This is a continuation of the Self-Publishing on Kindle series of posts. Part 1 and Part 2 are available.
The next part of Step 1 is:
#2. Verify Your Publishing Rights.
This section is very simple and straightforward – either you hold the copyright to the book and it is entirely yours to publish, or it s book in the public domain, which means the copyright no longer applies to it. If your book does not fall into either of those two categories – you should not be publishing it on KDP.
#3. Target Your Book to Customers
Apart from the categories, the age range and US grade range sections are a relatively recent addition to the process and you deciding who your target audience is, presumably to assist Amazon in the way they display/recommend your books.
In the categories section, you will want to select two categories that fit your book the best.
If you select ‘adult’ categories, the next part – the age range – will automatically be filled with ’18+’. Otherwise, it’s entirely optional to fill in the age range and US grade range sections.
The next part is keywords. This is a tiny part of the form, but is a very important part! This is where you list the relevant keywords to your book. These keywords are what people will put in the search box on Amazon when they are looking for a new book to read. So if you have written a paranormal romance – put that as a keyword. You can only have up to 7 keywords, so choose wisely! Phrases count as one keyword. So ‘inspirational true stories’ would be one keyword. Please take the time to fill this in properly, don’t use it to list other more famous authors, in the hopes of catching some of their traffic, and keep the words relevant to your book.
Disclaimer: All views, ideas and tips presented on this website are my own, based on my own experience and the experience of my clients. It is by no means the only way to do it, or the right way to do it, but it is the way that works for me. Please take what helps you and makes sense to you, and don’t worry about the rest for now. Please know that I take no responsibility for anything that happens as a result of you following my advice. I have created this blog as a resource for Indie Authors to help them make the publishing journey a little easier. I am not affiliated with any of the companies I mention, other than the fact that I use their services myself.
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