How to Publish Your Book on Amazon

You publish your book on Amazon by taking your finished manuscript through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP): format it to your trim size, prepare a cover that reads clearly at thumbnail size, write your book description, upload both files, set your price, and click Publish. Amazon reviews the files, and your book usually goes live within about 72 hours. This guide covers the final steps only — it assumes your manuscript is already written and focuses on getting it from your desk to a live listing without a false start.

Is my manuscript really ready to publish?

Before you open KDP, check the manuscript against three tests. First, is it complete — every chapter written, no placeholders, no notes to yourself left in the text? Search the document for “TODO”, “fix this”, and “come back to” and remove every one. Second, has someone other than you read it? Your own eyes skip your own mistakes. A second reader — a friend, a beta reader, an editor — catches what you cannot. Third, does the book end properly? A finished manuscript has an ending that feels like an ending, not a chapter that stops because you ran out of energy.

If any test fails, fix it now. Publishing is not the time to discover the book needs another chapter. Once the book is live, every fix means a new upload and another review wait.

How do I prepare the files?

You need two files: the manuscript and the cover. For the manuscript, save it as a Word document set to your trim size — 6 x 9 inches is standard for nonfiction. Use heading styles for chapter titles so KDP can build a proper table of contents, and keep one body font throughout. If you are publishing an ebook as well, remove page numbers and headers, which do not work in a reflowable ebook. Amazon’s free Kindle Create tool can convert your Word file into a clean ebook file and show you a preview.

For the cover, download KDP’s cover template for your exact trim size and page count. The spine width depends on how many pages your book has, so a cover made for the wrong page count will not fit. Check the finished cover at thumbnail size: if you cannot read the title when it is small, redesign it before you upload.

What do I enter on the KDP pages?

KDP takes you through three pages. On the first, you enter your book details: title, subtitle, author name, description, categories, and keywords. Write the description last, after everything else is ready, because it is the sales copy on your Amazon page. Lead with the problem your reader has, say what your book does about it, and name who it is for.

On the second page, you upload the manuscript and the cover, choose whether to enable DRM on the ebook, and sort out the ISBN. KDP supplies a free ISBN for a paperback; an ebook gets an ASIN automatically and needs no ISBN. On the third page, you set your price and territories and decide on KDP Select — which gives you promotional tools but requires the ebook to be exclusive to Amazon for 90 days.

What happens after I click Publish?

Amazon reviews your files. For an ebook this usually takes up to 72 hours; a paperback takes a little longer. If something fails — a cover at the wrong size, an interior margin problem, a blank page — KDP emails you with the exact issue. Fix it, re-upload, and the review starts again.

When the book goes live, order a printed proof copy straight away. The on-screen previewer is helpful, but it cannot tell you that your cover printed darker than you expected or that your margins feel tight in your hands. Read the proof copy once through, mark any fixes, and upload a corrected file before you announce the book anywhere.

The last-mile checklist

• No placeholders or notes to yourself left anywhere in the manuscript.
• Someone else has read the whole book, not just the first chapter.
• Manuscript formatted to trim size, headings styled, previewer-checked.
• Cover built on KDP’s template for your exact page count, readable at thumbnail size.
• Description written for your reader: their problem, your book’s answer, who it is for.
• Keywords and categories chosen to match what a real reader searches.
• KDP Select decision made before publishing, not after.
• Published, proof copy ordered, fixes uploaded before the public announcement.

The distance between a finished manuscript and a live book is shorter than most authors think — usually one careful weekend. What makes it feel long is doing the steps out of order: uploading before the manuscript is ready, or announcing before the proof copy arrives. Do them in order, and your book goes live cleanly the first time.

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Start here: if you are new to Amazon publishing, begin with the KDP Publishing hub, then read How to Self Publish a Book for the full process across every route.