How to Publish a Book on Amazon KDP in Australia: From Manuscript to Marketplace

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing lets any Australian author upload a finished book and offer it for sale through Amazon's storefronts as an ebook, paperback or, where supported, hardcover, with the whole process run from a single online account at kdp.amazon.com. Opening the account and preparing the book, though, are two separate pieces of work. Account setup is identity, payment details, and the tax interview, and most authors can complete it in an evening. Preparing the book is editing, cover design, interior formatting, metadata, and proofing, and that part can run from weeks to months depending on the manuscript's starting state.

The common point of uncertainty, and the one this article answers directly, is which of those tasks has to happen first. The short answer is that account setup does not require a finished manuscript, but submitting a book for review does. The sections that follow walk through the whole sequence in order, so an Australian author can see where their current project sits and what the next real step actually is.

What Is Amazon KDP and How Does It Work for Australian Authors?

Amazon KDP, short for Kindle Direct Publishing, is Amazon's own self-publishing platform. An Australian author who signs in at kdp.amazon.com can upload a manuscript and cover, enter book details, set territory and pricing, submit the title for Amazon's internal review and, once the review is cleared, have the book appear for sale on Amazon.com.au and the other Amazon storefronts where the author holds rights. The author keeps the copyright, controls the metadata, and can withdraw or update the book later.

KDP is not a traditional publisher. There is no acquisition panel reading the manuscript, no advance negotiation, and no editorial board deciding whether the book is good enough. What KDP does is distribute. It is also not a general Amazon Seller account, which is a separate marketplace tool for selling physical products the seller already has in stock. KDP's print editions are produced on demand, so no inventory sits with the author.

Every submission does go through a technical and policy review. The review checks that the files meet Amazon's current specifications, that the rights declaration is in order, and that the content fits Amazon's content guidelines. Submissions that fail the review are not usually rejected outright on the first pass. The author receives an email naming the issue, corrects the files, and resubmits. Technical issues such as bleed, embedded fonts, or cover trim are the most common causes. Rights and policy questions are less common but take longer to resolve.

A KDP account is available to Australian residents and does not require citizenship. The author provides identity details, an Australian bank account for royalty payments, and a response to the tax interview, which Amazon uses to classify the account for US tax purposes. None of these steps involves submitting a book, and none of them is an endorsement by Amazon. The account is simply the working interface for everything else. For an Australian writer still weighing routes alongside independent publishing on KDP, the comparison between author-led and traditional publication is covered in self-publishing vs traditional publishing in Australia.

What Can You Actually Publish Through Amazon KDP from Australia?

An Australian author can publish three book formats through KDP: Kindle ebooks (as reflowable or fixed-layout files), paperbacks, and hardcovers in supported trim sizes. Each format has its own file specification, its own cover template, and its own reading context. The right combination for a first book is usually a matter of what the manuscript actually looks like on the page.

Reflowable Kindle ebook

A reflowable ebook is a text file that resizes to any Kindle device, Kindle app or supported reading device. The reader can change font size, line spacing, and screen orientation, and the words flow to fit. This is the standard format for novels, memoirs, essay collections, business books, and any manuscript whose value is in the words rather than the page design.

Fixed-layout Kindle ebook

A fixed-layout ebook preserves the page exactly as designed. The reader cannot resize the text or reflow the content. This format is used where the layout carries meaning: picture books, highly designed children's books, cookbooks with set spreads, comic books and graphic novels, and some illustrated non-fiction.

Paperback (print on demand)

A paperback is produced on demand when a reader orders a copy. The author uploads an interior PDF and a wrapped cover PDF built against Amazon's current cover template for the chosen trim size and page count. There is no inventory to manage. Supported trim sizes include a range of standard trade dimensions.

Hardcover

Hardcover is available in a narrower set of trim sizes than paperback. The interior and cover specifications differ from paperback, so a book published in both will need two separate file sets. Not every manuscript needs a hardcover edition. It is most often chosen for premium editions, gift-market titles or where readers have specifically asked for a hardback copy.

