How to publish a book on Amazon KDP

Publishing on Amazon is two very different jobs. The second — the upload forms — is mechanical, and this guide walks it. The first is a set of decisions, made before the upload, that are cheap to make in advance and expensive to reverse: the ISBN, the exclusivity, the pricing band, the files themselves. The decisions are covered here in the order they should be made, not the order the website asks for them.

Before the upload: the four decisions

One: which editions. The ebook, the paperback and the hardcover are separate products on Amazon — separate uploads, separate metadata forms, separate prices. Amazon tries to link the formats onto one product page, matching on title, subtitle, author, series, language and edition data; when it succeeds, one listing serves all of them, and the linking can take up to a week. Most authors start with the ebook, add the paperback, and add the hardcover when the print side is wanted.

Two: the ISBN question. Amazon can assign a free ISBN for print editions, and the free number can only ever be used with KDP. A paperback carrying a free KDP ISBN can still reach bookshops and libraries through KDP’s own expanded distribution — but that same ISBN cannot be carried to IngramSpark or any other service. An ISBN you own, from your national ISBN agency, is what keeps every channel open; it follows the edition wherever it is sold. Prices and rules vary by country. The whole arithmetic is in do you need an ISBN? — decide now, because it is on the upload form.

Three: exclusivity. Enrolling the ebook in KDP Select makes it exclusive to Amazon for the ebook’s retail and subscription sales across 90-day terms, in exchange for Kindle Unlimited page reads and Amazon’s promotional tools. Since September 2025 the exclusivity has a library exception: Select ebooks may also be distributed through public libraries. Not enrolling keeps the right to sell on Apple Books, Kobo and the rest — the routes in beyond Amazon. There is no universal answer; there is only making it consciously.

Four: the files, tested. KDP accepts several manuscript formats; this workflow ships an EPUB, tested per the testing pass. The paperback is a print-ready PDF per the checklist, built for the trim chosen in choosing a trim size with margins per formatting for KDP. And the cover: an image for the ebook, a full wrap built last from the final page count for print, per setting up a cover file.

The account

KDP uses your existing Amazon account — kdp.amazon.com, sign in, done. Two things complete the account before the first book: tax information (a short interview that must be completed and validated before you can publish or update books; the statutory US withholding rate is 30 per cent, reduced to treaty rates for non-US publishers whose interview qualifies them) and bank details for royalty payment. Amazon may also require identity verification. All of it takes minutes and all of it blocks payment later if skipped.

The title setup

Each product — ebook, paperback, hardcover — starts with the same metadata block:

• Title and subtitle as they appear on the cover, exactly.
• Series name and number, if any — series metadata is one of the signals Amazon uses to link the formats, and it is worth doing even for a two-book series.
• Contributors — the author’s name as it should appear.
• Description — up to 4,000 characters of the book’s sales pitch; how to write it is in the book description.
• Keywords — seven phrases of up to 50 characters; how to choose them is in categories and keywords.
• Categories — up to three shelves the book sits on.
• Reading age and content flags where relevant. The form’s required question is whether the title or its images are sexually explicit; answer it exactly, and set the reading age honestly when the book is for children or young adults.

The files, per edition

The ebook. Upload the EPUB. Amazon converts it; run it through Kindle Previewer first to see Amazon’s own Kindle conversion and rendering before the reader does. Choose DRM — a decision with new weight since January 2026, when Amazon began letting verified purchasers of DRM-free books download EPUB and PDF copies of what they bought, while DRM keeps the book inside Kindle apps and devices. Then choose territories by the rights you actually hold: worldwide for an original, previously unpublished book; narrower only where you have sold or licensed rights away.

The paperback. Upload the interior PDF and the cover wrap. Choose the trim, and the ink and paper: black ink on cream, white or groundwood stock, or standard and premium colour on white. Cover finish is a convention, not a setting that changes the book: matte is typical for novels, gloss for textbooks, children’s books and much nonfiction. Amazon runs the file against its requirements at upload; the ones that trip books are in formatting for KDP.

The hardcover. The same shape, with its own constraints — KDP’s hardcover is case laminate only, on five trim sizes, in a 75-to-550-page window. The details, and where dust jackets still exist, are in publishing a hardcover.

For print editions, order a proof copy before publishing. Proofs are the draft-state copies, marked Not for Resale and charged at print cost; author copies, also at print cost, become available once the book is live. Either arrives in days and is the only version of the check that involves your hands.

