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Kindle Direct Publishing Review

Saturday, August 10th

2024 Self Publishing Service Reviews

• Kindle Direct Publishing
• FREE to self-publish eBooks and paperbacks
• 30-70% charged on each sale
• Sells strictly on Amazon
• Options for unique genres of books like comics
• "A-" rating from the BBB

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is a self-publishing platform that has gained worldwide recognition and popularity as the go-to service for publishing eBooks. KDP is owned by Amazon, and the publishing branch started out as an online bookseller that has since expanded to become a dominant player in the online publishing industry. KDP allows you to publish your book for free, but you'll need to pay royalties which are different for paperbacks and eBooks.

Wide variety of genres

We love the full range of publication options at Kindle Direct. Not only can you publish traditional novels for fiction and non-fiction, but there are also built-in options for business books, comics and graphic novels, kids' books, and teen fiction. They offer additional options for a range of genres including romance, sci-fi, and mystery.

Easy to use publishing system

One of the advantages of KDP is the easy-to-use tools that guide you through the self-publishing process. KDP Jumpstart offers step-by-step directions, while KDP University provides a comprehensive suite of resources to assist you at every stage. However, it's worth noting that KDP doesn't offer professional editing or formatting services. If you need these services, KDP provides a list of recommended companies that specialize in those areas. However, an average editor costs $10 per page, so you may be looking at a significant increase in price if your manuscript isn't ready to go.

Complicated royalties, and not the best cut

The royalties with Kindle are a little complicated. For eBooks, you can choose between two royalty options: 35% or 70%. However, to be eligible for the higher-paying option, your book must meet certain requirements such as a list price that meets certain criteria, and your eBook must be sold for at least 20% below the printed book price. The royalty calculation for paperbacks is different, with a fixed rate of 60%, minus printing costs at a fixed rate of $4.45 per unit. In order to list, you simply have to meet the "minimum list price" requirement. This means you can list a book for anything over $7.45. The higher the price, the more you make, but it's a lot of math at the get-go.

Limited distribution for Amazon only

One thing that we don't love about Kindle Direct is that the distribution is limited to Amazon. Most other self-publishing services offer distribution to a broader range of channels, including Google, Apple, and OverDrive. While KDP is an affordable option, it may not be the best choice if you want your book to reach a wider audience. Since Kindle does require an exclusive contract, you can't publish in multiple places and widen this distribution, unfortunately.

Customer feelings are mixed on value

In terms of customer satisfaction, Kindle Direct has an "A-" rating from the BBB. With varying reviews across user feedback and different sites, KDP has earned an average of 3.3 stars out of 5. Happy reviewers noted that they felt that the customer service at KDP was top-notch and helped them with issues during the book creation and formatting process. Others were disappointed in the low profile of an Amazon-only distribution.

No editing or formatting

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) provides a variety of options, from traditional novels to business books and comics, with easy-to-use tools and resources to guide you through the self-publishing process. However, it's worth noting that KDP doesn't offer professional editing or formatting services, which can increase your costs significantly. Additionally, the royalties can be complicated, with different requirements for eBooks and paperbacks.

A big-name option, but a little limited

While KDP is an affordable option, the biggest limitation is that your book will only appear on the Amazon platform. Overall, KDP is a great and reliable option for self-publishing, but it's important to consider your distribution needs before making a final decision.

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The 12 Best Self Publishing Services

What's the best place to self publish.

Congratulations! You're an author, and now you want to share your writing genius with the world. But working with a traditional publisher can be hard. With the extra step of finding an agent and the back-and-forth with editors, there's a lot going on in the publishing industry just to get your book on the publisher's desk. Lucky for you, there's a host of self-publishing options out there to support brand-new and established authors.

Self-publishing has become an increasingly popular option for writers who want to get their work out into the world without the assistance of traditional publishing companies. One of the biggest advantages of self-publishing is the control it gives the author over their work. Instead of having to conform to the demands of a publisher, authors can use self-publishing to retain complete creative control over their work.

Self Publishing Service FAQ

Can i really publish my own book, can i only self-publish in print or can i go digital too, why would i use a self-publishing service if i can do it on my own, are self-publishing services expensive, do i need to have a place to store my printed books, what are some of the extra services i should consider, what if i have questions can i speak with an actual person, are self-publishing services legitimate.

Continued from above... Continued from above... -->

There are several advantages to self-publishing a book. For example, an author can make decisions about everything from the book cover to the formatting of the text. This control can lead to a more authentic representation of the author's vision, which can be appealing to readers.

Another advantage of self-publishing is that it allows authors to reach a broader audience. Traditional publishers are often selective about the types of books they choose to publish, and many authors may struggle to find a publisher who is willing to take a chance on their work. Self-publishing, on the other hand, allows authors to bypass the traditional gatekeepers and get their work in front of readers who may be interested in their particular niche.

And the best part? Self-publishing can be more lucrative for authors than traditional publishing. Traditional publishing deals often involve the publisher taking a significant percentage of the book's profits, leaving the author with a smaller cut. With self-publishing, authors keep a larger share of their book's profits, which can add up over time. Additionally, self-publishing often allows authors to set their own prices, which can help them maximize their revenue.

Writing is a lot of work, but publishing doesn't have to be. To make sure you have the easiest path to getting your bestseller out to the public, we've researched the most popular self-publishing options so you don't have to.

If you're not sure where to start, here are several factors to keep in mind to find the best fit for you and your writing:

• Cost. What is the cost to work with this publisher and how much will you make as the author? Costs include fees and royalties, so it's important to check both.
• Specialty. Are you a poet or a playwright? Or maybe you prefer to write short stories or long sci-fi trilogies? You want to make sure the publisher you choose specializes in the kind of writing that's important to you. You want to be able to reach your ideal audience.
• User-friendly tools. Are you looking for complete control over the final publication, or do you want a publisher that helps you along the way with technology tools?
• Sales. Where does this self-publishing platform promote your work? Are sales integrated into the process or do you have to do all of the marketing yourself?

To help you make the jump from writer to published author smoother than ever, Top Consumer Reviews has evaluated and ranked the best self-publishing companies out there today. We hope this information helps you get the book of your dreams in print and in the reader's hands ASAP!

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Table of Contents

Why Do Book Reviews Matter?

How many reviews do i need, editorial reviews, how to get amazon book reviews, how to get reviews for your book on amazon.

What good is writing a great book if no one knows that it’s worth reading?

That’s where book reviews come in.

Reviews matter. They’re a key influencer of buying behavior and provide important social proof even to non-buyers.

Just think about it: how many times have you bought a book without looking at the reviews? I can’t speak for you, but I always read at least a few reviews of every book I buy.

So how do you get more? Most important, more good reviews?

Lots of people are trying to make money off Authors’ confusion in this area, and giving out terrible, deceitful advice about getting reviews (and a few straight up scams).

That’s why I wrote this blog post.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about getting reviews effectively and ethically, especially on Amazon .

If you’ve put in the effort to write a good book, then it’s worth taking the time to get honest feedback from your readers.

Quick note: I said “a good book.” All of my advice assumes you wrote a good book. I’m going to teach you how to get honest reviews, so if your book is not good, my suggestions will backfire. You’ll get reviews, but they won’t be ones you like.

1. Credibility & Social Proof

Imagine that you’re going out for a nice dinner, and you have a choice between two restaurants. One of them has two Michelin Stars, received glowing reviews on Yelp, and even has reviews on Google Maps.

The other restaurant looks nice from the outside, but it doesn’t have a website, and you don’t know anyone who’s been. You know nothing about the chef, and your only guideline for the food comes from the very basic menu posted outside the door.

Which restaurant are you going to choose?

Books work the same way.

If you had to choose, would you buy the book with 50 5-star reviews, or would you buy the one without any reviews at all?

People want to read books other people have read. If a book has a solid number of reviews, a strong blurb, and plenty of customer feedback, it’s going to do better.

Reviews are social proof. Proof that you have something to say, that you have the chops to say it, and that you can be engaging while you say it.

A book without reviews isn’t necessarily a bad book, but it also won’t have the same appeal as a book that consistently gets rave comments.

2. Influence search algorithms

You know what the third biggest search engine is?

Google is first, YouTube is second, and Amazon is third.

When people use Amazon, what they see first is determined by Amazon’s search algorithm…and reviews are a very important part of that algorithm.

Most of our authors write books not just to sell copies, but to use as a tool to market themselves . If this is the case for you, then people searching for your book topic are very important.

The better your ranking , the more likely it is that people will find your book. And the more likely it is that people find your book, the more likely you are to sell it.

3. Drive sales

Reviews won’t automatically make you a New York Times bestseller , but it will make your book more visible to potential readers.

Every review boosts your rankings, emphasizes your credibility, or entices potential readers.

And good reviews drive sales. Think about it–when you go to buy a book, what is the first thing you do?

Read the reviews.

The more reviews you can get—assuming they are good—the better. Lots of reviews are strong social proof a book is popular, and popular books sell.

For a minimum, you should try to get 20 reviews within the first two months after your book release date. That shows your book has traction with real readers.

At around 50 reviews, you are probably good to go. Around that point, you have solidified the book as reputable and should continue to generate reviews.

A Note Before We Start: Don’t Try to Cheat Amazon

Amazon is savvy. Their algorithm is no joke, and if you try to cheat them, you will get caught. They actively look to find and remove any review that is not a real review written by a real person–and they’re very good at it.

Amazon also has a zero-tolerance policy for any review that is designed to mislead or manipulate customers. They’re not shy about removing reviews that violate that policy.

Here’s a list of things to avoid:

• You can’t pay for reviews. This includes cash or giving reviewers a free or discounted product.
• You can’t offer reviewers gifts in exchange for reviews.
• You can’t exchange positive book reviews with other Authors, so don’t head to Facebook or Twitter to find review swaps.

This may seem pretty restrictive. After all, don’t most of us rely on business associates, friends, and other members of our networks to sell books? And what about giving away free review copies? Does that violate the promotional terms?

Well, there are a few caveats .

You can give away free or discounted books to potential reviewers, but you can’t tell them what to write. If they hate it, they have to be able to rant and rave to their heart’s content.

That’s why I said earlier that you have to write a high-quality book. Any free copy you give away has to be given with no strings attached.

Most of this information applies to customer reviews, but they aren’t the only kind of reviews on Amazon.

Editorial reviews are either written by Amazon editors or they come from established publications like Publisher’s Weekly or Kirkus Reviews. Official book endorsements also fall under the category of editorial reviews.

Let’s say that you are a physical therapist, and you have a colleague who is very well known in the field. If she likes your work, it would probably be better to ask her for an editorial review. That way, when people look at the Amazon listing, her review will be front and center. It won’t be buried in the middle of 45 other reviews.

Editorial reviews aren’t subject to the same kinds of restrictions as customer reviews. It’s still not ethical to pay someone to give you a review, but you can and should make the most of your connections to get these.

Step 1: Set-up For Success: Ask for Reviews In Your Book

The easiest way to get book reviews is to ask for them. What better place to do that than in the book itself?

Usually, it’s best to include a short, direct review request towards the back of the book, since good reviewers tend to read all the way to the end.

Few people realize how important book reviews are to Authors. There are probably many people who enjoyed your book and would be willing to write about it if you give them a little nudge.

There are unethical ways to ask, and you should avoid them.

For starters, don’t say, “If you really loved my book, please leave a review.” I know that Authors say this all the time, but it’s presumptuous. It’s like telling someone that their opinion doesn’t matter unless it’s glowing.

People leave reviews because they want to express their feelings. Those feelings might be more complicated than, “I adored the book.” Of course you want positive reviews, but you also have to leave space for readers who enjoyed the book but are reluctant to call it the best thing they’ve ever read.

It’s better to ask readers, “I’d love to hear your honest opinion.”

Here’s another thing to avoid: Don’t ask readers, “Can you take a minute to review my book so I can sell more copies?” This comes across as desperate.

Other people typically don’t care how many books you sell. They need a better reason to take the time to write. Try framing your request around the impact that the book had on them and the impact it could have for others.

Here’s an example: “Did this book help you in some way? If so, I’d love to hear about it. Honest reviews help readers find the right book for their needs.”

Step 2: Ask Your Network for Reviews

One of the most effective ways to get reviews is to set up a launch team .

To do this, put together a list of people who would immediately do a favor for you. You want to aim for 30-50 people.

One month before the book release, send this team a copy of your book so they can read it in advance. It’s easiest to email the book as a PDF, along with a short call to action. Here’s a sample:

Hello there!

I’m excited to let you know that my new book, [Title], launches on [date]. It’s been an amazing journey to get it completed, and I’m excited to finally share it with the world.

If you’re receiving this email, it’s because you’re someone I trust enough to (a) send a free copy of the book to in advance and (b) ask that you leave an honest review when it goes live.

Early reviews are the single most important factor in determining if a book succeeds, so I’m incredibly thankful for people like you who I can rely on to leave one.

No action needed yet. Attached is your free PDF of the book, and I’ll follow up when the book launches with a reminder to leave a review.

Thanks so much for your support. I deeply appreciate it.

Just before the book launches, use KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) to discount the e-reader version to 99 cents for the week of the book launch.

Then, follow up with your team, asking them to leave a review. You can highlight certain things that you would like reviewers to mention, but again, it’s good to emphasize that you want their honest opinion.

Also mention that your book is 99 cents, so if they’re feeling generous, they can buy a copy so their review will be verified. A verified review means that the writer purchased the product through Amazon, and they didn’t receive it at a deep discount. These matter more for your Amazon ranking.

Here’s a sample email: Hey [Name],

The day is here! My book, [Title + GENI.US link], is finally live on Amazon.

I have one simple ask:

If you were able to look at the book and enjoyed it, can you leave a short review?

Reviews should only be 1-2 sentences and should take about 30 seconds to leave (and would make a huge difference for me). If you can’t come up with one, here are some examples:

• [Insert example review]

Finally, I wanted to give you a heads up that Amazon can sometimes block or remove reviews if they deem our digital relationship too close, or if your account is too new. This is few and far between so I’m sorry if you run into this and thank you all the more for your support!

Thanks so much for your help! I can’t thank you enough.

Best, [Author]

As you can see, this email alludes to Amazon’s “family and friends” rule. Most book reviews and sales come from word of mouth, and you will of course be asking your network for support. The key here is that you aren’t forcing or bribing people to give you good feedback.

Step 3: Set Up Your Assets to Remind Your Network

Social media is a great way to remind your network that your book is ready to be reviewed.

Use Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or whatever social media assets you have to keep your book present in people’s minds.

For example:

• Pin a tweet requesting reviews at the top of your Twitter feed
• Add the book to your email signature
• Put your book in the header of your Facebook and Twitter profiles

Step 4: Reach Out to Authority Reviewers & Top Reviewers

Amazon has a list of top reviewers who are enthusiastic and authoritative about certain areas. If you notice that someone consistently reviews books in your field, they might be a good person to reach out to.

Be cautious about contacting too many top reviewers, especially if your book isn’t in their realm of interest. No one likes spam, so only reach out with good reason.

You have to know your audience , so look at book bloggers who might have some knowledge in your area or podcasters who might be interested in your book’s topic.

Alternately, you could use a site like BookRazor to find people interested in your book. If you send them a free copy, they agree to follow up with a review.

Be aware though: cold calls have a high failure rate. We haven’t found this method as effective as tapping personal networks.

Step 5: Don’t Ignore Negative Reviews

It’s highly likely that, at some point, you will get a negative review . This is just a fact of life.

One thing to keep in mind before you get upset is that bad reviews aren’t always a bad thing. Books that only have 5-star reviews often don’t seem credible. Bad reviews can actually convince people that your other reviews are real.

There are many ways to deal with negative reviews:

• Ignore it. There’s no upside to responding to toxic people.
• Answer it…but be careful. Responding can be a double-edged sword. Respond in a way that addresses the issue without coming off as defensive.
• Admit it hurts to receive a bad review, then move on.
• Keep things in perspective. Don’t give negative reviews more weight than positive ones.
• Consider if the negative comments have any lessons for you.
• Try to get Amazon to take down the review if it doesn’t comply with their guidelines. They probably won’t remove it unless the person has been fraudulent or crude.

BONUS Step: Use Paid Services

Okay, I know I said that you shouldn’t use paid services. But what I meant was, “Don’t use paid services to directly buy reviews.” That’s cheating the system, and scamming Amazon isn’t a good idea if you’re trying to be a legitimate Author.

But there are paid opportunities that you can use to get the book into potential reviewers’ hands in an ethical way.

Goodreads is a social media site for book lovers. Their book giveaways are a good way to increase exposure and create hype. Goodreads requires participants to add the book to their wish list, and they also remind winners to leave reviews. They offer several packages at different price points, depending on how many promotional options you want.

BookBub features discounted books in their daily newsletters, which have more than 10 million subscribers. You can pay to have your book featured, or you can buy ad space in the newsletters. The pricing depends on how deep the book’s discount is.

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Great Reviews And 5-Star Ratings: How To Get Them And How To Make Use Of Them

You already know that publishing print-on-demand (POD) no- and low-content books can be a long process. It entails thinking about your passive income gig as a long-term business adventure.

So, let’s  say you’ve created your interiors and covers and done your keyword research. You think that you’re ready to sell. This is incorrect because it’s actually just the start of the process. Gaining traction, getting your book ranking higher in the search results, and making sales takes time, perseverance and effort.

One effective way you can boost this is with your after-sales customer service through reviews and ratings. But how can you get these gems for your store so that the Amazon algorithm ranks you higher?

Take a look below.

Why Do Ratings And Reviews Matter?

One of Amazon’s primary mottos is offering a great customer experience. The more happy customers there are, the better for the Sellers and Amazon. But how do you know which customers are happy and which ones aren’t? The answer lies in ratings and reviews. These are both an essential part of scaling your business. Think of this as word-of-mouth advertising, which was a crucial part of marketing communications before the internet took the world by storm.

Today, there are online reviews and ratings for practically every business you can think of. While positive reviews will have a higher chance of influencing people to purchase a product or service, negative ones can spread like wildfire, causing reputational damage.

The same is true for reviews on Amazon. In fact, one real-life review on Amazon proves this point best. As part of the review, this customer said: “I base most of my purchases on reviews from others.” This should put things in a nutshell regarding the importance of ratings and reviews. It is a major reason why you should be paying attention to them.

Sure, reviews aren’t as common as ratings, and some say that you’re likely to get about one rating for every 100 items sold. But the point is that they do matter and you need to know what to do in the event of either type of review.

What Is The Value Of Ratings And Reviews For Your Amazon KDP Game

We’ve established the importance of ratings and reviews, so now it’s time to state their business value.

Here’s a short list:

Establish credibility and social proof: People want third-party credibility; it influences their decision to buy.

Product validation: Ratings and reviews validate the product. They say that the product is worth purchasing.

Influence search algorithms: The Amazon algorithm is powerful and it takes ratings and reviews into account. This is in addition to several other factors, when ranking your product higher up. Reviews also show that your product has more staying power and this means Amazon is more likely to see it and rank it.

Part of marketing strategy: Ratings and reviews also help establish a sustainable marketing strategy, which Sellers can lean on to drive sales in the long term. Why? Because proof that some are happy with your products is likely to entice others to buy, too. In this sense, the very act of garnering positive ratings and reviews can be considered a successful marketing strategy.

Drive sales: Ultimately, with all these factors combined, you’re likely to make more sales with higher ratings and reviews. This is in contrast to Sellers who have no reviews or poor reviews.

What Actions Will Improve The Chances Of Getting High Ratings And Reviews?

The suggestions below are some effective ways of helping you improve your customer ratings and reviews on Amazon.

Build an email list: Building an email list cannot be underestimated. It is an essential part of your ratings and review strategy. You need to be emailing your customers. While most people think that emails are mainly for promotions and discounts, this is actually wrong. You can easily use your email list to ask your customers to rate you. One example of an Amazon Seller who implements a strategy of building an email list in an interesting way is Modern Kid Press. This Seller asks their customers to send an email to them (which is found in their low-content book) to get more cool free stuff. But this is actually also an excellent way of building an email list, too.

Launch a website or landing page: Having a separate website for your no- and low-content books is another marketing strategy. It can really help you build your brand. By offering your customers and visitors value, they’re more likely to leave their emails with you. This goes back to the previous point about building an email list. By using your website to your advantage, you can create a more cohesive brand, launch new products, and gather email addresses to reach a wider audience. This will help you not only strengthen your brand personality but you’ll be able to reach more customers, too.

Create a group and ask for reviews: According to Amazon’s rules, you can’t force someone to give you a good review, but you can ask for an honest review . And one way to do that is to create a group on social media and simply ask. This ties in with having a cohesive brand identity and voice. It also shows you care about your customers’ opinions. They’ll be able to differentiate when you’re being genuine versus when you’re simply soliciting for the sake of boosting your sales game.

Ask to have your book reviewed online: Yes, this is another strategy that you can adopt, although you should be aware that this can take time and money.

Add bonuses: It’s not against Amazon policy to add sweeteners to a deal in exchange for reviews in the form of certain offers. However, these reviews must be honest and any fake reviews will be removed. The platform is really strict about this.

Promote, promote, promote: The beauty of the internet is that it offers so many different channels for you to promote your KDP books for free. You can always create a YouTube channel and update it whenever you have a new book out. Then, of course, there is the wide variety of social media channels, which you can use to promote your books as well. Use these to your advantage – whether it be to ask for reviews or gain email addresses.

Improve based on negative feedback: Finally, there’s dealing with negative reviews or poor ratings. The important thing here is to use your customer’s feedback constructively. Say you’ve made some grammatical errors in your no- or low-content book and a nit-picky customer doesn’t like that. What can you do in such a case?

First and foremost, try to never invalidate the customer’s opinion and experiences . Make the most out of their feedback. You could, for example, mention that an updated version of the book is being worked on based on their comments and that you value their input. This will show all your present and future customers that you take reviews seriously. While some say you shouldn’t respond to reviews at all, the best advice is to be selective. If you do choose to respond, then use that feedback in a constructive manner to improve your offering.

What Not To Do To Gain Amazon Reviews

As with anything internet-related, there are some definite don’ts that Amazon will punish you for. Here are a couple of practices to avoid at all costs to ensure you don’t get a strike against your account.

Review swaps: “ I’ll review yours if you review mine.” These are very easy to spot and Amazon will not be happy with this.

Pay for reviews: Customers want honest reviews and Amazon can spot a fake one a mile away. This is another no-no.

Review your own: Self-reviewed no- and low-content books will diminish your credibility as a Seller. Plus, it’s really easy to see when you’re tooting your own horn.

Get friends and family to review: Finally, avoid asking friends and family for reviews. Amazon can see which IP addresses you’ve used. This is because all they’re trying to do is make sure that reviews aren’t biased. Also, so that customers get a fair and honest review on which to base their purchasing decision.

What’s The Bottom Line?

These actionable steps are geared towards a couple of things. It’s an interrelated web of events and if put in practice effectively and simultaneously, they can yield a lot of good results for your passive income business.

For starters, the value of reviews and ratings for sales cannot be underestimated. More clients are looking to others’ experiences to see if they should make a purchase. If they’re convinced of the value of your product based on someone else’s opinion, you’re likely to bag that sale.

But that’s not all.

You’re also likely to be found higher up in the rankings, as the Amazon algorithm will crawl your listings and get you to a much sweeter spot. That will make it easier for your no- and low-content books to get found.

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I lost access to my account during…

I lost access to my account during moving. Im a author, more then a year later, I still have no access to my books, sales and funds. Amazon KDP steals from authors! GIVE ACCES BACK TO MY ACCOUNT

Date of experience : August 03, 2024

After allegedly violating their terms…

After allegedly violating their terms and conditions (absolutely not true), they withheld at least 300 euros in royalties and stopped responding after I sent dozens of emails asking for explanations. Bezos, the sly one, has dozens of underpaid Indians and Pakistanis working who don't even know what they're doing. Out of spite, I'm trying not to make any more purchases on Amazon to avoid further enriching the bald boss...

Date of experience : July 20, 2024

Wrongful termination

Wrongful termination. Unbelievable. Got a sudden email saying my account was terminated without prior warning or suspension. The reason was that my book "requires resources beyond a Kindle" but this is absolutely false because it does not, and I proved to them again and again via email with supporting screenshots. More baffling, they wrote the wrong TITLE in the termination email. I tried appealing multiple times and each time was "upholding decision" with last email saying "no more insights will be provided" I have absolute evidence with screenshots and files that my book did not violate the terms they are stating. I am wondering if legal representation is needed. Does anyone have any insights on what can be done at this time? Any attorneys or litigation methods to review this termination?

Date of experience : July 01, 2024

Horrible, dishonest and unreliable sort of business... All they care about is their gain and nothing else... The KDP site is low on quality, customer support or any appropriate assistance that new authors require just rules that they twist at their will... KDP can't be trusted because they are exploiting new Writers and Entrepreneurs... be careful and don't waste your time with them...

Date of experience : May 01, 2024

Unprofessional

Rudely, suggestions of poverty, presumptuous, not professional. Disgruntled staff should beef their managers and not potential customers...Underwhelming experience.

Date of experience : August 09, 2024

Great service, but use matte cover

Successfully published one paperback with no difficulty, now adding kindle version. About to publish second book in same formats. Smooth process and payout works fine. Only advice would be to choose matte finish cover; I've changed from gloss which curls your cover very badly.

Date of experience : December 01, 2023

I would never use KDP publishing again

I would never use KDP publishing again. The Project Manager was rude and condescending. I only sold 50 copies of my book and after three months, I was told that they were done with me. The book was never marketed to a targeted audience and my costs were about 5k. On top of that, they take most of the royalty. Trying to get information from them is a waste of time as they deflect most questions. Wish I had the money, I would sue for breech of contract.

Date of experience : July 22, 2024

I've been with KDP for almost a year publishing mostly low-content products. I do my research and make products that receive good reviews. Suddenly, some of my books got blocked from publishing because "it would create a disappointing experience for the customer". My questions regarding the "blocked" status were ignored I got a message with nonsensical instructions to unpublish the product, which is not possible when the book status is "blocked." After reading all the recent reviews here, it really feels like I tried to communicate with a useless bot and now I am concerned that my account will be blocked as well, after hundreds of hours of hard work!

Date of experience : July 17, 2024

Amazon KDP is a big fraud.I made an…

Amazon KDP is a big fraud.I made an account on KDP and published book it is review. Kdp blocked my account without any reason and not helps me last 3 days. Jeff bezos can you reply me is it fair and we could not expect from such a big platform?

Literally the worst of big corporate. DO NOT USE

Literally the worst of big corporate experience. After getting sold on Amazon KDP I immediately got handed to a completely inept, rude and condescending project manager who after I tried to work with them (as the client!!!) had to request a whole new project manager. Amazon KDP sucked all joy I might have felt out of the publishing process because they literally did not give a rat's, couldn't seem to reply to an email chain so I was constantly having to tie information together from different threads (fatiguing and soooo innefficient), and when my book finally DID arrive in the post, the back cover was not even centre aligned, and the font was the wrong size (absolute basics of book publishing). To have put in hundreds of hours of work into this book and at the last stage of the marathon PAY $1,400 to have the process made EVEN MORE DIFFICULT and then receive a substandard product in the post is mind boggling. Can't seem to order author copies and whole process has been absolutely horrible from start to finish. DO NOT EVER USE THEM. It doesn't matter that they are the biggest, if by the end having dealt with them makes you want to claw your own eyeballs out. Amazon belongs nowhere near creative people or their output.

I published my book through Amazon KDP

I published my book through Amazon KDP. Will not do it again. A few books were damaged during shipping. I sent them back and they shipped replacements. I inspected the books but it never occurred to me that I should fan through each book to ensure it was printed in color. After the 30 days passed, I grabbed a book in stock to show a customer a photo. Imagine the disbelief when I found it was printed in black & white. KDP admitted that I cannot change the print but yet said they can't tell me how it happened and they refused to replace the 14 books they printed. You may want to find another publishing company that will stand behind their work.

Date of experience : July 03, 2024

Isn't a trustworthy service

Isn't a trustworthy service. I had to go publish with their competitors. They send me some awful printed copies. The images weren't even readable. My book is going to get full of bad reviews if customer received such a bad quality of printing. Run away from them. I didn't renew my Prime Membership after this. Amazon shouldn't allow this low quality.

Date of experience : May 21, 2024

Amazon KDP has "released the bots" that…

UPDATE: I've counted over SEVENTY reviews where KDP accounts have been suspended or terminated suddenly with "template emails" and withholding royalties. This has been over the past year or two. I believe there is a class action suit that is dealing with this very thing. People need to reach out to one another and unite. ------------------------------------------------------ Amazon KDP has "released the bots" that are suspending or terminating accounts somehow alerted when too many changes are made to a single title within a certain time frame. The changes can be anything: price, keywords, covers, description. Their support team is 90% AI now. My account was terminated after 12 years, with no explanation other than "Book Details" which can be anything in metadata. Trying to appeal is useless. Plus they are holding up 2-1/2 months worth of my royalties. I saw where a class action suit is ongoing against KDP for royalty theft. They want the Indie Authors out of their platform bottom line.

Date of experience : May 30, 2024

I have been a with KDP since February

I have been a with KDP since February, 2020. Nobody bought any of my books except for a few family members and friends. They even sucked me into signing up for their costly marking campaigned. Recently they terminated my KDP account saying I had violated their terms and conditions. Basically they were accusing me of plagiarism. Since I am the sole author of my works it is impossible for me to have placiarsed my own work. Several times I contacted them via email and they said they would look into it and have a decision within five business days. The last time u told them they would be hearing fron my attorney. Still no response from them. Contact a lawyer and sue them.

Date of experience : May 23, 2024

Terminated For Selling Book About Holistic Health

I have been with kdp for over a year. I decided over the last month to really get more into it. I started selling more books (and marketing so spending money) and when I went to make a price change of a top selling book that was already approved, they terminated my account. So not only do I NOT get the royalties I made BUT they also get to keep the money I spent on marketing…doesn’t seem right at all. My book is about Herbal Remedies/Natural Solutions and their Health Benefits. They claim that I was misleading and defrauding their customers…there is science behind this…

Date of experience : June 13, 2024

KDP treats their authors terribly.

