Publishing on KDP is free and genuinely straightforward. Publishing on KDP well involves about a dozen decisions that are easy to get wrong and awkward to reverse. This walks through both.
Before you start, have these ready
- A print-ready interior PDF at the correct trim size, with bleed set correctly if you have images running to the edge
- A reflowable EPUB for the Kindle edition — not the same file as the print interior
- A full cover wrap (front, spine, back) built to your exact page count, plus a separate eBook cover JPEG
- Your bank details and tax information
- A written book description, and a list of researched categories and keywords
Step 1 — Account and tax interview
Create the account at kdp.amazon.com. The tax interview is the part that matters financially: if you are UK-based, complete it and supply your UTR or company number so the US–UK treaty applies. Skip it and Amazon withholds 30% of your US royalties. Correctly completed, that withholding is zero.
Step 2 — Title setup
Enter title, subtitle, author, series and description. Two things people get wrong here:
The subtitle is searchable. On non-fiction it is prime keyword space. "A Practical Guide" wastes it; "How Small Manufacturers Cut Lead Times by Half" does not. Do not keyword-stuff — Amazon penalises it — but do use real words readers search for.
The description is a sales page, not a blurb. KDP accepts limited HTML: bold, headers, line breaks, lists. Use them. An unbroken wall of text converts poorly on mobile, where most browsing happens.
Step 3 — Categories and keywords
You select two categories in the interface, but you can request up to ten by emailing KDP support after publishing. Almost nobody does this, and it is free reach.
Choose narrow categories you can realistically rank in rather than broad ones you cannot. Seven keyword fields are available, each accepting a phrase up to 50 characters. Use phrases, not single words — "books for new managers first time" is a search someone performs; "leadership" is not a race you can win.
Never put your own title, your author name, another author's name, or "free" in a keyword field. The first two are already indexed and the last two violate Amazon's terms.
Step 4 — Upload and preview
Upload the interior and cover, then open the Previewer and actually look at every page. Common failures: images shifted by a few millimetres, page numbers missing from front matter, chapter openers landing on left-hand pages, and a spine whose text is off-centre because the page count changed after the cover was designed.
Step 5 — Pricing and territories
Set the UK price first, then set each other marketplace manually. Amazon offers automatic conversion, and it produces prices like €11.37 that read as careless. Clean local price points convert measurably better.
For eBooks, keep the price between £1.99 and £9.99 to stay in the 70% royalty band. Outside it you drop to 35%, which is almost always worse in absolute terms.
Step 6 — Order a proof
Do this before you publish, every time. Author proofs are printed at cost plus shipping and arrive in about a week. Things that are invisible on screen and obvious in your hands: paper weight and show-through, the real colour of your cover under normal light, gutter margins too tight to read comfortably, and a spine that is a millimetre out.
Step 7 — Publish
Hit publish and the book enters review. eBooks typically clear within 24 hours, paperbacks within 72. Once live, check the listing on a phone: thumbnail legibility, the first two lines of the description, the Look Inside file, and whether the paperback and Kindle editions are linked on one product page. If they are not, KDP support will link them on request.
The settings that quietly cost money
| Setting | Default behaviour | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| ISBN | Free Amazon ISBN, Amazon as publisher | Use your own if you want bookshop or library reach |
| Expanded distribution | Off | Turn on, or use IngramSpark instead for better trade terms |
| Territory pricing | Auto-converted | Set clean local prices per marketplace |
| KDP Select | Opt-in prompt at setup | Only if you accept 90-day exclusivity |
| Categories | Two | Email support and request up to ten |
After launch
You can change price, description, keywords, categories and even the manuscript at any time; changes take effect within 72 hours. The one thing you cannot change is the ISBN. Everything else is editable, so do not let perfectionism on reversible details delay publication by months.