The comparison below sets out the practical differences by reading experience, file preparation and proofing. Specifications in each column refer to the author's current task rather than any particular price point.

For writers whose manuscript is not yet complete, the format decision follows the writing. Collaborative support for a work in progress is available for fiction through fiction ghostwriting services and for non-fiction through a non-fiction ghostwriter in Victoria, with broader project support covered under book ghostwriting services.

What Do You Need Ready Before Setting Up and Publishing Through KDP?

Account setup and book submission ask for different things. Treating them as one task is why many Australian authors stall partway through: they open the KDP page expecting to publish, hit a field they have no information for, and leave the account half-created. Separating the two lists makes the whole sequence easier.

Items needed to open a KDP account

An Australian author can open a KDP account before the book is anywhere near finished. The account requires the author's full legal name as it appears on identity documents, residential address, date of birth, a current phone number, and a working email the author checks often. Royalty payments are routed to an Australian bank account the author controls, so the BSB, account number, and the account holder name as recorded with the bank are needed at this stage. Amazon's tax interview is also completed as part of account setup; it asks a series of questions about the account holder's status for US tax purposes rather than Australian tax obligations.

Items needed to submit a book

Book submission is where the manuscript, cover, and metadata have to be ready. The author needs the finished and professionally edited interior file in a format accepted for the chosen edition, a cover file to the current KDP specification for that format and trim size, a book description written as a reader-facing sales page (within KDP's character limit), and a short author biography. The author also needs a shortlist of Amazon categories, up to seven keywords, and a decision on ISBN. For a paperback or hardcover, the final page count has to be settled before the cover file is built, because the spine width changes with the page count.

Items to keep handy for ongoing updates

After publication, a KDP account owner continues to use the same login for metadata updates, new editions, royalty reports, and tax interview renewals. Keeping the account's recovery details current and keeping a backup of each book's final files makes those later tasks straightforward.

Separating the two checklists has one practical benefit worth saying plainly: an author with a half-finished manuscript can open the KDP account today and spend the time between now and submission learning the dashboard rather than discovering it on launch day.

How Do You Set Up a KDP Australia Account Step by Step?

Opening a KDP account from Australia is three distinct tasks completed in order inside kdp.amazon.com: create the account, complete the tax interview, and set the royalty payment details. None of these three can be skipped before a book is submitted, and the tax interview is the one that most often needs a second look before it is correct.

Create the account

The sign-in page accepts an existing Amazon shopping account or a new one. Using an email address the author intends to keep long-term is a good habit, because the KDP account cannot be merged with another account later. After signing in, the author chooses whether the account is held as an individual or on behalf of a business, and completes the Author or Publisher Information: legal name, Australian address, date of birth and phone number. The name and address recorded here must match the identity documents and the nominated bank account, because mismatches cause verification problems later. Nothing in this step requires a manuscript.

Complete the tax interview

The tax interview is a questionnaire inside the KDP account that classifies the account holder for United States tax purposes. The questions cover whether the author is a US person or a non-US person, whether the account is held as an individual or as an entity, the country of tax residence, and the author's foreign tax identifier. The interview also asks whether the account holder wishes to claim benefits under the tax treaty between their country of residence and the United States, where such a treaty applies and the account holder is eligible. The exact declaration generated depends on how those questions are answered, so there is no single answer set that applies to every Australian author. An individual publishing in their own name gives different responses from an author publishing through a company, and both differ again from an author who is not an Australian tax resident. The interview can be revised later if circumstances change, and it is reviewed periodically because US tax forms generated by the interview expire after a set period. Completing the interview is a US tax classification task; it does not resolve the author's Australian tax position, which is covered separately in the records section below.