KDP terminated my account and withheld my commissions accusing me of "trying to manipulate the system". No further explanation. It took 8 emails to receive this much information. My books were all no or low content. They were all published. I unpublished them to update some information, descriptions and lower their prices. Made the updates and upon re publishing, my account was suddenly terminated! I have been treated very poorly by Amazon KDP. They have been rude and not transparent.

Date of experience : May 25, 2024

I believe Amazon KDP and Amazon…

I believe Amazon KDP and Amazon distribution is a criminal organization. I created style boards via an e-book about NFL stars Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes. I created a summer wardrobe that consisted of men's silk, and linen two-piece short sets by a certain designer. I noticed for the last four months non of my books were getting views, which is strange for Amazon. Out of the blue, I received a vague email from an unknown Amazon KDP employee that stated if I didn't remove a certain book title, which they never let me know which one, my account would be terminated. They terminated my account anyway. I noticed that Travis Kelce was wearing the men's two piece summer outfit I picked out on my style board, with the name of the designer written across his shirt, as he paraded across the stage with Taylor Swift. Something is up with that. I also want to point out that a relative had given me an Amazon gift card. I needed an article of clothing, so I used it purchase it. I had the item shipped directly to Amazon Mail Boxes on Hollywood Blvd at LA Fitness. I received a vague email from Amazon, stating they couldn't find their own Amazon mailbox, and therefore I wouldn't be getting my package. I submitted a request for a refund, and never got one. I believe Amazon and Jeff Bezos is a criminal organization that needs to be investigated by the FBI, Homeland Security, the NSA and a Federal grand jury. Jeff Bezos homes need to be raided by Homeland Security in the way Sean Diddy Combs homes were. Jeff Bezos is a sex trafficker and a criminal who belongs in prison. Don't ever trust Amazon or Amazon KDP. Build your own publishing website.

Date of experience : July 06, 2024

It is a very fickle company that will…

It is a very fickle company that will terminate accounts with no notice and withhold royalties. Overall KDP is no longer a safe place to publish directly. Use alternative sites for safer publishing. KDP direct is a scam for most customers.

Date of experience : May 27, 2024

TERRIBLE PRINT QUALITY

KDP Amazon has terrible print quality, I was shocked to see such an unprofessional finish with damage to the cover of each book. The complaint was eventually dealt with after several emails and time-wasting only to receive a replacement batch of books with the same issues! When i stressed that this poor quality would be reflected in customer reviews they didn't seem to care. When i received negative reviews about my book that were unverified and seemed to be written by a bot i complained to KDP to remove them but they refused. They never investigated and closed the case. This has affected my book sales. To date, i have never received a royalty payment for the books i have sold, and am still chasing this up. They claim to market books, but its expensive and unaffordable if you are making no money! Especially when other authors have told me their marketing efforts were wasted. KDP is unprofessional. It is so disappointing as an author the amount of work that goes into publishing a book to have it poorly misrepresented in every way and for KDP to take advantage of us. I am disheartened and lost faith in the self-publishing route, and i wish KDP would stop scamming honest people trying to get their work out there!!! It's a disgrace and shameful! Stop the bots and bring real humans back to fix these issues. The printing must be professional and nothing less accepted. Follow up on your promises and pay us after pocketing all the money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Date of experience : June 06, 2024

I've been with KDP for over ten years

I've been with KDP for over ten years, have published several fantasy novels with them, and have never had anything less than stellar service. My paperbacks are always beautifully printed and bound. The ease of using the website makes producing high quality books a fun and pleasurable experience. Changing manuscripts to remove typos or catch a mistake such as inverted wording is always easy. Customer service has been excellent, prompt and professional. After reading several negative reviews here, I had to respond with my experience and recommend that anyone interested in publishing their work with KDP, take those negative reviews with a large spoonful of salt. KDP and Amazon are the best publishing platform available.

Date of experience : June 10, 2024

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Last updated on Jul 19, 2023

Amazon KDP: A Writer’s Guide to Kindle Direct Publishing

About ricardo fayet.

Reedsy co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Ricardo Fayet is one of the world's leading authorities in marketing indie books. He is a regular presenter at several prestigious writers' conferences, where his unique personal style has made him an instantly recognizable figure.

Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon’s publishing platform allowing independent authors to access readers worldwide. In a matter of hours, anybody can create an author account, upload their book, and sell paperbacks, hardbacks, and ebooks through Amazon — without any setup cost. It’s unquestionably the most accessible platform for self-publishing authors.

In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the experience of publishing on KDP, from setting up your book to mastering keywords ( here ) and categories ( here ). But first, let’s take a bird’s eye view and try to see how Amazon has become the go-to retailer for self-publishing authors.

KDP ignited the self-publishing revolution

Launched concurrently with Amazon’s ebook reader in 2007, KDP opened up the publishing world. Readers could now not only buy indie ebooks through Amazon.com but also directly from any Kindle device. 

Thanks to KDP, authors of niche genres can gain access to readers that previously could have only reached through traditional publishing.

Indie publishing’s kingmaker

This accessibility has led to multiple waves of bestselling authors who have found mainstream success through self-publishing, including E.L. James ( Fifty Shades of Grey ), Hugh Howey ( Wool ), and Andy Weir ( The Martian ). In addition, there are now countless other indie writers — especially in the romance genre — who earn significantly more than their traditionally published counterparts, thanks mainly to KDP’s favorable royalty rates .

If you want to get in on this hot market, you can learn how to write a romance novel  here .

Any author can reach over 80% of US readers 

Amazon is the largest bookstore in the world, full stop. While they don’t have the same iron grip in non-English language book markets, one retail news site suggests that in the US, Amazon held an 83% market share of ebooks in 2019 — with the remaining 17% spread between its competitors.

If you’re looking to sell books in the United States and the United Kingdom, KDP is a platform you can’t afford to ignore — especially once you see how they can help you reach readers across different formats .

Pro-tip: Get a read on your audience early by downloading this author market research checklist. 

FREE RESOURCE

Market Research Checklist

Find your ultimate target audience with our checklist.

You can sell print, digital, and audio in one place

While many people associate “Kindle” with ebooks, that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the various versions of your book that you can publish through KDP. But let’s not gloss over the convenience of their digital publishing option…

Instant ebook publishing

Through KDP’s author platform, you can set up an account, upload a manuscript, and publish it by the end of the hour. Of course, you’ll likely want to format and edit your book to a professional standard first, but the publishing process on Amazon is otherwise very straightforward.

Once it’s live on the Kindle Store, readers can purchase your digital book and read it on their tablets, e-readers, phones, or desktop computers — just as they would any ebook published by a major press.

Paperbacks and hardcovers through KDP Print

Despite the ebook revolution, print books aren’t going anywhere. Several print-on-demand ( POD ) services are available for self-publishing authors who want a handsome paperbound edition to put in their bookcases (or, you know, to sell to paying customers). With POD, a supplier will churn out copies only when someone orders them — making this system an affordable alternative to large-scale print runs.

Kindle Direct Publishing offers a service called KDP Print (formerly known as Createspace), which manages print-on-demand. Authors need to upload immaculately formatted print files (different from the ebook format), after which they can start selling physical copies from their existing KDP account. 

Get in your readers’ ears with Audible

As a one-stop-publishing platform, KDP allows authors to focus most of their efforts on a single retailer without fear of losing out on too many potential sales — plus, you’ll only have to handle taxes on your earnings made from a single source.

As you’ll learn later in this guide, it isn’t always the best idea to sell exclusively on KDP, but it certainly is convenient — and the royalties that Amazon offers can be rather sweet.

Earn royalties of up to 70%

While these percentages are by no means exclusive to KDP (you can expect similar royalties with Kobo or Apple Books), Amazon is the market leader and has effectively cemented these as the prevailing rates.

Terms and conditions apply

These royalty rates may sound pretty attractive to you, but you should be aware of certain limitations. For example, the 60% royalty on print-on-demand books will look a lot slimmer once you subtract the actual printing costs.

On the digital side of things, the premium 70% ebook royalty isn’t available in all territories and requires you to price your title between $2.99 and $9.99. So if you change your book’s price to above $9.99 on Kindle, your royalty rate will suddenly drop to 35%. This is fine for most authors (if your ebook costs more than $10, you might be doing something wrong), but if you’re selling a box set — where you bundle multiple books into a single product — you’ll be penalized. In contrast, Apple Books and Kobo have no such price ceiling.

But before you make any rash decisions and abandon the Amazon ship, it’s worth sticking around to see what other perks Amazon offers its authors.

Kindle gives unprecedented visibility to indie authors

As we mentioned at the start, one of Kindle’s big innovations is that they’ve effectively leveled the playing field for self-publishing authors 一 but what does it mean, exactly?

An algorithm-led store levels the playing field

Where Apple Books, Kobo, and other online retailers have groups of humans who choose new titles to promote (or authors whose backlist they’ll feature), Amazon doesn’t have a merchandising team 一 they let their algorithm decide which books to feature and promote .

Why is this good news? Won’t the algorithm just promote famous authors and big new releases?

FREE COURSE

Amazon Algorithms for Authors

Learn to optimize your book description, pick categories, and sell more books.

Well, actually, that’s not always the case!

It’s as if The Terminator worked at Barnes & Noble: the algorithm is a heartless book-selling machine that doesn’t get star-struck by big-name authors. It looks purely at data to determine — in its cold, calculating way — which books to put in front of more readers. Indie authors have an equal chance of seeing their book rise in its category — as long as your book page is optimized to generate pre-sales, sales, and user reviews (take this course to learn more about the role of book reviews). This may sound like a big ask, but it’s much easier than calling up every bookseller around the country and begging them to stock your book.

The ups and downs of going ‘exclusive’ with Kindle

Kindle Direct Publishing offers free promotional opportunities that can be accessed through their KDP Select program. You can check out our deep dive into KDP Select for all the juicy details, but in short, they include access to:

• Kindle Unlimited – Amazon’s subscription-based service (Netflix for books)
• Kindle Free Promotions — Turbocharge your downloads by making your book available for free (for five out of every 90 days)
• Kindle Countdown Deals — Run a week-long price drop that will see your book promoted in the Kindle store’s Countdown Deals section .

As you might expect, there are minor downsides to enrolling in KDP Select. To get your hands on all these delicious marketing tools, you must make your ebook exclusive to Amazon. This might sound like no big deal (after all, most books are sold on Amazon). However, Kindle’s market share isn’t as all-consuming in countries outside the US and the UK. If you aim to reach the broadest possible audience of readers, then being tied to Amazon — if only for the length of a promotion — might be less than ideal.

So far, the downsides of publishing with KDP could be best described as “inconveniences” more than anything else. But before you throw your lot in with Amazon, it’s worth acknowledging the bigger picture.

You have to be okay with enriching a global giant

Monopolies are not a good thing for consumers. As Jeff Bezos’s empire continues to absorb a bigger market share of book sales, retail, web hosting services , logistics, streaming entertainment, and groceries, we should be concerned about feeding the Amazon beast. However, as anyone who’s marveled at ordering an obscure item and watching it arrive the next day can attest, using Amazon makes things a lot easier.

If you’re concerned that you’re contributing to the inevitable Amazon monopoly by selling through the Kindle store, you might be right. But you could also argue that there’s no way to make a living as an author without them and that selling through Amazon is a compromise you need to make, or else struggle to make a profit. If it helps, focus on the fact that Amazon has created a platform that disrupted publishing and tilted the balance of power away from ‘gatekeepers’ and towards creatives.

For some, Amazon’s patchy record of ethics might not be a dealbreaker — but it is something every author needs to consider at the very least.

If you're ready to take the plunge, strap in and head over to the next post in this guide. We'll show you the nuts and bolts of publishing your book on Amazon KDP.

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Amazon KDP: Your 7 Step Guide to Kindle Direct Publishing

Amazon KDP has taken the publishing world by storm.

For the first time in history, authors can self-publish a book with the click of a button – and Kindle Direct Publishing has made the process more accessible than ever.

In fact, it’s pretty easy to publish your book on Amazon KDP, which is why it’s caught on so rapidly, especially for those who found traditional publishing to be a roadblock in their author journey.

But, the process can be overwhelming – especially if you want to make sure you’re doing it correctly from beginning to end, from book formatting to book launch .

In this complete guide to all things Kindle Direct Publishing, we’ll walk you through the process on how to publish a book using Amazon KDP, starting with how to properly format your book files.

By the end of this Kindle Direct Publishing guide , you will have your book available in the Kindle Store, and ready to get into the hands of your readers. 

This Guide to Kindle Direct Publishing Will Cover:

What is amazon kdp .

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is Amazon’s book publishing platform that can be used to self-publish a book online , which readers can purchase as an eBook or print-on-demand book. It is one of the top self-publishing companies and currently dominates the self-publishing book market. 

Amazon KDP is a major player in the publishing industry, currently holding at least 80% of the eBook market.

Thanks to Amazon KDP’s launch in 2007, modern writers are faced with an important decision when determining how to become an author . 

In fact, writers of all disciplines have enjoyed an explosion in career flexibility over the last decade or so with the rise in remote writing jobs . This explosion has led to the increase in publishing eBooks , print books, and more through self-publishing.

Authors have two choices for publishing their book: traditional publishing or self-publishing . When weighing the traditional publishing vs self-publishing options, many writers consider the higher royalty rates on Kindle Direct Publishing, and the ease of self-publishing, as there are not any competitive hoops to go through like there are with traditional publishing. 

How does Kindle Direct Publishing work?

Kindle Direct Publishing is a platform for authors to self-publish eBooks and paperback books.

For eBooks , authors can directly upload their book files, and it will appear in the Kindle store as an eBook for readers to purchase and instantly download.

For printed books , authors upload their book files and Kindle Direct Publishing uses print-on-demand technology to print the paperback book once it’s purchased; the printing costs will be subtracted from the royalties you earn from every book sold.

You can learn more about which files to use in this EPUB vs MOBI guide.

Here’s how KDP Publishing works:

• Upload your book files to Amazon KDP.
• Publish your book to the Kindle Direct Publishing platform.
• Readers can purchase your eBook and instantly download it to their device.
• Readers can purchase your paperback copy and the Amazon KDP platform will use print-on-demand technology to print and ship your book directly to the reader once purchased.
• Amazon will pay you book royalties per book sold on the Kindle Direct Publishing platform.

Benefits of publishing on Amazon KDP

There are numerous benefits to self-publishing your book on Kindle Direct Publishing. The Amazon KDP Publishing platform has helped revolutionize the publishing industry, giving authors the opportunity to make it easier to publish a book and create a sustainable book business.

These are the benefits of Kindle Direct Publishing:

• Wide distribution. Amazon’s platform is huge, which means authors can tap into global markets across the United States, Europe, and Japan.
• Higher royalties. With Amazon, authors can earn higher royalty rates than they typically would through traditional publishing houses. Depending on the type of book you sell on Amazon , royalty rates can be as high as 60%.
• Author rights. Even though you publish your book to Kindle Direct Publishing, you retain the rights to your book through Amazon’s non-exclusive agreement.
• Quick publishing time. Typically, with traditional publishing, books can take a very long time to get to market. With Amazon KDP, the publishing process is very quick.
• No inventory. Long gone are the days when authors had to purchase printed copies of books upfront in order to sell them. With print-on-demand technology, books are printed as they are purchased.

Amazon KDP publishing cost & royalties

So what are the costs associated with Amazon self-publishing ? And how much do authors earn when they sell their book through Amazon KDP? How much are other books earning in your niche? What about the payment schedule?

In this section, we’ll answer all those questions and more!

How much does it cost to self-publish on Amazon KDP?

It is free to publish a book on Amazon KDP. It does not cost authors anything directly. But there will likely be book production costs and marketing costs around your book.

If you are selling paperback books on Kindle Direct Publishing, the cost to print the book will be deducted by Amazon from your book royalties. This means that when you sell a paperback book, you will essentially pay for the price to print the book.

Aside from being free to publish on Kindle Direct Publishing, self-published authors typically spend money on author services to prepare their book for publishing. This includes services such as book cover design, formatting, editing, and book marketing fees.

How do Kindle Direct Publishing royalties work?

Kindle Direct Publishing pays its authors through royalty fees. There are two royalty fees to consider: the eBook royalty rates, and the paperback royalty rates.

The royalty rate for eBooks on Kindle Direct Publishing is 35% or 70%, depending on which royalty rate your book is eligible for. To see specific requirements of each, click here .

The royalty rate for paperback books is a fixed 60% royalty rate.

For each royalty rate, this means that you will receive the % royalty rate of your book’s list price.

For help comparing your book’s royalty rates, use our Book Royalties Calculator .

How much are other books in your niche making?

Amazon doesn’t make other authors’ earnings publicly available and rightfully so. But Dave Chesson has created a calculator that can predict how much a certain book is making in your niche. All you have to do is find its ABSR in Amazon and plug it in. Pretty cool!

You can also use tools like K-lytics to see how books in the Amazon Kindle market are fairing.

When does Amazon KDP pay?

Kindle Direct Publishing will pay your royalties to you every month, approximately 60 days after the end of the month that your royalties were earned.

However, a caveat to this is that your payment amount must meet a minimum threshold before it is paid out by Amazon KDP. You can choose to be paid out through several options including direct deposit, wire transfer, or check.

Amazon Publishing Costs & Royalties

What is KDP Select?

KDP Select is a program for authors to give Amazon exclusive rights to sell an eBook on the Kindle platform only. This means that the author’s eBook will only be available for purchase on Amazon’s Kindle platform, and the author is not able to use another self-publishing platform to distribute their eBook.

In exchange for exclusive rights to sell the author’s eBook, Amazon provides incentives to the author, such as promotional tools, like Kindle Unlimited , and possibly higher royalty rates.

If you’re considering enrolling in KDP Select, your enrollment is not indefinite, meaning you can test it out for 90 days. KDP Select enrollment lasts for 90 days, which allows authors the option to auto-renew enrollment for another 90 days, or opt out.

Amazon KDP formatting guide

Now that you’re clear on exactly what Kindle Direct Publishing is, let’s get started with the formatting and publishing process.

Note : In this particular article, I’ll be covering the steps to formatting your book for Amazon KDP specifically using Microsoft Word, which is one of the easiest programs to use. As the author of How to Format Your Book in Word , I’ve found that Word is a program that most authors already have experience using.

If you don’t want to use Microsoft Word, you may wish to hire a professional eBook formatter , or another book formatting software .

Now, if you still want to do it yourself (and do it in Microsoft Word), then you’ll be able to format it properly using the steps in this guide.

Format your book file

If you’re an author or writer, chances are that you’re already familiar with using Microsoft Word. If you’re one of the few people who have never used Word before, that’s okay. There isn’t a steep learning curve to using the program and you can use Word tutorial videos to get the gist.

Formatting your book in Word for Kindle is really easy. Although there are technical aspects that you should be aware of, it’s really not rocket science.

You can only apply formatting as per the technical requirements of the Kindle device, which is specified by Amazon KDP itself. And to be honest, these are not complex in any way whatsoever.

When I say formatting for the Kindle is technical , I mean there are specific ways that you can do certain things and there are features you cannot use. 

For example, you cannot have text boxes in your eBook file, and headers and footers are not recognized in the Kindle device.

We’ll cover how to do this in detail below.

Format your file for Amazon KDP

In order to publish on Amazon KDP, your book manuscript needs to be formatted for the Kindle Direct Publishing platform. Otherwise, certain errors or layout issues will occur.

In addition to formatting your Word file, which includes the text contents of your book, you will also need to create a separate cover image. 

Use these specifications for your cover image when formatting your file for Amazon KDP:

• The cover image size should be a minimum of 625 pixels on the shortest side and 1000 pixels on the longest side. The best quality is 2,560 x 1,600 pixels
• The file format should be TIFF or JPEG.

Amazon has introduced the Kindle Create tool , and the information for using this tool is also included in this guide. 

Using Kindle Create, you can check your Word file, add special features, etc., and then create a .kpf file that you can upload to Amazon KDP. 

If there are issues with your Word file when you preview it in Kindle Create, you will have to make the changes in Word, and then preview it in Kindle Create again.

Use the recognized Kindle styles

Pay attention to the following points if you have already applied any character or text styles to your Word file. 

Kindle does not recognize (or has limited support for) any of the following styles:

• Auto numbering
• Special fonts
• Headers and footers
• Special word styles

You can use the following formatting in your Word manuscript:

• Indentations
• Bold and italics

Although you can upload your Word file directly to Kindle Direct Publishing, I highly suggest you convert your Word file to a .kpf file before uploading it . A .kpf file is Kindle Create’s file extension. This optimizes fonts, line spacing, margins, etc., to improve reading your eBook on Kindle devices.

Structure your book for Amazon KDP

An important step in publishing your book file to Kindle Direct Publishing is making sure you have all the necessary front and back matter formatted for your book. 

If you don’t have the necessary parts, be sure to add a page in your manuscript’s Word file to create the page in your book.

The five parts to include in your book structure for Amazon KDP are:

• Copyright page
• Table of contents
• The body (your actual book content)
• Back matter (acknowledgments, index, promo for other books, etc)

We’ll cover more details on these parts in the next sections. 

Add a Kindle Direct Publishing title page

The first part of your book that you’ll need in order to publish on Kindle Direct Publishing is your title page.

Your title page text will be centered with the title of your book , the author name below, and a page break inserted below the author name.

Things to review for your title page: 

• Is your title page text centered on the page? 
• Is your name listed below the title? 
• Do you have a page break below the author name? 

Here is an example of a title page:

Include a Copyright page

You can include your copyright notice on your title page (as shown in the above example) or you can have a separate copyright page.

Your copyright page can include the following:

• Copyright © [Year] [Author Name]
• All rights reserved.

You can also include text as follows (or similar based on your needs):

“No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of very brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.”

Convert your Table of Contents for Amazon KDP

Using Word’s auto ToC tool will work just fine when you get your book’s structure ready to publish on Kindle Direct Publishing.

Kindle Create converts your ToC entries to hyperlinks as part of creating a ToC page in your eBook.

Follow these steps to use the Table of Contents tool in Word:

• Place your mouse pointer at the beginning of your manuscript, after the Title page, or the Copyright page (if you don’t have a blank page after the Title page, add one for the ToC).
• Click the References tab.
• Move to the Table of Contents button and click the down arrow.
• On the drop-down menu, move your pointer down and click the Insert Table of Contents option.
• For Mac users: Choose the Custom Table of Contents option.
• On the Table of Contents window, uncheck the Show page numbers check box. Since the Kindle device does not display page numbers, this is not required.
• Click the Use hyperlinks instead of page numbers check box.

NOTE: This option is available in Word for Mac, version 16 only. If you convert your Word file in Kindle Create, this will be done automatically.

Add an optional Dedication page

If you choose to, you can add a dedication page, and that will follow your Table of Contents.

You can keep it simple, like in the example page below, which shows the Dedication page for the book, The Miracle Morning for Writers .

Include the body

After the front matter pages, you will have your book’s body pages. This includes all of your book’s actual content, divided into chapters.

The body of your book will usually include the following:

• Prologue (fiction), or Preface (non-fiction)
• Introduction (non-fiction). Some non-fiction authors add a “Why I wrote this book” chapter.
• Chapters or sections

Insert your page breaks

Always insert a page break at the end of a chapter so that the new chapter will start on a new page. Not only does this make your book formatting look clean and organized, but it improves the reader’s experience.

Here’s how to insert a page break: 

• To insert a page break, place your pointer where you want the break.
• Click the Insert tab, then click Page Break .
• You can use Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter for Mac users) to insert a page break.

Organize your content with chapter titles

Adding chapter titles is crucial for not only formatting your book for Kindle Direct Publishing, but also for organizing your book’s content into bite-sized sections for your reader’s experience. 

Here’s how to format your book’s chapter titles for Amazon KDP using Word:

• Select your first chapter title .
• Set the alignment to Center .
• With your chapter title selected, right-click the Heading 1 style button on the Styles toolbar.
• Choose Update Heading 1 to Match Selection . All your chapter titles will now have this style throughout your Word file.
• Using the Heading 1 style for the chapter titles in your book will display in your Table of Contents (ToC) and enable your reader to navigate through your eBook.
• Remember to insert a page break after the last sentence of each chapter.

Add graphic images for Amazon KDP

If you are publishing a non-fiction book to Kindle Direct Publishing, you will probably have graphics in your book. These graphic images can include infographics, charts/graphs, or photos. 

IMPORTANT! Don’t just copy and paste an image from another program into your Word file.

Here’s how to properly insert images into your book using Word:

• Click the Insert button
• Click Picture  
• Select the image from the location on your computer’s hard drive

You do not need to include your cover image in your Word manuscript file. Your cover image will be added automatically when you publish your eBook, and it will be uploaded separately.

KDP publishing guide: 7 steps to success

Now that your file is properly formatted for KDP, it’s time to start the publishing process!

In this section, we’ll cover the steps to upload your book file to Kindle Direct Publishing, and self-publish it on the platform.

1. Convert your Word file with Kindle Create

Once your book’s Word file is properly formatted and ready to go, you can convert the Word file using Amazon’s newly launched Kindle Create. 

Here are the steps to complete the Kindle Create Setup:

• Download Kindle Create here (Windows and MacOS versions are available)
• Install Kindle Create (it takes only a few minutes).
• If you’re ready to convert your file to Kindle Create, when the window below displays, click the Finish button.
• If you’re not ready to convert your file, first click the Run Kindle Create checkbox (uncheck the box) and then click the Finish button. You can then open Kindle Create later, when you’re ready to convert your file.

To convert your Word file in Kindle Create, open it and follow the easy prompts:

• After your file is uploaded, the following window will display.
• Click the Continue button.

• On the next window, click the Get Started button. Be ready for some exciting things… You should see the following window, displaying your eBook:

• Choose the chapters you want included in your Kindle eBook (these will display in your Table of Contents), by checking or unchecking the Select boxes on the Suggested Chapter Titles pop-up window.
• Click the Accept Selected button when you are finished.
• On the left-hand Contents nav bar, you can quickly move to the relevant section (chapter) in your eBook, by clicking on the relevant thumbnail.
• On the right-hand Text Properties nav bar, you can choose different formatting elements to use in your eBook. NOTE : Depending on the element you choose, the following message will display at the bottom of the Text Properties area: “Tables, Separator, Footnotes, Inline Images, and Lists cannot be edited or formatted in Kindle Create yet.” If there are any errors with any of the above, they will need to be fixed in your Word file, and you will then need to upload the file to Kindle Create again.
• After you have selected the chapters you want included in your eBook, you should preview them.
• Click the Preview button (top right of the window).
• Note the Inspector window on the left…On the Inspector , you can change the device you want to preview your eBook in. The options are: Tablet (portrait and landscape), Phone, or Kindle E-reader.
• You can choose a theme for your eBook, on the Theme option (right-hand nav bar). After you have chosen the theme, click the Select button.
• You also have the option to add special elements to parts of your eBook, using the Common Elements feature.
• When you’re satisfied with the look of your eBook, you can publish it. This does not publish your eBook to Kindle Direct Publishing, but creates the .kpf file and you can upload that file to Kindle Direct Publishing, instead of your Word file.
• If you click the Publish button, and your file has not been saved, a reminder window will display that your file has not yet been saved. Click the OK button on this window to first save your file.
• After your file is saved, click the Publish button again (top right).
• Choose the location where you want to save your .kpf file, and then click the Save button. Your saved file will now be available to upload to Kindle Direct Publishing.

2. Prepare to self-publish your book on Amazon KDP

Once your file is properly formatted and converted, you can self-publish your book to Amazon KDP.  Before you open the Kindle Direct Publishing site, be sure you have all the necessary files and information needed to complete the process. 

Here is the information you will need to self-publish your eBook on Amazon KDP:

• Your formatted Word file or your Kindle Create file
• Book title and subtitle (if you have a subtitle)
• Your cover image (2,813 x 4,500 pixels)
• Your book description (4,000 characters or less, including spaces)
• Know the category for your book
• Use analytics from KDSPY to optimize your book on KDP
• Keywords (choose up to seven); double keyword phrases count as one keyword, e.g. self-publishing is considered one keyword
• Your financial information (for your royalty payments)

Have the above available in a text file, then you can just copy and paste when you upload your information and files.

Got everything?

Let’s publish…

3. Start the steps to self-publish on KDP Publishing

Self-publishing a Kindle eBook on Kindle Direct Publishing is really easy. It takes a few minutes to fill in your details and upload your files. Then within 12 hours (for English language books), your Kindle eBook will be live in the Amazon Kindle Store.

When you have all the information and files discussed in the previous section, you’re ready to publish your eBook to Kindle Direct Publishing. 

There are two main steps when you upload your eBook files ( Amazon refers to these as steps, but they are more like sections ).

4. Enter your book details

If you already have an Amazon account, you can use your existing login details to log into Amazon KDP here .

After you log in to your Kindle Direct Publishing account, the main dashboard will display. If this is your first Kindle eBook, the dashboard will be empty.

Step one: Click the Kindle eBook button on the left of the window.

NOTE: Open your text file where you have all your book details then you can just copy and paste your information.

Step two : Choose the language your book is written in from the Language drop-down menu.

Step three : Type your book title in the Book Title field.

Step four : If you have a subtitle , type this in the Subtitle field.

Step five : If your book is part of a series, type the series name and number in the relevant Series fields.

Step six : Enter the edition number in the Edition Number field. If this is the first edition, you can leave this blank.

Step seven : Type your name in the Primary Author or Contributor field.

Step eight : Type your First and Last name, and choose the Title of Author. If you don’t enter your name here, your name will not display on your book’s page on Amazon. If you want to add the name/s of people who also worked on (or contributed) to your book, click the Add Another button.

Step nine : You will be able to add the first and last name of any of the following:

• Foreword (the name of the person who wrote the Foreword)
• Illustrator
• Introduction (if someone other than you wrote this)
• Narrator (for audiobooks)
• Photographer

NOTE : If someone else designed your book cover, you can add their name as the Illustrator .

Step ten : Copy and paste or type your book’s description in the Description field.

Step eleven : If you are publishing a public domain book, read the What’s this? pop-up.

Step twelve : If you’re publishing an original work that you wrote, click the second radio button, indicating that it’s not a public domain work.

Step thirteen : The next section is your keywords. These are the terms (keywords) prospective buyers will use to find your eBook in the Kindle Store.

You can enter up to 7 keywords – double keyword phrases count as 1 keyword, e.g. self-publishing and self publishing is considered 1 keyword.

Step fourteen : Click the Set Categories button, and choose the category for your book.

