Kindle Direct Publishing gives an author complete control of their book. It also hands them a technical process that has defeated a great many good manuscripts.
Writing the book was the long part, but it is not the last part. The manuscript has to reach the readers it was written for, and doing that on KDP means formatting files to Amazon's specification, setting up a listing that is actually findable, and making a series of decisions (exclusivity, pricing, categories) that are difficult to reverse later.
None of it requires giving up control. That is the point of the platform, and it is why the house supports authors on it rather than asking them to sign their book over. The account is yours, the rights are yours, and Amazon pays the royalties directly to you.
Take all five or the ones you need. Authors regularly arrive having done the writing and the editing themselves and need only the last three.
- 01
KDP publication
The technical work: the manuscript formatted to Amazon's requirements and the title set up so that it is accepted first time rather than rejected for a specification you have never read.
- 02
Editing
A professional pass over the manuscript before it is published. Errors and inconsistencies are far cheaper to fix now than in a live listing carrying one-star reviews about them.
- 03
Cover design
A cover built to work as a thumbnail in a crowded retail grid first, and at full size second, because the thumbnail is the version that decides whether anyone clicks.
- 04
Listing and marketing
Keywords, categories and book description optimised so the listing surfaces in the searches your readers actually run, plus the promotional tools the platform offers.
- 05
Print on demand
Paperback set up alongside the ebook: trim, bleed, spine width and interior, so copies print correctly and ship straight to readers with no stock to fund.
Four things that matter when someone else is handling your publishing account.
- 01
The account stays yours
The title is published under your account, with your bank details attached. Amazon pays you directly, and you can end the relationship with the house without it affecting your book.
- 02
Tailored to your book
Categories, keywords and pricing set from what your book actually is. A romance and a technical manual do not want the same listing decisions, and a template gives them one.
- 03
The whole team
Writers, designers, editors and publishers who each do this repeatedly, rather than one generalist doing all of it for the first time on your book.
- 04
Nothing hidden
Every decision made on your book is explained so you can make an informed call. The only thing we keep quiet about is our own involvement, which is yours to disclose or not.
Eight steps, and you approve the book before anything is published.
Free consultation
We listen to what you need and give you an honest view of it, including when part of what you were about to buy is unnecessary.
Questionnaire
A form that captures your vision, your readership and your intentions for the book, the material everything downstream is built from.
Content review
Your manuscript read and reviewed for errors and problems before any production work begins on top of it.
Cover design
The cover designed in parallel with the editorial work, so the two arrive together rather than one waiting on the other.
Editing and formatting
The manuscript corrected and then formatted to Amazon's specification for both the ebook and the paperback interior.
Finalisation
The complete book comes to you to read and approve. Nothing is published before you have signed it off.
Publishing
The listing set up and the title published: metadata, categories, keywords, pricing and territories.
Royalties
Amazon pays you directly on the schedule it sets. What you do next (a second book, or a marketing campaign) is up to you.
A few of the people the house has worked with, in their own words.
I had eleven years of notes and no book. What I got back read like me on a good day, my turns of phrase, my arguments, and none of the padding I would have added myself. The first chapter arrived and I stopped worrying.
Marianne ElleryIndependent author The structural edit was not comfortable reading. It told me the second half started in the wrong place, which I had suspected for a year and nobody had said out loud. Moving three chapters fixed a problem I had been trying to solve with better sentences.
Devon AlukoIndependent author What sold me was being told I did not need half of what I had asked for. I came in wanting the full package and left with a cover, a proofread and an honest explanation of why the rest would not have helped yet.
Priya RaghunathanIndependent author Three cover directions, all of them plausible, none of them the thing I had described. The one I picked worked at the size that actually matters, I could recognise it in a list of forty other books, which is more than I can say for my first attempt.
Tobias HearnIndependent author I own the book outright and that was written down before I paid anything. After two years of being quoted percentages by people who would not put them in writing, that was the whole reason I stayed.
Cecile MarchandIndependent author The audiobook took longer than I expected and they told me why each time rather than going quiet. The narrator they cast got my grandmother's accent right, which I had assumed would be the thing I had to let go of.
Nathan BoakyeIndependent author
How the platform works, answered without the sales pitch.
It is a self-publishing platform for ebooks and paperbacks. You create an account, upload your manuscript in a supported format, and set the title's details, pricing and territories. Amazon provides formatting tools, cover options, print-on-demand for paperbacks, and sales reporting. There is no gatekeeper: anything that meets the content guidelines goes live, usually within a day or two.
No, unless you choose to. Enrolling an ebook in KDP Select requires 90 days of exclusivity for the digital edition in exchange for access to Kindle Unlimited and certain promotional tools. Your paperback is never restricted by it, and you can decline KDP Select entirely and distribute the ebook everywhere. Which is better depends on your genre, for some, Kindle Unlimited is the majority of the readership; for others it is irrelevant.
Reach, mainly. Amazon is the largest online bookseller, so a listing there is in front of more book buyers than anywhere else, and its promotional tools and reporting are more developed than most. The disadvantage is that everyone else is there too, which is why the listing work matters as much as the book.
Publishing on KDP is free: there are no upload or listing fees. Amazon takes its share from each sale instead. Ebook royalties are either 35% or 70% depending on the list price and territory, with the 70% band applying to books priced between $2.99 and $9.99. Paperback royalties are calculated after printing costs, which vary with trim size and page count. These are Amazon's terms rather than ours and they do change, so check the current rates on KDP before you set your price.
Start with the metadata: a clear title, a description written to sell rather than to summarise, and keywords and categories that match what readers actually search for. Set up an Author Central profile. Encourage honest reviews, never buy them, since Amazon detects and removes them and penalises the title. Use the platform's own promotions, such as Countdown Deals and free promotions, in a planned way rather than at random. Then build an audience off-platform, because that is the part nobody can take away from you.
You do, completely. The author holds 100% of the rights to their work, in every format, for its whole life. The house is paid for the work it does, not with a share of the book. That is the arrangement the house reopened in 2008 to offer, and it does not change with the tier, the price or the point at which you come to us.
Yes. Your name is on the cover and in the record. Everyone who works on the book (writer, editor, designer) works on your book, and none of them is credited on it unless you ask for them to be.
Yes. Your story is yours, and nothing about the project leaves the house. We will sign your NDA before you send anything, or supply ours if you would rather use one.
No. Six disciplines are available and you take the ones you need. Authors arrive here at every stage (with an idea, a half-draft, or a finished manuscript that only needs a cover and a shelf) and the work starts where you actually are.
It depends on the work: length, how much research is involved, how much of the book already exists, and which disciplines you need. There is no list price for a book, and any firm who gives you one before reading your material is quoting something other than your book. Tell us where you are and we will price the actual job.
Move the marker. You do not need to know what to call it: you only need to know where you are.
Tell us where your manuscript is, where you want it to go, and we'll show you what's possible.