Set the royalty payment details

With the account and tax interview complete, the author adds a payment method for each marketplace. KDP uses electronic funds transfer to deposit royalties into the nominated bank account for Australia-marketplace sales. Payment timing is monthly on a lag, so royalty activity in one month settles into the author's account some weeks later. KDP sets a minimum payment threshold per marketplace, and small balances carry over until the threshold is reached. The specifics of currency, method, timing and threshold vary by marketplace and by payment type, so the author checks each payment profile at the time of setup rather than assuming the same settings apply everywhere. If the bank account later changes (closed account, new bank, name change), the author updates KDP before the end of the sales month in which the change takes effect, not after.

How Do You Prepare Your Manuscript, Cover and ISBN for KDP?

Preparing the manuscript, cover, and ISBN is the longest piece of pre-submission work, and the part most authors underestimate. KDP will accept a file that technically passes the automatic checks but still reads badly, so the real preparation standard is not "the file uploaded" but "the file reads the way a reader expects to read it".

Preparing the interior manuscript

The content work has to happen before the file work. For most authors that means a developmental edit on the manuscript, a copy edit when the structure is settled, and a proofread on the final layout. Each of those stages catches different problems. Development looks at story, argument, and structure; a copy edit sits closer to the sentence, consistency, and style; a proofread checks the final set text for the last layer of errors. Book editing services and book proofreading services sit at the two ends of that chain, and the distinction between them is covered in detail in editing vs proofreading.

The file work follows the content work. For a reflowable Kindle ebook, the manuscript is typically prepared as a .docx or .epub with structured heading styles so Amazon's conversion can build the table of contents and the navigation points reliably. Images are embedded at Amazon's current size and resolution recommendations. For a paperback, the interior is a print-ready PDF built to the chosen trim size with the correct interior margins and a gutter sized to the final page count. Fonts are embedded in the PDF. The front matter sits in the order a reader expects: half-title, title, copyright, dedication, contents, body, back matter. For an author who would rather hand this stage to a specialist, book formatting services cover both ebook and print interiors.

Preparing the cover

Two cover files are usually involved. The ebook cover is a single front-only image in the ratio Amazon currently specifies for the Kindle thumbnail, saved to a format Amazon accepts. The paperback cover is a wrapped PDF covering back, spine, and front, built against Amazon's cover template for the chosen trim size and final page count. The spine width changes with the page count, so a cover designed before the interior is locked is almost always rebuilt once the final file is set. A hardcover cover file is built to its own separate template.

Design choices matter more at thumbnail size than at full size. The cover is first seen as a small image on a phone screen, so the title has to be legible there, not only on the designer's monitor. Genre coding (fonts, colour, imagery) sets reader expectations before the blurb is read. Book cover design services handle both the ebook thumbnail and the wrapped print cover from the same brief, which avoids a mismatch between the two.

Hypothetical example: picking up a cover issue from the proof

An author preparing an illustrated children's book orders a physical print proof after passing the digital previewer. On the proof, she notices that a decorative border on the recto pages is being cropped at the outer trim, while the same border on the verso pages sits comfortably inside the trim. The problem is a mirrored margin that was not set in the interior PDF: the outer margin is correct on one side and insufficient on the other. The fix is a corrected interior PDF with mirrored outer margins (so the outer edge is always the trimmed edge) and a reordered proof once the file is reuploaded. The digital previewer did not surface the issue clearly because the mirror did not display in the right order on screen; the physical proof did.

Choosing an ISBN

Two ISBN options are available at upload. A KDP-assigned ISBN is attached to the book during the KDP submission flow and lists Amazon's own imprint on the record. An author-supplied ISBN is purchased separately before upload and lists the author or the author's imprint as the publisher of record. The two work differently in a few practical ways. A KDP-assigned ISBN cannot be reused on another distribution platform, so a book that is also intended for other ebook distribution arrangements, or for a different print run outside KDP, typically uses an author-supplied ISBN instead. Different formats of the same book (ebook, paperback, hardcover) each require their own ISBN; a single identifier does not carry across formats or across significantly revised editions. For an ebook on Kindle, Amazon assigns its own internal product identifier regardless, so an ISBN on the ebook edition is a separate decision from the technical requirement to list it.

