Are you looking to self-publish your manuscript?

Many writers choose to opt for this solution via the Amazon platform , which offers a complete, accessible and very practical service: here you will find the main steps to follow to allow you to publish your book there, as well as the prerequisites required.



As we will see, it can be useful to present your manuscript to a professional web editor , in order to obtain expert editing and to avoid possible typos that could harm the quality of your work.

Our guide to publishing a book on Amazon in 6 steps


1 – Register for Kindle Direct Publishing

You guessed it: signing up for Amazon's self-publishing program , Kindle Direct Publishing, is a prerequisite for getting your book published on Amazon. To do this, you can connect directly to your Amazon account, if you have one, from the KDP login page . If this is not the case, you will then have the option to create an account by providing your contact details.

It is highly possible that the words “account information incomplete” will appear at the top of the screen: this will need to be duly completed before you can then publish a book on Amazon. We therefore recommend that you complete all the requested fields before proceeding to the next step.


2 – Choosing the format of your book

Once your registration is complete, and your profile is duly completed, you can move on to the very first step in the process of publishing your book on Amazon: click on the “+ CREATE” button!

You arrive on a page offering you the choice of creating a paperback, bound book (an option only available in beta version, for the moment) or an e-book. This decision must be justified according to your preferences as well as your objectives. For example, children's books are more suited to "physical" reading, so in this case it would be appropriate to opt for a paperback book.

In the case of a work dealing with a subject relating to personal development, a digital version should be more than sufficient. It's up to you to make your choice, depending on the subject covered in your work as well as the specificities of your readership!

Publish an e-book on Amazon

The e-book is a publishing option with many advantages:

  • Simpler and faster formatting;
  • The cost of printing the book (paid by Amazon) is not deducted from your profits.

However, it is considered that the author receives 70% of the sale price of his work in the case of digital products, which is slightly lower than the amount earned for the publication of a physical book.

Opting for an e-book can be particularly interesting if you are publishing your very first manuscript. This will allow you to find your readership before embarking on the adventure of paper works.

Of course, KDP provides you with numerous resources to support you step by step in the publication of your e-book.

Choose a hardcover or paperback book

Confusion between a hardcover and a paperback book is common, although the distinction between these two formats is relatively simple. Thus, a paperback book has a soft cover, and the pages are glued to the edge. This is a type of publishing that is most often used for paperback books.

Bound books, on the other hand, have a hard cover, which is therefore more solid. These are made up of several small notebooks glued together then assembled into a single book. This format, which we remind you is currently only available in its beta form from the Amazon publisher, is usually popular with those who wish to create a book on a specific theme: gastronomy, landscapes, gardens, etc. .

Note that the printing of these books will be carried out by Amazon: there is therefore no need to publish them on your own, nor to carry stocks. You will receive up to 80% of the sale price of your book, and Amazon will then use a small percentage of the proceeds to finance the costs of printing your copies.

If you choose to publish a book on Amazon in paper format (hardcover or paperback), you will then need to provide the self-publishing platform not only with your manuscript, but also a file including your first and fourth covers as well as the slice of your work.

3 – Required information to publish a book on Amazon

Now that you have chosen the format of your manuscript, you need to provide Amazon with valuable information about its content. This includes :

  •  The language used for writing the work;
  •  The edition number;
  •  Information about the author;
  •  Any contributors to the work;
  •  Mention of publication rights;
  •  The choice of the main audience;
  •  The publication section;
  •  The choice of keywords describing the book.

At this stage, you must also write a description of your book: this will be published on Amazon on the sales page of your book. It is therefore very important to motivate your readers to purchase! So write it with the greatest care, or do not hesitate to call on a freelance writer to help you with this task.

4 – Creating the layout

Are you afraid of pulling your hair out when laying out your book on Kindle Direct Publish? No worries !

After recording all the information necessary to publish your book on Amazon, Kindle Direct Publish offers to format your work. You will then need to export your manuscript in PDF, .docx or .doc. Many resources are once again made available to you to help you carry out this task as best as possible.

You can even choose to download Kindle Create software to help you layout your manuscript. Other programs can also be chosen in advance to make your task easier, such as Kindle Comic Creator (for comics and manga), or “ Kindle Kid's Book Creator ” (children's books).


5 – Definition of the sale price

Now comes the time to define the selling price of your work. Of course, it must be interesting for you, but also allow you to reach the largest possible readership, especially if it is the very first work that you are going to publish on Amazon.

Some authors do not hesitate to offer their book at the price of a symbolic euro, the time to build up an audience worthy of the name. A price range will be offered to you by KDP to help you make the right choice. For more information on this thorny issue, you can turn to Kindle Direct Publishing's online resources .


6 – Submitting the book to Amazon

Here is the final step of the process, this time which will allow you to officially publish your book on Amazon . To do this, simply click on the “publish your book” button: it will then be sent to the moderation teams for analysis.

