Writer Wednesday – Dos and Don’ts of KDP Publishing – Part One
There are scores of folks getting their books and accounts blocked on KDP because, frankly, they’ve done little or zero research, fallen prey to the scammers and charlatans or are in too much of a hurry to publish.
I’ve been publishing on KDP for over a decade and have several books on Amazon, so I consider myself a veteran. I’ve taken the time to read the help pages, the terms of service and learn the skills I need. And I’m still learning.
I’ve learned how to format for both ebook and print editions, learned how to make a cover that reasonably good, learned marketing, editing/proofreading, research and a whole host more. It’s called SELF PUBLISHING and there’s no one to hold your hand.
Publishing, even self-publishing, is a business and should be approached as such. It may be a hobby, but it’s still a binding agreement with KDP or whichever other platforms you use.
Dos and Don’ts – part 1
DO – READ THE HELP PAGES – yes, really. All of them. Most of the answers to the newbie question are there (although can be a little vague). They will most likely answer questions you didn’t know you had.
https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help?ref_=TN_help
DO – READ THE TERMS OF SERVICE – publishing is a business. There’s a contract. You agree to abide by the terms the moment you publish with KDP.. It never ceases to amaze me the number of people on the KDP forum who think Amazon is stealing from them, restricting their ‘freedom of speech’, or arbitrarily blocking their accounts or books because they are mean/racist or whatever.
https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200627430
Amazon/KDP is a business, they have certain rules to abide by, and can terminate the contract (as can you), or insist that publishers abide by the rules. Their house, their rules. Don’t like the terms, go elsewhere.
Keep in mind this is a BUSINESS. You’re now a publisher.
DO NOT – SHARE YOUR LOG IN DETAILS. With anyone. Ever. You CANNOT give your log in to a third party, or get a third party to create an account for you, then give you the details. You WILL get your account banned.SEE SECTION 4 of the KDP agreement –
4.3 Account Security. You are solely responsible for safeguarding and maintaining the confidentiality of your account username and password and are responsible for all activities that occur under your account, whether or not you have authorized those activities. You are responsible and may be held liable for losses incurred by Amazon due to any such activities. You may not permit any third party to use the Program through your account and will not use the account of any third party. Your acceptance of this Agreement includes and is on behalf of any other party who uses the Program under or in connection with your account, such as an employee or contractor. You agree to immediately notify Amazon of any unauthorized use of your username, password or account.
So no, you can’t give anyone else your details – there are various businesses that claim to be affiliated with KDP that will ‘set up your account’ – they aren’t and they can’t. Or at least they shouldn’t.
DO NOT – HAVE MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS. If you lose your account because you didn’t follow the rules – too bad.
From the TOS
4.2 Account Information; No Multiple Accounts. …. You may maintain only one account at a time. If we terminate your account, you will not establish a new account. You will not use false identities or impersonate any other person or use a username or password you are not authorized to use. You also consent to us sending you emails relating to the Program and other publishing opportunities from time to time.
DO – SOME RESEARCH AND LEARN SKILLS – publishing isn’t a breeze, there are skills to be learned and marketing is a must. It’s one thing uploading your book to KDP but another matter selling it. Who are your target audience? Do you have a social media following? Are you prepared to put in hours a week to promote your book(s)? Do you have the money to spend on paid advertising? Again, READ THE HELP PAGES – ensure you understand what you’re getting into and what is required.
Be prepared to do a lot of marketing. Amazon does NOT do this for you unless you use the paid ads – and that’s a host more skills to learn to do this successfully.
Not everyone has the skills involved with self-publishing, is willing or able to learn them. That’s fine, but ensure you know what’s likely to be involved and how to go about acquiring the skills or finding a reputable person to help you/hire if you don’t have the skills. If you do hire someone – check carefully if they are legit. If you aren’t sure, ask on the KDP forum, or ask for testimonials, or reviews. If you aren’t comfortable – don’t give out money.
There are good, reliable, honest formatters, editors and cover designers – but there are a lot of dodgy ones, doing shoddy work, taking the money of people who probably would have known better had they looked into it, or people who fall for the hype. Just because some guy on tiktok said it, or the website looks all shiny doesn’t mean they are reliable.
It’s better to learn to do most of these things yourself, if you can.
DO – FAMILIARISE YOURSELF WITH THE DASHBOARD – Take the time to look at the reports, and your dashboard. Familiarise yourself with how the reports work.
The 30-day report can be a little misleading – it’s a rolling report for the LAST 30 DAYS. So as a new day appears a day drops off at the other end.
The Month to Date is probably the one you use the most – but of course that resets at the start of a new month – you can check previous months on the ‘Prior Months’ Royalties’.
Honestly it’s not that complicated – and sales will show up. Print sales show up AFTER the book is printed and dispatched and for expanded distribution – this can be a couple of months later. Just because your mother, friend or acquaintance said they bought the book doesn’t mean they did… if you truly believe Amazon is stealing your royalties then why are you doing business with them?
DO NOT – KEYWORD STUFF YOUR TITLE/MAKE SPURIOUS CLAIMS – lots of publishers are finding their books being blocked and even losing their account because they keyword-stuffed their title or subtitle.
Title should be something like:
Frankenstein
Subtitle (which isn’t mandatory so if you don’t need it don’t have one).
The Modern Prometheus
NOT FRANKENSTEIN – an amateur scientist’s guide to body building, graverobbing, playing god, a novel for all ages, so long as you like gothic.
A lot of low content creators (don’t get me started on that) keyword stuff their title – Animal colouring book 6×9 for kids, women, men, adults, boys, girls.
Subtitle – calming, relaxing stress releasing, colouring book for X, Y, Z.
In this case – Animal Colouring Book – is fine for the title – everything else should be in the description – except the claims.
You can’t guarantee it is ‘stress relieving’ or will help with mental health etc UNLESS you have the credentials to back it up. KDP Amazon is very hot on not allowing ‘misleading or disappointing customer experience’.
Recently there has been a spate of people getting AI to ‘write’ travel books, using freely available images of places and trying to publish as their work. No. No. No. (Don’t get me started on AI writing either).
AI (to my understanding) takes already created work and basically adapts it. And frankly if you have no experience of the area featured in the book, and have basically swiped the info from somewhere else and used stock photos – don’t even think about publishing a travel book…. Would you buy a book, written by a robot and published by someone who knows nothing about the area? No. Thought not.
DO USE YOUR OWN MATERIAL – do not use someone else’s IP (see above). Copyrighted material isn’t available to be swiped because you found it online. If it resembles someone’s copyright or trademarked stuff don’t use it. if you aren’t totally sure or don’t have the correct license – don’t use it. No Disneyesque princesses, no cars that look a lot like a certain cat-related motor vehicle, no Harley Patter and the Philosopher’s Soap. No Taylor Swift notebook.
If it’s not yours, or you can’t prove you have the rights to it – don’t use it.
If you’ve written it, or created it, then go for it. Otherwise – don’t bother. You will be found out…
DON’T – ASSUME THE RULES DON’T APPLY TO YOU. They do. Everyone who publishes on KDP has to follow the same set of rules, guidelines etc. EVERYONE. Your book has to meet certain criteria to be published. If it doesn’t meet them it won’t be published. You can’t do anything quirky or off the wall. If you want to do something unusual then find a local printer, have the copies printed and set up as a seller, or use somewhere like Lulu.com which has more scope.
DO – BE REALISTIC – most indies sell very few books, (for all sorts of reasons). It’s unlikely you’ll make a living and it’s certainly not a passive income, despite what that guy on You tube/Tiktok said.
More on this to follow.
