Are you ready to publish your children’s book? Congratulations! Chances are, you’ve been pouring blood, sweat, and tears into this thing from the get-go, and with the final version perfectly crafted, you’re ready to see it hit the market.
If you have limited experience in the publishing industry, publishing via Amazon is a great way to get started. The process is so simple, you’ll be wondering why you didn’t do it sooner!
In this article, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about publishing on Amazon, including using KDP eBook to print and establish your pages. Let’s do this thing right!
Is Publishing On Amazon Profitable?
First things first… can you actually make money publishing your book on Amazon? Yes! However, like most business ventures, your success will depend on a variety of factors, including the appeal of your story, its marketability, and your consistency.
These are essential things in the publishing world, but they’re even more important when you’re publishing a children’s book.
After all, kids are notoriously picky and often our biggest critics, so if you want to make it a success, you have a lot to consider!
Do You Need To Pay To Publish On Amazon?
This may come as a surprise, but no, you won’t need to pay a cent to publish your book on Amazon. Whether you’re publishing hard books, eBooks, or something else, it’s completely free to publish on the platform, so you won’t need to spend any extra cash pushing your book out into the market.
If you want your book to turn a profit (which of course you do), this is great news.
By the time you’re ready to publish, you will already have racked up a big set of expenses anyway, so publishing on Amazon will give you a break from spending, and offer the opportunity to start reaping the rewards.
What Is Amazon KDP?
When you publish on Amazon, you’ll go through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). KDP allows authors to self-publish their own paperbacks, eBooks, and hardcover books completely free of charge.
You can even expand the availability of your book to reach a global scale, which gives you a greater chance of reaching a wider audience, plus you’ll get full rights to your book which most traditional publishers don’t offer.
You can publish a variety of eBooks and paperback books on KDP, but you won’t be able to publish magazines, calendars, periodicals, or spiral-bound books. Here’s a full list of the content you can publish with KDP:
- Novels
- Comics
- Children’s Books
- Cookbooks
- Book Series
- Journals
- Textbooks
- Poetry
Things To Do Before You Publish
Before we break down the process and you publish your book, here are a few things you’ll need to do first:
- Ensure the manuscript is polished and edited, free of grammatical errors
- Choose your illustrations carefully, and consider hiring an illustrator if you’re not comfortable doing the job yourself
- Format your manuscript correctly on software like Scrivener or Word
If you decide to hire a professional illustrator, ensure you have all the illustrations finalized before you release your book on Amazon. When you start working together, give them as much inspiration as possible for your idea to ensure the end result is exactly what you’ve been imagining.
Publishing On Amazon: Everything You Need To Know
If you’ve got all your ducks in a row and you’re ready to make your publishing journey a success, here’s what you need to know about publishing on Amazon.
Write Your Book Description
When you start setting up, you’ll first need to write your book description. A brief description will give your readers a snapshot of the story, and provide a crucial first impression of what it’s all about.
If you’re struggling for inspiration, you could outsource this work to a professional copywriter.
Use Kindle Kids Book Creator
If you’re making an eBook version, head over to the Kindle Kids Book Creator tool and transform your digital files into the full Kindle eBook.
You can do this by making a designated folder on your computer, downloading the creator, selecting “create new kids book”, and then hitting “continue”.
Once you’re here, fill in your book’s details including author, title, publisher, language, then select your desktop folder, and press “continue”.
Now, select “create book from PDF” to import your entire book, including the cover. Once you’re done, click “save for publishing”, and you’re ready to go!
Select Categories And Keywords
You need your book to be found by the right audience, so choosing the appropriate categories and keywords is essential. For example, you could use phrases like “picture book” to make it easy to find.
Your chosen keywords will also help break down your categories even further, and they should be specific to the audience you want to reach. These are keywords your audience will search for to find your book.
Keywords can be based on anything including themes, characters, the setting of your book, or something else. If you’re struggling, we’d recommend finding a book that’s similar to yours, locate the primary keywords, and see how they make sense.
If their keywords make sense, show up in the search engine, and are suited to your book, can you use them?
When you’ve worked your way through these steps, you’ll also be able to set your book price, see royalty payments, and get an estimate of how much you’ll earn from each sale. You can also decide how you want to distribute your book.
Then, you can go ahead and publish it!
The Bottom Line
Self-publishing on Amazon is easier than you might think, and in just a few simple steps, you can have your book published and ready for sale.
Just ensure it’s professionally written and edited, well illustrated, and targeted to the right audience to guarantee your success, and don’t forget to make the most of Amazon’s tools along the way to help!
