How to Sell a Book in Kindle Format

You can now re-purpose your digital documents and sell them in Amazon's Kindle Store--even without an ISBN . Kindle has opened the gateway to writers who want to promote themselves (and make more money) or become publishers themselves by allowing digital uploads for anyone with a free Amazon Digital Text Platform account.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Become a publisher through Amazon's Digital Publishing Platform.

   Launch your Internet browser and go to Amazon's Digital Text Platform site. If you don't already have an account, click the "Sign-Up" button. During the sign-up process, you'll be asked to provide a working email address, your physical address as well as bank information. Note that the agreement you sign off on gives Amazon the right to promote your product by "making chapters or portions of your titles available to prospective customers without charge." This means interested buyers can get a free sample of your work.

2. Click

   Sign into the Dashboard and begin publishing your content. From the Dashboard, click the "My Shelf" tab and then "Add New Item."

3. 

   Add details about your book. This is the screen where you'll add the name of the book, a keyword-rich description, a book cover graphic and, if this is one in a series, the series volume number. Anything with the red asterisk is a required field.

4. Click the "Save: button to continue to the next screen, where you upload and preview your book. To upload, click the "Browse" button and find your book's file on your computer. Once the file is selected, click the "Upload" button. If you look in the right top corner, you'll see the word "DRAFT," which indicates your book is still in the publishing process and not yet live. Click "Save" to continue.

5. Set a price, then click "Save." Kindle book prices range anywhere from $0.99 up to $200 or more. The price you set is determined by you. The only requirement Amazon has about pricing is that the price you set must be consistent with the price you set for this book with other retailers. You will receive 35 percent of the suggested retail price of each book sold.

6. Click the "Publish" button to move your book from Draft to Live mode. It can take Amazon anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to make your book available in the Kindle store. Be sure to add links to your Kindle book from your website or blog, as well as add links to your e-mail signature.

Tips & Warnings

• Add a cover page to your document that includes your name, e-mail address and your website.

• Be certain your document has a copyright notice.

• An electronic document is an excellent place to promote your other work, so add a bio page with links to your other Kindle (or non-Kindle) titles.

• Kindle can only display images with four shades of gray. If you want pictures in your document, they need to be optimized for the Kindle.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Amazon Digital Text Platform