Amazon defines a category as the section of the Kindle store where users can browse to find your book.

Amazon has a whole labyrinth of categories and there is a science to choosing the right ones. To determine what categories to place your book in, we recommend a tool called Publisher Rocket .

Step fifteen : If your book has a specific age group (e.g. children’s books ), choose the Age Range using the relevant Minimum and Maximum drop-down buttons.

Similarly, choose the U.S. Grade Range if this is applicable to your book.

Step sixteen : If you are ready to go live with your eBook, click the first radio button ( I am ready to release my book now ).

Step seventeen : If you’re not ready, and want to make use of Amazon’s pre-order service , click the second radio button: “ Make my book available for pre-order.” 

5. Upload your files

If this is your first time self-publishing on Amazon KDP, I highly recommend that you read the Help icon message on the next window.

Step one : Choose the option you want by clicking the relevant radio button.

Step two : Click the Browse button and select the Word file (.doc or .docx), or the Kindle Create file (.kpf) of your eBook on your computer’s hard drive, and upload it.

A message will display after your book file is uploaded.

Step three : Click the Launch Cover Creator button.

A note on your book cover design : If you haven’t had a professional cover created, you can make use of the Cover Creator tool in Amazon KDP. Since having a professional, quality book cover is extremely important, especially as a self-published author, you should seriously consider hiring a professional book cover designer .

Step four : If you have your cover image available, click the Browse for image… button. Click the Save changes and continue button.

Step five : Click the Browse button, select your cover image on your computer’s hard drive, and upload it.

Step six : You now have the option of previewing your Kindle eBook.

If you created your .kpf file using Kindle Create, you can skip this step, as you will already have previewed your eBook.

Step seven : Click the Launch Previewer button.

If you’re satisfied with your eBook, you can click the Save and Continue button.

Alternatively, if you see something that’s not quite right, you can fix the error in your Word file, and re-upload your file again.

Once all of the tasks in Step 1 are completed, you can move on to…

6. Establish rights and pricing

The second part to publishing your book on Kindle Direct Publishing is focused on your author rights and the pricing of your book, as well as a few other logistics. 

This second section to self-publish on Amazon KDP includes these steps: 

• Verify your publishing territories
• Set your pricing and royalty (more on this below)
• Kindle Matchbook
• Kindle Book Lending
• Optional – KDP Select Benefits

You can decide if you want to enroll in the KDP Select program after you weigh some of the pros and cons. 

What are the benefits of KDP Select?

• You earn higher royalties
• You maximize your book’s sales potential
• You can reach a new (wider) audience

You have the option to select only certain territories to sell your book in, but I advise you to choose Worldwide rights (why leave money on the table, right?).

Click the relevant ( Worldwide rights – all territories ) radio button.

7. Set your book’s price on Amazon KDP

Amazon recently rolled out its new service, KDP Pricing Support , which at the time of writing this article, is in beta. However, you can check to see what other books similar to yours are priced at.

For example, the following was presented for one of my books:

Amazon KDP Pricing Support (Beta): “Based on historic data for KDP books similar to Never Give Up! , a list price of $2.99 (USD) in a 70% royalty plan maximizes author earnings.”

• Click the View Service button to check the pricing for other books similar to yours.
• At the bottom of the graph, you have the option of accepting the suggested price, or declining it, and returning to the page you were on.
• If you don’t accept the suggested price, you will return to the Rights and Pricing page, and you will need to enter your List Price manually.
• Scroll down, view all the currency prices, and check the exclusions.
• Book Lending allows your customers to lend your book to friends and family, after they have purchased it, for a period of 14 days.
• If you are satisfied with everything, you can click the Save and Publish button. If you’re not ready to publish your eBook, click the Save as Draft button.

On your dashboard, you will see that the status of your eBook is now In Review , and you cannot access your book details.

That’s it – your book is now uploaded and published to Amazon KDP. 

Congratulations – you’re now a self-published author on Amazon KDP! 

Your Kindle eBook is now published to Kindle Direct Publishing. It will take about 12 hours (if your book is in English) to be live in the Kindle store (about 48 hours for non-English books).

After everything is uploaded to Kindle Direct Publishing, you will receive an email confirming that your book is available in the Kindle Store.

The next step is to go forth and start optimizing your Amazon Author Central Page.

It doesn’t matter how many books I self-publish, this is always exciting – waiting to receive the email. I suggest reading the mail, and even checking out the links within the mail. Then, order your author copy on Amazon KDP.

How to order author copies on Amazon KDP

Now that you’re a published author, it’s time to order author copies on Amazon KDP and have your paperback book sent directly to you.

Your book must be in the “Live” status in order for it to be eligible as an author copy, so make sure it’s “Live” in Kindle Direct Publishing first.

Once it’s “Live,” follow the process listed below.

Here are the steps to order author copies on Kindle Direct Publishing:

• Go to your “Bookshelf” and locate the paperback you want to order a copy of.
• Click on the “Order Author Copies” link in the menu (it looks like this: …)
• Enter how many copies of your book that you want to order.
• From the drop-down menu, the Amazon marketplace closest to your shipping address.
• Click “Proceed to Checkout.”
• In your Amazon shopping cart , complete your order.
• Your book copies will be printed and shipped to you.

It’s a wonderful feeling to add your printed book copy to your own personal bookshelf!

That’s it – you’re done! While it was a lot of steps and information to go through, I told you it wasn’t rocket science.

Now that your book is uploaded to Amazon KDP, it’s time to start marketing on sites like BookBub to attract some readers from around the world!

What questions do you still have about Amazon KDP?

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Book Marketing for Self-Publishing Authors

Home / Book Marketing / How to Get Free Book Reviews with No Blog, No List, and No Begging

How to Get Free Book Reviews with No Blog, No List, and No Begging

You probably don’t have to be convinced of the importance of getting free book reviews as well as Kindle reviews.

However, how does a new author get those crucial Kindle book reviews or editorial reviews that will help to drive up sales ?

Most resources rely on tactics that require already existing fan base, elaborate platforms, and major connections.

That’s all fine and dandy…if you have those resources at your disposal or are willing to trade in your friendship for a favor.

But what about the rest of us?

The ones who don’t have raving fans ready to drop reviews on request. Or those of us without a giant email list, social media following , and oodles of friends that we ‘want’ to send our books to?

Despair not my friends, because in this guide on how to get book reviews, I’ll show you how you can legally, and legitimately get those reviews, even if you’re a brand new author.

In This Article I Will Show You:

• A proven step-by-step method on how to get your book reviewed for free
• Tactics to getting high conversions and good grades on book reviews
• A time-saving method to expedite your book review process
• Amazon’s rules regarding book reviews – the REAL rules

And yes, as you’ll see at the end of this article, each step is fully compliant with the up-to-date Amazon rules for getting book reviews.

Table of contents

• 1. Create Special Links to Go Straight to Your Review
• 2. Design a Book Review Ask in Your Book
• 3. Free Book Review Sites
• How to Build a Giveaway

5. Using Launch Teams & ARCs Effectively

• 6. Reminder in Your Auto Responder System
• 7. Relaunch Your Book
• Editorial Reviews vs Amazon Reviews
• Amazon’s Rules on Book Reviews
• Some Legit Paid Ways to Speed Up The Process

Also, while I’m writing this with the new author in mind, it’s totally applicable to all authors…even the pros.  Finally, please be aware that I did use some affiliate links in this article.  Those links did not sway my thoughts on the article, nor does it affect your pricing.  It's just a little something that goes towards my coffee fund to keep me writing.

One mistake many authors make is when they request for someone to give their book a review, they just send the person a link to their book, making the person click around till they finally get to the review page where they can write the review…yeesh, that’s a lot of steps!

Because of this, readers will more than likely not follow through. I know I haven’t in the past.

However, what if there was one special link you could send them that would take them straight to the review of your book? All they’d have to do is click, and they start writing the review.

Well, you can and here’s how:

Step 1. Depending on the format you want the review to be directed to, either find your ASIN for the eBook, or the ISBN -10 for the book (NOT ISBN-13), or the ASIN for the Audiobook.

Step 2. Take the following link, and add your number from step 1: http://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin= + (ASIN or ISBN 10)

Step 3 . The above link is only to the US market.  If you want a different market, you need to just change out the “.com” to the appropriate one like “.de” for german, or “.co.uk”, and so on.  However, be sure to check that country's ASIN or ISBN-10 for that same book…because sometimes it will be different – although this is mainly for published books and usually isn't the case for self-published books.  But just check – you don't want your links to not work.

Example of What The Result Should Look Like : US: http://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B0041JKFJW UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/create-review?&asin=B004H4XAXO DE: https://www.amazon.de/review/create-review?&asin=0765365278 etc…

As you can see, that will take you directly to The Way of Kings Audiobook review, since I used the ASIN for the audiobook. (PS: I'm a big fan of Brandon Sanderson, and will be meeting him in a couple of months to discuss book marketing …fan boy scream).

Now, any time you request a review in an email, message, or whatever, send them that special link to your book. That way, all they have to do is click the link and type the review. You’ll have a much higher chance that they’ll follow through and leave the review.

Caution: Your Link Not Working? First, if your link isn't working, just remember that Amazon won't allow you to leave a review for your own book. So, have someone else try your link.  Also remember that in order to leave a review, someone needs to have made $50 purchase on Amazon that year.

Also, for the rest of the steps below, make sure you use this link when necessary. That’s why it is the first point in this list.

This may sound crazy but when you ask for a review after your book is done, you’ll not only increase the number of reviews, but also improve your review grade.

When I did this one simple addition to one of my books, I saw the conversion rate of book purchases to reviews left increase by 3x and has stayed that way since.

You see, we authors know how important a review is. But we forget that readers don’t always understand this and need more coaxing to take the little bit of extra effort to write a book review. Therefore, just by asking, you’ll see much higher conversions.

But that’s not all. There are actually some tactics to this section that can and will improve the number of book reviews you get, as well as the review grade.

When creating the ask, it is best to do the following:

Humanize Yourself : Find ways to remind the reader that you are actually a human with emotions and feelings. Remind them of how hard it was to put this book together. By doing this, they’ll be more likely to leave ‘you’ a review. Extra bonus tip: I sometimes like to post a candid non professional or staged picture of me with my family in this section because it really goes a long way to getting to know me, and feel more personal.

Impress Upon Them the Importance of the Review : Like I mentioned above, readers don’t fully understand the importance of a review. Therefore, remind them how they help you as an author and your book.

Tell Them You’ll Read the Book Review : When readers think that you’ll read and take to heart their review, two things will happen: they’ll feel more obligated to leave one since you’re depending on them, and their review grade will probably improve since they’ll know you, the human, will actually read it. We’ve all been there where we have a bunch of gusto against sometime, but the moment they’re there, we soften our tone. Same thing with reviews. I assure you, most criticism will become more constructive in nature when they know you’ll be there to read it.

Below is an example that Ken Lozito did with his absolutely incredible book series “ First Colony .”

I can’t show it all, but ultimately Ken told the story of the sacrifice he made to become an author and some inside information about his life, and struggles to get that series out.

He did all three of the things listed above without sounding cheesy or coming across as begging. It’s a fine art!

Needless to say, I had listened to 7 of the books in that series, but on the 7th one where he put this in his audiobook, it legitimately made me not only give the 5 stars at the end, but take the time to write a well-thought-out review. I felt like it was the least I could do.

So, as you can see, there needs to be a fine balance of asking without overstepping. But when done right, you’ll see more reviews come through with better grades for every reader you get.

Best Book Marketing Software

Over 47,000+ authors, NYT bestsellers, and publishing companies use Publisher Rocket to gain key insight to the market.  Help your book now

There are websites out there where some fans of a genre or subject loves to read books and leave reviews. Many of them have different reasons for this, but overall, they can be beneficial.

Be advised though, most of the review sites out there will read your book and make a review on their website, but that it won’t be an Amazon review (see below to read more about Amazon reviews vs Editorial Reviews). Even without the Amazon review, a book review site’s review can still be a powerful editorial review.  Imagine being able to put in your editorial review for your scifi book, a glowing acknowledgment from TopSciFiBooks.com .  Just the domain alone will carry anyone to better belief in your book, then some person or author name they've never heard of.

Here are some of my favorites free book review sites:

Love Books Group : Reviews books on their site is a easy process to submit. Affaire de Coeur : A bi-monthly magazine that publishes reviews in historical, contemporary, paranormal, erotica, YA, and nonfiction primarily. Book Page : Must send an ARC 3 months prior to publication date The Kindle Book Review : Offers a list of reviews to contact individually based on preferred genres. Compulsive Reader : Mainly focuses on literary fiction and poetry, they also review music CDs and other interesting things. Crime Fiction Lover : Recommends sending a Press Release (***) and a bit hard to get into. Book Smugglers : a highly read book blog that likes to focus on Horror, Urban Fantasy, SciFi, and YA. Crime Scene Reviews : Reviews Crime and Mystery novels SF Book : Started in 1996, SF books offers a list of Scifi Book reviewers you can contact individually Fantasy Book Critics : Lists a bunch of legit book review sites, as well as offers their own in the Fantasy realm Top Sci Fi Books : This website lists the best scifi and fantasy books based on certain subgenres. They have a sweet spot though for self published authors. Barnes & Noble Review : An incredible name for a Editorial Review, however, they require you to physically mail a copy and a cover letter in for consideration.

If you’d like to see more niche-specific examples, Reedsy has done an AMAZING job of curating a list of book review websites , their requirements and even how much traffic each site potentially gets. However, do note, many sites on that list aren’t always free.

You can check out that list here: https://blog.reedsy.com/book-review-blogs/

I also wanted to mention StoryOrigin . When you use StoryOrigin, not only do you join a community of other authors, you basically have all the not-so-fun back end of things taken care of by using them. They help you build your email list, find reviewers, deliver lead magnets and more. Be sure to check them out!

4. A Giveaway Contest that is Legal!!!

In truth, I almost didn’t include this one. Not because it breaks any rules, but because you need to ABSOLUTELY follow my steps in order to stay compliant with Amazon.

But when done right, this tactic is extremely killer!

What you do is create a giveaway contest. In this contest, if they click the link that points to your book’s review page (see special link discussed above), they are automatically entered into the contest. That's it.

This works because, when they click the link, many readers will decide to leave a review since they are already there. This is compliant in Amazon’s eyes because they are entered in the contest by just clicking the link, not by submitting a review.  Therefore, the review is not incentivized.  You can see an example below on how to word this for best optimization as well as staying compliant.

Step 1 : Build a giveaway Step 2 : Make it clear that to enter the giveaway, they just need to click the link that points to your book’s review page (see #1 above) Step 3 : And that’s it.

There are two ways to build a giveaway:

1. Use Your Email System : You can send out an email blast to your readers with the instructions on how to do this. With most email systems like ConvertKit , you can mark which subscribers clicked on the link in the email. Then when the time is up, you can select from there.

2. Use KingSumo : This is a paid app that is around $49 for life, but it makes creating contests SUPER simple. Furthermore, it handles the legality issues on contests, and you can post links to the contest on Social Media, email, or even embed it on your website. You can check it out here .

Using a launch team or Beta Readers and sending Advanced Review Copies (ARCs) is an important tactic that help with your book’s overall launch by ensuring you have good reviews on day-one of the launch. If you’re unfamiliar with that, then check out this article here .

But the short and simple to this tactic is that prior to launching your book, you send ARCs to people who will hopefully read the book, and or be prepared to leave a review upon your book's launch.

However, working with lots of authors, it’s become apparent that most DO NOT do ARC reviews as effectively or efficiently as they should, creating a super low conversion rate of beta readers who leave a review. Most times, this tactic sounds promising but is actually a complete let down.

Well, not if you do the following extra saucy tips, which will ENSURE you get more reviews out of it:

1. Stop sending mass emails to all Beta Readers : If you really want people to take action, ensure you talk to them personally. Send each beta reader a personal email asking him or her to take certain actions. They’ll feel more obligated to act when you are specifically emailing them and counting on their review. Whereas when it's obviously a mass email, many will inherently think that it's fine and you won't notice if they don't.

2. Track Your Readers : I actually develop a spreadsheet listing each beta reader or launch team member, when I last talked with them last, if they've left a review and any other notes. It’s important to keep track of them and that way no one slips through the cracks. You can also use a plugin like ReaderScout to know exactly when someone has left a review.

3. Have Them Notify You When It’s Dropped : Tell your beta readers or launch team members that once they’ve dropped the review, to let you know so you can read it. It isn’t just the expectation that you’re specifically waiting for their review, but also that you really want to know what they thought. Make it clear that it would mean the world to you. With this, they’ll feel as though you truly care and are waiting on them.

4. Remind them They Don’t have to Read All Of It : The biggest hang-up I get from Beta Readers is that they couldn’t finish the book in time and will leave one “later” (which they never do). However, remind them that they do not have to finish the book in order to leave a review, and that they can always change the review once they’ve finished it if they’d like. They can instead talk about what they’ve read so far, or even your legitimacy on the subject or genre. This way, there is not excuse to not leaving a review.

If you employ these four tactics to beta readers or launch teams, you’ll absolutely double your conversion rates of reviews left.

Formatting Has Never Been Easier

Write and format professional books with ease.  Never before has creating formatted books been easier.

If you have an email list, then make sure to use your auto responder to help with your reviews.

Think about it…

If they signed up for your email list, then it means that they read your book and liked it. However, it definitely does not mean they left a review.

Therefore, set in your auto responder an email that specifically uses the tactics of 1 and 2 above to convince them to leave a review. This will help increase your book’s review frequency, its grade, and even help with your email system.  Furthermore, employing #2 above, in the email, you'll build a stronger author brand and connection with your readers.

There are a couple of different ways to relaunch your book, and things to think about when doing so.  However, let's discuss why this really helps with your book reviews and should be considered.

• Amazon loves new books:  I call this the Amazon honeymoon period. I don't have any empirical data to prove this, but through years of working with books, when a book is launched, Amazon gives preferential treatment to new books.
• Use a new launch team: Perhaps you didn't effectively use your launch team or beta readers as well as we discussed in step 5.  Well, by relaunching, you can.  So, employ those steps and see real good come from it.
• Update some information: Look at your book as it is, and ask if there is something you can do to improve it.  Perhaps you've seen some comments brought up in the reviews?  Or you know there is a section you should add?  These changes will help improve your book's review grades.

We all know what Amazon reviews are.  But do you fully understand what a Amazon Editorial Review is?

On Amazon, there is a section on your book's sales page where you can enter “Editorial Reviews” through you Author Central Account (here is how to setup one if you haven't already).  In the editorial review, you can put just about anything here.

It could be from what a website said about your book, a news paper, a verbal recommendation, etc.  The point is, you can use what people say outside of Amazon, here.  As we showed from a heat map study, readers pay attention to the section.  So, therefore, use the tactics listed above in order build a persuasive Editorial Review section for your book.

However, these are NOT Amazon reviews.  Amazon reviews are where someone went to Amazon and left a review for your book itself.

There is a little bit of confusion when it comes to giving a free book and asking for reviews.  In truth, Amazon was a little confusing about how they look at this.

However, I went through all of Amazon's user agreements, FAQ's and even their own memo's so as to give you a definitive answer of:

YES, you can give a free copy of your book in advance for a review.

But there are some caveats and nuisances to this statement.  So, check out the video below and learn all about Amazon's Book Review policy and ensure you are continually operating in Amazon's good graces.

So, here is a list what you can’t do:

1. Pay or Incentive Someone to Leave a Review in any way: This is different from the giveaway because they entered the giveaway by clicking the link and not by leaving a review

2. Offering a free gift if they review

3. Offering to refund the author their money for the review

You can give the book for free to them as an ARC.  But you can't cover their costs. While they are both essentially “free,” the second one requires a review in order to make it free, thus incentivizing the review.

The same can be said about offering to send a Amazon gift card to cover the book

4. Swapping reviews with another author

I repeat, you cannot pay or incentive someone in any way to leave a review. But you can pay to promote your book to readers who are likely to leave reviews .

Self-Publishing Review is one example of a service that sells email list promotions designed to result in more sales and more unbiased reviews. If you're looking for opportunities, that could be worth looking into. Use the code KINDLEPRENEUR5 to save 5% on anything from their site.

ReaderScout is another tool I highly recommend for authors who want to track all of the reviews that come in. This makes it much easier for you to know when your ARC readers, for example, have actually left their review. ReaderScout is a completely FREE Chrome plugin and reviews aren't the only thing it tracks. Check it out here.

Now, Let's Go Get Those Book Reviews

No matter which route you’ll go, there’s no easier way to get the initial reviews, especially if you’re an unknown author. An additional benefit of this approach is that you’ll get to speak with your readers directly, thus getting valuable feedback and building new relationships.

I hope you enjoyed this guide on how to get free book reviews. It seems pretty straightforward, but can be a little time-consuming…but as most authors will tell you, getting your book reviewed can be a powerful metric that should have a positive effect on your Kindle sales.

Dave Chesson

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

• 5. Using Launch Teams & ARCs Effectively

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How to write a book description that captivates readers (and sell books), how to change your kindle keywords and why you should, how to become an organized author, sell more books on amazon, amazon kindle rankings e-book.

Learn how to rank your Kindle book #1 on Amazon with our collection of time-tested tips and tricks.

208 thoughts on “ How to Get Free Book Reviews with No Blog, No List, and No Begging ”

Hi Dave, Am I missing a step or is adding the review link to your e-book something you can only do after book release? In order to use the link you need an ASIN. My plan was to hit publish for my paperback and hope after doing so I would see the ASIN to add the completed book review link – so that I could then hit the publish button on my e-book. Is this even possible or should I be patient and add the link at a later date? Thanks in advance!

For this, if you do a pre-order, you can get it preemptively.

I was wondering if you have any suggestions for getting reviews on low or no content books as they are not generally available on Kindle.

Well, that’s one reason why making a ebook version can be helpful for those books (if you get the formatting down). If not though, then I guess that is a bit of a game changer on what one can do. Limitations being physical books and all.

Hi, Dave, Thanks so much for all of these tips. Some excellent ideas!

Per the giveaway, do you find that people leave reviews if they haven’t yet read the book? And if they decide to do a quick star rating rather than a written review, does that still carry any weight with potential readers?

Thanks for your response.

I’ve seen some come in where it looked as though they hadn’t read it. So it definitely happens.

Hi Dave, thank you for the valuable information’s, just a question please

In the way the person has to write a review for entering in contest giveaway, how’s can be the next step to send to the winner his copy paperback as promise ?

Using a program like the one discussed in the article, it will handle selecting the winner. Then contact them, get their mailing address and send them the prize.

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Empty Mirror

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10 places to find reviewers for your self-published book

But before we get to that – and before you start to contact reviewers – it’s important to understand how to contact them.

What to do:

1. Do your research. Only contact reviewers who are interested in reviewing the type of books you have written. (See below for some good places to find the right reviewers.)

2. Read their review policy. Do they only want e-books, or printed books? What genres are they currently interested in reading? Are they currently accepting new books for review? Check out their rules, and follow them.

3. Write a personalized email to the potential reviewer. No one likes to get a form letter, or spam. Use a salutation, and their name – not just “Hi” or “Dear reviewer,” but rather, “Dear Jane Smith” or at least “Dear Jane.” If there’s no personal name listed, use their username.

Tell the reviewer who you are, how you found them, a little bit about your book, when it will be published. Tell them that if they’re interested, you’d be glad to send them a copy. Specify what format the book will be in (which ebook format, printed book, or if they will have a choice). Thank them for their time and consideration, and say that you look forward to hearing from them. Then sign it, with your full name.

Don’t forget the subject line, either: emails with the subject “Review Inquiry” or “Review Request” will get a better response as they make it easy to identify what your message is about.

Here’s how to write an excellent review query.

4. Before sending your email, spell-check and proofread. Errors leave a poor impression and make the reviewer less likely to accept your book. They’ll figure your book is full of typos, too.

5. The ultimate purpose of a review isn’t to please you. Books with reviews do tend to sell better. However, it’s important to understand that reviewers ultimately aren’t written for the author’s benefit. They’re written for the potential reader to give them enough information so that they can make a purchasing decision.

What not to do:

1. If they do accept the book, don’t expect the reviewer to guarantee a review. Reviewers don’t accept books they have no intention of reviewing, but sometimes they may not be able to – or wish to – eventually review it. That’s OK. They’re not the only reviewer out there. Move on.

2. Don’t expect, or ask for, a positive review. No reviewer can promise this. Any reviewer worth approaching has integrity and will always post an honest review, whether one star or five. (As people’s opinions will naturally vary, there’s often something fishy when books have only five-star reviews, anyway.)

3. Don’t ask the reviewer to promise a review to be published on or near a particular date. (Do feel free to tell the reviewer the date of your book’s publication.) Please understand that most reviewers have a big stack of books to review. Reviews take more time than you might think. The reviewer reads the book – maybe more than once – takes notes, then writes and posts the review. You’re asking them to do at least several hours of work for you, on their own time, for free. And they’re not doing it for money, but rather for the love of books, and of reviewing.

This is why you can’t expect a promise of a review by a certain date (or even at all). It’s understandable that you’re anxious for the reviews to start rolling in, but just hang tight, keep soliciting reviews, and one day you’ll have a bunch of them.

4. Never offer payment for a review. All an honest reviewer will accept is the book itself. Don’t offer a bribe! Paid reviews are not allowed on any reputable websites and can get the reviewer – and sometimes yourself – in a world of trouble, and banned from review websites.

5. Don’t expect an answer to your query. I know – that almost seems unreasonable, doesn’t it, not to expect the reviewer to reply. The reason that some don’t reply is that many reviewers – especially popular and highly-ranked ones – get so many review queries that it takes too much time to reply to them all. So, they wind up only replying to those they have an interest in reviewing.

6. If a potential reviewer declines to review your book, take it graciously. Don’t ask why, try to change their mind, or pester them. Stay on good terms – reply briefly with thanks for their time and consideration. Who knows, perhaps they’ll review your next book.

7. After a review is published, don’t comment on the review . Not even if you disagree with it. Even if the reviewer says something terribly wrong, even factually wrong. Even if they say it’s the best book they’ve ever read. Or the worst! Commenting can make you look petty, overbearing or argumentative, and can turn potential readers against you, ensuring they never read your book. Just. Don’t. Do. It. Ever. ( Here’s why. )

10 places to find reviewers for your books.

OK. Now that you understand how to approach reviewers, how do you find them?

1. Amazon’s “Meet Our Authors” Forum

Amazon has “Meet Our Authors” forum where you can introduce yourself, and also ask for reviews. There are various genre-specific threads too.

Update: Amazon has shut down all of their forums. They suggest that you visit Goodreads instead, where it’s easy for authors to interact with readers. (Amazon owns Goodreads.) See #4 on this list for more about Goodreads.

2. Amazon’s Top Reviewers

Amazon ranks its reviewers according to a variety of criteria and publishes the list. You can go through the list to look for those reviewers who review books in your genre. It will take some time. Those reviewers who include an email address or website in their profile are usually open to being contacted regarding potential reviews. (Some are not.) Before emailing, read their reviews of books in your genre. Pay close attention to any review guidelines which are included in the reviewer’s profile.

TheCreativePenn has a great blog post on getting Amazon reviewers to review your book .

3. Peruse the Amazon book pages

Check out other books similar to yours, and see who’s reviewed them. Look on these reviewers’ profiles to see if they’re open to review offers, as described above. If so, contact them.

4. LibraryThing & Goodreads

On LibraryThing , people catalog, review, and discuss books. The site also functions as a social networking site and is a great place for authors to connect with potential readers. There are lots of things you can do to get the word out about your book here. One of them is to find reviewers.

LibraryThing offers the “Member Giveaway” – where you can give out your own books. Ebooks and printed books are equally welcome. You set a number of available books to offer, and people will enter a drawing to win them. Usually there are more people who sign up than available books, so there is a drawing at the end of the giveaway period.

Though those who receive your books are not required to review your book, you can let it be known that you hope they do. LibraryThing reviewers can post their reviews on that site, but some often post their reviews elsewhere, such as Amazon.com and Goodreads.

Goodreads is similar to LibraryThing, but bigger. Only publishers can give away books for free there, but you can still find potential reviewers through their groups , some of which are dedicated to connecting authors with reviewers. (Use the group search box to find them.) Before posting review opportunities, be sure to check that the rules of the particular group allow it.

5. Social networking sites

Search for people who review your genre of book on Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites, and start making connections. Much has been written elsewhere on how to connect with people on these sites, so that’s all I’ll say about it here.

Turn to Google to find bloggers who review books similar to yours. Try various searches such as the name of your genre (e.g. YA, poetry, American history, vampire fiction) followed by one of these phrases: book blog, book blogger, book reviews, book review blog, book review blogger. Try various combinations and think of some of your own, investigate the results, and you’re bound to come up with some good ones.

7. Services which connect authors and reviewers

There are quite a lot of specialized websites which will make your book available to reviewers. Here are a few we know of:

The Bookbag . Publishes book reviews on their site, with links to the books on Amazon.

4226 Spruce St . Makes it easy for authors of Kindle books to connect with Amazon reviewers. Free.

8. Reviewer directories and lists

The Book Blogger List . A categorized directory of book reviewers, organized by genre, which makes it easy to locate potential reviewers for your book. Free.

Book Reviewer Yellow Pages (formerly Step By Step Self Publishing). Offers an online directory of book reviewers. It’s free, but they also offer paid Kindle and paperback versions.

List of literary / poetry review publications (many print-based)

9. Ask other authors

Ask other authors you’re acquainted with – either on or offline – who reviewed their book, and who they think you should get in touch with. Most authors are very willing to share their experiences and recommendations. When writing to a reviewer, be sure mention that your fellow author recommended that you contact them.

10. Look close to home & offline

There are plenty of local, offline sources for reviews, too:

• local daily or weekly newspapers
• school newspapers
• organization and company newsletters
• contact local indie bookstores to see if they know of any local reviewers

11. (yeah, forget 10 – we’re turning this baby all the way up to 11!) The Indie View

The Indie View has a great list of reviewers in a number of genres. They also spotlight reviews and authors. Check it out.

don’t forget us

You know, if your book is arts-related nonfiction, or has anything to do with the Beat Generation, you might check out our very own review policy . We don’t accept many books for review – but you never know until you try! We also sometimes publish author interviews and book excerpts.

