Publishing a book on Amazon used to mean finding an agent, waiting two years, and giving up most of your royalties. Kindle Direct Publishing changed all of that. Today, any author can upload a manuscript and be selling on Amazon within 24 to 72 hours, keeping up to 70% of every sale, with no gatekeepers involved.
This guide walks you through every step of the process — from setting up your KDP account to hitting publish — including the parts most tutorials skip over that cause first-time authors to stall halfway through.
What Is Amazon KDP?
Amazon KDP stands for Kindle Direct Publishing. It is Amazon’s self-publishing platform, completely free to use, that lets you publish eBooks, paperbacks, and hardcovers directly to Amazon’s global marketplace. Amazon earns money by taking a percentage of each sale. You keep the rest.
Over 40% of all eBook revenue on Amazon now comes from independent authors publishing through KDP. It reaches readers in more than 100 countries, and once your book is live, it stays available indefinitely with no ongoing fees.
Before You Log In: What You Need Ready
The upload process goes smoothly when you have everything prepared before you start. Stopping mid-way to hunt for information is how errors happen and how authors end up with books that go live with the wrong details.
You need your manuscript as a .docx or .epub file. For print books, a PDF is the standard. You need your cover — KDP accepts JPEG or TIFF files, and the dimensions depend on your trim size and page count. You need your book title, subtitle, a book description ready to paste in, seven keywords, and at least two BISAC categories.
If you have used an AI book writing service, this metadata is typically delivered with your manuscript as a separate file. AI Write My Book includes a complete KDP metadata document with every order — a ready-to-paste file containing your optimised title, subtitle, book description, all seven keywords, and recommended Amazon categories. It removes one of the most time-consuming parts of the publishing process entirely.
Step 1: Create Your KDP Account
Go to kdp.amazon.com. If you already have an Amazon account, sign in with it. If not, create one. Use an email address you check regularly — Amazon sends royalty reports, payment confirmations, and review notifications to this address.
Before you publish anything, complete your tax information. This is not optional. If you skip it, Amazon withholds up to 30% of your royalties even after you have earned them. The process takes about five minutes and Amazon walks you through it step by step.
Set up your payment method while you are there. KDP pays by bank transfer, cheque, or Amazon gift certificate depending on your country. Bank transfer is the fastest and simplest for most authors.
Step 2: Choose Your Format
KDP lets you publish in three formats: Kindle eBook, paperback, and hardcover. You can publish all three for the same book, and there is no extra cost to do so. Most authors start with the eBook because it is the simplest upload, then add paperback and hardcover afterwards.
On your KDP Bookshelf, click the yellow “Create” button and choose which format to start with. Each format has its own setup process but shares the same title and description information.
Step 3: Enter Your Book Details
This section matters more than it looks. How you fill in your book details tells Amazon what your book is, who it is for, and where to show it. Taking an extra twenty minutes here has a direct impact on how many people find your book.
Enter your title and subtitle exactly as they appear on your cover. Inconsistencies between the cover and the metadata confuse readers and can trigger Amazon review flags. Your title should be clear and searchable — this is not the place for clever wordplay that obscures what the book is about.
Your book description is your sales page. It is what readers see when they click on your book. A strong description leads with a compelling hook, explains who the book is for, and ends with a reason to buy now. KDP accepts basic HTML formatting — bold text, paragraph breaks, and italics — which makes descriptions easier to read on the product page. Paste your formatted description directly into the field.
Step 4: Keywords and Categories
KDP gives you seven keyword fields. These are not tags — they are search terms that Amazon uses to determine when to show your book to potential readers. Think about what someone who wants your book would type into the Amazon search bar. Specific phrases outperform single words. “How to start a small business” outperforms “business.” “Cozy mystery with cats” outperforms “mystery.”
You choose two categories during setup, but Amazon allows up to ten. After publishing, you can contact KDP support and request additional categories. Choosing more specific subcategories gives your book a better chance of ranking in a category rather than getting lost in a broad one. It is easier to be a bestseller in “Fiction — Small Town and Rural” than in “Fiction — Romance.”
Step 5: ISBN and Publishing Rights
KDP provides a free ISBN for your book. You do not need to purchase one. If you want your own ISBN — one that lists your publishing imprint as the publisher rather than KDP — you can buy one through Bowker, but for most self-published authors the free KDP ISBN is perfectly adequate.
For publication rights, select “I own the copyright and I hold the necessary publishing rights.” This is the correct selection for original work.
Step 6: Upload Your Manuscript and Cover
For eBooks, upload your .docx or .epub file. KDP converts it automatically. For print books, PDF produces the most reliable results. KDP has a manuscript formatting guide that specifies margins, fonts, and page setup — following it before uploading prevents most formatting issues.
Your cover upload must meet specific dimension requirements that vary by trim size and page count. KDP’s Cover Creator tool can generate a basic cover if you do not have one, but professionally designed covers dramatically outperform generic ones in click-through rate. If you have received cover files from a book writing service, you will have an eBook cover, a paperback wrap, and a hardcover wrap already sized correctly.
Step 7: Pricing and Royalties
KDP offers two royalty tiers for eBooks: 35% and 70%. To qualify for the 70% rate, your book must be priced between $2.99 and $9.99 and available in all Amazon regions. Books priced below $2.99 or above $9.99 earn only 35%. For most self-published authors, pricing between $2.99 and $4.99 for eBooks hits the sweet spot between discoverability and earnings.
For print books, royalties are calculated differently — Amazon deducts a printing cost from the sale price, and you earn a percentage of the remainder. KDP shows you an estimated royalty calculator as you set your price, so you can see exactly what you will earn per sale before committing.
Step 8: KDP Select — Should You Enroll?
KDP Select is an optional programme that puts your eBook into Kindle Unlimited, Amazon’s subscription reading service. Readers in KU can borrow your book for free, and you earn a per-page-read royalty from a shared global fund. In February 2026, total KDP Select author earnings reached $61.7 million for the month.
The trade-off is exclusivity. Enrolling means your eBook cannot be available in digital format anywhere else — not on Apple Books, Kobo, or your own website — for 90-day terms. It auto-renews unless you opt out.
For a first book with no existing audience, KDP Select is usually worth enrolling in. The Kindle Unlimited exposure can generate early reads and reviews that help your book rank. You can always opt out after 90 days and go wide across other platforms.
Step 9: Preview and Publish
Before submitting, use KDP’s online previewer to check how your book looks. For eBooks, check that chapter headings are correct, the table of contents links work, and there are no formatting errors. For print books, check every page — especially the first and last pages of each chapter — and verify that your cover spine width matches the page count.
Once you approve the preview, click Publish. KDP reviews new titles and usually makes them live within 24 to 72 hours. You will receive an email confirmation when your book goes live.
The Part That Stops Most Authors
Everything above assumes you already have a finished manuscript. For most people, that is the actual obstacle. KDP is straightforward once you have the files. Getting to that point — writing 30,000 to 50,000 words, designing three matching covers, preparing keyword-optimised metadata — is where most book ideas stall.
That is exactly what AI Write My Book was built to solve. You submit your book concept — title, genre, and any details you want included — and receive a complete, publish-ready package: a full manuscript in .docx format, three professional cover designs sized for eBook, paperback, and hardcover, and a KDP metadata file with everything you need to fill in the upload form. Standard delivery takes around five days. Express delivery is 72 hours.
The upload process described above takes about an hour. The hard part — the writing — is already done.