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How To Start Self-publishing on Amazon in the UK

Last updated on November 8th, 2022 at 08:21 am

The innovation of self-publishing on Amazon in the UK has made the publishing and sales of books easy. You can now make money off your knowledge without having to spend money on publishing or any other expenses traditional publishing demands.

Amazon KDP which means Kindle Direct Publishing is the innovation Amazon has developed to help everyone have an equal advantage.

With Amazon KDP self-publishing in the Uk, you can publish your ebooks and paperback books for free.

Self-publishing on Amazon in the UK is a good way to make passive income because when people search on Google, they have many intents, which could be transactional, informational etc, but when people search on Amazon, they are most likely ready to make a purchase.

This post will guide you on the steps you need to follow to self publish on Amazon Uk.

1). Register on Amazon UK

You will be required to fill in your name, mobile number or email, and your password to create an account with them. Also make sure you have your bank account details, your IBAN AND IBAN/SWIFT, your personal unique tax reference UTR, and your National insurance number because you will need them to complete your registration on Amazon Uk.

2. Write your book Title

After selecting your language, the next thing you are to do is write the title of your book. Your book title and subtitle ( optional) are expected not to exceed 200 words.

The subtitle is just a short description of what your book is all about. The subtitle helps to give your potential readers an idea of what to expect in your book.

The title of your book can make a great difference in the outcome of your sales, try to make your title and subtitle appealing to your target audience.

3. Add the series information and Edition numbers

This step is applicable if you are writing a series, you will then input the series name and the edition of your book if you are uploading a new edition of an existing book. You can skip the step if it doesn’t apply to you.

4. Add the Author’s name

Input your name, pen name or pseudonym as the case may be. A pen name 

Is the name an author decides to use for writing purposes.

You will then write the names of contributors to the book, like the coauthor or so if there are any.

You are required to confirm the copyright and publishing rights of the book. If the book is a public domain work, you will choose the second option as displayed in the image above.

5. Write your book description

You are given 4000 words to describe your book. This description section gives you a chance to make your potential buyers get a glimpse of your book. 

This could be very helpful in the decision-making process of your book leads. In addition to that, it helps to optimize your book for search on Amazon. It makes it easy for your book to be found when queries are made for keywords related to your book.

6. Input keywords 

Keywords are words that are relevant to the book you are uploading. For instance, if your book is on parenting. Your keywords should be words like parenting, children, 

Child welfare, child upbringing, etc.

These words are very useful in optimizing your book for search on Amazon Uk, therefore choose your keywords carefully to get the best result.

You are given the option to input up to 7 keywords that describe what your book is about.

7. Choose the book category

It is very important that you choose the category your book falls into because it will enable users to find it faster. You can choose only two categories, even though there is an option to choose more categories from your profile.

8. Choose the book age range 

This option applies to you when the book you are writing is for children, if that’s the case, then you have to select the minimum and maximum age of the kinds the book is meant for.

9. DRM

DRM (Direct Rights management) is intended to stop the illegal distribution of your book. When your Kindle DRM, it means people cannot consume your book except they are using one of Amazon kindle apps.

If you want to limit your app to amazon Kindle app users alone, then you choose the “yes” option, if otherwise, choose “No”.

10. Upload your book manuscript

This is the time to upload the manuscript of your book. The recommended format for your manuscripts is Docx, EPUB, and KPF. 

Select the file from your drive or computer storage and then upload it to Amazon KDP UK.

11. Upload your eBook cover

Your eBook cover needs to be ready before you think of self-publishing on Amazon Uk because your eBook cover design can make or mar your sales. A poorly designed eBook cover can affect your sales negatively, therefore make sure your design is nothing less than excellent.

If you are not a professional, don’t try to design it yourself. You can outsource it to professional freelancers that will you excellent work within a few days.

12. Preview your book

Amazon KDP Uk gives you the option to preview your eBook to examine if everything is in order. It is advised you don’t just skim through the book while previewing it. 

Make sure you take the time to see that contents are correctly arranged, failure to do that may lead to bad reviews if readers find arrangement errors in the book.

13. Input ISBN (optional)

If your books should have an ISBN, then you can input it, but it is not a requirement for Kindle eBooks.

14. Amazon KDP UK Select enrolment

When you enroll your book on Amazon KDP select, you will enjoy a lot of benefits from Amazon KDP UK. Your book will be available through Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owners Library.

However, selecting this option means you won’t be able to publish anywhere else on except on Amazon for 90 days, which you can renew if you should enjoy the benefits.

15. Select territories and Pricing

If you want to limit the reach of your book to a particular location or territory then you choose the second option, if otherwise, choose the first option so your book will be available to a worldwide audience.

You then set your pricing and finally publish it. Your book will be live within 72 hours for people to purchase, you will be sent a notification when it happens.

Paperback Version of your eBook

It is interesting to tell you that you can also self-publish a paperback version of your books on Amazon in the Uk. The book will be printed on demand. You don’t have to bother about the storage fees because your book will be printed only when users demand it.

ISBN ( International Standard Book Number) is compulsory for printing books on Amazon, though it’s not, for ebooks. 

Conclusion

The steps to self publish on Amazon UK have been fully described for you to follow in this article, it is now your responsibility to write your book if you don’t have one yet and then follow the steps to publish it. 

Finally, before you self-publish on Amazon in the UK, make sure you consider your tax situation and have every necessary detail and document intact.

Additionally, consider creating your author’s website by getting a domain name and hosting here.