How to publish a book on Amazon and earn money for each sale

Self publishing on laptop

Create an account with Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing system to upload and publish your completed book.
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  • You can publish a book on Amazon using Kindle Direct Publishing.
  • To get started, create a Kindle Direct Publishing account that's connected to your Amazon account.
  • You can upload a book in Word or PDF format, or use the Kindle Creator tool to convert a book for publishing.
  • Visit Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

Amazon isn't just an online retailer. It started as an online bookstore and, building on those roots, is a book publisher as well. Unlike a traditional book publisher, though, where you need to persuade an acquisitions editor to offer you a contract to get a book published, anyone can self-publish a book on Amazon.

How to publish a book on Amazon

You need to create an account with Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing system, then upload and publish your completed book. Then anyone can purchase and download your book in Kindle format. Here is everything you need to know.

How to track your book's sales and performance

After the book is published, you can edit it or follow its performance from the KDP website.

  • Click the "Bookshelf" tab at the top of the page and then scroll down to "Your Books." Here you can see all your published titles, their status, price, and make changes to the listing. For example, this is where you go to update the description or keywords.
  • Click the "Reports" tab at the top of the page to see your historical earnings and book sales.

Dave Johnson

Freelance Writer

Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider.

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