GETTING PUBLISHED WITH KDP

Very recently several people have asked me about my experiences and knowledge of Kindle Direct Publishing (kdp for short). So I thought as I'm no professor in kdp we'd explore it together. I realise this may not be a subject for everyone, as most of my other blogs have been.

So, Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is a self-publishing platform that allows authors to publish and sell books on Amazon: There are no upfront costs or inventory orders required to publish with KDP. Authors retain full rights to their books, which is not typical with traditional publishing houses. As the Author can have direct access to their books on Amazon and can create a product detail page. As an Author you can make your books available to readers around the world. You have control over your book's content, design, price, audience. But having said that, please be aware, as I have found, you might have to negotiate book sizes. An author can earn anything up to 70% royalty. Also as an author with kdp, you can use free marketing tools to promote your books, such as: Offering their eBook on Kindle Unlimited or by creating an author page.

To publish with KDP, you can prepare your manuscript and cover files Publish in print and digital formats Promote their book to readers. But be aware as I've experienced checking your margins, book size and pages as some kdp formats like to have a standard amount of pages. I've only had one book published with kdp, and the result for me where disappointing. My second attempt didn't go much better, and it's now pending.

Getting anything published takes hard work and time. I admit I was a bit nieve with the one book, I published. I realied on the generosity of friends and family buying it. As far as I know its still listed in the lower ranking of Amazon, in my view it was a flop and hard experience to learn from. I'm now trying other publishers for my next book (currently in a hard draft copy) but so far without success. kdp may not work for everyone and please don't let my experience put you of from trying them. In fairness I think I set my goals and agenda far to high.

Another resource that has been suggested to me on several occasions in the past and today during a visit to my local library is the 'Writers and Artists yearbook' (yes Kingdom Story Writers, I finally have ordered my own copy). I am very impressed by its layout and ease with sections for different genres ie crime, poetry ect. It also more importantly gives publishers details for exact areas each publisher specialises in. Perhaps this is the book I been looking for to help on my publishing journey and maybe it canbe yours. I apologise I realised I have digressed from the main subject of this blog. But felt it important to understand there's a world of publishers out there as well as kdp. I be interested to know others experiences with kdp, please pop you comments below.

I think today's writing meeting at the library has given me motivation to look at publishing and writing with a purpose once again in this new year. I was reassured when someone in the group said it took them ten years, gives me hope that someday it may happen. Thanks for taking time to read this blog.

Prolific Visable Poet