Summing up…

That’s all for now. If you have suggestions about getting reviews, please leave a comment. And stay tuned for more articles about promoting your self-published books!

Empty Mirror publishes new poetry, criticism, essays, book reviews, and art every Friday.

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Pat Sutton says

March 4, 2020 at 11:53 am

Denise, thank you, Your comments and explanations will save me time on how to find a reviewer and what to expect.

Antonio Chevalier says

October 11, 2020 at 3:47 pm

You need to pay for The Bookbag. Publishes book reviews on their site, with links to the books on Amazon.

Empty Mirror says

November 8, 2019 at 4:50 pm

There’s also a directory of over 300 reviewers, sorted by posting frequency, at https://indiestoday.com/reviewers-list/ . Thanks to Dave Allen for pointing out this resource!

Derrick Washington says

October 31, 2019 at 7:13 pm

Hi, Denise, I just want to say thank you for sharing this information. I have been searching online where to find book reviewers, and your blog answered, pretty much, all of my questions. Once again, thanks.

Bruce Miller says

October 16, 2019 at 2:36 pm

Excellent article and we enjoyed reading it. It is very comprehensive and useful. Well done!

We review books. We are retired people in New Zealand and we are amazed at the creativity and original ideas people have. It’s like sitting in a school class with students raising their hands and announcing amazing creative ideas! We love it. But we only review books we like. No erotica, but most everything else. We’ve done hundreds of reviews. Check us out > https://www.teamgolfwell.com/free-book-reviews.html

Julian Hardy says

July 1, 2019 at 8:44 pm

Denise Thank you for your insightful website. I have recently self-published a book on KDP/Amazon. After doing some research about reviews/reviewers, I found the Artisan Book Reviews website. Is it worthwhile using such services as those provided by Artisan Book Reviews (as they are quite costly). Also, I’m assuming such paid reviews do not contravene Amazon’s review rules. Is this true? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Regards Julian

Denise says

July 29, 2019 at 11:07 am

It’s true that paid reviews are forbidden by Amazon and can’t be posted there by the reviewer.

However, you can post them yourself with your book information on your book’s page. They can also be useful for use on your website and promotional materials.

Thomas Juarez says

May 4, 2019 at 8:16 am

Thank you for the quick reply! While searching through other parts of your website I found someone I made a connection with. Finally gaining some traction (I think).

Awakening Cocijo will be making a book tour to test its worthiness!

May 3, 2019 at 9:24 am

I have recently self published on Amazon, currently Amazon is having an issue tracking my book sales and I am falling in the ratings. I made them aware of some of the recent purchases, they know there’s a problem and they are looking into it…I have faith in them!

In any case, it has been very difficult to find reviewers that are available in the next 3-4 months. It’s been frustrating to say the least.

I paid for the editing of my book so that I would have a polished product. I was hoping this would make my book more attractive to buyers and/or reviewers. I would be more than happy to provide a pdf or kindle copy to potential reviewers.

The book is called Awakening Cocijo and is available only on Amazon. It is a metaphysical fiction book centering on the Zapotec empire and a current attempt (fictional, of course), to awaken Cocijo…the god of lightening and rain.

May 3, 2019 at 2:13 pm

You might try getting reviews via Goodreads (you can even give away free books/ebooks in Goodreads’ Member Giveaway). That might give you some reviews in shorter than three or four months.

If you’re on social media, you could try giving some copies away for review that way.

Celeste says

April 26, 2019 at 10:55 am

Thanks Denise! I’m going to network as best I can, which means helping other authors with their efforts, too. I joined Goodreads so I could post reviews and hopefully boost the sales of books that I enjoy reading.

April 22, 2019 at 7:57 pm

Denise, thanks for the quick follow-up.

I believe it’s far too time-consuming to find reviewers on Amazon, considering that many of them don’t have contact info available. It’s probably better to invest time and effort in building a network, e.g., through Goodreads and Bookbub. I’m an introvert, so it makes me cringe to think of having to actively pursue getting followers. Otherwise my novel is likely to die on the vine after it’s published, no matter how good it is.

April 25, 2019 at 11:40 am

That’s certainly a valid objection and there are other methods of getting reviews. I wish you success with your novel!

April 21, 2019 at 4:28 pm

This article is dated March 6, 2014, so perhaps something has changed as far as finding book reviewers on Amazon. I went to the Amazon Top Customer Reviewers listing. There are 10,000, with zero indication as to what they review. To find that out, you have to click on each name one by one, then scroll through their reviews to see (1) if they even review books, and (2) what genre of books they review. With 10,000 reviewers, you may be able to go through that list in, oh, let’s say a year. And of course it changes daily so you’ll need to keep a list of whose reviews you looked at.

If someone knows of a better way, I’m all ears. Otherwise, I think Amazon is doing its best, as always, to make things difficult.

April 22, 2019 at 1:34 pm

Yes, you do have to look at each reviewer individually — there’s no list with email addresses included. So, it’s usually best to find books similar to yours, see who’s reviewing them, and get in touch those with contact information (email, website, or even a Google-able name) on their profile. It does take some detective work, for sure.

Diane Fadden says

April 10, 2019 at 6:12 pm

Indiebook review is a scam operation. Buyer beware.

roy tawes says

August 25, 2018 at 10:43 am

Denise- Iasked for a personal review. Never heard back, but I see you’re using my complimentary comments for this website. Just give me a simple yes or know

August 29, 2018 at 10:53 am

Congratulations on the publication of your book! It sounds fascinating.

EM’e review guidelines are here: https://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/empty-mirror-review-policy

Guidelines in short: Due to time constraints, I’m only able to accept very few books for review. I’m looking for specific types of non-fiction and am unable to review fiction, poetry, or memoir.

Unfortunately, due to the volume of book review requests received and that fact that I’m the only one here, I’m only able to reply to those I intend to review. I regret that I’m not able to respond to all.

Comments are voluntary and are not “used” for anything. They can be deleted by request. I did leave the link in your previous comment so that others could check out your book!

best wishes, Denise

Tyrell Perry says

August 19, 2018 at 12:13 pm

Great intel. This newly published author will be putting it to use.

Wilburson says

July 2, 2018 at 6:30 am

This is such useful information Denise, which I have added to my growing information pile on getting reviews. Thanks for taking the time.

Vishal Sharma says

April 6, 2018 at 11:14 pm

Hey Denise, Thanks for sharing such awesome tips loved it. It was very useful for me.

Roy lawson tawes MD , FACS says

January 10, 2018 at 2:22 pm

Very helpful information for INDIE authors.Thank you. I like your considerate style.

It’s a long shot to request a personal review, but you mentioned an interest in the Beat generation that spawned the hippies in the ’60s. I just published my sixth novel, RECALL that deals with the topic . Returning to San Francisco from Vietnam where I served as a flight surgeon, I witnessed the cultural revolution up close and personal. I tried to capture that turbulent era in my historical narrative. You might find it interesting and enlightening. I’m getting good early reviews , but not from anyone of your professional stature. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.So why not ask you?

If you have any interest, please consult my website: RLawsonauthor.com. All the information you require to make a decision is available there, including blogs. Maybe we will find an intellectual connection. Life never follows a straight path, Stranger things have happened. I love writing and hope someone influential in the literary field will promote my work.

Thank you for your consideration. You sound like a nice person in your responses above, trying to help aspiring writers. We need guidance, It’s a maze to navigate.

Brad Foster says

January 3, 2018 at 4:06 am

No worries, Denise – thanks anyway and careful of that perilous tower of books! :)

January 2, 2018 at 6:48 pm

HI Denise – thanks for this post! I noticed that the link to Amazon’s “Meet Our Authors” is defunct – this is what I get: “Our Discussion Boards feature has been discontinued.

Amazon would like to thank the members of this community for contributing to the discussion forums. As we grow and evolve, we encourage you to explore Goodreads Groups for book discussions and Spark for other interests. For device questions and help, please see our new Digital and Device Forum.”

I will try the other tips, though I haven’t had much luck so far with the Amazon Top Reviewers (reminds me of my dating years, when I got completely ignored! ). Say, if you wanted to review my newest e-book, I’d be happy to send you a free copy. No pressure – thanks again and I hope one — if not more — of your points help me out!

January 2, 2018 at 9:08 pm

Hi Brad — Thanks for the update about the Amazon forums. I’d heard about that but had forgotten to update this list. I really appreciate the reminder.

Top reviewers are tough — you really have to find the ones who are into your genre, and Amazon has begun making it tougher to find contact information for them (although email links still appear on individual profiles).

Wish I could help with your book, but I don’t typically read e-books, and my reading stack is perilously tall. But I wish you much success with it!

Cristina G. says

October 21, 2017 at 3:02 am

Gold dust. Thank you so much. I am working on a few new books and I need reviews. Blessings to you and to those who invest their valuable time reading and reviewing our lifetime work.

August 8, 2017 at 8:31 am

Thanks, Denise, for your helpful information.

June 12, 2017 at 3:55 pm

This site looks nice but there are two issues with it: – The reviewer lists can’t be accessed without completing a third-party offer. – Kaspersky shows a warning about a phishing link when the site is loaded.

If you would like to talk about this, please email me. Denise

May 15, 2017 at 6:51 pm

Thanks Denise for a cohesive listing of what to do. It’s early days for me in the world of marketing my children’s mystery novels, so it’s really helpful. Many thanks.

May 15, 2017 at 7:34 pm

Cathy, I’m so glad to hear that you found this article helpful. I wish you much success with the novels!

Indira Sahay says

April 9, 2017 at 9:54 am

Thank you for your reply. I shall certainly take up some of your suggestion

April 8, 2017 at 11:42 am

I was looking for interested reviewers for two Sociology books written by my late husband which remained unpublished when he passed away last year.the first one is already printed and the second one is being got ready for printing. this will take about three months. As the books are academic I would like to send them to academics with similar interests. What do you suggest?

Layla Rose says

March 20, 2017 at 7:03 pm

What a great find. I did some freelance publicity work for an author recently, and as a writer myself, it was sobering to see what it takes as an indie author. So much work. And having a disability which is difficult to manage really slows me down. So I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me.

Walter Stoffel says

March 3, 2017 at 1:23 pm

In part helpful ,in part confusing. Denise, you suggest steering clear of Amazon Top Reviewers(they’re touchy) yet you link to Creative Penn article that outlines process for contacting those same top reviewers.

Lanre Ayanlowo says

February 28, 2017 at 1:41 am

Hello, i have two self published books. Can you please help me publish them traditionally?

March 3, 2017 at 3:13 pm

I wish I could help, but Empty Mirror is just an online magazine; we don’t publish books. I may be able to answer some questions for you, but can’t recommend any particular publishers.

Tom Turkington says

February 21, 2017 at 7:16 pm

Thank you, Denise, so much. As a first-time author and technophobe besides, I’ve despaired of generating any sense of direction in my efforts to get my book into the hands of unbiased readers. Your suggestions are clear, concise and orderly, and likely the jumpstart I’ve needed. Were my book concerned with the arts or the Beats, I’d try to hoist it upon you, but no: it’s a 120,000-word chronicle of the first eighteen years of my life. Trying to make an asset of living in the past. Thanks for your push in the right direction(s).

Marcus De Storm says

January 1, 2017 at 2:36 pm

Thank you Denise for this information useful as a Self Published Author. As it is difficult to find genuine information and where to go to get my book reviewed. This has helped me very much.

January 1, 2017 at 2:37 pm

I’m glad you found the article useful, Marcus! I wish you much success with the book!

Mdu Rohtak says

November 18, 2016 at 5:33 am

Excellent tips, and thanks for the shout-out.

Sheree W. Davis says

November 17, 2016 at 7:52 am

Denise, Thanks for this wonderful check list! I’m a new self-published author and am grateful for the wisdom you are willing to share! God Bless! ~Sheree W. Davis

Johnb9 says

June 8, 2016 at 5:18 am

Thanks so much for the article.Much thanks again. Great.

ferris robinson says

May 2, 2016 at 5:11 am

Denise, Thank you so much for this informative and detailed post! So helpful! And I really appreciate the heads-up on commenting on reviews – I had no idea! I feel like I should be writing them a thank you note for taking the time to read my book, and taking even more time and energy to review it! Thanks for all you do for writers!

January 13, 2016 at 6:56 am

Hi Denise, great article, thanks. Quick question – when do you suggest author start asking for reviews? How long before the publish date – or after the publish date? Thanks.

Alec Stone says

August 20, 2015 at 6:14 am

Hi, don’t forget about reviews-easy.com.

This service is doing all the work for you. You only have to register and search the Amazon the reviewers by categories, products they review or by personal details. Then, a list of reviewers with contact details will be generated and you can download it. Then you can send personalized emails to all of them or do what you want with that data.

August 20, 2015 at 7:25 am

Alec, thanks for the suggestion. I have mixed feelings about Reviews Easy. I haven’t used it myself, but from a brief look at their website, it certainly appears to make it easy to search for Amazon reviewers.

Maybe too easy. I don’t enjoy reading e-books and don’t review them. That fact is stated very clearly on my Amazon profile. And yet, authors very often email to ask me to review their e-books. Some of these authors have told me that they were referred to me by Reviews Easy, and they’ve been surprised that I have no interest in e-books.

It seems that somehow Reviews Easy is leading authors to believe that I want to read e-books. (But since I haven’t used the site, I am not sure how or why this is happening.)

The site may be a good resource. But authors who choose to use it should double-check the reviewers’ profile information and preferences!

Thanks again — Denise

Tim Williams says

August 2, 2015 at 5:06 am

after reading everything that i’ve read i find myself asking …why self publish it seems like more of a pain in the ass then what it’s worth . i mean is this he only way to to go ? i write because i like to write not to share. the only reason publishing has come up is cause everyone that reads my book won’t stop bugging me about it . anyone hit me up cause i don’t see the benefit . thanks

August 3, 2015 at 1:06 pm

Most authors self-publish because they want their work to be read. But there’s no sense in publishing if you don’t feel compelled to.

While most people who write never publish, some of those still have a few books printed for themselves, family and friends who have expressed an interest. It’s an option. And, in that case, you needn’t bother with arranging for reviews, or with other promotional methods.

Others wish to reach a wider readership so look into either traditional or self-publishing, and eventually spend time promoting their book.

If you fall into the latter category, then self-publishing may be for you. But if you don’t, just keep writing for the love of it — and ignore those who pressure you.

all best, Denise

Rena George says

April 10, 2015 at 11:35 pm

Thank you for such a helpful, informative post, Denise. Authors really do need to put in the work to find approachable reviewers – and be prepared to overcome disappointments. Most reviewers are so overburdened that they have closed their lists for the foreseeable future. However the more potential reviewers an author can contact, the greater the chance of success. Perseverance is the secret, I think.

April 11, 2015 at 3:44 pm

Hi Rena, Thanks for your comment. I’m happy to hear that you found the post helpful.

Unfortunately I’m one of those reviewers who is often full-up on books to be reviewed…but I try to make time if just the perfect book is offered. There just isn’t enough time, though, to read – and review – everything I would like to.

Thanks again! Denise

Erik D. Weiss says

March 9, 2015 at 5:47 pm

Thanks, Denise! This is a fantastic little guide, great for new writers like me, eager to get my two fiction books out there. This is great advice, and you’ve inspired me to get to work getting my books reviewed and more visible!! Erik

March 9, 2015 at 7:32 pm

Erik, I’m so glad to hear you found the guide to reviews helpful. Good luck in finding reviewers! – Denise

J Haeske says

January 20, 2015 at 1:56 pm

If I only had known then what I know now… Thanks for that, Denise.

Molly Gambiza says

January 11, 2015 at 6:49 am

Thank you very much for taking your time to share this helpful information. That’s very generous of you. I am after honest reviews for my book A Woman’s Weakness. Now you have given me the directions, the ball is in my hands.

January 11, 2015 at 11:07 am

Glad we could help, Molly! Good luck with the book reviews!

christynathan930 says

September 24, 2014 at 5:28 am

Thanks for the great information and also for great tips too, and now I also check my book reviews.

James Jean-Pierre says

September 8, 2014 at 10:58 am

Thank you for this post, this list will definitely boost up my reviewer count.

August 10, 2014 at 7:55 am

I published my book in may, overlooking the need for a review. Since the time I must have approached 200-300 bloggers/sites for review unsuccessfully. any advice to get a free review? regards, jt

Denise Enck says

August 10, 2014 at 8:43 am

Congratulations on the publication of your book! Getting reviews is definitely a challenge. Without having seen your book or query email, I’m not sure why you haven’t had positive responses to your review query. But a lot depends upon the particular reviewers contacted, and how they are chosen.

First, do your research to find reviewers who review the types of books you write, and who are currently accepting books for review.

For example, I’m a reviewer; I clearly state on my review page here on Empty Mirror that I review Beat Generation and art-related books, do not review fiction, and am not accepting more books for review for the next few months. However, almost every day I receive review queries from authors who didn’t bother to read that; they offer me books about knitting, fantasy fiction, memoirs, guitar chords, children’s books, cooking, and more. I receive a lot of these, and most of them are deleted without reply.

There are websites which categorize book bloggers/reviewers by the genres they review; those can be really helpful in finding the right reviewers. Or go to Amazon and see who has reviewed similar books to yours, and see if they have an email address on their profile.

Second, sometimes it’s in the way that you approach the reviewer. Many queries I’ve received have been very impersonal, had spelling errors (doesn’t bode well for the book), were poorly written, required me to click a link to find out about the book, or wanted me to download free from Amazon on a particular day. Make it easy for the reviewer – address them by name if possible, give a brief synopsis of the book, tell where and when it’s available and in what formats. Don’t require the reviewer to do additional work to find out the basics about your book.

(However, include a link to Amazon – or wherever the book’s sold – so they can investigate more if they want to.)

Your query should contain everything necessary for the reviewer to make a decision.

Also – make sure the book is in good shape and ready for review. Sometimes, before accepting an already-published book for possible review, I’ll read the sample on Amazon to see if it appeals to me. If I find excerpts full of typos, formatting errors, or awkward writing, I won’t accept the book.

It’s harder to find reviewers for some genres than others. For example, fiction, YA and children’s book reviewers are plentiful (though often overburdened); reviewers for non-fiction, art and poetry are a little trickier to find.

But some of it is just timing, and a little bit of luck. Most reviewers get lots of queries and have to turn down even books that sound really enjoyable to them due to time constraints. But following the tips above can give you better odds.

You might also take a look at our article, “How to write an excellent review query” – https://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/publishing/how-to-write-an-excellent-book-review-query

Good luck, JT! If you have further questions, just let me know – I’d be really glad to help. all best, Denise

November 27, 2014 at 1:10 am

Hello Denise, I have a question is that any website which can give all the details of ebooks like how much ebooks are sale and in which with reviews because if any tool provide all of these things in one place it will be really helpful for many publishers.

selfpubber says

April 22, 2014 at 6:06 pm

I’ve used https://www.selfpublishingreview.com/ and it worked out pretty well. It’s a paid review, but it wasn’t a shill review (i.e. overly nice).

February 26, 2014 at 9:13 pm

I’ve used easybookreviews.com a few times. If you are willing to review other books in return it is a guaranteed way to get some (honest) reviews.

I’m also going to try story cartel but my books are already in kdp so I can’t have them available for free anywhere else at the moment. Also, story cartel aren’t amazon verified purchase reviews.

February 27, 2014 at 11:40 am

Thanks for the tip, Emily!

Be careful though, if you’re posting those reviews on Amazon. Amazon doesn’t allow reviews by “reviewing circles” (groups of people who review each other’s books) and has been known to revoke reviewing privileges for those caught doing it.

Gerard Thomas says

November 6, 2013 at 1:02 pm

OMG! I’m so happy now you’ve mentioned everything from A-Z.

Lenita Sheridan says

November 1, 2013 at 9:49 pm

This really helped me. I already got one “yes.” You might tell people to put “Review Request” in the subject line, otherwise they might get ignored the way I did when I put “possible book review?” I learned the hard way, but one website fortunately told me what to do, so I changed my tactic from then on.

November 1, 2013 at 10:04 pm

That’s a great idea, Lenita! Thanks so much. I’ll edit the article to include that. I’m glad you got a good response!

@IolaGoulton says

July 7, 2013 at 6:05 pm

10 ways to find book reviewers (and some useful links) #writing #reviews

June 30, 2013 at 11:35 pm

https://storycartel.com/ is another resource for authors to connect with reviewers.

July 1, 2013 at 8:36 am

Thanks Iola. I hadn’t heard of this one before, but I just checked it out – great resource! – Denise

@marqjonz says

May 28, 2013 at 3:50 am

@Phaedra4Real says

April 2, 2013 at 11:09 am

Dan’s right, great write-up.

ChaoticReader says

April 2, 2013 at 11:02 am

Great article on how and where to find reviewers for your book. https://t.co/wtpNTZszk5

Vennie Kocsis says

March 27, 2013 at 4:32 am

This was so very informative. Thank you for providing these resources for us budding authors.

March 27, 2013 at 11:16 am

So happy to hear you found it helpful! I wish you all the best with your book! – Denise

Rinelle Grey says

March 6, 2013 at 8:38 pm

A very extensive list of resources, I’ll be trying some of these.

One you missed is Goodreads. There are several forums that have dedicated space to helping authors find reviewers. Make sure you check that this is OK though, some groups encourage it, some dislike it.

March 6, 2013 at 9:24 pm

Thanks, Rinelle. I’ll add it. Unlike LibraryThing, GoodReads’ giveaways are only through publishers rather than authors, which is why I left it off the list. But I forgot about the forums! So I’ll add it to the list. Gracias. – Denise

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

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The Complete Guide on Self-Publishing Books on Amazon KDP

• October 4, 2023
• 20 minutes read
• 10 months ago

In recent years, self-publishing books have seen a notable increase in popularity. Authors are increasingly drawn to the autonomy of sharing their literary works with the world, bypassing traditional publishing barriers. Amazon has emerged as a key player in facilitating this shift. This comprehensive guide will explore self-publishing on Amazon, highlighting its key benefits and the diverse opportunities it presents to aspiring authors.

Self-publishing, also known as independent publishing, allows authors to manage all aspects of their creative process, from writing and editing to publishing and marketing. With the advent of platforms like Amazon, these processes have become more accessible, offering various tools and services to aid authors. However, it’s important to acknowledge the challenges involved, such as the need for self-promotion and the potential for lower visibility compared to traditionally published books.

This guide aims to provide a balanced view of self-publishing on Amazon, including how to navigate the platform’s features, understand the market dynamics, and leverage the available resources to maximize the success of your self-published work.

Steps to Self-Publishing on Amazon

Self-publishing on Amazon has become a popular route for authors to bring their work to the masses. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform offers a straightforward process for publishing ebooks and print-on-demand books. Here’s how you can get started:

The first step in self-publishing is, of course, to have a complete manuscript. Once your book is written, thorough editing is crucial. You can do this yourself, use software tools, or hire a professional editor to ensure your work is polished and error-free.

Your manuscript needs to be formatted to meet Amazon’s specifications. For ebooks, this means converting your document into Kindle’s proprietary format (MOBI) or a compatible format like EPUB. For print books, you must format the document according to the print size you choose and ensure that the layout, margins, and pagination are correct.

A compelling cover is essential for attracting readers. The cover should be professional and genre-appropriate. You can design it yourself using tools like Amazon’s Cover Creator or hire a professional graphic designer.

If you haven’t already, create an account on Amazon KDP. This platform will be your hub for publishing, managing, and tracking the sales of your book.

Once your account is set up, you can upload your manuscript and cover to Amazon KDP. You’ll need to enter details about your book, such as the title, author name, description, keywords, and categories. These elements are critical for your book’s discoverability.

Decide on the pricing of your book. Consider the royalty options (35% or 70%) and the price points of similar books in your genre. You can also opt to enroll in the KDP Select program, which offers additional promotional opportunities and benefits in exchange for exclusivity.

After completing all the steps, you can hit the “Publish” button. Your book will typically be live on the Amazon store within 24-48 hours. Promotion is key to success in self-publishing, so develop a marketing plan that can include social media, email marketing, reviews , and other strategies to reach your target audience.

Once your book is published, monitor its performance through the KDP dashboard, which provides sales data and other analytics. Use this information to make adjustments to your marketing strategies or even to your book’s content and pricing.

In conclusion, self-publishing on Amazon is a process that requires not just creative effort but also strategic planning and marketing. By following these steps and utilizing the tools and resources available, authors can successfully publish their work and reach a wide audience.

Marketing and Promotion for Self-Published Authors on Amazon

After publishing your book on Amazon, the next crucial step is marketing and promotion. Effective marketing strategies can significantly increase your book’s visibility and sales. Here are some key tactics to consider:

Ensure your book’s title, description, and keywords are optimized for search. Use relevant keywords that potential readers might use to find books in your genre. A compelling description and an eye-catching cover are essential to convert browsers into buyers.

Amazon KDP offers various promotional tools, such as Kindle Countdown Deals and the Free Book Promotion, where you can offer your book for free for a limited time to increase visibility and garner reviews.

Create a professional author website and establish a presence on social media platforms where your target audience is active. Share content related to your book, writing process, and topics of interest to your readers. Engage with your audience to build a community around your work.

Reviews are a powerful tool for building credibility and influencing potential buyers. Encourage readers to leave reviews on your Amazon book page and share their thoughts on social media. Positive reviews can significantly impact your book’s perception and sales. One source of review is Booknerdection.com , they don’t only offer an editorial review for your book, but they also provide you with a seal of approval that you can brag about having, and they are more on the affordable side.

Building relationships with other authors, bloggers, and industry influencers can lead to cross-promotion opportunities and increased visibility in your genre community.

Build an email list to communicate directly with your readers. Use newsletters to announce new releases, share exclusive content, and keep your readers engaged between books.

Attending book fairs, literary festivals, and other events can be a great way to network, meet your readers in person, and promote your books.

Consider using paid advertising options like Amazon Ads, Google Ads, or social media advertising to reach a broader audience. Target your ads to readers who are interested in your genre or similar books.

Incorporating these marketing and promotion strategies can greatly enhance your book’s success on Amazon. It’s important to maintain a consistent marketing effort and adapt your strategies based on the results you observe. With persistence and the right approach, you can increase your visibility, attract more readers, and grow your self-publishing career.

Royalties and Earnings

Understanding the financial dynamics is essential for self-published authors on Amazon. Here’s a breakdown of how you can monetize your work through self-publishing:

Amazon provides two main royalty rate options for authors:

• 70% Royalty: Authors can earn a 70% royalty on each sale if they price their eBook between $2.99 and $9.99. This rate is a preferred option for many authors because it offers a higher percentage of earnings.
• 35% Royalty: For eBooks priced outside the $2.99 to $9.99 range, or in certain countries where the higher royalty rate is not applicable, authors receive a 35% royalty on each sale.

It’s important to note that the 70% royalty option also involves delivery costs based on the file size of the eBook, which are deducted from the earnings. Therefore, authors should consider their book’s pricing and file size to maximize their profits effectively. Additionally, selecting the right pricing strategy is crucial to align with your target audience’s expectations and market standards.

Beyond the Numbers

Although the earnings potential with Amazon KDP is significant, achieving success in self-publishing goes beyond mere pricing and royalty considerations. Essential elements such as effective marketing, cultivating a loyal readership, and consistently honing your writing skills play a crucial role in the process.

Authors should keep abreast of Amazon’s continuously updated terms and guidelines for KDP to ensure their eBooks adhere to the platform’s standards and optimize their revenue potential.

In summary, Amazon KDP presents self-published authors with a rewarding opportunity to present their stories to a worldwide audience and secure a substantial portion of the royalties. Strategic pricing of your eBook, coupled with astute marketing initiatives, enables you to not only profit from your passion but also reach readers eager for your offerings.

Publishing a paperback via Amazon’s print-on-demand service means your royalties will vary based on the book’s size, page count, and production costs. Amazon subtracts the printing expenses from your retail price, leaving the remainder as your earnings.

Enrolling your eBook in KDP Select makes it available for Kindle Unlimited and the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. You earn from the KDP Select Global Fund, which is determined by the number of pages read by Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Prime members.

Amazon facilitates payments to authors through various methods, such as direct deposits and checks, based on the author’s location and preference. These payments are typically made monthly.

The Amazon KDP dashboard offers comprehensive sales and earnings reports, including details on your book sales, page reads (for KU and KOLL), and accrued royalties.

It’s important to recognize that while Amazon offers a transparent and user-friendly payment system, actual earnings are influenced by factors like the quality of the book, marketing endeavors, and market competition. Successful self-published authors often merge proficient writing with strategic marketing to maximize their income.

In the next section, we will delve into the importance of author branding and how to establish a strong presence as a self-published author on Amazon.

Author Branding

Author branding is the process of creating a unique identity and image for yourself as an author, which distinguishes you from others in the literary world. It’s about conveying your persona, values, and the themes of your writing to your target audience. Here’s how you can establish and enhance your author brand on Amazon and beyond:

Identify what makes you unique as an author. Consider your writing style, genre, and the themes or messages you want to convey. Your brand should reflect the essence of your work and appeal to your target audience.

Create a consistent visual identity across your book covers, author website, and social media profiles. This includes using a recognizable author photo, logo, color scheme, and typography that align with your brand.

An author website acts as a central hub for your brand. It should include your biography, bibliography, blog or news updates, and links to purchase your books. An effective website is user-friendly, visually appealing, and optimized for search engines.

Select social media platforms that align with your brand and where your target audience is active. Regularly post content that engages your followers, such as writing updates, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and insights into your creative process.

Create a content strategy that showcases your expertise, promotes your books, and engages your audience. This could include blog posts, newsletters, podcasts, or videos that provide value and build a connection with your readers.

Networking with other authors, industry professionals, and influencers can expand your brand’s reach. Consider collaborations, such as guest blogging, interviews, or joint promotional events, to gain exposure to new audiences.

Consider offering additional value that aligns with your brand, such as writing workshops, speaking engagements, or exclusive content for your subscribers. This not only enhances your brand but also provides more ways to connect with your audience.

Regularly review your brand’s performance and feedback from your audience. Be open to making adjustments to your strategy, visuals, and content to ensure they remain effective and resonate with your audience.

Building a strong author brand is a dynamic and ongoing process that requires consistency, authenticity, and engagement with your audience. By effectively managing your author brand, you can establish a lasting presence in the publishing world, attract and retain readers, and ultimately, enhance your success as a self-published author on Amazon.

