Publish your book for free and start earning: What is Amazon KDP? Here’s how it works

Writers can use Amazon KDP to publish books without paying upfront publishing fees. Authors choose pricing and royalty options, can promote their books with Amazon Ads and can track sales.

Publishing your book does not have to start with printing bills or publisher approvals. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) lets writers publish without upfront publishing fees. You can offer an eBook, a paperback or a hardcover and earn royalties when readers buy copies.

Start by preparing your manuscript. Read through chapters and correct spelling, grammar and unclear sentences. Use grammar tools to support your checks. Spending time on editing helps you present a polished book to readers.

Next, organise the pages so your book is comfortable to read. You can upload Word documents, EPUB files and PDFs as accepted eBook formats. Amazon, however, prefers the other two formats to PDFs.

Free tools such as Kindle Create help arrange chapters, contents pages and paragraph margins. For paperbacks, check page dimensions, margins and page numbers. KDP’s free templates can help you prepare the layout.

English is the most-preferred language for Amazon KDP. Take a look at all accepted languages for books:

Then, create a cover that represents your book. Make sure it remains readable as a small image on a phone screen. You can use Canva’s book cover templates to design one for free. Check that the title and author name are easy to spot.

Once your files are ready, visit the official KDP website. Sign in using your Amazon account details. Complete your author profile and provide the tax information. Add your banking details so your earnings can be deposited into your account.

Amazon KDP: How to create books

Select ‘Create’ and choose an eBook or paperback. Enter the book title, subtitle and author name. Write a clear description explaining what readers can expect. Treat this description like the introduction printed on a book’s back cover.