Legal deposit obligations for a print edition published in Australia are separate from the ISBN choice and from KDP distribution, and the exact scope depends on where the book is published and which legal deposit libraries apply. Authors publishing a print edition confirm the current requirements directly with the relevant Australian deposit bodies before launch rather than assuming KDP's distribution satisfies the obligation.

How Do You Upload Your Book and Submit It for Review?

With the account open and the files ready, the actual submission is done inside the KDP Bookshelf. Each format (Kindle ebook, paperback, hardcover) is submitted as its own title, through its own form, in roughly the same sequence of tasks: enter the book's details, upload the interior and cover, pick categories and keywords, set territory and distribution, then submit for review.

Entering the book's details

The book details screen captures the title as it will appear on the cover, the subtitle if there is one, series information if the book is part of a series (so Amazon can link multiple titles together on a single series page), the author name used on the cover, and any additional contributors such as an editor or illustrator. The author name has to match across editions, or the different formats will not link to the same author profile.

The description field is a reader-facing sales page, not a plot summary. KDP accepts a limited amount of HTML formatting inside the description so the author can use bold, italics, and line breaks for readability. The language, publication date (for an immediate release or a scheduled pre-order on an ebook) and reading age (where relevant, especially for children's titles) are also entered here, along with the rights declaration. The rights declaration is a legal statement that the author owns or controls the rights to publish, and public-domain titles have a separate tick-box.

Uploading the interior and cover

The manuscript file is uploaded next. Amazon processes the file and runs it through an online previewer that simulates the reader's experience. For an ebook, the previewer renders the file as it will appear on different Kindle device profiles. For a paperback or hardcover, the previewer renders page by page, with the trim and bleed areas visually marked so the author can see whether anything important is sitting inside the bleed zone. If the previewer flags an error, the fix is in the source file rather than an override on the KDP side.

The cover is uploaded separately. The paperback cover is checked against the template for the trim size and the exact page count, and any mismatch is flagged on screen. Spine text that would sit too close to the fold, or imagery that would run into the trim, both appear in the previewer so they can be corrected before submission.

Hypothetical example: picking the right format pairing from the start

An author writing a literary novel set in regional New South Wales is choosing between a reflowable Kindle ebook with a paperback edition, and a fixed-layout ebook with a paperback edition. The manuscript is text-only, with no illustrations and no unusual layout. A reflowable ebook fits the reading experience readers of literary fiction expect: adjustable text size on their own device, chapter navigation through the Kindle table of contents, and continuous flow across chapters. A fixed-layout ebook would preserve a specific page design but would also prevent the reader from changing font size, which this book does not need. The author picks the reflowable Kindle ebook paired with a paperback, prepares one interior for each edition and leaves hardcover for a later decision.

Choosing categories and keywords

Categories and keywords are the two metadata choices that most directly affect whether readers find the book on Amazon. Categories are Amazon's own classification tree; the author selects the categories that most accurately describe the book, within the current category selection limits. Keywords are short phrases a reader would type into the Amazon search bar, not single words. Picking narrower, better-matched categories outperforms picking a large, crowded one.

Setting territory, pricing and distribution

The author selects the territories in which they hold rights to distribute the book. Selecting worldwide rights means the author declares they have the right to publish in every territory, not that they are an Australian resident. Where rights have already been sold or committed to another publisher in a specific market, the author selects only the territories where the rights are available.

The author sets a list price for each supported marketplace. Pricing settings and royalty options sit on this screen too, and are configured according to the author's own commercial preferences within the current KDP options for the chosen format. The scope of this article is file submission and review preparation, not an exhaustive treatment of commercial dashboard settings, which belong in a separate working conversation.