Reviews and Ratings

Reviews and ratings on Amazon are crucial to the success of your self-published book. They not only influence potential readers’ decisions but also provide valuable feedback. Here’s how to maximize the benefits of reviews and ratings:

• Influence Buying Decisions: Positive reviews can convince potential readers to buy your book, serving as social proof of its quality.
• Feedback for Improvement: Reviews offer constructive criticism, aiding in enhancing your writing and storytelling in subsequent works.
• Amazon Ranking: A higher number of positive reviews and ratings can improve your book’s visibility in Amazon’s search results.
• Ask Your Network: Encourage friends, family, and acquaintances who’ve read your book to leave reviews.
• Early Review Copies: Distribute advance review copies (ARCs) to a select group of readers for honest feedback and reviews upon release.
• Author Note: Include a polite note in your book asking readers to leave a review if they enjoyed it.
• Respond Graciously: Address negative reviews politely and professionally, demonstrating that you value reader input.
• Avoid Fake Reviews: Do not solicit fake reviews; it’s unethical and could result in penalties from Amazon and damage your reputation.
• Report Inappropriate Reviews: If reviews violate Amazon’s guidelines, report them for potential removal.
• Consistent Quality: Ensure your writing and storytelling are consistently high-quality to garner positive feedback.
• Engage with Readers: Foster a positive relationship with your audience through social media and your website, which can lead to more favorable reviews.
• Encourage Honest Reviews: Emphasize the importance of genuine, unbiased feedback. Authentic reviews are more valuable and can help improve your work.

Maintaining a strong focus on delivering quality content is essential for building a positive reputation over time. Reviews and ratings are an ongoing aspect of your publishing journey, requiring patience and a commitment to excellence.

In the next section, we’ll delve into common pitfalls in self-publishing on Amazon and strategies to navigate these challenges effectively.

You can check our full Article on How to Get Amazon Book Reviews? Here

Common Pitfalls in Self-Publishing on Amazon

Self-publishing on Amazon is a promising avenue for authors, yet it comes with its own set of challenges. Being aware of these pitfalls and knowing how to avoid them is key to a successful self-publishing journey:

• Pitfall: Forgoing professional editing can result in grammatical errors, typos, and overall poor writing quality, deterring readers.
• Solution: Invest in professional editing services to refine your manuscript and maintain high-quality standards.
• Pitfall: A hastily designed cover can repel potential readers, as it significantly influences first impressions.
• Solution: Allocate time and resources to create a compelling cover that accurately represents the genre and essence of your book.
• Pitfall: Assuming that listing your book on Amazon is enough to attract readers can lead to limited visibility and sales.
• Solution: Implement a thorough marketing strategy that encompasses keyword optimization, social media engagement, and targeted advertising.
• Pitfall: Incorrect pricing can either discourage purchases or reduce potential earnings.
• Solution: Conduct market research to price your book competitively while considering factors like length, genre, and market trends.
• Pitfall: Overlooking Amazon’s publishing guidelines can lead to sanctions or the removal of your book.
• Solution: Stay updated with and adhere to Amazon’s content, formatting, and advertising guidelines.
• Pitfall: An underdeveloped author brand can impede long-term success and reader engagement.
• Solution: Focus on establishing a strong author brand through a professional website, consistent social media presence, and community building.
• Pitfall: Overlooking reader feedback, especially negative critiques, can stifle your growth as an author.
• Solution: View feedback as an opportunity for improvement, responding constructively to enhance your work and reader satisfaction.
• Pitfall: Expecting immediate success or substantial earnings right away can lead to frustration.
• Solution: Recognize that building a readership takes time. Set achievable goals and be patient in nurturing your self-publishing career.

Understanding and navigating these pitfalls are crucial for authors aiming to succeed in the competitive realm of self-publishing on Amazon. Next, we will delve into inspiring success stories of authors who have achieved remarkable outcomes through self-publishing, illustrating the potential rewards of navigating these challenges effectively.

Success Stories of Self-Publishing on Amazon

Self-publishing on Amazon has been a game-changer for many authors, enabling them to achieve incredible success and recognition. Here are some inspiring examples:

Hugh Howey’s journey with his self-published “Wool” series is remarkable. Starting on Amazon, he quickly gained traction, leading to a bestseller status, a traditional publishing deal, and talks of a film adaptation. His success underscores the potential of self-publishing to open major doors in the literary world.

Amanda Hocking is another testament to self-publishing success. Her paranormal romance novels, initially self-published on Amazon, sold millions of copies and earned her a lucrative traditional publishing contract. Her story exemplifies how self-publishing can catapult unknown authors to stardom.

Rachel Abbott became one of the UK’s bestselling independent authors through her self-published crime fiction novels on Amazon. Her success story highlights the platform’s ability to provide widespread exposure and commercial success.

Mark Dawson, author of the “John Milton” thriller series, leveraged Amazon to build a substantial readership. Utilizing online marketing and advertising, he transformed his self-publishing venture into a sustainable full-time career and also created educational courses for aspiring authors.

Bella Andre’s self-publishing success with her “Sullivans” romance series on Amazon illustrates the power of developing a strong reader base. Her consistent output and engagement with fans have solidified her standing in the romance genre.

These authors have not only realized significant sales and fame but also demonstrated the transformative potential of self-publishing on Amazon. Their experiences show that with talent, perseverance, and smart marketing, self-publishing can lead to unprecedented levels of success and even pave the way to traditional publishing deals.

These narratives inspire and offer valuable insights for authors considering self-publishing, illustrating that with the right approach, success on Amazon is not just possible but can be life-changing.

In the concluding section, we will explore essential resources and tools that can aid aspiring self-published authors in their Amazon journey, ensuring they have the best possible foundation for success.

As an aspiring self-published author on Amazon, you have access to various resources and tools to help you succeed in your writing and publishing endeavors. Here’s a list of valuable resources:

1. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

• Website: KDP

Amazon’s KDP platform is where you’ll publish and manage your eBooks and paperbacks. It provides essential tools for authors, including formatting guides, cover design tips, and sales reporting.

2. Amazon Author Central

• Website: Amazon Author Central

Author Central allows you to create and manage your author profile on Amazon. You can add a bio, photos, and links to your blog or website, enhancing your author brand.

3. Grammarly

• Website: Grammarly

Grammarly is a valuable writing assistant that helps you spot and correct grammar and spelling errors, improving the overall quality of your writing.

• Website: Canva

Canva is a user-friendly graphic design tool that can assist in creating eye-catching book covers and promotional materials.

5. Goodreads

• Website: Goodreads

Goodreads is a social platform for book lovers. It’s a great place to connect with readers, promote your books, and participate in author Q&A sessions.

• Website: Reedsy

Reedsy offers a marketplace of professional editors, designers, and marketers who can assist you in various aspects of self-publishing, from editing to cover design.

7. Amazon Advertising

• Website: Amazon Advertising

Amazon Advertising allows you to run targeted ad campaigns for your books, increasing their visibility to potential readers.

8. Draft2Digital

• Website: Draft2Digital

Draft2Digital is a platform that helps you distribute your eBooks to multiple retailers beyond Amazon, expanding your reach.

9. Kindlepreneur

• Website: Kindlepreneur

Kindlepreneur offers a wealth of resources, including articles, courses, and tools, to help authors with book marketing and self-publishing strategies.

10. Self-Publishing Subreddits

• Subreddits: r/selfpublish and r/KindlePublishing

Reddit has active communities where self-published authors share advice, experiences, and resources.

11. Scrivener

• Website: Scrivener

Scrivener is a popular writing software that offers organization and formatting features specifically designed for authors.

These resources and tools can aid you at various stages of your self-publishing journey on Amazon, from writing and editing to marketing and promotion. Utilize them to enhance your skills, streamline your processes, and ultimately reach a broader audience of readers.

Self-publishing on Amazon has transformed into a vibrant and accessible platform for authors to disseminate their narratives globally. Throughout this comprehensive guide, we’ve examined the multifaceted realm of self-publishing on Amazon, emphasizing its rising prominence and the manifold benefits it proffers. We’ve navigated through the intricacies of marketing and promotion, the mechanics of understanding royalties and earnings, the pivotal role of author branding, and the impact of reviews and ratings on a book’s triumph.

Additionally, we’ve pinpointed common pitfalls in the self-publishing journey and shared inspiring success stories, underscoring the remarkable achievements attainable on this platform.

As you venture into self-publishing, armed with the insights and strategies discussed, remember that success is often a product of steadfast dedication, resilience, and an ongoing commitment to enhancing your craft and marketing acumen. Cultivating your authorial identity, fostering reader engagement, and valuing constructive feedback are essential elements of a prosperous self-publishing career.

Your distinctive voice and tales have the capacity to resonate with audiences across the globe, with Amazon’s self-publishing arena offering a comprehensive suite to broadcast your creative flair. Whether you’re penning fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or any other genre, the self-publishing landscape on Amazon is ripe with possibilities for your literary exploits.

Equipped with the right attitude, dedication, and the wisdom encapsulated in this guide, you’re set to embark on a gratifying and lucrative journey as a self-published author on Amazon. Seize the opportunities, derive lessons from each experience, and consistently strive for storytelling excellence.

The gateway to self-publishing on Amazon is wide open, inviting you to embark on this exhilarating venture. Best wishes on your self-publishing journey, and may your stories etch a lasting imprint in the annals of readers’ hearts worldwide.

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How To Easily Add Amazon Editorial Reviews To Your Books

If you haven’t added Amazon editorial reviews to your books on Amazon, you are missing out on an excellent opportunity to sell more books.

It’s not easy getting Amazon book reviews from readers and book buyers.

But you can overcome this problem by adding your own book reviews to your Amazon book sales page.

These will never be in danger of deletion, and potential readers will see them well above your book’s customer reviews.

Article Contents

Why add Amazon editorial reviews?

You probably have book reviews from your beta readers or friends.

Perhaps you know readers who can’t add a customer review on Amazon because they don’t qualify for the $50 minimum spend to post reviews.

You can use all these avenues for your book reviews and have them appear prominently on your Amazon sales page. As long as you have permission from these people, you can add their reviews.

If you are not adding Amazon editorial reviews to all your books, you are passing up a terrific free book promotion tool.

All you need to do is collect your reviews, and you’ll be ready to improve the performance of your book sales pages.

Once you add your reviews, your page will look like this.

You can see that the reviews I added appear before any other book details.

A potential book buyer will notice them first because Amazon truncates the main book description with a read more link.

Your customer reviews appear way down on the page, so this is a great way to get some reviews in front of people’s eyes immediately.

How to add your Amazon editorial reviews

It’s not possible to do this through your KDP dashboard. You can only edit your keywords, categories, and basic book descriptions.

To add your reviews, login to your Amazon Author Central account  or sign up for a new account if you don’t have one.

Once you are logged in, click on Books in the top menu. You will then see images for all your titles. If you don’t see your book, click the Add a Book button at the bottom of the page.

Click on the book you want to edit. If you have more than one version, you need to select one to edit the details.

You will need to add your reviews to each version of your book. But it only takes a few seconds.

When you click on a version of your book, click the Edit Book Details button below your book cover.

At the top of the page, you will see Review. Click the edit button next to it to open the Wysiwyg text editor.

You can paste all your reviews here. You can use bold or italics to make your reviews stand out a little more.

Often, it’s a good idea to bold the book reviewer’s name. This makes it easier for a book buyer to see that it’s a reader’s review.

Once you have added your reviews, click Review. If you are happy, then click Save to add your reviews.

Repeat the process for all your book versions. Your new editorial reviews should appear on your Amazon book sales page within 24 hours.

You have two review panels for paperback books but only one for Kindle. However, you can easily add all your reviews in one box.

What you can’t add to your reviews

You can add reviews to your book on Amazon very easily.

But there are a few restrictions. Amazon mentions these in notes in the editor, but there are a couple more from the help pages.

Reviews should consist of transcribed text from reputable sources. The name of the source should be credited after the quotation. For example, “A fantastic read.” -The New York Times.

Quotes from outside reviews should follow “fair use” copyright guidelines and be limited to 1-2 sentences.

We recommend you limit your Reviews to 3000 characters. Customers may miss out on critical information if your reviews are too long.

Don’t include links in your reviews.

Don’t include any personal information such as email addresses or phone numbers.

You can’t add any advertising or promotional links.

Make sure you don’t use any time-sensitive statements, such as “available now for free on Kindle Unlimited.”

Don’t add any price information.

These points are quite logical and will not stop you from adding helpful reviews for your book.

Add more style to your book reviews

The text editor in Author Central is pretty basic.

But there’s an easy way to add more style and elements to your reviews and book descriptions.

You can use the Kindleprenuer book description generator .

You can style all the elements and even add icons.

Once you are happy, you can copy the HTML code and paste it into the editor on Author Central.

With the generator, you can also prepare your book descriptions for Barnes & Noble and Kobo.

More you can add to your book page

Apart from reviews, you can add or edit a lot more from Author Central.

You can edit and style your book description , add a from the author text, and add text for the front and back book flaps.

There is also a section for your back of the book blurb.

Lastly, you can edit your About the Author section of your book page.

All the information you add to your book page will help your book discovery on Amazon because it increases your Amazon metadata.

If you have researched and optimized your seven KDP keywords, use them in your text to increase your book discoverability on Amazon search.

If you haven’t set up your Author Central page on Amazon, you should do it ASAP.

It’s a vital tool you can use to improve the sales potential of your books.

There are so many ways you can use it to attract an Amazon customer’s attention to your book.

But without a doubt, adding your Amazon editorial reviews is one of the most significant advantages.

Of course, you should use your Amazon US Author Central page. But don’t forget that you can do the same for Amazon UK, DE, and FR.

All you need to do is log in with your Amazon credentials and then set up your international Author Central pages.

There are more readers out there than only US book buyers, so make sure you set up and update all your Author Central pages.

Of all the improvements you can make to your book promotion and marketing, adding your reviews to your Amazon book page is one of the easiest ways to attract more attention.

It only takes a few minutes and will add extra social proof to your book to encourage readers to buy it.

Related reading: How To Create A Free 3D Book Cover To Promote Your Book

About The Author

Derek Haines

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7 thoughts on “how to easily add amazon editorial reviews to your books”.

Hooray! I have been able to submit 2 reviews! Thanks so much for this advice. I was at my wits end knowing what to do.

Happy to hear you got it working.

I have just tried to post a friend’s review of my book and Amazon would not accept it

I have a wonderful review from Readers Views. Can I upload this review as well as reviews from friends?

I am working backwards here and a bit overwhelmed, if I can be honest. Daunting task it is to self-publish and so much to consider. I’m way behind and learning so much. Thank you for the resources! I just set up my Amazon Author Central with your help.

Hi Derek, I cannot insert my own reviews to the Author Page in Amazon UK. It says this is only available for Amazon.com in US. So I gave that a go and the correct pages did open but nothing would save as it says the site is having issues – try again later! I will try and see if it works another time. Is anyone else having difficulties?

Hi Richard, I’m also in the UK and trying to do this, any tips would be very welcome. Kind regards, Mike

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Amazon KDP Review – Is Amazon KDP Worth It?

Posted by Stuart Bell | Feb 2, 2023 | Business | 0 |

Self Publishing on Amazon – Pros and Cons

Amazon kdp benefits, it’s easy, publish in multiple formats., higher royalties, timely payments, complete control, quick turnaround, access to analytics, amazon kdp drawbacks, it may take some practice, intense competition, the 70% royalty program isn’t for everyone., pre-orders aren’t for paperbacks., interactive content is limited., kdp select or not is kindle unlimited worth it, what is kdp select, so then, what is kindle unlimited, the difference between kindle unlimited and kdp select.

• KDP Select is for authors. They can enroll in their books and reap the benefits of page reads.
• Kindle Unlimited is a program for readers. With it, they can read as many books as they want in a month.

So, You Want to Go Wide? How Can You Win?

• Facebook Ads directed to fans of those markets: Create ads to fans of B&N, iBooks, or Nook, and then lead them to your type of reader. This ensures your FB ads will also gain readers in those markets. Here are some market-specific tactics you should employ:
• Get reviews: Push to get reviews for your book on those markets with the same tactics you’ve used on Amazon. I’d wager to say that one study on B&N is worth 10 on Am,azon, considering that the number of studies on B&N is much lower.
• Create links that go to your books in those markets: Put them in your email blasts or other marketing efforts to also give those markets love.

Final Decision: Should You Enroll in Amazon KDP Select or Not?

Related posts:.

• How Much Does It Really Cost to Self-Publish on Amazon?
• How to Self-publish a Book: A Step-by-Step Guide.
• How to Become a Bestselling Author
• How to Become a Writer

About The Author

Stuart Bell

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Self-Publishing On Amazon: Pros and Cons of Using KDP

Amazon's KDP Platform continues to turn ordinary everyday people into best-selling authors, homeowners, and full-time travelers, all from self-published book sales and royalties. But how do you know if this is the right path for you? Read on as we tackle the fine print in this blog, AKA all the pros and cons of self-publishing on Amazon.

Under the traditional publishing model, authors would put months or even years of work into their manuscripts without any guarantee that the work would actually be published. This is no longer the case. Thanks to the internet, anyone with a laptop and Wi-Fi can produce helpful quality content, publish their work for free, get paid directly for their work, and reach a massive global audience. Factor in how quickly artificial intelligence can speed up the outlining and writing process, and there's no reason not to get started on your publishing journey today.

Let's take a look at the pros and cons of becoming a self-published author and getting your book on Amazon through the lens of actual self-published authors who started their writing journey by reading a blog post just like this one.

Note: If you want to find out how thousands of happy folks discovered how to leverage Amazon's publishing platform to earn true income on virtually autopilot every month, sign up for our free webinar . We'll show you the ins and outs of publishing on Amazon to start earning money online.

Comparing Amazon KDP and Traditional Publishing

If you're considering publishing a book, you have two main options: self-publishing or traditional publishing. One is a golden ticket to publish a book on your own terms; the other is a winding road that just might get you lost.

One of the most popular self-publishing platforms is Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Let's compare self-publishing and traditional publishing to help you decide which option is best for you.

With traditional publishing, you'll be working with a publishing house and a literary agent who will have a say in the editing, cover design, and distribution of your book. While they will also provide guidance and support, you'll ultimately have less control over the final product.

With Amazon KDP, you have complete control over the entire publishing process. You can create your own cover design , formatting, and pricing, for example. You'll also have the final say regarding all editorial decisions. 

Even after you get your book published, you can go back and submit a new manuscript as you build reviews and gather feedback from your readers. This just isn't possible if you choose to publish through the traditional route.

One of the biggest advantages of self-publishing on Amazon KDP is the higher royalties. With traditional publishing, authors typically receive royalties of around 10% of the book's price (if that). With Amazon KDP, authors can receive up to 70% of the book's price, depending on factors such as the book's price and the country it's sold in.

These royalties are directly deposited to your bank account each month, whether you're writing and publishing new books or not. That's the definition of a true passive income.

To help you accurately estimate your potential earnings, we offer a Kindle Direct Publishing royalty calculator . This useful tool allows you to input different variables like your book’s price and number of pages, providing a clearer insight into your expected royalties.

Distribution

Traditional publishing houses have established relationships with bookstores and other distributors, which can make it easier to get your book into physical stores. However, self-publishing on Amazon KDP gives you access to Amazon's massive distribution network, which can help you reach a wider audience. You also have the chance to publish your book in several formats, which equates to more happy readers and more money in your pocket. 

Pros of Self-Publishing on Amazon

Amazon is highly respected in the publishing world, but every self-publishing platform has its advantages and disadvantages. Here's a list of pros that come with Amazon self-publishing to help you make sure you're making the right decision.

Free to Use

The KDP platform is completely free to use, which means you can upload and publish your book on Amazon without any upfront costs . This is a significant advantage for new authors who want to test the waters before investing money in their publishing venture.

The platform will take a small portion of your book sales to cover printing costs, but the platform is upfront about these costs ahead of time and lets you choose which types of paper or what format you'd like to sell the book in, allowing you to minimize the printing costs and maximize your take-home royalties. You also get to price your Kindle book however you'd like and are free to change your mind or update the price whenever you’d like. 

Creative Control

With KDP, you retain complete creative control over your book, author brand, and images. You can create your own book cover , formatting, and layout and make changes to your book at any time. This means you can experiment with different book covers or book descriptions to see what resonates the most with readers.

Higher Royalties

KDP offers higher royalties than traditional publishing. You can earn up to 70% in royalties for eBooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99. This means you can earn more money per book sold than you would with a traditional publisher, and the royalty percentage is guaranteed.

Kindle Unlimited

KDP Select is a program that gives readers access to Kindle Unlimited, a subscription service that allows them to read an unlimited number of digital books from a growing library for a monthly fee. By enrolling your book in KDP Select , you can earn a share of the Kindle Unlimited fund in addition to your paperback, hardcover, and eBook sales, which can increase your monthly revenue.

Print-on-Demand

KDP offers print-on-demand (POD) services, which means you can sell paperback copies of your book without having to print a large quantity upfront, as traditional publishers may require. This is a great option for authors who want to offer a physical copy of their book to readers.

With this print-on-demand service already built into the platform, you'll never have to worry about delivery costs or inventory. All you need to focus on is publishing and meeting the demands of your target audience.

Global Audience

As one of the biggest online retailers, Amazon has a global reach. This means that without having to do anything extra, your book can potentially reach readers all over the world. You might have a big audience of target readers in Japan or Germany that you never would have realized!

Book Promotion

KDP offers several marketing tools and book promotion tools, such as Kindle Countdown Deals and Amazon Kindle Advertising , which can help you increase your book's exposure and boost sales. You can also choose relevant categories and keywords to help readers find your book in the online market. You retain full control over your monthly budget and Amazon book marketing strategy .

Sometimes, Amazon will even pick books to offer exclusive deals for, and although these deals might affect the list price, they do NOT affect the royalties you're entitled to. Amazon WANTS you to succeed and sell more books, so they constantly use their algorithms to help boost author sales. 

Cons of Self-Publishing on Amazon

While self-publishing on Amazon can be a great option for many authors, it's not for everybody. Here are some things to consider when using KDP:

Exclusivity Clause

When you enroll in KDP Select, you must agree to an exclusivity clause that requires you to sell your eBook exclusively through Amazon. This means that you cannot sell your eBook on any other platform, including your own website or other online retailers and apps like through the Google Play store. This can limit your potential audience and revenue streams.

The benefits of using KDP Select are that you get to essentially promote your book for free, saving you time and money on marketing, and more and more readers are signing up for this membership by the day. 

Upfront Costs

While it is free to publish your eBook on KDP, there may be upfront costs associated with self-publishing on Amazon depending on which tasks you'd like to outsource. These can include editing, cover design, formatting, and marketing expenses.

If you're confident in your own skills or have the time to sharpen them a little bit, then this isn't a problem!

Competition

With millions of eBooks available on Amazon, competition can be fierce. Depending on which niche you’re in, it can be difficult to stand out among the crowd and get your book noticed by readers. You might need to invest time and effort into marketing and promoting your book to increase your chances of success.

The good news is that most self-published authors have no problem using Amazon's marketing tools to reach new readers, and we teach our students exactly how to do it. 

Paid Only Reviews

One of the biggest cons of self-publishing on KDP is that Amazon has limited the ability to review your book to only those readers who paid for the book. This can be frustrating when trying to build up a base of solid reviews and market your books, but there are ways to get visibility outside of the Amazon platform without breaking any of their terms and conditions. 

We teach our students how to do this ethically and efficiently.

Real-Life Stories of Successful Authors Who Publish on Amazon

People around the world are learning they can tap into these online platforms and the power of KDP to launch an online publishing business without dealing with literary agents or traditional publishers. But educating yourself is a big part of the process.

That’s why we created our AI Publishing Academy (AIA), a Kindle self-publishing course —to teach people just like you that they can become an author and make money from self-publishing online.

Here are some testimonials from rock-star students of our Amazon publishing webinar. Some of them saw massive success in less than 90 days!

“Thank you so much, AIA. You gave me the push to complete my book! Just finished the workshop! My book ‘What’s Wrong with American High School’ has been the #1 new release in the ‘high school’ category of Kindle and was the #12 bestseller in the high school category last night!” – Ramya N

“Made my first money with my ‘guaranteed profits’ zero cost book, and my first real book just finished being written and will launch soon!” – Jai K

“Went through your workshop and created a book. I checked KDP and got about $150+ in 3 days for it. Small gains but still a win for a book that cost me $0 and a few hours of my time.” – Jasmine

“I did the guarantee profit workshop last month. Wrote my ebook and didn’t pay for anything . I made a profit today! I know it’s not as big as most income reports, but I’m still proud of my accomplishment. Currently turning it into an audiobook.” – Angel

“This was my usual month in 2021 [ $10,902.71 ]. I can’t thank you enough… You are awesome, and your Audiobook Income Academy is definitely the Special One. I am a self-education geek and former coaching marketing specialist, so believe me, I know what I am talking about. You changed my life...It’s not only about the money, though… We closed our debts, made a perfect room for our kids, and helped our family members and friends. I had vision correction surgery on both eyes, and now I can see without glasses after 28 years!!! So, I could only thank you and hope this post will inspire AIA students to follow the course and find their way to success.” – Kostya C.

These people started with no experience writing a book . Let that sink in. If they can do it, so can you. You don’t need a college degree in business to get started. All it takes is the motivation to ditch the 9-to-5 or diversify your income streams and try something new.

Our free workshop will teach you step-by-step how to make money through Amazon’s KDP. You’ll also be part of a group of other self-publishers, all working toward the same goals.

Start Your Self-Publishing Journey Today!

Now that your eyes have been opened to the pros and cons of using Amazon’s KDP, you have a choice to make. Do you want to go the historical route and publish traditionally or self-publish?

Would you rather...

• Deal with an old-fashioned publishing house that takes so long to publish your book that it’s like watching paint dry or control your own schedule?
• Be forced to listen to the mass-market opinions of publishing executives when it comes to your book cover or have complete artistic flexibility?
• Let the publishing houses dictate your title and ideas, or publish as many books as you'd like on the topics that interest you?
• Get royalty percentages that are so small you need a microscope to see them or watch your passive income build up to a full-time income (or even more)?
• Try to figure everything out on your own or join a community of everyday people who have published books time and again to create a new life for themselves?

Maybe it’s time to try something new.

Sign up today for our free webinar , and you'll have a library of self-published books making money for you in no time.

We'll coach and guide you through every step of the way. 

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And, Even MORE Complaints about Amazon KDP!

April 29, 2022

• Some Amazon KDP authors have had their author accounts and their books suddenly terminated.
• Authors continue to report printing and binding issues.
• There are complaints about long delivery times (weeks) for copies authors order for themselves.
• Some authors have accused Amazon KDP of not paying their royalties.
• The stories about very bad customer service seem endless.
• And, much more!

In case you don’t have time to read all of the detailed complaints at the links below, here are some snippets:

“Worst Customer Support I Have Ever Experienced”

“This e-mail stated that they would be keeping ALL of my royalties…”

“I have never experienced—or even imagined—a company and its associates being so utterly negligent, incompetent, and indolent…”

“Why did Amazon just close my 10 year old account”

“…today they randomly closed my account”

“They still have not paid me royalties and i doubt they ever will.”

“I wrote to Amazon’s legal department and included copies of all of my unanswered emails, questions, postings etc. about the situation.”

“KDP is killing my business and I need help!”

“What a sordid company this is.”

“Amazon printed and shipped the wrong contents for my paperback using my cover. The book received many 1 star reviews…”

“It’s been nothing but a headache.”

“Why a book with a printing cost of $13.90 and a sale price of $24 only gets $.50 in royalties?”

“Do not use KDP!”

“KDP is horrible, please believe all the negative reviews.”

“Go elsewhere people!”

“Horrible customer service”

“I keep getting passed around to customer service representatives”

“I agree with all the negative reviews”

“The worst customer service possible”

“Since Amazon took over, it’s been a nightmare to deal with them. My payments have started to fail a year and a half ago…”

“AUTHORS BEWARE”

“Something very wrong is going on at Amazon and kdp.”

“four random (not consecutive) pages fell out in the first few chapters. They weren’t glued at all.”

“One of my books that has been for sale since 2019 was just sent to a buyer with a chapter added that I didnt write.”

“the interior illustrations looked terrible — white vertical lines running through them”

“Now almost two months have passed without a response and satisfactory replacement.”

“If i could give less than one star I would.”

“You should also be wary of any company that makes it impossible to simply email them with complaints and concerns.”

“This is devastating.”

“Yesterday my account got locked.”

“Several authors in the FB groups I’m a part of have had up to half their KENP page reads from Amazon for certain months”

“Unfortunately, scams abound with Kindle Unlimited”

“Recently, I have had severe problems explaining copyright law to KDP staff.”

“…most of them are unable to do their job correctly…”

“…I haven’t received any help in having my book restored”

“I keep receiving an email to say I have too many blank pages, but there are none in my manuscript.”

“Setting up is certainly not for the average person.”

“…my income is plummeting…”

“Amazon certainly isn’t worth it any more.”

“All of a sudden, someone in their infinite wisdom has decided to put my payments on HOLD.”

“I’ve been working on this problem for more than a year.”

“Ever since switching my kdp to their select program, I haven’t received any royalty payments.”

“I will also remark that KDP’s website is not terribly good at showing a way to contact the company/division directly..”

“my report shows a sale, but no royalty for the sale is shown.”

“Six weeks to receive five author copies?”

“I ordered author copies of a hardcover weeks ago, and they haven’t shown up yet.”

“…the average is 2-5 weeks, longer for hardcover, if available at all.”

“Both books showing up as will ship in two days, clearly not true.”

“The email I did get was saying my order would be delayed another month.”

“The result is a search specifically for my title yields a page full of similar unrelated books, but not mine…”

Thinking about publishing your book through Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing)? You might want to think again after reading the quality, customer service, royalty, and numerous other complaints below. Our parent company, BookLocker.com , competes with Amazon KDP. However, we reject numerous manuscripts each year. When we do, we NEVER recommend authors use Amazon KDP.

Amazon KDP was previously called CreateSpace. Before that, it was BookSurge. No matter how many times they change their name, the complaints from authors continue to stack up.

Below are quotes from websites that allow people to post complaints about companies. Below those are complaints  posted directly to Amazon’s KDP author discussion board on their site. These are definitely eye-opening! And, this is just a drop in the bucket. There are NUMEROUS complaints in Amazon’s system, and elsewhere, written by their own authors.

