.” Choose where you’d like to place your book and what genre it fits into.

Click on the category you want to use. The next screen gives you options for how you want people to find your book. Select “Kindle Books Only” if you just want readers to download your book directly onto their Kindles. Otherwise, select “Include All Devices.”

You’ll now be taken to a third screen where you can enter information about your book. First, give your book a name. Next, add a description. Finally, decide whether you want to include keywords or tags.

If you want to include keywords, you’ll need to fill out a form that asks for the words you want to describe your book. Once you’ve done that, you can save your entry.

Now that you’ve entered the basic information about your book, it’s time to move on to the final step. On this screen, you’ll upload your book’s content and cover artwork. It couldn’t be simpler!

Conclusion

Amazon KDP is an easy way to get started selling ebooks through Amazon (see also ‘How To Sell Notebooks On Amazon KDP‘). It’s free to sign up, and could be the start of a great publishing journey!