Submitting for review and the review window

After the author clicks Publish, KDP's internal review begins. Review windows differ by format: an ebook review is normally quick, a paperback or hardcover review runs longer because the print files are more complex, and a first-time author's first book sometimes sits at the longer end of the window. The author receives an email when the review completes. If the submission is rejected, the email names the reason: a technical issue (file specification, cover bleed), a rights question (unclear declaration), or a policy issue (content guideline). Technical issues are the fastest to resolve; policy issues can take longer and may need a direct response to the KDP team. A first-pass rejection on a new book is common and is not permanent; the file is fixed and resubmitted, and the review restarts.

Once the book is live, it begins to appear across Amazon's storefronts in sequence rather than instantly, and the exact order depends on how Amazon's distribution systems propagate new titles. The author does not need to resubmit a live book to make it appear on Amazon.com.au separately; worldwide rights, where selected and available, cover the local storefront.

How Does Local Print-on-Demand Work for Australian Authors?

Amazon operates a print-on-demand facility in Australia, which means paperback orders placed by Australian readers through Amazon's local storefront can, where eligible, be printed locally rather than shipped from an overseas facility. The practical effect is faster delivery for Australian buyers on supported titles and a different fulfilment path for the author's own author-copy orders. Eligibility is not universal. It depends on the trim size, the specific format (paperback or hardcover), the current list of supported options in the Australian facility, and Amazon's own routing rules at the time of the order. Those rules are reviewable and change from time to time, so an author treating local print as a fixed promise rather than a current eligibility question will sometimes be wrong.

For a book that qualifies, local print on demand reduces the lag between order and delivery and makes it practical to order author copies for a local launch, bookshop meeting or signing event without ordering months ahead. For a book that does not qualify (an unsupported trim size, a format not covered by the local facility, or a specific route Amazon declines to fulfil locally), orders fall back to another facility, and the author plans delivery timing accordingly.

Local KDP print on demand does not replace a short-run or offset print run for authors who need physical stock for distribution outside Amazon, launch inventory for a bookshop event, or a specific print quality. Short-run and offset printing use different equipment and different paper stocks, and the two are complementary rather than substitutes. For authors who need print volumes outside KDP's print-on-demand fulfilment, dedicated book printing services sit alongside the KDP route as a separate production decision.

The honest short answer at the end of this section is that KDP's local print capability has changed what is possible for Australian self-published authors over the past few years, but it is one route among several and is not a reason to design the book around it.

How Does KDP Select Affect Your Ebook Distribution Choices?

KDP Select is an optional programme inside KDP that applies only to the Kindle ebook edition. Enrolling a Kindle ebook in Select commits that edition to being sold through Amazon only for a 90-day term and includes it automatically in Amazon's Kindle Unlimited subscription catalogue for the same period. The enrolment renews every 90 days unless the author opts out before the renewal date. Paperback and hardcover editions of the same book are not affected by Select; they remain available to sell through any legitimate channel the author chooses, regardless of whether the Kindle edition is enrolled.

In exchange for the digital exclusivity, Select enrolment gives the Kindle ebook access to Amazon's own promotional tools. A Free Book Promotion lets the author set the ebook as a no-charge download for a limited number of days per 90-day term. A Kindle Countdown Deal lets the author run a timed discount on supported marketplaces while retaining the chosen royalty rate structure during the deal, where the current rules allow. Select enrolment also includes the ebook in Kindle Unlimited, where readers who subscribe to the service can read the book as part of their subscription; the author's reporting on those reads is separate from direct-sale reporting and arrives through the same KDP royalty statements.

Opting not to enrol in Select does not, by itself, place the Kindle ebook on other retailers. KDP continues to distribute the ebook through Amazon's storefronts whether Select is on or off. Distributing the ebook to other retailers is a separate arrangement that the author sets up outside KDP, through other ebook distribution arrangements, and that arrangement is incompatible with Select for as long as the Kindle ebook is enrolled.