All complaints listed below were posted just within the past six months. We have not corrected errors in the quotes below.

Worst Customer Support I Have Ever Experienced The title summarizes how I have been treated by KDP over the last 9 months. I have never experienced—or even imagined—a company and its associates being so utterly negligent, incompetent, and indolent in their refusal to fix a situation. There are some pretty awful businesses out there, but KDP is the absolute worst…

I would NOT recommend Kdp Amazon What a sordid company this is. Self-publishing is notoriously difficult but once you manage it, you can’t order author copies. You should also be wary of any company that makes it impossible to simply email them with complaints and concerns.

DO NOT USE KDP! They gave me a measly 2 days after sending the blocked title notification e-mail before sending another e-mail stating that my account was terminated, not suspended, TERMINATED as a result. This e-mail stated that they would be keeping ALL of my royalties, all of which absolutely did not come from any sales of the blocked title in question, that was never published…

Horrible Customer Service As a author, I have been working with KDP since October 29, 2021 to resolve an issue regarding covers to several books. I keep getting passed around to customer service representatives, and always get the same pat answer: will contact you when it is resolved…

I agree with all the negative reviews I agree with all the negative reviews. They just robbed me too. I hope they enjoy their profit cause I won’t be getting mine!!! Don’t use KDP if you don’t have to. Be cautious!

The worst customer service possible I have had my account with KDP for many years, from before they were reincarnated as KDP from CreateSpace, and have published with them 27 titles. Since Amazon took over, it’s been a nightmare to deal with them. My payments have started to fail a year and a half ago, apparently “because my name is incorrect.” I have resubmitted my bank details, at KDP’s request, about a dozen times, but the issue hasn’t been resolved. Since October 2020, I have called their customer service quite a few times, and have emailed them back-and-forth probably over a hundred times. The customer service system is completely incompetent — reps have been shuffling me from one person to another, all with generic replies, and no one who is actually interested in resolving the issue…

If you publish your book via a company… Amazon KDP are very unhelpful and just cut and paste generic responses. AUTHORS BEWARE.

Authors beware Authors beware! The recent jump in negative reviews are accurate. Something very wrong is going on at Amazon and kdp. I’ve sold many books on Amazon for many years without problems. Their customer service has always been helpful. Not anymore.

SCAM SCAM! SCAM! SCAM!! My book was supposed to be taken down a couple of years ago, and when i searched for it i couldn’t find it so i thought it had been. Turns out they never took it down, they were still selling it and i was getting zero royalties. I only found out my book was still up because someone on social media reached out to me that they’d purchased one. I reached out to KDP and for the last month have been getting the run around and pushed off. They still have not paid me royalties and i doubt they ever will. Worst decision i ever made was doing anything with them.

HOW KDP AMAZON HURTS AUTHORS That is my unfortunate KDP experience that pressed me to write this review. I recently ordered proof copies of my books for review purposes. But when the shipment arrived, all the covers were smudged with fingerprints. I contacted kdp, who requested photo proof of the damages that occurred. Now almost two months have passed without a response and satisfactory replacement. Can you imagine readers and libraries receiving defective books while kdp neglect to offer adequate and timely solutions?

User has no control over own work You, as a publisher, have zero control over your own work. I’ve been simply trying to get my two DRAFTS deleted, and I can’t. When you upload your book, the format is MASSACRED and your work becomes completely unreadable. This happened to me, and I can’t even unpublish it. Not to mention when you enter your bank account info, it CAN’T BE DELETED, EVER. I regret ever trying to use this website. It’s been nothing but a headache.

KDP, run by militants – AVOID If i could give less than one star I would. After 20 years of running my website i decided to turn it into a book. They have closed my account as I apparently have duplicate account, I DO NOT. They have no complaints or appeals team. All my work is lost in their system. AVOID

KINDLE DIRECT PUBLISHING I published an adult coloring book in 2018 signing a contract with Createspace. I made very little profit because my book was pushed back as far as 8 pages when ppl searched for it. After the original contract expired, KDP took over the contract and I LOST ALL ACCESS to my book… When I finally threatened legal action they blocked me.

After changing my phone number I cannot… After changing my phone number I cannot access the money side of my account. Twice I have sent a copy of my driver’s licence to facilitate a supposed “two step” verification process. Very very poor customer service. I can’t find any other way of drawing their attention to this.

I have published a book and it in my… I have published a book and it in my first week I sold a few copies, but no sales show on my account. Amazon takes the profits and does not compensate you for it.

KDP is horrible KDP is horrible, please believe all the negative reviews. You won’t be able to reach anyone when issues come about. There emails responses are generic after a day wait. They will block your account for any and everything. Go elsewhere people!

Amazon – I am not getting a text on my phone so I can access my KDP account I write books and I have a KDP account but your two step verification process isnt working. I have published six books on Amazon most of which were through creative before creative was closed.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT PAYMENTS (OR LACK THEREOF…)

Why does KDP puts payments on HOLD? For past two years, I received my royalty payments perfectly. No issues! All of a sudden, someone in their infinite wisdom has decided to put my payments on HOLD. The only explanation I get is that my bank is not valid or that there has been a typo! I have updated all my information which is exactly correct. My bank name, address, branch number, etc. is all there and is exactly the same. The bank is valid; it has not moved or changed its name. Why in heaven’s name when something was working great, did someone have to tamper with it. And, why has someone in KDP not got the common sense and courtesy to rectify this? They keep expecting me to change something that doesn’t need changing. The issue has been created on their end. I have always in past been quite pleased with the quick and decent service I’ve received. This is quite unacceptable. I hope someone can shed some light.

not paid for more than a year I’ve been working on this problem for more than a year. They pay me for some countries but not others. I only get part (Most) of my royalties since November 2020. One time I got all my royalties (July 2021) so that proves I have all the bank info correct.

Royalty Inquiry Ever since switching my kdp to their select program, I haven’t received any royalty payments. Why is that??

We are unable to verify your banking details. We have been self-publishing books via KDP for a very long time – about 20 years. Yesterday, we received a message from KDP with the subject line: We are unable to verify your banking details. There are no other details other than to sign in and set up a new payment method. We haven’t changed anything regarding payment through our bank during that 20 years. We set it up once and it has worked perfectly ever since. I’m trying to locate someplace where I can email/talk directly with someone at KDP to find out more about what their problem is. I will also remark that KDP’s website is not terribly good at showing a way to contact the company/division directly to discuss the solution to a problem that I think is on KDP’s end.

I have had the same thing as did another author friend. I also have been publishing for a while–2014–using exactly the same bank account, with never an issue on deposits at any time.

I have locked two threads recently in ‘Payments’ because I have experienced the same issues. Indeed, this happened to me twice in a 12-month period. My bank details had not changed in any way.

This is precisely what happened in my case. It is ludicrous and even more ludicrous is KDPs utter lack of transparency in telling affected users just why this happens.

I wonder. Adding insult to injury, I had a small UK payment for back-owing royalties sent in April, which cleared into my bank account, normally, as usual, on the 21st…2 days after Amazon informed me that my bank account details had an ‘issue’. I’ve since found another of my writer friends in the UK is also having exactly the same issue–same bank account since 2009.

My account details (Traditional UK Bank Current Account from one of the top 3 banks) have not changed for years and, as the poster notes, there is nothing from KDP to say why there is a problem.

Royalties ??? Why a book with a printing cost of $13.90 and a sale price of $24 only gets $.50 in royalties? Why waste the time publishing the book, and working your butt off to promote it ? I know you’re going to say Amazon deserves all that profit, but hey, we write the books…

No royalty posted for sale I’ve never had this happen before: my report shows a sale, but no royalty for the sale is shown. It’s not a situation where it’s a foreign sale where no royalty is earned because of currency conversion, VAT taxes, etc.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT SLOW FILE PROCESSING

Book Cover Changes in Review 20+ days I’m fairly new to this, but I have never had a book cover change stuck in review for over 20 days – is this normal?

How long it takes for a Book to be published I would like to know how long it takes for a published book to be reviewed,because i published my first Notebook on the 5. February but till today it’s still being reviewed

ACCOUNTS CLOSED WITH NO NOTICE

Why did Amazon just close my 10 year old account This just happened a couple hours ago. Now I see incoming complaints that mirror my own. I have 13 active eBooks out there and suddenly someone or something had closed my account with no explanation. I’ve sent complaints to their contact site but i am more than skeptical that Amazon doesn’t really care about me or any of you.

Account Terminated hello, i just got a message from KDP “We are terminating your account effective immediately because you have multiple accounts, which is a violation of our Terms and Conditions. Also, this account is related to an account that was terminated due to violations of our Content Guidelines.” however, i have never had any other accounts – just one with my real name. i had 35 published books illustrated with my own art and photography and all copyrighted. i did not how else to reply to them except that i never had any other accounts and have never broken any KDP rules. they never sent me any warning or anything else prior to this. i don’t even understand what they are talking about and how to appeal my case because i have no idea what is going on.

Account Randomly Closed? I’ve been with kindle Vella since launch and today they randomly closed my account.

Account temporarily on hold I can’t even manage my sales report. My books are meanwhile still LIVE on sale. This is devastating. I can’t contact them by mail because I can’t login the kdp account. I had to create another kdp account using a different email address. Still, I tried contacting them with the new account and I was told to contact them using the email address associated with the on hold account.

my account closed can i reopen again??? i got this email from kdp what should i do now have a chance reopen my account again or the end???plz any experience user advice me

Case #11807050 Yesterday my account got locked. There was a book that was blocked from publication days after it was published.so i asked the review team about the block .i got a reply that “book(s) causes a misleading customer experience because it impairs customers’ ability to make good buying decisions” This is the first time I encountered a problem like this. I could not change the book title or even give the opportunity to changeit,or delete the book completely and now my account is closed

KENP COMPLAINTS

KENP page reads removed Several authors in the FB groups I’m a part of have had up to half their KENP page reads from Amazon for certain months getting a vague email suggesting their has been suspect activity on their accounts.

Unfortunately, scams abound with Kindle Unlimited, and have since its inception, especially when they went from book-based to page-based royalties, a change made in response to other scams. Many babies have gone out with the bathwater, innocent writers whose books provided “camouflage” for click-farm e-books.

KENP are not charged I ask for advice or help, KENP are not charged, my employees, having read my books, expressed their opinion, while the statistics say that no one has read anything. My friend, who is also the author, has the same problem, please tell me what is the reason for this? Books are available for KU and I’m sure my books have been read

REVIEWS NOT BEING PUBLISHED

Why aren’t my reviews being published? I’ve posted this question before and gotten no answer but I’ll try again. I wrote a book called (REMOVED BY WRITERSWEEKLY). A woman who really liked the book, wrote a review but 1. it wasn’t posted for about two weeks after she wrote it and then suddenly it was posted and; 2. After it was posted, it was removed. There was absolutely no reason for this review to be removed. I kept emailing the “communities” for over a month, and got no response except to state that they only respond to questions by reviewers themselves. I wrote to Amazon’s legal department and included copies of all of my unanswered emails, questions, postings etc. about the situation.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT KDP CUSTOMER SERVICE (OR LACK THEREOF)

KDP is killing my business and I need help! Am I the only one having a nightmare experience with Amazon’s KDP? I ordered author’s copies only to find out that they were the old version from before I made some grammatical corrections. Turns out they had an innovatory of the old version and would not update my books until that inventory was depleted. I have since given away countless books that were wrong (shame on me for not double checking) but what’s worse, I had to be the one to suggest they destroy that inventory, which they said they were doing and would rush me out replacement copies. That was a month ago! Just found out they have not done that, have no intention to do that, as they have since “changed their policy.” Worse, got worser! This means I have no choice but to purchase retail copies, which is a no-no so as it does not appear I am trying to increase my retail sales. SOS! Anyone? Customer service is useless- as are managers and sr. managers.

Are you having problems with copyright and KDP staff? Recently, I have had severe problems explaining copyright law to KDP staff. They seem to no longer understand US copyright law.

Chaos Service I have produced a bound edition with many pictures. Since january I changed roundabout 100 Emails with the so called „service“. I believe they often do not read the content and answer wrong. Often they do not anwer at all. They are very friendly but most of them are unable to do their job correctly. Finally I could publish my book. When the book preview finally was very okay I ordered a sample copy. Nearly all the pictures covering two pages in the sample had a broad white edge and the offset (one picture on the even and on the odd page) was miserable. So is the paper. Why do they produce such bad books and offer such a bad service?

KDP Support Asked me to Register my Copyright with US Government Before Publishing So when submitting my Kindle version of my paperback (absolutely original work), which is a “print replica” of the paperback (which is already published through KDP-Print), I get these robotic emails saying that my content resembles what is freely available on the internet, and they request me to send them proof that I own the work. OK, fine, I do not know how to comply to that request. How do I prove I own an original work that I produced on my own computer and submitted for publishing? So I talked to KDP support, the gentleman told me to go to https://copyright.gov and register it there, and then provide them with the certified copyright. I go there and WOW, its $45 and a seven month wait to register a book’s copyright, with a 10 day window to submit my document or the book will not be published. I definitely feel like I am being given a royal run-around. Before you ask: It is 100% my own work, not taken from anywhere, partially or otherwise! And I have successfully published 12 well-reviewed books on Amazon over the last four years, print and kindle.

False copyright infringement complaint I’ve recieved a copyright infringement notice for a copyright term “75 Hard” that appears nowhere in my book, title, or description. In short, I am not infringing on that copyright. I’ve emailed the ip-inquiries email address stating that, with copies of my manuscript and the description and title as they appear on Amazon and I haven’t received any help in having my book restored.

Unable to publish as there is too many blank pages, but there are no blank pages!? Hi everyone. I am currently having some problems with publishing my children’s book. I keep receiving an email to say I have too many blank pages, but there are none in my manuscript. Every page has an illustration or text and I have even added page numbers ‘just in case’. I have contacted KDP and they keep requoting the same line.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT KDP’S SYSTEM

For an author who is not too tech savvy… Setting is not as easy as it sounds. Is there a professional at Amazon who can set up the author’s book on Amazon for a fee? Setting up is certainly not for the average person.

Strike Through Pricing I want to sell my books at $18.99. I put that price in on the bookshelf update and it has updated to that price, well, kind of, I noted that in the US marketplace there is a strike through on my $18.99 to make it around 2/3rds cheaper! I know I must have agreed that somewhere a few months ago, I believe I was told by Amazon I’d make more money that way. I haven’t. HOW DO I REMOVE THAT STRIKE THROUGH OPTION?? I can’t find any way of doing it, meanwhile my income is plummeting…

Book price changed The price of one of my books is set by me at $9.99 but it is showing cheaper on the book site and I have not been able to change it. Why is that?

COMPLAINTS ABOUT PRINT QUALITY

Amazon printed & shipped paperback wrong contents right cover! Amazon printed and shipped the wrong contents for my paperback using my cover. The book received many 1 star reviews because of this Amazon error and they refuse to remove the 1 star reviews referring to this error. So sales have stopped. These terrible reviews also show up on my ebook and those sales have also dropped. Amazon printing has made this error and two years of hard work creating this paperback book and ebook has become a very negative kdp experience. I have been publishing ebooks on kdp since 2008 and maybe it’s a hobby I should just drop as the aggravation caused by Amazon certainly isn’t worth it any more. It seems kdp customer service has certainly deteriorated over the years. Either they do not care or they just do not understand what they have done.

Book Published with Content I didnt Approve One of my books that has been for sale since 2019 was just sent to a buyer with a chapter added that I didnt write. In the middle of the book was a chapter written by a Satanic cult writer… Super angry and frustrated over this!

Interior illustrations too dark and have white vertical lines running through them I’ve ordered 5 copies of the book over the past two weeks. With two of them, the interior illustrations looked fine, but with the other three, the interior illustrations looked terrible — white vertical lines running through them, and some of them extremely dark and illegible.

Quality of interior text in proof copies I just received a proof copy of a new book, and the quality of the interior text is disappointing… The recent proof copy has much lighter text and is on a different paper stock.

KDP will tell you that their proof machines are different than their production machines, but you’re left with the reality that if the proof isn’t good, you can’t reasonably guess that a retail copy would be good.

As I was giving it a read-through, four random (not consecutive) pages fell out in the first few chapters. They weren’t glued at all.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT SHIPPING TIMES

Is this normal now? Six weeks to receive five author copies? Until now, I’ve received small shipments of author copies in about 10 days. Now I’ve ordered five copies and expected USPS delivery is a little over six weeks.

Extremely delayed shipping I recently published my latest book on February 26th, and immediately ordered forty personal copies to sell to several local bookstores and retail outlets. I then received an email saying I would receive my books on March 13th to 15th. I went out and pre-sold all forty books. Then, three days later, I get an email from Amazon telling me I will receive my order on April 20th. Several of my friends ordered the book and received it in a few days. I’ve seen a copy, but I have to wait another six weeks to get mine. I’d like to hear your experience.

I ordered author copies of a hardcover weeks ago, and they haven’t shown up yet.

Author Copies are printed as time becomes available. Some are lucky enough not get such copies in 1-2 weeks, but the average is 2-5 weeks, longer for hardcover, if available at all. Never sell what you do not have in hand.

I ordered copies of my own books 2 weeks ago, was promised them in two days, then was told they’d be two more days, then another two day delay, then ‘we’ll let you know’. Just tried to order another indie author’s book and it’s going through the same delaying process. Both books showing up as will ship in two days, clearly not true. These are books I ordered as a paying customer, not as author copies, since with ‘prime’ no-shipping fee its cheaper.

Damaged Hardback Cover Issues I ordered 3 – Hardback copies from KDP. I was waiting for my order for 2 months and I still hadn’t received an email saying they had been printed. The email I did get was saying my order would be delayed another month. That’s when I canceled my order. Something funny is going on with KDP. I received an email verifying my order was canceled the next day. Two days later I received an email from KDP saying the order had just shipped three days after cancellation… The other two had six inch indentation scratch marks across the entire book cover. Since these were printed on a glossy cover you can imagine how terrible they both looked. I could never sell them in that condition…

JUST BECAUSE KDP PUBLISHES YOUR BOOK DOESN’T MEAN AMAZON WILL GIVE YOUR BOOK PRIORITY IN THE SEARCH ENGINE ON AMAZON’S SITE

Amazon Search Results How can consumers find your KDP book when Amazon’s search does not display results specifically for your book? ?I was told by Amazon text support that the search engine prioritizes warehouse available products, NOT title matches. This actively discourages KDP book sales (published on demand) vs books sitting in Amazon warehouses. The result is a search specifically for my title yields a page full of similar unrelated books, but not mine, giving my customers the impression that my book is unavailable. Is that fair? How can we get equal priority in search to warehouses books?

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4 responses to " and, even more complaints about amazon kdp ".

COMMENT RECEIVED BY EMAIL:

I don’t do business with amazon anymore. So many problems with them and they made me angry and so I ended everything with them and forced them to do something so that I could unpublish a book stuck in review. Also suspected that their staff read the books that come in. Had no sales, but was being quoted on tv all the time and it is easy to tell when people quote certain parts of many of the books out there. Even changed to a different pen name as after a while my pen names felt damaged after being on amazon for a while. Better to be someone no one would even think is you, than to have no sales because your pen name just does not work anymore. Read most of the complaints, think amazon outsources employment too much so you tend to get really bad service because no one does verification of what account is what when they look at work so if you revise two versions of the same thing at the same time(had episodes and when I put a few in another format they were fine and published and then I changed prices of both at same time and that is when the problem occured), they will make out you copied yourself and you cannot get them to fix it. Had a few sales disappear from the report after they were there for months, without getting paid for it.

Sounds like a Class Action suit should be started.

COMMENT RECEIVED VIA EMAIL

Wow thanks for posting that! It makes me feel better at least that I’m not alone in what they did to me!

I don’t know how Amazon gets away with this. I didn’t sign any agreement saying it was ok for them to take all my royalties for ebooks.

Yet, like others, I get nowhere trying to find anyone to fix it.

I wonder if notifying our Senators would do any good? At least bring it to light? Ann

Wow, I feel lucky that none of this has been my experience with KDP over the last 8 years.

Amazon KDP: An Author’s Guide to Kindle Direct Publishing

In today’s digital age, self-publishing has become a popular and viable option for authors to bring their works to readers around the world. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform is a leading choice for many writers, offering an easy-to-use, cost-effective, and wide-reaching platform for publishing and promoting their books. 

Since navigating the world of KDP can be overwhelming, particularly for authors who are new to the process, this article provides an in-depth guide to everything you need to know about Amazon KDP to take your book from manuscript to published work.

What is Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)?

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is a self-publishing platform developed by Amazon that allows authors to publish their books and make them available for sale on Amazon Kindle stores. It provides authors with the tools and resources they need to format and publish their books, set their own prices, and promote their work to millions of potential readers worldwide.

It was launched in November 2007, under the name “Digital Text Platform” (DTP). The platform was created to provide independent authors and publishers with an easy-to-use and cost-effective way to publish and sell their books on Amazon’s Kindle e-readers.

At the time, self-publishing was a relatively new concept, and most authors had to rely on normal publishing houses to get their books published and distributed. With the launch of DTP, Amazon disrupted the publishing industry by offering a platform that gave self-published authors three big advantages over those who published through traditional publishers:

• It allowed them to retain creative control over their work, including the cover and content. 
• It allowed them to set their own prices. 
• It enabled them to earn higher royalties from their book sales.

Over the years, DTP evolved and was rebranded as Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). It continued to improve its services, adding new features such as print-on-demand publishing (which they used to offer separately as CreateSpace), audiobook publishing, and expanded distribution options. 

Amazon KDP has democratized the publishing industry by giving independent authors a platform to reach a wider audience, retain control over their work, and earn high royalties. 

In addition, it has also helped to level the playing field for independent authors by providing them with the same marketing and promotional tools as traditional publishers. KDP’s marketing tools, such as Amazon Advertising, allow authors to reach a wider audience and target specific readers based on their interests and preferences.

How Does Kindle Direct Publishing Work?

KDP provides authors with a range of services to make the self-publishing and selling of their books easy and convenient.

They publish your ebooks, they print your hardcopy books when a customer orders them, and they even enable you to record and publish audiobooks.

In addition, they handle the complete distribution, fulfillment, and customer support, while you rake in royalties for every book they help you sell.

The process of self-publishing through KDP includes roughly seven steps that you can complete quickly and easily:

• Create a free account: The KDP website will ask you for some basic personal, tax, and banking information.
• Upload your book: This includes the book and the cover art, and can be submitted in various formats like EPUB, MOBI, PDF, and MS Word. 
• Set your price: For this step, you can find tons of advice in our guide on how to price a book .
• Publish your book: This makes it available for sale to millions of potential readers worldwide.
• Promote your book: Use the built-in marketing tools like Amazon Advertising and KDP Select to promote your book.
• Earn royalties: You can earn up to 70% in royalties on your book sales, depending on your price and the country in which it is sold. 
• Track your earnings: Track your earnings on your own KDP dashboard and adjust your price and marketing, if necessary.

What Kind of Books Can You Publish with KDP?

KDP allows you to sell your book in multiple formats, including print, digital, and audio, all in one place. Despite the common association of “Kindle” with ebooks, KDP offers a range of publishing options, allowing authors to expand their reach far beyond the digital realm.

Once you have written and edited your book, you can publish it on KDP in ebook format, to be read on any electronic device by your readers.

It must be formatted according to Amazon’s requirements, include an attention-grabbing cover, be placed in the right category, and include suitable and relevant keywords in the description.

Paperbacks & Hardcovers

Amazon KDP offers print-on-demand services, which means that authors can sell paperback and hardcover editions of their books without having to worry about the printing process, keeping inventory, or shipping costs. 

Your manuscript must be formatted according to KDP’s paperback and hardcover templates, and it asks you to select your preferred book size, paper type, and so on.

Then you can publish your print book on KDP. It will be available for sale on Amazon’s website, and readers can order a copy, which will be printed and shipped to them on demand.

Low-content books are popular with KDP authors, since they yield lower printing fees that might make them fairly profitable for topics that have relatively little competition. These are books that contain minimal written content, usually consisting of blank pages or lined pages for writing or drawing, such as diaries, journals, planners, notebooks, sketchbooks, coloring books, and activity books.

Independent authors have the opportunity to reach a growing audience of audiobook listeners through Audible, the world’s largest audiobook distributor.

However, creating a high-quality audiobook requires specific resources that not every indie author possesses, such as great reading skills and recording equipment. Amazon authors can use ACX (Amazon Creative Exchange) , a service that connects authors with audiobook narrators to collaborate on an audiobook, splitting the royalties evenly.

It is up to you to pick a reader whose samples fit your book’s tone and style, after which your audiobook will be created for you. You then publish it directly on ACX and, once published, it will be available for sale on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes.

What Are the Benefits of KDP?

KDP provides authors with a powerful, free platform to publish and promote their work, among other benefits.

Free to Publish

KDP offers a free publishing service, which means you do not have to pay any upfront costs to publish your books. Once you start to sell books and earn money, you share a percentage of your revenue with Amazon.

Whether you can afford to hire a professional cover designer and editor is up to you, but your KDP account and the uploading and publishing of your books are free.

Massive Audience

Amazon is the world’s largest retailer, with a vast global reach that spans across multiple countries and languages. It has a massive customer base that includes hundreds of millions of people who regularly shop on the site for various products, including books.

It has a global network of warehouses and fulfillment centers that enable fast and efficient delivery of books to customers around the world, which is more than other retailers can claim.

By publishing your books through KDP, you can tap into this vast customer base and reach a massive audience of potential readers.

Higher Royalties

Overall, KDP’s royalty rates can be significantly higher than those paid by traditional publishing houses, allowing you to earn more money per book sold. 

• KDP yields up to 70% in royalties on ebooks, depending on the book’s list price and the country of sale. Traditional publishers typically offer royalties of around 10% to 25%.
• KDP’s print-on-demand service yields up to 60% in royalties on print books. Traditional publishers usually pay royalties of around 7.5% to 15%.
• KDP provides you with up to 40% in royalties on audiobook sales compared with the 5% to 10% of traditional audiobook publishers. 

However, it’s important to note that traditional publishers may offer you other benefits, such as advances, editors, and free marketing, which can offset some of these lower royalty rates.

Quick Publishing Time

KDP enables you to get your books in front of readers faster than traditional publishing methods. With KDP, you can upload and publish your books within hours, as opposed to the months or even years it can take to get a book traditionally published.

This quick publishing time is especially important if you want to capitalize on current events. For example, if you want to publish a book on a topic that’s currently trending, you can do so quickly before it is no longer relevant.

No Publication Limit

You can publish as many books as you want on the platform. In fact, it encourages authors to publish their work, because it benefits from selling it too. As long as you follow KDP’s content guidelines , formatting requirements , and copyright rules , there are no limits to the number of books you can publish.

Simple Distribution

Amazon handles all of the distribution and fulfillment processes, including the printing and shipping of print-on-demand books and the delivery of digital books directly to readers’ devices. This means that you don’t have to worry about any logistics or inventory management, and you can focus on writing and promoting your books.

Additionally, Amazon’s customer service team handles all customer inquiries and complaints, including returns and refunds, leaving you free to focus on your writing.

Algorithm-Driven

Amazon’s algorithm determines search rankings and recommendations for books on the platform. This can help independent authors to reach a wider audience, increase their book’s visibility, and boost their sales.

It is designed to recommend books to readers based on their browsing and purchasing history. By optimizing your book’s metadata, such as the title, subtitle, keywords, and categories , you can increase its visibility and improve its chances of being recommended to readers who are interested in the same book genre or topic.

Best of all, when a book is recommended by Amazon’s algorithm, it can lead to a significant boost in sales, which can increase the book’s visibility even further. This can result in a snowball effect, where the book’s sales and visibility continue to increase over time.

Print-on-Demand Service

KDP offers a print-on-demand service that prints your hardcopy book only when someone orders it. This service offers many benefits, including the following:

• No inventory management: You don’t have to worry about managing inventory or ordering large print runs of your books. 
• Cost-effective: It is cost-effective for you because you don’t have to do your own printing or keep inventory. This makes it easy for you to publish your books without a significant financial investment, and also reduces the risk of overprinting and wasting unsold copies.
• Flexibility: You can experiment with different formats and cover designs, and adjust your pricing strategies on the fly to optimize your book’s performance.

Integrated Marketing Tools

KDP provides a range of integrated marketing tools that can help you promote your books effectively.

Here are some of the available ones:

• Amazon Advertising: You can use this tool to create targeted advertising campaigns for your books to increase their visibility. You can target specific audiences based on interests, behavior, and demographics, and track their advertising performance using Amazon’s advertising metrics.
• KDP Select : This program offers free book promotions and Kindle Unlimited listings in exchange for making your ebooks available exclusively on Amazon for a 90-day period. 
• Countdown Deals: This tool allows you to offer limited-time discounts on your books to increase sales and generate buzz.
• Amazon Author Central: This is a free service that lets you create a profile page that includes your bio, photo, a list of your books, your book signings, and your speaking engagements.
• Free ISBN: KDP can assign a unique ISBN to your book, which can be used to identify and track it across various book-related businesses. The free ISBN option saves you money, as purchasing an ISBN from the official ISBN agency can be expensive.

Drawbacks of KDP

While KDP offers many benefits, there are also some potential disadvantages to consider, such as the competition and its strict and ambiguous guidelines.

Loss of Control

While you have creative control over the contents of your book, you do lose control of some aspects of it. You don’t have access to the data of your buyers, meaning that you can’t market your future output directly to people who seem to like your work.

KDP print books are branded with Amazon’s logo and brand name, and all book listing pages also feature Amazon’s branding. There is no way to get rid of it. Lastly, for print books, you cannot choose the paper on which it should be printed, and the print colors may differ slightly from those in your digital file.

Lots of Competition

There is a huge amount of competition on the platform. With millions of books available on Amazon, it can be challenging for authors to stand out and get their books noticed by readers. This means that you may need to invest significant time and effort into marketing and promoting your books to gain visibility and sales.

This is especially true for new and unknown authors, as readers may be more likely to choose books from established authors or those with a strong marketing presence.

Possible Exclusivity Agreement

If you choose to enroll your books in the KDP Select program , you are required to agree to a period of exclusivity with Amazon. This means that your ebooks cannot be made available for sale on any other platform during this 90-day period.

