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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTXF64CJ
I just finished writing and publishing a book, Elea. It was a hobby project and some of you might have seen early versions of it as a pdf or website. This thread is going to briefly detail the experience of publishing it via Amazon’s KDP. The book is a fictional story that branches depending on the decisions you make at the end of each chapter, like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Its primary focus is ancient philosophy (metaphysics and morality) and it references a fair bit of history, politics, and mythology.
The good news is, the KDP process is free and relatively easy. The first step is to write the manuscript and save it as a pdf so it can be uploaded to Amazon. There’s a bit of a song and dance you’ll have to go through with the formatting, though. First, you should tell KDP how large you want your book to be (recommended is 6 x 9) and how many pages it has, then they will tell you the minimum margins you need to use. There are some very quick and easy youtube videos that tell you exactly how to adjust the margins, page size, etc, in word.
Once you save your manuscript as a pdf, double-check to make sure it looks right. From there, go upload it to KDP. Then you need to upload a cover, also in pdf format. They provide template pdf and png files relevant to your book size and style (paperback vs hardcover). It’s a very easy process to just copy and paste the cover images over the template and then upload.
Once you have uploaded the manuscript and cover to the site, you need to get an ISBN. This is essentially an internationally recognized serial number for books. Amazon can give you one for free, but it can only be used to sell the book with them. If you want to be able to publish it elsewhere, you’ll need to get your own ISBN. They’re unfortunately rather pricey; if you only buy one it’ll probably be a hundred dollars, but less if you buy in bulk. I have no idea why it costs so much, but whatever.
Once you have your pdfs uploaded and your ISBN information entered, amazon will automatically overlay the ISBN on your back cover and generate an electronic preview of the printed copy. They have an AI that scans the document and potentially throws up a bunch of errors. You must resolve the errors before you can approve it. The ones I saw involved (A) the text allegedly bleeding over the margins, and (B) the font in my pdf was not available for commercial use. Amazon also asks whether you used AI to produce the book, and it apparently does a scan to check if you’re committing fraud by ripping off someone else’s work or whatever. If you are using AI, they have some guideline on AI generation vs AI assistance, but this was not an issue in my case.
In regards to (A), this is actually a bit annoying. I set MS Word to the margins Amazon provided, but it still claimed my text was out of the margins. I think it was because of the italicized text; basically I have sections that are entirely italicized, and whenever I had a question mark at the end of a line on the left hand page, it would violate the inner margin. I had to use a more conservative margin to get it to work. In regards to (B), I used the Lato font through the whole document, and it is free for commercial use. However, the Amazon AI didn’t recognise a series of three dashes as Lato for some reason. I just deleted them and wrote it differently, whereupon the error went away.
At that point, you just click approve and set the price. The maximum is $250 per copy, and I think the minimum is whatever you need to cover printing costs. You get a 60% royalty, from which they subtract the printing cost. For a 6x9 paperback book with 306 pages, the printing fee is $4.67 per copy. I set my book to $20 a copy, so it looks like this: (20 x .6) – 4.67 = 7.33 per sale (pre-tax). Once you tell Amazon your tax info and the like, you can just click publish and enjoy the millions of dollars you’ll surely rake in. It took them a full 48 hours to approve my publication.
One last thing, there is also the option to buy a proofreading copy before mass publication. I chose to do this because I wanted to be absolutely certain that it turned out all right. It’s the final product but it has the words “Not for Resale” stamped across it. You have to wait to receive it, so this will delay publication and cost you around ten dollars (the print cost + shipping + tax). However, just imagine if you don’t do this, and then a bunch of people buy it and get some misprinted mess.
That’s my experience. I don’t know what the sale data will be like, but I’m happy to do an update if there’s interest. Money was not a primary motivation for me to write this book, but I would like to think it’s worth the price. If you do get it and enjoy reading it, please leave a review on amazon so people don’t assume that it’s a total piece of shit. If I do somehow make millions of dollars from the sales of this book, I promise to commission a statue of the codex mascot.