The decision about Select is reviewable rather than permanent. Authors sometimes enrol a first ebook for an initial 90-day term, review the actual reader behaviour on the Kindle Unlimited side and the direct-sale side together, and decide whether to renew. Others never enrol because they already have (or want) wide distribution in place. Either path is reasonable; the point is that the choice is a genuine business decision based on this book, this genre and this author's own distribution plan, not a default that applies to every author.

For authors who want a structured route that handles distribution and production decisions alongside the author rather than leaving every choice to the author's own self-managed KDP account, what is hybrid publishing in Australia covers an alternative structure.

What Account Records and Tax Information Should Australian Authors Keep?

Record-keeping sits alongside publication rather than inside it, and it is where many first-time Australian authors realise there are two tax systems to think about rather than one. The KDP tax interview classifies the account for United States tax purposes based on the author's declared status at the time; the interview does not resolve the author's Australian tax position, which is a separate matter with the relevant Australian tax authority. Keeping the two conversations distinct makes the whole record-keeping task easier.

Royalty statements are the primary ongoing record. KDP generates a statement for each payment period and keeps a historical record inside the account. Downloading and saving each statement as it is issued is a practical habit; relying on being able to pull them later is fine while the account is active but less safe over longer time periods. The statement shows the sales activity for the period, the royalties earned by marketplace and the amount paid to the nominated bank, which is the information both the author and the relevant Australian tax authority may need.

The tax interview is reviewed on its own schedule. The declarations the author made during setup have an expiry period, and Amazon prompts for a new interview before the previous one lapses. If the author's circumstances change during that period (a change in country of tax residence, a change from publishing as an individual to publishing through an entity, a change of legal name), the interview is updated at the time of the change rather than at the next prompt.

Account details that affect payments are kept current for the same reason: the bank account on file is the one that receives royalty payments, so a closed or renamed account causes payments to fail until the detail is updated. Keeping a copy of each book's final source files (interior, cover, metadata) outside the KDP account is also sensible, in case a future update or a reupload is needed.

The record-keeping task is administrative rather than mysterious. The habit the author is building, book by book, is a clean paper trail that matches the KDP record for every title, every sale period and every payment.

How Do You Help Readers Find Your Book on Amazon.com.au?

Being found on Amazon is not a trick. It is the result of a book that reads as its category at a glance, metadata that matches the way readers actually search, an author presence Amazon can show alongside the title, and a launch window with enough early activity for Amazon's own recommendation systems to begin showing the book to similar readers. Each of those pieces is within the author's control.

Metadata that signals the category

The title, subtitle, series name, and description are read first by the human reader and then matched by Amazon's search systems. A clear title tells the reader what the book is; a specific subtitle narrows it; the description sells the premise. Vague metadata is one of the most common and most fixable problems in a self-published launch.

Hypothetical example: tightening a vague description and keywords

An author submits a cosy mystery set in a coastal New South Wales town with the working description "A mystery novel for people who love a good puzzle" and the keyword list "mystery, book, novel, Australia, series". The description does not tell a reader what the mystery is about, who solves it, or why they would turn the page. The keywords are generic enough to apply to thousands of titles. A revised description that opens with the specific hook ("A reluctant retired detective, called back to the Mid North Coast town she grew up in, finds a decade-old disappearance was never a disappearance at all") and a revised keyword list that reflects the real audience ("coastal Australian mystery, retired detective female protagonist, small town cosy mystery NSW, slow burn amateur detective, book one of a series") does more useful work on both sides: a reader scanning the Amazon page sees a book they recognise, and the search systems see phrases that match how readers of this subgenre actually type.

Author Central and A+ Content

Author Central is Amazon's author-facing profile page, where readers see the author's biography, photograph and other books. Author Central is set up by the author directly after the first title is live; its availability and specific features vary by marketplace, so an author checks the current configuration for the Australia marketplace rather than assuming it mirrors another storefront exactly.