It means that you will miss out on potential sales and readership on other platforms, such as Barnes & Noble or Apple Books.

Additionally, it might not be a great idea to put all your eggs in one basket by relying solely on Amazon for book sales. While it is the largest book retailer, relying solely on one platform can be risky, as changes to Amazon’s policies or algorithms could impact your ability to sell books there.

Strict & Ambiguous Guidelines

KDP has specific formatting requirements for ebooks and print-on-demand books, which can be time-consuming and challenging for authors to navigate, particularly if you don’t have experience with book design and layout.

Further, its guidelines are sometimes ambiguous, such as bans on contents and covers that are erotic, explicit, sensational, or misleading, the definitions of which aren’t always obvious.

If you don’t comply with KDP’s guidelines, your books may be removed from the platform, which can be disruptive if you rely on book sales for income. There is also no guarantee that you will receive clarification or support from KDP’s customer service team, which can be slow to respond or to provide detailed guidance.

No Pre-Orders for Print Books

You aren’t currently able to set up pre-orders for your print books. This means that readers cannot order the book before its official release date and must wait until the book is available for purchase on Amazon.

If you rely on pre-orders to generate buzz and excitement for your books, this can be a significant disadvantage. Without them, you will have to rely more heavily on marketing and promotion efforts to drive sales in the weeks following the book’s release.

However, KDP does offer pre-orders for ebooks, which can help if you publish in both formats. Ebooks can be made available for pre-order up to 90 days before their official release date, giving you plenty of time to build buzz and generate early sales.

Kindle Direct Publishing Royalties

KDP royalties are sums of money paid to authors by Amazon for every copy of a book sold through the KDP platform. 

Amazon takes a percentage of a book’s list price to cover the costs of selling, distributing, and printing the book, as well as for providing an online platform with access to millions of potential readers. The rest belongs to you as the author. 

Each book format offers different royalty options, which we will consider below.

Ebook Royalties

For ebooks, you can choose between two royalty options: the 35% option or the 70% option. 

The 35% option applies to ebooks priced between $0.99 and $2.99 and above $9.99, while the 70% option applies to ebooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99.

List Price Requirements

The 70% rate is available only for books sold in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and 35 other countries . 

When sold in these countries, the calculation for an ebook sold for $5 looks as follows:

Royalty rate x list price = royalty

0.70 x $5.00 = $3.50

Paperback & Hardcover Royalties

When opting for print-on-demand of a print book through KDP, the basic royalty rate is 60%, with printing costs subtracted from the list price before this 60% is taken off. 

To calculate your royalty, you can use the formula: 

(Royalty rate x list price) – printing costs = royalty

The printing costs are determined by four key characteristics of the book: 

• Number of pages
• Ink color (premium color, standard color, or black)
• Country of sale
• Type of binding (paperback or hardcover)

Expanded Distribution

By enrolling in Amazon’s expanded distribution program, you can make your books available on other online retailers, as well as potentially be stocked in libraries and physical bookstores. This program is only available for paperback books listed on Amazon in the US and UK.

For books enrolled in expanded distribution, the royalty rate is 40%, with printing costs subtracted from the list price before the 40% is taken off, as above.

Royalty Calculator

To help you with these calculations, you can use our free KDP Royalty Calculator that can work out your royalties on different book formats. You can use the calculator to experiment with different pricing strategies and royalty options to find the optimal pricing for your books.

How Do Authors Get Paid on KDP?

KDP offers three payment methods : direct deposit (EFT), wire transfer, and check. PayPal is not an available option for payment. Direct deposit is recommended by Amazon as the simplest payment method, available worldwide and allowing any transfer amount. 

For wire transfers and checks, there is a required minimum amount of approximately $100, with slight variations depending on the Amazon marketplace.

When Does KDP Pay Royalties?

Amazon pays your royalties with a delay of 60 days after the end of the month in which the sale occurs. For sales made through expanded distribution, the delay is extended to 90 days. For instance, royalties earned from January sales are released at the end of March, while royalties from expanded distribution sales are released at the end of April.

This means that you receive your royalties from February sales at the end of April, from March sales at the end of May, and so on.

How Much Does It Cost to Publish on KDP?

It is free to publish on KDP. There are no upfront costs to upload and publish an ebook or print-on-demand book. But KDP takes a percentage of the list price of each book sold on the platform to cover the costs of selling, printing, and distributing the book. 

The percentage taken depends on various factors such as the format of the book, the price, and the distribution channels you select, as explained in the sections above.

While it is not compulsory on KDP, you should also keep in mind the money you might spend on professional services like editors, cover designers, and so on.

Is Amazon KDP Worth It?

KDP is a valuable platform for authors who want to take control of their publishing journey and have the potential to earn income from their work. It is especially worthwhile for a variety of authors, including:

• Independent authors who want to self-publish their books and have substantial control over the creative and publishing process.
• Experimenters who want to have the ability to make changes to their book, pricing, and marketing strategies at any time.
• Authors who want to earn a higher royalty rate than what is typically offered by traditional publishers.
• Ambitious people who want to take advantage of Amazon’s wide reach and distribution channels to sell their books to millions of potential readers worldwide.
• Authors that have achieved popularity outside Amazon on Reddit or Facebook groups, since this helps to beat the plentiful competition that is on KDP alone.

Here are a few examples of authors for whom KDP may not be the best fit:

• Those who are uncomfortable with editing, formatting, and marketing may find the platform too challenging and expensive due to the hiring of extra help.
• Authors who lack the resources or time to invest in their book’s production and marketing may struggle to find success on KDP.
• Quick profit seekers may find that the competition and downward pricing pressure on KDP make it challenging to earn significant royalties fast enough.

Is Amazon KDP Profitable?

Since Amazon does not release book publishing data, it is impossible to know the ratio between authors who succeed and fail on KDP. But some information occasionally escapes.

At the end of 2019, for example, Amazon mentioned that thousands of authors earned more than $50,000 in royalties during the year, while more than 1,000 authors cleared $100,000. In 2022, they announced that the number of authors earning more than $50,000 increased by 40% between 2020 and 2022, and that more than 2,000 authors surpassed $100,000 for the year by May 2022.

So, the audience exists and is willing to spend money on books, and some authors have achieved substantial profits.

How Much Do Authors Earn on Amazon KDP?

Generating a monthly income of $1000 to $1500 is achievable with just two or three KDP books that rank around 10,000 on the bestseller list. If you manage to produce close to 10 such books, you can earn more than $5,000 per month.

While this may not sound hugely profitable, remember that it is a passive income that you make while you are working on the projects that will bring in tomorrow’s earnings.

For example, one author created a daily gratitude journal called Start with Gratitude . It is a typical low content book that has been hanging between 6,000 and 16,000 on the bestseller list for more than five years. 

Assuming that it’s sold about 500 copies per month, which is typically the case for books that achieve this rank, it has probably been generating monthly earnings of almost $1,000 for its author for years.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here, we’ll address some of the most common questions that people have about Amazon KDP.

Is Amazon KDP Free?

Publishing on KDP is free of charge, meaning that authors can upload and publish their ebooks or print-on-demand books without any upfront costs. However, KDP deducts a percentage of the list price of each book sold on the platform to cover the expenses associated with selling, printing, and distributing the book.

What is Amazon KDP Select?

KDP Select is a program that allows authors to make their books exclusive to Amazon, meaning that they cannot be sold anywhere else for a period of 90 days. In exchange, Amazon gives them additional promotional and marketing benefits like Kindle Unlimited, free book giveaways, and countdown deals.

Can Anyone Publish Books on Amazon KDP?

Yes, as long as individuals have the legal rights to the content they are publishing, anyone can publish books on Amazon KDP. This implies that the author or publisher must possess the copyright to the book or have obtained the required permissions to utilize any copyrighted material featured in the book.

Is Amazon KDP Only for Writers?

Although KDP is mainly intended for writers to self-publish and distribute their books, it can also be utilized by various content creators. For instance, graphic designers and artists can leverage KDP to publish and market coloring books , journals , planners , and other low-content books . Photographers can design and sell photo books and portfolios. Additionally, business owners and marketers can publish ebooks and white papers to advertise their products or services.

What is Not Allowed on Amazon KDP?

Amazon’s guidelines prohibit several types of contents, including materials to which the author doesn’t own the copyright, that contain personal information, and that promote scams. Additionally, hate speech, pornography, illegal activities, and the glorification of violence or terrorism are all forbidden.

What Kind of Books Sell Best on Amazon?

While readers’ preferences are diverse and the book market is constantly evolving, certain book genres tend to perform well on Amazon and frequently appear on the platform’s bestseller lists. These genres include: 

• Mystery, thriller & suspense. 
• Romance. 
• Science fiction and fantasy. 
• Nonfiction, particularly in the self-help, business, and personal development categories.

How Many Authors Use Amazon KDP?

Amazon does not release author numbers, but an international research data and analytics group called WordsRated estimates that more than one million authors earn royalties on KDP every year.

Final Thoughts

Amazon KDP offers an opportunity for independent authors to publish and distribute their works to a worldwide audience. With its user-friendly interface, quick publishing times, print-on-demand services, and wide reach, KDP has revolutionized the publishing industry and opened up new avenues for writers to showcase their talent and share their stories.

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As the founder of BookBird, Yves Lummer has pioneered a thriving community for authors, leading more than 100,000 of them towards their dreams of self-publishing. His expertise in book marketing has become a catalyst for multiple best-sellers, establishing his reputation as an influential figure in the publishing world.

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With Kindle posting impressive numbers in the last decade, you might be thinking: Is Amazon KDP still  worth it in 2022 and beyond? 

Absolutely!

Amazon continues to dominate the ebook space with a 68% market share . New titles keep rolling out on the platform daily. In fact, in the last five years, they have increased by a whopping 264% . 

The e-com book retail giant also continues to expand aggressively worldwide, opening its print-on-demand services to self-publishers in Australia, Japan, and the Netherlands .   

Of course, the competition has increased and selling books on Amazon isn’t as easy as it once used to be but so has the volume on Kindle.

In this blog, we’ll explain why publishing books on Amazon KDP is still worth it.

How Much Can You Make with Amazon KDP?

As an author with a decent following, you can sell well over 3000 copies of your book per month on Kindle. However, beginners may find it hard to hit these numbers. In the end, it all comes down to how well you execute your book launch.

Here is a fun stat:

In October 2021, Kindle Unlimited paid out $39.8million in royalties to self-publishers . That’s just one month of royalties alone!

So what can you expect in terms of sales?

Amazon assigns a Best Seller Rank (BSR) to all authors on Kindle. The more books you sell, the lower your BSR. To make decent sales, you should aim for a BSR of less than 20k. This is very much achievable even if you are publishing a book on Amazon for the first time.

Based on different BSR ranges, the sales estimates look like these:

Not bad at all, considering many people start with writing as a side hustle! 

Okay, but what about the profits?

Amazon KDP offers different royalty options to self publishers. The highest you can go is 70% if you price your ebook between $2.99 and $9.99. Most authors prefer to list their books at $6. It is considered a sweet spot in terms of pricing–customers don’t have to burn their wallets to afford a book, while you can enjoy handsome royalties on sales.

This is what you can expect in profits if you stick to the above convention: 

Of course, your actual earnings can be different depending on if you outsource some of the book publishing tasks to freelancers or use tools to make your job easier . However, these can also help you scale faster and sell multiple books at one time, thus increasing your overall earnings.    

Self Publishing on Amazon – Pros and Cons

Amazon KDP is a great way to make passive income, doing what you enjoy the most–writing. However, like anything else, it comes with a few drawbacks. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of publishing on Amazon Kindle:

Amazon KDP benefits

There was a time when writers would chase publishing houses, hoping one of them would pick their book up. Thanks to Kindle Direct Publishing, this is no longer an issue. 

You may ask, is publishing on Amazon easy? It definitely is. 

Amazon KDP has a simple, user-friendly interface with useful prompts, demonstration videos, forums, help centers, and FAQs. Even if you’ve never published a book before, there is nothing to worry about. Amazon will guide you through the process step-by-step. You can publish your book in a matter of hours. 

As a self-publisher, you want your book to be available to the masses. This is probably Amazon’s biggest strength. No competitor comes close to its huge customer base .

Furthermore, you can select the territories you want to sell your book in with just the click of a button. You can even handpick the distributors you want to work with, right from your Kindle dashboard.

Once you’ve published your book, you can ensure it is visible to readers by using targeted Amazon Ads.

Does Amazon KDP print books? 

Publish in multiple formats

As a Kindle author, you can offer electronic versions (ebooks and audiobooks) as well as physical copies of your book. 

Amazon is essentially a one-stop shop for publishers. All you have to do is upload your manuscript, and it will take care of the rest - printing and delivering your book for you at your maximum convenience.

Higher royalties

KDP offers higher royalties than most self-publishing platforms. You can enjoy up to 70% royalties on each ebook sale. However, there are some conditions you must meet. Print books come with a fixed 60% royalty rate, unless you decide to sell your books through Amazon’s Expanded Distribution Network, in which case you get a 40% share. 

Timely payments

Amazon pays you monthly, sixty days after the closing of the sales month. For example, if you sell 10 books in January, you’ll be paid for them in March. While this makes for a long initial wait period, once you get over it, things flow smoothly. Rest assured, you’ll face no delays in the release of the payments. 

Complete control

If you have ever approached traditional publishers, you’d know about all the demands they make before agreeing to publish a book. Everything from the cover to the content of the book can be challenged. And so, until you satisfy them to the tee, you can’t really expect your book to be published.

Amazon KDP fixes these issues. As an indie author on Kindle, you have complete creative control over your book. You may work with reviewers, designers, editors, etc. but you always have the last word. 

Quick turnaround

If you have the manuscript of your book ready, you can go live with your book listing in less than 72 hours. Amazon KDP has managed to streamline the book publishing process to a few simple steps that anyone can follow. 

Access to analytics

One of the biggest benefits of publishing a book on Kindle is that you can track sales data and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly. Amazon KDP offers an easy-to-use dashboard that gives you a bird’s eye view of your daily sales, earned royalties, Kindle Unlimited activity, and much more.

This data can provide insight into what your readers are responding to and how your marketing campaigns can be tweaked to increase sales. 

Amazon KDP drawbacks

Like we mentioned earlier, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows when selling books on Kindle. The platform comes with a few challenges too. 

Here are some of the cons of publishing on Amazon KDP:

It may take some practice

While the process of uploading a book on Amazon takes a few minutes, writing and listing the book can be a harrowing task. This is especially true if you have a limited writing experience and don’t know much about how online marketplaces work. 

If you are a newbie, you will likely require assistance from other professionals like editors, proofreaders, cover designers, photographers, etc. You might even need help with Kindle SEO to optimize your listing. 

Intense competition

Amazon is massive. And while this gives self-publishers access to millions of readers, it also means you face intense competition. 

As a self-publisher on KDP, you must understand the importance of niching down and familiarize yourself with the concept of keyword research.

Lastly, you must incorporate Amazon Ads into your promotional strategies to beat your competitors. 

The 70% royalty program isn’t for everyone

A lot of self-publishers choose Amazon to reap the benefits of its 70% royalty programs not realizing that there is a criteria they need to meet before qualifying for it. 

For example, the 70% program is only for books that are priced within the $2.99-$9.99 range. If you price your book higher, you won’t qualify for it.  

Pre-orders aren’t for paperbacks

When you’re an established author, Amazon’s pre-orders are an excellent way to create hype for your book. Sadly, pre-orders on Amazon aren’t available for paperback copies. Anyone who wants a physical copy of your book will have to wait until it is published.  

Interactive content is limited

Authors publishing ebooks have the luxury of incorporating widgets and other fun stuff in their content. Unfortunately, Amazon only provided limited interactive features for ebooks. If you’re hoping to engage readers with sophisticated media then Amazon may not be the best fit for this type of execution.

Is KDP Saturated, Though?

High competition on KDP is often a concern for upcoming publishers. However, finding a profitable niche within a high-selling category, riveting cover pages, and making smart use of keywords in the title, subtitle, and description of your book can help you rise above the noise.

There is always an underserved market segment. If you can identify it and plan your book launch accordingly, you don’t have to worry about the competition. 

How Much Does It Cost to Publish a Book on Amazon?

There are no Amazon self-publishing costs. You don’t have to pay any signup or Kindle account maintenance fee. Creating a listing is also free. However, Amazon does charge you for ebook delivery and printing paperback copies of your book. All deductions are made from the royalties you receive. You can learn more about this topic here . 

How to Get Started with Amazon KDP

Here is a checklist to help you get started with Amazon KDP:

• Kindle account
• Amazon Author Central account
• Digital manuscript of your book
• Kindle listing

Having an Amazon Author Central account is not mandatory to sell on Kindle but it definitely helps with your sales. The preferred file format of the manuscript is AZW, but you can also upload your book as PDF, MOBI or EPUB.  

As for the book cover, you can design one yourself using free tools like Canva or Adobe Spark. It should be print-ready PDF only. Listings need special attention, and you must do thorough keyword research to make sure they are well optimized for Amazon search.   

How to create an account on Kindle?

Step 1: Sign up

Go to the Amazon KDP login page and click “Create your KDP account”.  Sign up with your email, password, and phone number. 

Step 2: Enter OTP

Amazon will verify your Amazon KDP log-in credentials by sending an OTP to your cell phone and email address. Enter the passcode after you’ve received it.

Step 3: Agree to the Terms & Conditions

Read the Terms of Agreement and click “Agree”. 

Step 4: Provide Your Personal Information

Enter your name, date of birth, country of residence, and other personal information. For the Business Type field, select “Individual”, unless you are planning to publish your book under an LLC.

Step 6: Enter Your Bank Details

Next, enter your bank details, including bank name, bank location, account title, account type, account number, and routing number.  

Step 7: Enter Your Tax Details

Finally, provide your tax details. Amazon checks and verifies all the information, so make sure to double check everything. Sign and submit the form to complete the registration process.

You should be able to use your Kindle account, right away. 

How long does KDP approval take?

All books uploaded on Amazon go through a thorough review process. This process can take up to 72 hours. Once your book passes the review stage, it will show up on the Kindle Store and be available for purchase. 

How long does it take to make money on KDP?

You can start earning on Kindle as soon as your book goes live. Realistically speaking, you can expect consistent sales after the first month, provided you have used the keywords wisely and published your book in a low competition niche. 

How Does Amazon KDP pay?

Amazon KDP pays through checks, wire transfers, and direct deposits — with the latter being the safest option of them all.

How to Succeed on Amazon Kindle

The struggle for visibility on a platform with millions of competitors like Amazon is real. You can’t expect to stroll your way.

Here are some tips to succeed on Amazon Kindle:

Find your niche

First things first, you must find a niche that has a decent audience size with relatively less competition. You can search for niches manually or use an online tool like ZonGuru’s Niche Finder .

Stay in the $2.99-$9.99 range

By pricing your ebook within the $2.99-$9.99 range, you can earn maximum royalties and make a decent income online. 

Enroll in KDP Select

KDP Select gives you access to Kindle Unlimited for 90 days. With Kindle Unlimited, you can reach out to millions of  Amazon users. They can borrow your book, and you can charge them per page.  The program also gives you access to special promotion features that help you boost your book sales. 

Bear in mind though, while you’re enrolled in KDP Select, you can’t sell your books outside of Amazon.

Leverage your social media following

If you have a social media following, you can promote your book to them. Use blogs and videos to direct them to your Kindle listing. 

Collect book reviews

Although Amazon doesn’t disclose all the variables that affect the visibility of a book on its platform, it is understood that books with positive reviews tend to rank higher in the search. Encourage people to read your book and leave a review through email campaigns. However, don’t push them.

What about Amazon KDP ads? Are they worth it?

Use Amazon KDP ads to promote your book

When you’re competing with millions of titles on a single platform, doing everything you can to grab the attention of potential customers can increase sales, including running ads. 

Running paid Kindle ads for your book using relevant keywords can help you reach new audiences on Amazon. 

Run Kindle Free Promotions and Countdown deals

You can use tools like Kindle Free Promotions to attract a wider audience by offering your book for free for five days. This option is only available to Amazon KDP Select members.

Don’t like the idea of offering your book for free? Try Kindle Countdown Deals instead!

A Kindle Countdown Deal lets publishers reduce the price of their book for a week or less without impacting their royalties. As you sign-up for Kindle Countdown Deals, Amazon will add a timer to your books to let readers know it is being offered at a discounted price for a limited time period. 

Can You Make Money with KDP Low Content Publishing?

You can make money with Kindle low content publishing, but your earnings are likely to be lower compared to if you are selling fiction or non-fiction books. However, you can make up for this gap by selling multiple low content books. Find the best-selling low content niches and see if you have what it takes to stand out in them. 

Does Amazon KDP own my book?

When publishing on Amazon KDP, the official rights of the book remain with you and Amazon only gets the license to sell and distribute it. 

Should you add a copyright page in your book?

Adding a copyright page in your book isn’t mandatory but it does provide additional protection. 

So, Is Amazon KDP Worth It in 2022?

Yes, Amazon KDP is still a very reliable source of online income with self-publishers making thousands of dollars every month. But to find success on the Kindle Store, it is essential to pick a profitable, low competition niche. This will give you a fighting chance at establishing yourself on an otherwise highly competitive marketplace.

In addition to finding a profitable niche, you should consider implementing effective marketing strategies like Kindle SEO to gain visibility and stand out amongst the competition. 

Zonguru tools can help you with that and much more. Whether you need to find a profitable book idea, look for keywords that can be the best fit for your Kindle book, or optimize your existing KDP listing, ZonGuru can help you perform all these tasks with ease. Try it out with this 7-day free trial today !

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Hammad nafees.

Amazon Consultant

Hammad is an Amazon aficionado and consultant. He loves helping aspiring and established sellers succeed on the smiling A, a term he jokingly claims he coined himself. When not busy in the trenches, you can find him contributing Amazon related content across a number of platforms, but it’s ZonGuru that he calls his home.

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Anyone else book got stuck "In Review" on KDP?

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I submitted my book last Friday (March 13th) and from my past experience, it usually takes about 4-12 hours for Amazon to publish kindle books. It's been more than 48 hours since I've submitted my book and it is still stuck "In Review". Anyone else experiencing something similar?  

This happens if there are content issues with the book. For example copyright questions, for example, if there is more than one author name on the cover like a multi-author box set. Those always take longer, and KDP always email you to ask for your right to publish. If this is not the case, email them and ask.  

This seems to be happening a lot lately, especially to public domain and low/no-content books.  

Thank you for reaching out to us. Unfortunately, we're experiencing a temporary delay in publishing some titles. We're working to solve this issue as quickly as possible and appreciate your patience. As soon as your book is Live, you will be notified via email. Click to expand...

Amazon, my documents is “in review”, I can find no need please check and reply, thank you. Author, Vicki dobbins.  

We aren't Amazon. If you have a question for them, the way to contact them is through your KDP account.  

Yes can take 2-4 days and thats only week days. They dont seem to be working weekends.  

To prevent spreading out off date info, please begin a new thread, rather than bumping an old one. Locking this one.  

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Amazon KDP Select: Is it Right for You? Pros and Cons

So, you have a book ready to publish and you’re wondering about Amazon KDP Select. Is it worth it? Plenty of authors swear by it, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all deal.

Let’s talk about what makes the program great and where it might fall short, helping you decide, if Amazon KDP Select is right for you

What is KDP Select?

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is Amazon’s free self-publishing platform that allows authors to publish their books quickly and easily. With KDP, your book can be published in about 5 minutes and appear in Kindle stores within 48 hours.

KDP Select is a free, optional 90-day program available to KDP authors. By enrolling in KDP Select, authors agree to distribute their eBook exclusively through Amazon for 90 days in exchange for additional benefits. This means that you cannot put your book on any other platform or retailer. Now you really might be asking yourself if Amazon KDP Select is right for you

What are the Benefits?

Kindle Unlimited (KU)

This is an $11.99 monthly subscription that gives members access to read and download over a million digital titles letting them keep it as long as they want or until their subscription is over. KU is essentially a digital library allowing you to have 20 eBooks at a time.

Check out Amazon’s bestseller list to get an idea on the top-selling book categories as Amazon has 16,000 different categories.

Higher Royalties

Earnings are determined by the number of total pages read the first time by a reader. Each page read is given a certain rate. This is based off Amazon’s Kindle Edition Normalized Pages (KENP) which is a system used to measure how many pages are read in a Kindle book. The rate fluctuates each month but averages around 0.004500 a page. You’ll also earn 70% royalties in India, Brazil, Japan, and Mexico marketplaces. Authors who don’t enroll their books will only have the 35% royalty option available. That means you’ll earn more for every sale in these regions.

The total KDP select author earnings of June 2024 was $56.1 Million

Kindle Countdown Deals

Kindle Countdown Deals allows you to offer your eBook at a promotional price for a limited time. This includes a countdown timer showing how much time is left to purchase book at that price. It’ll be easy for readers to see the great deal they’re getting as it will show the original and discounted pricing.

Authors will still earn their typical royalty rate on the promotional price. For example, if you have selected the 70% royalty option, you’ll earn 70% even if the price is below $2.99. Typically, you would only get a 35% royalty if your book drops below that price.

Free Book Promotions

You can set your book to be free for up to five days during each 90-day period of KDP Select enrollment. Offering your book for free can expand your readers, attract new reviews, and drive attention to your other titles if you have multiple books.

KDP Select All-Star

“All-Star” Authors whose books rank in the top 100, will get a little gift bonus. These are monetary bonuses that are anywhere from $500-$25,000 depending on the author or title ranking. These authors also receive an All-Star badge on their book detail page.

Weighing the Cons of KDP Select

I’m sure you’re thinking that sounds amazing, but what’s the catch?

Exclusivity

There’s the obvious one- which is the fact that you’re pretty much locked into Amazon. This means you can’t sell or even give away your eBook anywhere else—not on other platforms and not on your own website. You can use up to 10% of your book for promotions like digital samples or sending copies to reviewers, but that’s about it.

Retailer Diversity

It’s important to note that Amazon is the largest book retailer globally, with over 80% market share in the U.S., so you can rest in peace knowing that Amazon can provide broad visibility. However, by choosing this route, you miss out on potential revenue from other eBook retailers and readers who use Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and others.

Making your book available in multiple places can help you reach a wider audience. If that’s important to you, consider not limiting your book to just one retailer, regardless of their size.

Choosing one retailer especially one as big as Amazon, won’t necessarily make your book stand out, especially in popular genres. Without good marketing and regular promotion, it can easily get lost among thousands of other books. Your visibility with KDP select, is heavily dependent on Amazon’s algorithm, which can change without notice. This can be very unpredictable in terms of sales.

Amazon KDP is Not Your Only Option

While Amazon KDP and KDP Select have some great perks, it’s not the only platform out there. Other platforms like IngramSpark and Lulu offer their own unique advantages. They open doors to different distribution networks, including print options like hardcover and paperback, which might better suit your book’s needs.

If you’re curious about the different self-publishing platforms and what thy can offer, check out our guide to help you sort through your options.

Is It Worth It?

This is a loaded question. At the end of the day, you as the author need to think about and define your long-term publishing goals, schedule and market strategy.

Remember, the program is only a 90-day commitment. Test and try it out. Use the data and customer feedback available through Amazon to refine your approach. Analyzing reviews and sales data can provide insights into what readers enjoy about your books. This will really help determine if you want to continue down this route or venture into other retailers.

For more advice and different perspectives, consider joining some communities on Reddit. You can ask questions and read other people’s posts to see the conversations and learn. The selfpublish community is a great place to get started . Check out Amazon KDP’s community forum as well, where authors working with them share their insights and experiences with the platform.

Perfecting Your Publishing Path with PrintingCenterUSA

Choosing the right platform for publishing your book is crucial, but so is deciding how and where to print it. At PrintingCenterUSA, we understand that each author’s journey is unique, and we’re here to support you in bringing your vision to life with high-quality print solutions. Whether you’re printing a novel, an art book, or a cookbook, our 50+ years of experience will ensure your work stands out in the crowd.

We encourage you to explore all your options, from eBook platforms like Amazon KDP to comprehensive print services.

Remember, your book’s journey doesn’t end when you type ‘The End.’ That’s actually just the beginning. Let PrintingCenterUSA help you write the next chapter of your self-publishing story. If you need more insights or have questions, our team is always here to help.

Olivia Gray

Hi! I’m Olivia, your go-to advocate for both marketing and customer service here at PrintingCenterUSA. I'm here to streamline your experience with insightful content and hands-on support, making complex topics accessible and actionable. My mission is to enhance your interactions with our brand, providing you with the tools and insights needed for success. Prepare for practical advice as I bring you our latest updates and helpful guides. Connect with me on LinkedIn to stay in the loop!

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Book Review: What’s it like to be a rental stranger? Kat Tang’s debut novel imagines an answer

This cover image released by Scribner shows “Five-Star Stranger” by Kat Tang. (Scribner via AP)

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As our lives become more automated, increasingly niche jobs materialize to fill in the gaps. Ours is a society in which people hire celebrities to make birthday videos, or pay “job leaving agents” in hopes of a more frictionless quitting experience. What would it be like to be that stranger for hire, to inhabit whatever role someone paid you by the hour to be?

Kat Tang’s debut novel, “Five-Star Stranger,” follows one man over a months-long spiral as he realizes he’s getting attached to his clients — a violation of his first rule for himself as a rental stranger — forcing him to confront his past and examine why he got into the business in the first place.

Tang never reveals the Stranger’s real name — one of the many ways he becomes a blank slate onto which others can project what they want. He’s a self-described attractive man, whose Japanese American heritage means he can code-switch easily between white and Asian depending on his clients’ needs. His apartment is full of wigs and outfits for different personalities and occasions, and he can use makeup to age himself up or down.

If this isn’t giving you identity crisis vibes yet, he also takes accents, mannerisms and stories from clients that he can later whip out for another gig. His evening client just wants to hear stories for an hour — so he regurgitates the stories his afternoon client told him nonstop, even adopting the original teller’s voice.

The juxtaposition shows how an insidious isolation has crept into our hyperconnected psyche, and how loneliness might have been solved genuinely and for free had they just met the right kind of person — or anyone at all.

But why risk rejection when you can hire someone instead? The Stranger notes that, “like everything else in this intensely connected yet deeply lonely life, there was an app for that.”