Pricing

The ebook royalty is banded. On Amazon.com the 70 per cent option runs from $2.99 to $12.99 — a band Amazon widened in July 2026; other marketplaces set their own, €2.69 to €12.99 in the eurozone, for example. Outside the band the rate is 35 per cent, and in Brazil, Japan, Mexico and India the 70 per cent rate requires KDP Select. The 70 per cent is calculated after delivery costs and any applicable VAT, so the effective rate on a cheap, image-heavy file lands below the headline. The band edge is still a cliff — a $12.99 ebook earns close to twice the royalty of a $13.49 one — which is why so much fiction clusters between $4.99 and $9.99.

One band rule is easy to miss: an ebook using the 70 per cent option must be priced at least 20 per cent below Amazon’s list price of the physical edition.

Print royalties are 50 or 60 per cent of the list price minus the unit printing cost, the percentage depending on the list price and the marketplace; expanded-distribution copies earn 40 per cent minus printing. Printing cost scales with page count, trim and ink — the reason the page count estimate is worth knowing before the price is set.

Both prices can change later — but not to anything. Each edition has minimum and maximum list prices, and price changes themselves go through the review queue. Price is still the least permanent decision on the form.

Publish, and after

Hitting publish starts the review — typically 24 to 72 hours for an ebook; up to 72 hours for a new print detail page on Amazon.com and closer to five days on other marketplaces. The review applies to file changes as well as new titles, and some price changes take up to five business days. Then the book is live, and three habits separate the professionals:

The metadata. Categories and keywords stay editable after launch, and they are worth revisiting once the sales pattern has settled — a book shelved too broadly at launch can be moved to where its real readers are. Categories and keywords covers what moves and what it costs.

The updates. Files can be replaced without losing the listing, the reviews or the sales rank — publishing is not a position to defend but a product to maintain. The review cycle applies to changed files too, so time updates with care. Changes are maintenance; a new edition is something else. Amazon treats a manuscript change that moves the page count by more than 10 per cent — along with changes to the title, author, ISBN or trim size — as a significant change requiring a new edition: new ISBN, new listing, fresh start.

The reports. KDP’s reports show sales close to as they happen; the money is slower. Royalties are paid roughly 60 days after the end of the month in which they were earned, and print royalties post as copies ship. The numbers are real but the cash lags; the trap is reading day-one sales as a verdict.

The whole order, compressed

1. Decide editions, ISBNs, exclusivity.
2. Build and test the files — EPUB, print PDF, covers.
3. Account: tax interview, bank details, any identity verification.
4. Metadata block: title, series, description, keywords, categories.
5. Upload files per edition; proof the print in hand before publishing.
6. Price inside the 70 per cent band, at least 20 per cent under the print list price.
7. Publish; wait out the review; revisit the metadata once sales settle.

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None of the steps is hard, and the whole process rewards being done in the right order — the files before the forms, the decisions before the files. The expensive failures are always sequencing failures: the cover built before the page count, the ISBN chosen after the distribution plan, the exclusivity accepted by accident.

Nueel produces the files the forms want — a print-ready PDF checked against KDP’s published requirements, and a tested EPUB — so the upload is the short part of the story it should be.

Sources

• KDP, eBook list price requirements, How do I add or change keywords?, Get an ISBN and Timelines
• KDP, Digital rights management, Paperback royalty, Proof and author copies and Update your manuscript

Common questions

How long does it take to publish a book on Amazon?

The upload is an afternoon; the review is the wait. Ebooks are typically checked within 24 to 72 hours. A new print detail page takes up to 72 hours on Amazon.com and closer to five days on other marketplaces. The work that determines the book's fate happens before the upload: the files, the metadata, the pricing and the categories.

Do I need an ISBN to publish on Amazon?

Not for the ebook, and not strictly for print — KDP can assign a free identifier for the paperback and hardcover. The free number can only ever be used with KDP, although a paperback carrying it can still reach bookshops and libraries through KDP's expanded distribution. To publish the same edition through another service, such as IngramSpark, you need your own ISBNs. The full decision is in the ISBN guide.

What royalty will I earn on Amazon?

On Amazon.com the 70 per cent ebook option covers list prices from $2.99 to $12.99, calculated after a delivery cost based on file size — currently $0.15 per megabyte — and any applicable VAT; outside the band the rate is 35 per cent, and Brazil, Japan, Mexico and India pay 70 per cent only through KDP Select. Print earns 50 or 60 per cent of the list price minus printing cost, depending on price and marketplace, and 40 per cent minus printing on expanded-distribution copies.

Should I enrol in KDP Select?

Only if you are happy to give Amazon exclusivity for the ebook's retail and subscription sales during each 90-day term. Select buys you Kindle Unlimited page reads and promotional tools. Since September 2025 it no longer means Amazon only: public-library distribution is explicitly permitted alongside Select, so the library channels can be kept even while the retail channels are dropped. It is a real trade, not a default — books with wide retail plans skip it.