A+ Content is a rich-media section Amazon offers for the product page, built from modules such as additional imagery, comparison text, and extended descriptions. A+ Content for a KDP title is managed inside KDP's own marketing area and reviewed before it goes live. Eligibility and timing are subject to the current KDP rules, so an author plans the A+ assets but confirms the eligibility specifics when the title goes live.

Author presence outside Amazon

A reader who hears about the book somewhere other than Amazon (a review, a podcast, a bookshop event, a conversation) still has to find it on Amazon to buy it. An author website is where that reader lands; it is also where new readers subscribe to an email list that becomes the author's own direct line to future books. Set up before the launch rather than after, an author website is often the single highest-leverage asset for an independent Australian author.

Launch materials sit alongside the website. A short book trailer gives social-feed-friendly content that can live on the Amazon product page through A+ Content modules where supported, as well as on the author's own channels; a dedicated book video trailers service in Victoria produces that asset to a brief. Ongoing marketing after the launch (ARCs and advance readers, review outreach, paid campaigns, interviews, bookshop promotion) is where the slower work happens and is covered in detail in the book marketing service.

The honest line to finish this section with is one that applies to every author: discoverability work lifts a book that is already ready. It cannot rescue a cover that reads as the wrong genre, a description that does not match the book, or an interior that was not properly edited. Those earlier stages are where discoverability actually begins.

Which Common KDP Publishing Mistakes Should Australian Authors Avoid?

Most of the problems that catch first-time Australian authors on KDP are not technical mysteries. They are predictable, and they share one feature: the author treated a sequential task as a single moment. Separating the tasks removes most of the risk.

Skipping or rushing the tax interview. The tax interview is the one setup task that quietly has long-running consequences if left incomplete. An author who closes the browser before the questionnaire finishes keeps the account in a default state until it is corrected, and the correction is retrospective in intent but not retrospective in effect: the default settings apply to payments made in the meantime. Finishing the interview properly, in one sitting, is a specific habit worth forming.

Treating the previewer as a proof. The digital previewer catches many file issues, but it does not reproduce the experience of holding a printed book. For a paperback or hardcover, ordering a physical proof before announcing the launch is the single most useful quality control step an author takes. Issues that do not surface on screen (an interior margin that is too tight at the gutter, a cover text that is readable on a monitor but washed out on actual paper, a trim that cuts a page number) surface on paper.

Choosing categories by vanity. An author who picks the biggest, most crowded category hoping to look important ends up invisible instead. A narrower, better-matched subcategory places the book in front of readers who are actually looking for that kind of book, which is the whole point of category selection.

Keywords that are too general. Keywords are search phrases, not single words. A keyword like "mystery" is useless; a keyword like "small town coastal Australian mystery female detective" reflects how readers of a specific subgenre actually search.

Treating the Publish button as the finish line. A newly live book without a launch plan is a quiet book. The first two to four weeks after a title goes live are when Amazon's recommendation systems have the most new data to work with, and a book that gets early sales, early reviews and early reader signal is read as a book worth showing to more readers. Planning the first month of activity before the Publish button is pressed is the difference between a launch and an upload.

Changing the author name across editions. An author who publishes a Kindle ebook under one spelling, a paperback under a slightly different spelling and a hardcover under a pen name without linking them will find Author Central showing three different authors with one book each. Picking the author name once, writing it the same way every time and setting it on every edition is the fix.

Each of these mistakes is cheap to prevent before publication and expensive to clean up afterwards.

Ready to Publish Your Book on Amazon with Expert Support?

The next step is a direct conversation about your manuscript rather than a generic plan. Tell us what the book is, where it currently sits (idea, draft, revised draft, final manuscript), which formats you want to publish (ebook, paperback, hardcover or a combination), who you are writing it for and where you most need support, whether that is editorial, cover design, interior formatting, proofing or help preparing the submission. From there we can map out the editorial and production work that fits this book specifically, in the order it needs to happen, with your account and your rights kept entirely with you.

Frequently Asked Questions