The narration often dips into philosophical before yanking back to the safety of light-hearted and funny; a whiplash between deep interrogations of society and the Stranger’s humorous deflection to avoid getting too lost in it.

Tang makes it easy to become engrossed in the characters. Even the brief encounters are made interesting by the psychoanalytical lens the Stranger sees them through. It’s a smart book, and it has to be to tackle such a topic in a thoughtful and thought-provoking way without digging itself into an existential hole.

“Five-Star Stranger” starts bright, hopeful and funny. By the end it’s a tangled gloomy mess that’s strangely still hopeful, the protagonist emptied out but not empty.

With its cool premise, great descriptions and amazing attention to emotion and relationships, “Five-Star Stranger” is a strong debut, and Tang an author to keep an eye on.

AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews

JD Vance endorsed a book calling far-left 'unhumans,' and praising fascist dictators

WASHINGTON – Before he was tapped as Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, enthusiastically endorsed a new book by a far-right conspiracy theorist that praises fascist dictators for violently suppressing leftists − or, as the book calls them, "unhumans."

Vance was one of several prominent conservatives to blurb the book, which links current American progressives to past communists and other “unhumans” that need to be “crushed” by any means necessary.

“In the past, communists marched in the streets waving red flags. Today, they march through HR, college campuses, and courtrooms to wage lawfare against good, honest people,” Vance says in a blurb on the back cover of “ Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them) .”

“In Unhumans,” Vance adds, authors “Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec reveal their plans and show us what to do to fight back.”

Posobiec, an influential Trump supporter, rose to MAGA-world fame in 2016 by advancing conspiracy theories including "PizzaGate" which falsely claimed Democrats were running a child sex trafficking ring out of a Washington, D.C. pizza parlor that led to a man storming the restaurant with an assault rifle.

Praise for dictators and opposition to democracy

The basic premise of "Unhumans" is that throughout history there has always been an amorphous cabal of leftists who “hate and kill” anyone who stands in their way, including God-fearing, law-abiding Americans. The blob of "the bureaucrats and their activist allies who hold your legal, financial, and social fate in their hands" − are so evil and out to ruin society that they are not worthy of consideration as humans, the book argues.

"Our study of history has brought us to this conclusion: Democracy has never worked to protect innocents from the unhumans. It is time to stop playing by rules they won’t," write Posobiec, a far-right provocateur and Joshua Lisec, a professional ghostwriter.

These "unhumans" need to be suppressed by those willing to emulate right-wing dictators like Spain’s Francisco Franco, they write.

After overthrowing Spain's democratically elected republic in 1936, Franco and his far-right Nationalists instituted martial law. During the ensuing Spanish Civil War, the Nationalists sent more than 500,000 people to concentration camps and executed another 100,000. After the war ended, during Franco's subsequent dictatorship, they killed another 50,000, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum .

The authors dedicate a chapter to how Americans can fight back against the unhumans, titled "The Plan: Counterrevolutionary Strategy and Tactics."

"When the unhumans bring a show of force, team humanity must bring forth an even greater one," they write, urging readers to emulate autocrats such as "Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Pyotr Wrangel, Francisco Franco, Chiang Kai-shek—each with their officers, their soldiers, their fighting men in arms."

It continues: "Whenever such a man has willed communism into submission, it has always been with equitable means. The communist-socialists shoot the priests; Franco’s forces shoot them dead. Caesar’s enemies plotted to arrest him and establish their own new world order; Caesar arrested them first.

Critics pounce

The book – and Vance’s endorsement of it – have received negative coverage from right-wing extremism watchers, historians and left-leaning publications like Mother Jones , the New Republic and Current Affairs .

Critics say the book, released last month, not only idolizes brutal authoritarians but uses false narratives to demonize today’s mainstream progressives and liberals, including Black Lives Matter activists and those opposing Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election he lost to President Joe Biden.

“This book is a homily and apologia that spans centuries of revisionism on murderous dictators and insurrectionists and it's co-authored by someone who lauds far-right extremists and bigots in the United States,” said Brian Levin, founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

The Southern Poverty Law Center in 2022 listed Posobiec as an extremist who has “collaborated with white nationalists, antigovernment extremists … and neo-Nazis,” as well as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Jack Posobiec is a political operative and internet performer of the anti-democracy hard right, known primarily for creating and amplifying viral disinformation campaigns,” the SPLC said, including the “Stop the Steal” campaign that cast doubt on the integrity of the 2020 election. “His disinformation typically focuses on making his political opponents seem dangerous or criminal, while ignoring or downplaying the corruption of authoritarians.”

Levin, a lawyer and former police officer who has monitored political violence for decades, said the book and its strategies for “crushing” unhumans is especially dangerous in the current superheated political environment because it "amplifies and directs aggression" toward progressives.

Given the current climate, Levin questioned Vance’s support of the book, which has climbed many non-fiction best-seller lists, including USA TODAY’s .

“Posobiec is a long-time extremist,” Levin said Tuesday. “Wouldn't that alone be reason enough to question Vance's judgment? But in combination with its embrace of political aggression, it is mind-bogglingly irresponsible as we see a rise in political violence.”

Posobiec, who describes himself in the book as an independent journalist and “veteran U.S. Navy intelligence officer,” is now host of the podcast “Human Events Daily.” The subject of Tuesday’s show, after new Democratic nominee Kamala Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate? “TRUMP & VANCE VS TWO DRUNKEN MARXISTS 2024.”

William Martin, a Vance campaign spokesperson, told USA TODAY Wednesday that Vance and the campaign "decline to comment" on the "Unhumans" book and Vance’s support of it.

But Vance's endorsement of the book dovetails with the foreward he wrote for another radical-right manifesto , "Dawn's Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America" by the architect of the controversial Project 2025 conservative policy agenda. In its original subtitle that book advocates " burning down Washington " in a second Trump administration if he wins this Nov. 5.

Vance’s foreword, the New Republic reported citing an advance copy, ends with this dire call to action: "We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon."

That book was initially scheduled to be released next month, but author Kevin Roberts, who said a "second American Revolution" will be bloodless “if the left allows it to be ” told Real Clear Politics he is delaying publication.

Vance had no comment Wednesday on his foreward for the Roberts book, and whether the publication delay might be related to his selection as Trump's running mate on July 15.

The ‘Secret History of Communist Revolutions’

Posobiec told USA TODAY that the criticism of "Unhumans" – and of Vance − is unwarranted.

In an interview with USA Today, Posobiec said 'unhumans' are not mainstream progressives, but people who participated in violent Black Lives Matter protests, and who have targeted “folks like myself, my family, Trump supporters, anyone who marched peacefully on January 6."

In its 229 pages, the book revisits some of the worst communist regimes in Russia, China and elsewhere to argue that these movements follow a consistent pattern of instilling fear, stripping away human rights and jailing, torturing, and even murdering those they deem a threat.

The book was published last month with a foreword by far-right agitator and former Trump official Stephen Bannon, who praised the authors for arguing that a form of “Cultural Marxism” that emerged in the 1950s in the United States is now resurgent, making “humanity itself currently under threat.”

'Nothing in this book advocates illegal violence'

Posobiec took exception with the many critics who say the book is an open call for attacks on those deemed to be against conservative values.

“Nothing in this book advocates illegal violence," Posobiec said. Instead, he said, “We do advocate for legal weapons of mass persuasion.”

Asked what constitutes “legal violence,” he said: “Police activity. Arrests.”

Yes, the book glorifies the actions of well-known despots like Franco, Caesar and Wisconsin Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy, Posobiec said. But he said all of them have been misunderstood, and that the book sets out to clear their names by showing how aggressive they were in hunting down and neutralizing those seeking to rob their communities of human rights and freedoms.

In “Unhumans,” for instance, McCarthy isn’t described as a zealot who ruined lives of innocent Americans in the 1950s by falsely accusing them of being communist agents. Instead, the book says, “Soviet sympathizers tried to poison the youth with media and schooling; Senator McCarthy poisoned their reputation to make them unemployable. Reciprocity.”

Jackie Singh, a former Biden campaign official and researcher on threats to democracy, said the underlying theme of the entire book – the use of the term “unhumans” − encourages political violence whether the authors intended it or not.

“Any linguistic suggestion that some particular out-groups of human beings are somehow 'lesser', closer to animals, vermin, insects etc. can only drive cultural progression towards acceptance of violence towards those groups,” Singh said. “Those who employ such language are aware of this purpose and exploit humanity's desire for belonging and tendency towards groupthink to advance anti-democratic political goals.”

Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge Review

Is ai really the future.

The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is one of the first laptops certified as “Copilot+ Ready” to hit the market. Essentially, this just means the laptop is ready for on-device AI workloads, and is strapped with a fancy new Snapdragon X Elite processor to help it get there. And while there are AI PCs on the way with AMD ‘Strix Point’ and later Intel ‘Lunar Lake’ processors , the Snapdragon X Elite chips were the first to be ready for the new Copilot+ program . But, as with any Windows PC running on ARM, there are some serious growing pains.

Beyond the chip that powers the thing, the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is a beautiful laptop. It’s razor thin, has an absolutely stunning AMOLED display, and a full-sized keyboard. This really could have gone down as one of the best laptops on the market, but the urge to be one of the first Copilot+ PCs holds it back from greatness.

Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge – Photos

Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge – Design and Features

The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is an extremely thin laptop. Measuring just 0.48 inches thick, this is easily the thinnest 16-inch laptop I’ve ever used. However, even as thin as it is, it still has a wealth of ports, including a USB-A, microSD and a headphone jack. The Galaxy Book 4 Edge is also very light, weighing just 3.4lb, making it easy to carry on any commute.

The aluminum chassis is also robust for how thin it is. I didn’t experience any flex on the screen, and even when pressing down extra hard on the keyboard, it doesn’t crack, creak or give at all. It’s honestly incredible how durable this laptop feels with how thin it is.

However, a 16-inch laptop being so thin and so light is going to have some compromises. For the Galaxy Book 4 Edge, it has to be the speakers. The tinny and quiet speakers are mounted on the bottom of the laptop – always a bad sign – and produce sound with absolutely no low-end. That means if you want to listen to music or watch a movie on the admittedly gorgeous display, you’re going to get sound that’s reminiscent of a cheap smartphone from 2015.

Luckily, the AMOLED display makes up for this a bit. The model Samsung sent over for review has a 16-inch 120Hz AMOLED display at 2,880 x 1600. The display is rated at 500 nits of brightness, and can hit 120% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, making for a bright and vibrant picture. It really is a shame that the speakers are so bad, because this display is awesome for watching movies or playing games – you’ll just want to wear headphones if you do it.

The keyboard is also incredible. Samsung uses the extra real estate of a 16-inch display to include a full-sized keyboard, complete with a numpad. That’s hard to find these days, especially since so many laptop manufacturers favor a slimmer aesthetic over these niche keys. But if you’re doing a lot of spreadsheet work, they’re a godsend, and make working a lot easier.

On the top right corner of the keyboard, you’ll find the power button and fingerprint reader. Logging into Windows with my fingerprint is extremely quick and accurate, and I haven’t really had to rely on entering my PIN in the two weeks I’ve spent with the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge. I would have liked the fingerprint reader to be a bit bigger, but that would likely have cut into the numpad a bit.

Replacing the right Ctrl button is the new Copilot+ key, which is a thing now on AI PCs. Pushing this button brings up the Copilot chat window. Love it or hate it, this is now a mainstay. However, with how close it is to the period key, I constantly found myself hitting it by accident, bringing up the robot when I was just trying to do some work. Having a key that brings up a whole application that you can accidentally hit when typing is such a pain, but that’s on Microsoft, not Samsung.

The touchpad is generally as good as Windows touchpads can get, but it is extremely large. That’s ordinarily a good thing, but the palm rejection isn’t the greatest. More than a few times when writing on the Galaxy Book Edge, I’ve accidentally clicked out of a window, or highlighted a word, due to my palm accidentally grazing the pad. When I’m not actively writing, though, it’s smooth and accurate, and gestures work like a charm. I just wish it would leave me alone when I’m just trying to get some work done.

Because the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is using what is essentially a mobile chip, the laptop has a fanless cooler design. But despite this, the Book 4 Edge doesn’t get too hot when I’m working on it, making it a comfortable little work laptop. Plus, it’s quiet, and you don’t have to put up with fan noise when you’re trying to concentrate.

Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge – Performance

The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is equipped with the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100, one of the new NPU-equipped CPUs at the center of the new Copilot+ “AI PC” craze. This processor is pretty fast for an ultra-portable chip, but it’s built on ARM (Advanced RISC Machine), which introduces some problems in Windows 11.

Most Windows 11 apps have been built with x86 and x64 processors in mind. In the past, that meant most Windows apps just wouldn’t run on an ARM chip. Compatibility is a lot better now, thanks to Windows Prism, a translation layer that essentially emulates an x86 processor when you’re using an ARM chip. It works surprisingly well, but performance takes a sizable hit, especially when you’re trying to do things like play PC games.

The issues with emulation are reflected in the benchmarks. The Snapdragon X Elite has a pretty capable GPU for its class, but it still only manages 2,126 points in 3DMark Time Spy. The Asus ROG Ally X scores 3,346 points. Given the Ally X is also using integrated graphics, and a much older chipset, that’s an extreme margin.

That’s not to mention that games like Forza Horizon 5 won’t even run on the Samsung Galaxy 4 Edge, despite coming with the Xbox app preinstalled. Even the games that will run don’t provide a great experience, with the laptop getting an average of only 34 fps in HItman 3.

To be fair, though, the Galaxy Book 4 Edge isn’t really a gaming laptop anyways, and is primarily built for office work and light AI. It does manage a respectable score of 6,799 points in the new Procyon Office benchmark, which is quite high for a laptop of this class. I’ve been using this laptop as my main work device for a couple of weeks, and I can say that it holds up when doing office work. Even when I have 50 tabs open, the Galaxy Book 4 Edge keeps up with me, thanks to the 16GB of RAM on the device.

I also noticed no difference in performance when working on battery power. Most Windows laptops will get a sizable performance boost when they’re plugged in, but the Galaxy Book 4 Edge is an office workhorse regardless of where your charger is.

Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge – Battery Life

Despite its issues, the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge has phenomenal battery life, and can last multiple days without charging if you’re not pushing it super hard. In my time with this laptop, the only time I had a situation where I went to turn it on and was faced with a “charge me now” screen was when I turned it on after running a battery test on it.

To be clear, the benchmark we usually use to test battery life – the PCMark10 battery life test – would not run on this ARM-based laptop. However, I ran the Procyon Office battery test, and the laptop clocked an impressive 14 hours and 13 minutes of battery life. That is almost two full work days back-to-back before dying out.

The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is absolutely a laptop you can take with you to the office and not worry too much if you forget to pack a charger. Hell, it’ll even survive a transcontinental flight before the battery saver warning pops up. Combined with the gorgeous screen and luxurious chassis, this is an incredible laptop to travel with.

Is an AI PC Worth It?

For all the fanfare these new-fangled AI PCs have received, it’s still not super clear why they’re necessary. The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is by all means a good laptop, but the AI features the laptop is sold on are little more than a gimmick. And not a very good one.

As mentioned earlier, you can hit the little Copilot key and bring up the Copilot AI, but you can do that on any Windows computer by just hitting Win+C. You’d think that the laptop specially designed for this would make this a smoother affair, but it’s just as fluid anywhere else – it’s not even run locally on the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge.

There’s a heaping of other little AI features, too. For instance, in paint, you can generate images from a text prompt, or even turn a little doodle into a more complete (I guess?) image. That’s neat and all, and good for a few minutes of entertainment, but it’s not something I’m going to use a week, month, or year from now.

Laptops sporting NPUs aren’t exactly new, either. Apple’s Macbooks have featured an NPU since 2020’s M1 chip, which helped with AI workloads to be sure, but the bigger win has been battery life and productivity performance. And that’s true for the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge, too. No matter how many little AI toys Samsung packs in the box, none of them compare to the battery life the laptop offers when doing the same boring work you do on your existing laptop.

There’s little reason, then, to upgrade to an AI PC just for the virtue of having an AI PC. The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is just another Ultrabook. And because of the app compatibility woes that the ARM chip brings, it’s not even great at being an Ultrabook – and we’ve had those for years now.

The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is a nice little 16-inch laptop, packed with a bright screen and a full-sized keyboard that’s comfortable to work on. However, because it’s packed with the Snapdragon X Elite chip, built on ARM, there are more than a few apps that either won’t work as well as a standard Windows laptop, or won’t work at all. This chip does bring some AI goodies along with it, but they feel gimmicky at best. However, if you want a lightweight work laptop with long battery life – and the apps you use aren’t hampered by the ARM emulation – you can get a lot of mileage out of the Galaxy Book 4 Edge.

In This Article

More Reviews by Jacqueline Thomas

Ign recommends.

Consider the Boor

In Jo Hamya’s new novel, pity becomes a form of power.

T he story goes that John Milton—who went blind in his early 40s—composed 20 lines of Paradise Lost in his mind each evening, and then repeated them aloud the next day to an assortment of amanuenses, among them his three daughters. Their work has been especially romanticized . In portraits that hang in great museums, Milton gazes skyward, as if receiving his dictation from heaven, and the young women—Anne, Mary, and Deborah—lean toward him, eagerly awaiting his next divine word.

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What the paintings don’t show is that these three women are generally believed to have loathed their father, who forced them to read aloud in languages they did not speak and to spend countless hours attending to his genius. When a family servant relayed the news of Milton’s marriage to their second and final stepmother (he hadn’t told them himself), Mary is said to have drolly noted that if she “could hear of his death that was something.” One way to portray Milton is as a writer who entrusted his daughters with 11,000 intricate lines of his epic poem about Adam and Eve’s temptation in the Garden of Eden and the triumph of wily Satan. But if the lore about his disaffected daughters is true, they would perhaps have seen it differently: In accordance with his depiction of Eve as Adam’s simple helpmeet, their father assumed that they would be delighted to serve his mind, and he took little interest in their own endeavors. Then again, we don’t know their precise feelings—they didn’t have the opportunity to write them down.

In The Hypocrite , the young British writer Jo Hamya’s second novel, a 21st-century daughter is asked to play amanuensis for her father in much the same way. Sophia, 17 and freshly released from the bonds of secondary school, spends a month in Sicily with her well-known novelist father. There, the two of them sit at the kitchen table for hours each day as he dictates to her. “Your job is to take it all down so that I can talk freely … New paragraph open quote start italics.” He is demanding and unfatherly, a boss instructing a peon. Ironically, his novel is about “teenagers fancying each other on holiday,” something that Sophia—simultaneously eager to please her dear old dad and to assert her independence—hints she might know a bit more about than he does. But her father skips over the salacious parts with her. “Some of it is too grown up for you, cherub.”

Unlike Milton’s daughters, Sophia ultimately gets her say, publicly. A decade after the Italian trip, Sophia is a few weeks into staging a critically lauded play in London’s West End. The novel is set over the course of the afternoon, early in the play’s run, when her father first watches it, with flashbacks to that summer in Sicily. Sophia hasn’t shared the script with him and he has avoided reviews, so he is unaware that the play is about him, that it will open with a 10-minute sex scene featuring a look-alike of a woman he actually bedded—and that he’ll soon consider his cherub a fallen angel. By the novel’s end, he’ll have sweated through his shirt, locked himself in a café bathroom, broken down in sobs and humiliated himself in front of a few hundred people, and relived his life as a parent, an artist, and a cultural figure through the gimlet eye of his only child.

Read: David Foster Wallace and the dangerous romance of male genius

Should we—would you—pity this man?

What if I told you that he’d recently been depressed, isolated during the early days of England’s COVID-19 lockdown? That he’d stopped doing dishes and laundry, that he would stare into space and mutter to himself? That a man whom The Telegraph had once ranked “one of a hundred most important people in twentieth-century British culture” hadn’t produced a new novel in 10 years? That his ex-wife had moved back into his home just to buttress his disintegrating emotional state?

Sophia’s father—a man without a name, a person known only in relation to his child—is an object to be held up to the light and wondered at. Is this, this , the stuff that men are made of? Are these the fearsome creatures who have ruled the planet for all of written history?

But wait. Parental coldness is not his only blunder. “He’s aware,” Hamya writes, “of having been a divisive figure in the past; had leant into it when it meant good money.” He’s a man who defended a Louis C.K.–like figure and “kept referring to the fact that the comedian had asked each of these women whether masturbating in front of them was okay.” He’s publicly said that he loves multiracialism because he has “Polish and Hungarian ex-girlfriends,” and that “white men are experiencing racism within the publishing industry.” According to a critic, he offends people for a living. According to his family, he’s an entitled exploiter: He took on none of the rearing of his daughter and then set her to work on his manuscript like an unpaid intern. As Sophia’s mother puts it to her, “I kept you with me for almost eighteen years without him interfering and he still managed to ruin it at the very end.” The grown-up Sophia is most distressed by his fiction: “When I read his books, they’re like prolonged rape scenes in films.”

Now how do you feel about him?

I ’ve asked you to assess Sophia’s father before considering Sophia—the crumbling man before the rising woman—because Hamya does so too, though slyly. Depending on how you read it, this is Sophia’s novel: She gets a name; she gets a play; she gets the agency to move figures around on a stage and have them act out her whims. But right away, he gets the power of a point of view, which is unusual for a man in a novel like this one. I’ve given him narrative supremacy here because that’s precisely what The Hypocrite pushes us to contemplate—whether we can understand women’s stories about powerlessness and oppression without men’s voices.

The Hypocrite falls into the category of #MeToo novels, a label that presumes a perspective that Hamya plays with adroitly. Novels focusing on the imbalance of power between men and women didn’t arrive with the hashtag, and they’ll outlive it too. But a cavalcade of new fiction in recent years has addressed the issue of what happens when an oppressed, assaulted, and fearful gender tries to claim new authority. Idra Novey’s Those Who Knew (2018) played out a revenge fantasy, and Miriam Toews’s Women Talking (2018) took up the question of whether retribution or forgiveness is the more appropriate response to sexual violence. Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend (2018) and Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry (2018) asked whether a woman can assent to her subjugation. In Trust Exercise (2019), Susan Choi constructed a sexual-assault story in which each new layer of information upends what came before. When truth is so debated, she asked, can coherent narratives really convey anything useful? Julia May Jonas’s Vladimir (2022), perhaps the most incendiary of the bunch, presents a wife who tacitly approves of her husband’s dalliances—as long as her own kinky appetites aren’t suppressed.

Read: How to tell an open secret

The Hypocrite trades off between two primary narratives: One keeps close third-person company with Sophia’s father as he sits through the play, the other with Sophia as she lunches with her mother at the same time. He is confused at first about why the set is a perfect replica of the kitchen in their Sicilian lodgings, and then, as the opening scene of loud, thrusty screwing begins, wonders “what Sophia means by setting up a sex scene in the only place she’s ever, as far as he knows, engaged with his writing.”

His recognition is slow and painful: The man onstage is him—the character even talks to each of his lovers about the themes and plot points of Sophia’s father’s last novel. And then he registers the kick in the ass to his ego: “He had assumed Sophia did not tell him about this play for a long time out of embarrassment; to eliminate the possibility that he might tell her it was bad … Now the realisation—perhaps her omission was to spare his feelings, not hers.” The play is, unfortunately for him, very, very good. Better, he thinks, than anything he’s ever done.

In the theater’s rooftop restaurant, Sophia does not have the posture of a victor: “The thought of him now as unhappy and bowed settles in her stomach like flu.” She and her mother argue about the fairness of making her father represent all men, and whether Sophia’s work has evened the playing field between them or exacerbated the tension. Although her father has let her mother down more than he has any other woman, the conversation between mother and daughter is strangled.

They talk at cross-purposes about whether his sexual presumption makes him a low-grade villain. “But really, tell me this,” her mother asks. “Outside of the make-believe he makes his money on, have you ever come across a direct quote that says he hates women?” Sophia, like her father later, cries in the bathroom. She’s wrested control of his novel, but along the way, she’s sacrificed him on the altar of her art, which has only continued their ouroboros of humiliation and creative abuse. Both are furious at how they’ve been co-opted, and are determined to prove that they’re the enlightened party. Hamya, unlike most of her #MeToo counterparts, doesn’t take sides. Moral clarity isn’t on offer.

Read: The movement of #MeToo

The Hypocrite is a brilliant litmus test of a novel, which doesn’t mean it’s indecisive or wavering. Hamya, an elder member of Gen Z, proposes that multiple theories can all be true at once—that Boomers can feel indignant about changing social mores while their children encourage necessary change, that men and women can intellectually attack each other with equally wounding vigor, that the question of how to handle womanizers (to purposely use a dated term) is not easily answered by shaming them. How you interpret The Hypocrite says more about you than it does about the novel: Hamya knows that your pity is just as valuable—and misleading—as her characters’.

The problem with pity is that it’s so often interpreted as a soft emotion, a synonym for empathy or compassion. Asking women to pity men is like asking the subjugated worker to pity his greedy boss. But pity, crucially, is also a weapon: It makes its object smaller and weaker, while casting the pitier as solicitous and tender. In Mary Wollstonecraft’s founding text of feminism, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman , pity is a yoke she wants to throw off. “Those beings who are only the objects of pity,” she writes, “will soon become objects of contempt.” After almost two and a half centuries, turning the tables and whittling a man down to a pitiful creature is still a revolutionary act. It remakes him in the stereotyped image of the woman—subject to the whims of his emotions, cowed by larger forces. So the question Should we pity men? does not elevate them to any shining status of victimhood.

By the play’s intermission, after Sophia’s father has come to the discomfiting conclusion that it’s “like the novel Sophia helped him write, but better,” he encounters another audience member outside having a smoke. The young woman, referred to as Round Glasses, opens the conversation: “I think I know who you are … Can’t say I’m a fan.” And this is when his collapse begins in earnest and Hamya’s talent for meaningful laceration crescendos.

Round Glasses eviscerates Sophia’s father, reading off a list of people and groups he’s offended: “Jews. Muslims. Catholics. Christians. Americans. Anyone who died or lost a loved one in 9/11. Gays. Women. Trans women.” She savages the play too: “Your daughter’s done nothing brave. Her whole conceit makes me cringe. It’s actually very common, very BBC. All these white female characters making a show of reclaiming an anglophone novel from a privileged white man. Like that’s changing the narrative.” Sophia’s father skewers Round Glasses, a white woman “wearing Carhartt overalls and pristine Birkenstocks,” poking at the way she “feast[s] on the degradation of others,” and how all of her opinions are “rephrased junk from strangers who pour their heart out via globalised American media conglomerates on the internet.” These two strangers lob invectives at each other, but victory isn’t intellectual. It comes only when he snipes that she has “no compassion,” at which Round Glasses smiles. “I hadn’t thought of you as someone whose feelings were so easily hurt.” The conversation ends. Checkmate, pity takes king.

From there, the story converges on a meeting between father and daughter, a moment to confront each other about their generational and gender gaps. Verdicts collide. Sophia’s play is hilarious and transcendent; a woman seated near her father has tears on her cheeks from laughter. At the same time, the play turns Sophia into an object of contempt to her mother. Everyone in these pages is thrown off-balance, all of them just scarred little people, fumbling in the dark.

What Hamya brings to this modern debacle, besides a precision of language and an aptitude for structure that ought to make her contemporaries quake, is a tenderness you don’t see coming. That’s partly why The Hypocrite doesn’t rest easily among #MeToo novels, despite its subject matter. Pity is a natural feeling between generations, each of which thinks the other is surely misunderstanding something important about life—and yet, bonds are strong: Ceasing to recognize your parent’s or child’s humanity is nearly impossible.

Hamya successfully makes a muddle with The Hypocrite , and I mean that as high praise. Contemporary fiction too often seeks the relief of some imagined perfect morality, perhaps because so many readers now conflate the beliefs of characters and their creator. It’s a pleasure to read a 27-year-old writer who embraces the novel’s power to fog up certainties about “bad men”—and prods readers to join in.

This article appears in the September 2024 print edition with the headline “Pity the Bad Man.”

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Michelle Goldberg

JD Vance Just Blurbed a Book Arguing That Progressives Are Subhuman

By Michelle Goldberg

Opinion Columnist

In a normal political environment, there would be little need to pay attention to a new book by the far-right provocateur Jack Posobiec, who is probably best known for promoting the conspiracy theory that Democrats ran a satanic child abuse ring beneath a popular Washington pizzeria. But “Unhumans,” an anti-democratic screed that Posobiec co-wrote with the professional ghostwriter Joshua Lisec, comes with endorsements from some of the most influential people in Republican politics, including, most significantly, vice-presidential candidate JD Vance.

The word “fascist” gets thrown around a lot in politics, but it’s hard to find a more apt one for “Unhumans,” which came out last month. The book argues that leftists don’t deserve the status of human beings — that they are, as the title says, unhumans — and that they are waging a shadow war against all that is good and decent, which will end in apocalyptic slaughter if they are not stopped. “As they are opposed to humanity itself, they place themselves outside of the category completely, in an entirely new misery-driven subdivision, the unhuman,” write Posobiec and Lisec.

As they tell it, modern progressivism is just the latest incarnation of an ancient evil dating back to the late Roman Republic and continuing through the French Revolution and Communism to today. Often, they write, “great men of means” are required to crush this scourge. The contempt for democracy in “Unhumans” is not subtle. “Our study of history has brought us to this conclusion: Democracy has never worked to protect innocents from the unhumans,” write Posobiec and Lisec.

One of their book’s heroes is the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who overthrew the democratic Second Spanish Republic in the country’s 1930s civil war. The authors call him a “great man of history” and compare him to George Washington. They quote him on what doesn’t work against the unhuman threat: “We do not believe in government through the voting booth. The Spanish national will was never freely expressed through the ballot box.”

Nakedly authoritarian ideas like this one are not uncommon in the dank corners of the reactionary internet, or among the sort of groups that led the Jan. 6 insurrection. “Unhumans” lauds Augusto Pinochet, leader of the Chilean military junta who led a coup against Salvador Allende’s elected government in 1973, ushering in a reign of torture and repression that involved tossing political enemies from helicopters.

Pinochet-inspired helicopter memes have been common in the MAGA movement for years. And as the historian David Austin Walsh wrote last year, there’s long been a cult of Franco on the right. Nevertheless, it’s extremely unusual for a candidate for vice president of the United States to openly align himself with autocratic terror.

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