In the absence of errors and malfunctions in its formatting, your work should be posted for sale on the Amazon site within 72 hours. You will of course be informed of this important step by a notification from Kindle Direct Publishing.

Why choose to publish your book on Amazon?

Choosing Amazon as a publishing platform for your manuscript has several major advantages. You are probably aware that the publishing market is very popular: few writers manage to obtain a publication. Many then turn to self-publishing, which often requires the creation of a stock of physical books, and therefore the advance of significant costs.

Amazon's publishing platform is completely free. Even printed works do not have to be ordered in advance by the writer, because these are published as units are sold. Note also that Amazon benefits from excellent visibility, and allows your work to be accessible to as many people as possible: expenses related to marketing communications are therefore considerably more affordable for amateur writers.

You can then allow yourself to focus on more targeted communication actions in order to promote your work. For example, writing blog articles or columns, particularly via your website, can help highlight your work and increase its notoriety at a lower cost.

What are the prerequisites for publishing a book on Amazon?


Propose content free of errors

Before you take the step of publishing your book on Amazon , it is essential to carry out thorough content editing.

Amazon considers that there are two types of errors, critical errors and minor errors, which may taint the reader's experience. The first disrupt the proper understanding of your content, through a lack of coherence or approximations reducing the quality of the text.

Minor errors, on the other hand, consist mainly of typos, which greatly affect the professionalism of your book. Fortunately, Amazon's publishing service, called Kindle Direct Publishing, provides you with a "Kindle Previewer" tool that allows you to find a typo and quickly correct it throughout your work.

Correcting your book is far from trivial because in the presence of too many errors, Amazon reserves the right to remove your manuscript from its sales platform until the errors in question have been corrected. corrected.

It is also possible that Amazon displays a warning on the sale page of your book, informing potential buyers of the presence of recurring errors, and therefore of low content quality. Obviously, the presence of such a warning can be devastating to your sales, and therefore requires a complete revision of the manuscript.

Do not hesitate to rely on the Kindle Content Quality Guide to help you proofread and correct your work before publication.


Carry out adequate formatting

Transferring your manuscript from your text editor to Amazon's publishing platform may cause some small issues with content formatting. It is therefore essential that you format your document before uploading it: don't forget pagination, the integration of margins, pleasant line spacing, but also the integration of a summary. Then, you can export your file to PDF, to ensure that its formatting is not compromised by its transfer to the Amazon platform.

If you're having trouble formatting your book , don't worry. Kindle Direct Publishing offers very easy-to-follow tutorials to help you with this process, depending on the desired format of your work.


Check image quality

The adage that a picture is worth a thousand words still applies today. The quality of the images in your manuscript is essential for it to look as professional as possible. It is therefore particularly important to pay attention to your choices of internal illustrations or those appearing on the front and back covers.

Kindle Direct Publishing 's preview tool will allow you to get a detailed preview of your books, and make the necessary changes in the event of non-compliant images.


Obtain an ISBN code


Impossible to publish a book on Amazon without the process including some administrative tasks!

According to current legislation, any book sold in a bookstore or on an e-commerce site must have a unique ISBN (International Standard Book Number) code . This works in the same way as a car's license plate, and allows its identification using a numbering system comprising 10 digits.

Also note that this identification number must appear on each copy of the manuscript, on the title page of the e-book as well as on the bottom/back of the title page and on the bottom of the back cover in the case of a book having been printed.

All types of works are affected by this obligation, apart from e-books, for which obtaining an ISBN code is only recommended.

One specificity of this system must still be specified here. You will need to obtain a different ISBN code for each new format of your book. Thus, if you choose to publish a book in e-book format, it will have a different ISBN code from the same book sold in hardback format. Likewise, an e-book published in PDF format will need to have a different ISBN code from another example of your e-book published in mobi format.

You then have two options for obtaining your ISBN code before publishing your book on Amazon:

  •  Go to the website of the Francophone Agency for International Book Numbering ( AFNIL ) which will issue you with an ISBN code within 3 weeks for the sum of 30 euros excluding tax. You can then use this ISBN directly on Kindle Direct Publishing when publishing your book on Amazon.
  •  Get your ISBN for free via Amazon's publishing platform, KDP . This is an option offered to you when you configure the publication of your book. Please note, however, that this ISBN can only be used on Amazon: if you also wish to publish your work on other physical sites or on the internet, you will then need to purchase an ISBN from AFNIL.

Our tip for successfully publishing your book on Amazon

As you can see, publishing a book on Amazon is particularly easy, especially thanks to the many resources made available by KDP.

However, several steps require the support of a writing professional, especially with regard to proofreading your work, writing its description for sale, or even writing optimized blog articles. SEO to promote it.