How To Self Publish on Kindle

The other day I ePublished my first novel ‘Gone’.

It was pretty simple, took about 10 minutes.

First if you don’t already have one create an amazon.com account and then sign in to the Kindle ‘Digital Text Platform’ site

1 -Add New Item

2 – Fill out Forms (4 steps)

At this point you’ll be taken to a form with four steps.

Step 1 should expand automatically. If for some reason it doesn’t simply click the + box to expand

2.1 Enter Product Details

You should now see

Here you’ll be able to enter:

• Title
• Book description
• Authors – click the add/edit button
• Publisher (if you’ve gone through a company like createspace you’ll enter that, or leave it blank)
• ISBN (if you’ve already registered the book for an ISBN enter it here. otherwise leave it blank)
• Language – drop down menu
• Pub Date – select today unless you have previously published this
• Keywords – this is how people will search Amazon to find your work
• Edition Number – if this is your first time it’s either 1 or 0 or leave it blank
• Series Title – if this is a part of a series of books, that goes here
• Series Volume – this is it’s position in the series
• DRM – ok this is what Amazon says about this So use your own judgement on this one and do some research. Let me know what you think. I went With it for my novel Gone.
• Product image – This is your book cover. this is what the Kindle store will display. for example

Finish Step 1 and move on(Click the SAve Entries Button in the Lower Right corner)

2.2 Confirm Content Rights

Ok I may not be 100% on this but basically If You own all the rights to your book, then it’s your choice on worldwide or individual territories. If the rights are shared (with a publisher etc) you most likely have to consult with them on this.

Then Click the Check box on B. and ‘Save Entries’ to move on

2.3 Upload & Preview Book

This is pretty simple. Browse to find your manuscript.

I went with a Word file.

Converting from word to an HTML file resulted in a lot of odd characters.  And I don’t have a way to see what happens with a PRC.

Then Click upload and this should happen

once the file is upload a preview button will appear

You’ll then see a preview of your document on the Kindle

2.4 Enter Suggested Retail Price

This is up to you. There’s a lot of debate out there on this. My personal opinion is don’t set it too low, respect your work. You worked hard on it. So let it stand on it’s own. But also keep in mind it is a digital version you don’t want to charge more then a similiar book that’s on the shelves.

for a fiction novel of about 200 pages I set my price around 10 dollars.

3 Publish

That’s all she wrote folks.

The publish button on the top Right bar should ‘Turn on’

(i totally forgot to take a screenshot when I did this the first time… so imagine that lighter )

Click it and now it’s time to tell the world you published your novel and promote it!

Notes

and remember people don’t have to have a kindle to read a digital book from Amazon.

They have a variety of Apps for different platforms like Mac, PC, iPad, Blackberry & iPhone (and more are coming)

Kindle gets Gone (a novel by Sam Proof)

Hey Folks,

So the day has arrived! over the weekend I uploaded my file to amazon’s kindle store and now, today it’s finally been processed.

Yes folks, you can now purchase and read my first Novel length publication, Gone!

The print edition will follow shortly, in the next week or so. I still have to go over the formatting choices, then actually take the time to format it. Do a new cover and a few other things.

I hope to get this version up by this coming weekend.

It’s a pretty busy week for me, with an improv show tonight, and hosting/getting things ready for a concert on Thursday (Both free events to people in LA)

BTW – if you Don’t have a kindle, and don’t want to wait for the Print version – well guess what, there’s a free Kindle App for nearly every platform out there! (Click here)

The Print version is coming, hopefully I’ll get it done and up this weekend (takes a lot more reformatting then the kindle version). I gotta tell you, I’m stupid excited right now.

Review : Author House – Self Publishing

Disclaimer: I just want to say for starters, this is a first time review. That is, I’m picking over the site for the first time right now. I’m also looking at this site as A) a fiction writer with a novel to publish B) a way to accomplish my own goals or one day getting national bookstore distribution.

So this is AuthorHouse.com

Starting at $599 with a long list of services. With one big exception – Print on Demand (they don’t do that)

AuthorHouse is only a self publish service*

They offer ISBN, Color Cover, ‘Online Distribution’ & ‘bookstore availability’ and a complimentary author copy, for your 600 bucks.

Initial Reaction: No Interest

So let’s break it down.

This is a money making business that preys on people’s dreams. It’s vanity press. The packages are not designed to get you out on bookshelves, or even on kindels, but to relieve you of your money.

While I am intrigued with their Booksellers Return Program – in which unbought books are returned and the bookstores get their investment back – without the demand, you’re just out another $700. And that’s annual.