Link to the book:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTXF64CJ
Audio recording:
I just finished writing and publishing a book, Elea. It was a hobby project and some of you might have seen early versions of it as a pdf or website. This thread is going to briefly detail the experience of publishing it via Amazon’s KDP. The book is a fictional story that branches depending on the decisions you make at the end of each chapter, like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Its primary focus is ancient philosophy (metaphysics and morality) and it references a fair bit of history, politics, and mythology.
The good news is, the KDP process is free and relatively easy. The first step is to write the manuscript and save it as a pdf so it can be uploaded to Amazon. There’s a bit of a song and dance you’ll have to go through with the formatting, though. First, you should tell KDP how large you want your book to be (recommended is 6 x 9) and how many pages it has, then they will tell you the minimum margins you need to use. There are some very quick and easy youtube videos that tell you exactly how to adjust the margins, page size, etc, in word.
Once you save your manuscript as a pdf, double-check to make sure it looks right. From there, go upload it to KDP. Then you need to upload a cover, also in pdf format. They provide template pdf and png files relevant to your book size and style (paperback vs hardcover). It’s a very easy process to just copy and paste the cover images over the template and then upload.
Once you have uploaded the manuscript and cover to the site, you need to get an ISBN. This is essentially an internationally recognized serial number for books. Amazon can give you one for free, but it can only be used to sell the book with them. If you want to be able to publish it elsewhere, you’ll need to get your own ISBN. They’re unfortunately rather pricey; if you only buy one it’ll probably be a hundred dollars, but less if you buy in bulk. I have no idea why it costs so much, but whatever.
Once you have your pdfs uploaded and your ISBN information entered, amazon will automatically overlay the ISBN on your back cover and generate an electronic preview of the printed copy. They have an AI that scans the document and potentially throws up a bunch of errors. You must resolve the errors before you can approve it. The ones I saw involved (A) the text allegedly bleeding over the margins, and (B) the font in my pdf was not available for commercial use. Amazon also asks whether you used AI to produce the book, and it apparently does a scan to check if you’re committing fraud by ripping off someone else’s work or whatever. If you are using AI, they have some guideline on AI generation vs AI assistance, but this was not an issue in my case.
In regards to (A), this is actually a bit annoying. I set MS Word to the margins Amazon provided, but it still claimed my text was out of the margins. I think it was because of the italicized text; basically I have sections that are entirely italicized, and whenever I had a question mark at the end of a line on the left hand page, it would violate the inner margin. I had to use a more conservative margin to get it to work. In regards to (B), I used the Lato font through the whole document, and it is free for commercial use. However, the Amazon AI didn’t recognise a series of three dashes as Lato for some reason. I just deleted them and wrote it differently, whereupon the error went away.
At that point, you just click approve and set the price. The maximum is $250 per copy, and I think the minimum is whatever you need to cover printing costs. You get a 60% royalty, from which they subtract the printing cost. For a 6x9 paperback book with 306 pages, the printing fee is $4.67 per copy. I set my book to $20 a copy, so it looks like this: (20 x .6) – 4.67 = 7.33 per sale (pre-tax). Once you tell Amazon your tax info and the like, you can just click publish and enjoy the millions of dollars you’ll surely rake in. It took them a full 48 hours to approve my publication.
One last thing, there is also the option to buy a proofreading copy before mass publication. I chose to do this because I wanted to be absolutely certain that it turned out all right. It’s the final product but it has the words “Not for Resale” stamped across it. You have to wait to receive it, so this will delay publication and cost you around ten dollars (the print cost + shipping + tax). However, just imagine if you don’t do this, and then a bunch of people buy it and get some misprinted mess.
That’s my experience. I don’t know what the sale data will be like, but I’m happy to do an update if there’s interest. Money was not a primary motivation for me to write this book, but I would like to think it’s worth the price. If you do get it and enjoy reading it, please leave a review on amazon so people don’t assume that it’s a total piece of shit. If I do somehow make millions of dollars from the sales of this book, I promise to commission a statue of the codex mascot.
Link to the book:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTXF64CJ
Audio recording:
Last edited:
