Creating a kindle book and publishing it for free
First, be aware that you have to have a tax i.d. and will need related info, so if you are in the U.S. stateside or have a permanent U.S. address this is pretty straight forward, but if you are not in the U.S. this is a little more involved. For instructions on the tax i.d. please see amazon's instructions and explanations:
https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/A1VDYJ32T5D3U4
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The first thing you need to do is make an
account. If you already have an Amazon
account, you can use that to sign in to the Kindle Direct Publishing. If not, then you will have to make an account
here:
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Next you need to prepare your book:
Formatting
the book itself
***NOTES
*Essentially,
you need to have everything in Microsoft Word if you can.
*
If you need to put in any pictures or tables don’t copy and paste, you need to
use the insert function in Word.
*At
the end of each line, Word will automatically wrap the text to the next
line. However, if you need to break to
the next line in the middle of a line (like if you have a poem that has only a
few words for each line or if you want to pause mid sentence for whatever reason and go to the next line) or for a new paragraph, you need to use the “Line
Break”[control + shift] for a new line or “Page Break” [on the MS Word Insert toolbar hit "Page Break"] for a new page as described below instead
of just hitting return.
*If
you want to have a line centered, you need to use the centering button on the
tool bar in Word, not just use the space bar to put it where you want it.
*Don’t
use fancy fonts because the formatting just wont translate well, try to use one
of the following which will easily transfer to kindle amazon books across the multiple kindle devices:
Arial
Baskerville
Caecilia
Courier
Georgia
Helvetica
Lucida Sans Unicode
Palatino
Times New Roman
Trebuchet
Verdana
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*Cover
material—if you have a photograph or artwork that you want to use for the front cover
of the book, it has to have certain dimensions.
So, if you have a particular photo or image you want for your cover, you
have to have these dimensions: 2813 pixel width x 4500 pixel length.
You can alter the pixels in a photo by opening the photo in Microsoft
Paint, go to the “Home” tab, click “Resize”, when the box opens, in the Resize
section, move the selector from Resize by percentage to Resize by Pixel (you
just have to select the “Pixel” selector), UNCHECK the Maintain Aspect Ratio
box, then type in 2813 for width and 4500 for length, click ok to close the
box, go to file and then Save As and rename the photo as “Correct dimensions
for kindle” (or whatever you want to call it, but if you don’t rename it then
it will overwrite the original file) and take note of where you are saving it. IF you don’t have a certain image you want,
there are plenty that you can choose from that Kindle publishing has for free
that you can use when you go to publish the book. Here is more info on the Kindle cover creator
If you do not have a cover image yourself or a particular image in mind, kindle has some stock images and styles of covers that you can create for free within their cover creator program, instructions are here:
https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/A1DHGMW609HBI8
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Next is the “Front matter”
You need a title page and a copyright page and space for a
table of contents, any of the other stuff is optional. These explanations below are pretty easy to
follow, but here is how you do a copyright page: On the page after the title page, you just type
the copyright symbol (go to Insert and then Symbol and it’s on there), the
year, and your name, then “all rights reserved” which means you hold the rights
(even though when you publish through kindle they get the rights for a while
you still need to put this in there) Like this example below:
© 2009 Marsha Rice
All rights reserved.
______________
More on front matter--
This information below is directly from https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/A17W8UM0MMSQX6
Front matter includes the
beginning pages of a book, such as Title Page, Copyright Page, Dedication,
Preface, and Prologue. For a stylish and professional presentation, add a Title
Page at minimum.
Title Page: Center the title page with the title on top and Author Name underneath, like the example below. Insert a page break.
Title Page: Center the title page with the title on top and Author Name underneath, like the example below. Insert a page break.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
By Mark Twain
-Insert Page Break Here-
To insert a page break in Word, click "Insert" at the top menu bar and select "Page Break."
Copyright Page: This page normally follows the Title Page. Insert a page break after the Copyright details.
Dedication: If you have a customized Dedication, it should follow the Copyright page. Be sure to insert a page break.
Preface: If you have a Preface, it should follow the Dedication. Be sure to insert a page break.
Prologue: If your book includes a Prologue, it should follow the Preface. Be sure to insert a page break.
We recommend building
your book in Word for ease of formatting. You can write your book in Word or
convert an existing source file to Word format (DOC / DOCX). For the best eBook
presentation, refer to the following tips:
File Format: Save your content in DOC or DOCX format. Save your work periodically to avoid losing your changes as you go.
Tables: If your book requires tables, select "Insert Table" in Word.
Layout: You can use Word-default paragraph indentations, bold characters, italics and headings in your Kindle book. Avoid special fonts, headers, and footers, which do not translate into Kindle format.
Page Breaks: Insert a page break at the end of every chapter to keep the text from running together. In Word, click "Insert" at the top menu bar and select "Page Break."
Line Breaks: Don't hit enter at the end of a line. Word automatically wraps to the next line as you type. If you need to insert a line break in the middle of a paragraph or sentence, press Shift+Enter together so the spacing between sentences will stay the same.
Image Placement: Insert JPEG formatted images with center alignment. Don't copy and paste from another source.
In Word, select "Insert" > "Picture" > then locate and select the file. If your book has a lot of images, it can be viewed in color by readers using our free Kindle apps for PC, MAC, iPad, iPhone, and Android. Otherwise, images on Kindle are displayed in 16 shades of gray for optimal contrast and clarity.
Don't include your cover image in your manuscript file. When you publish or re-publish your book, we'll automatically add your cover image to the inside.
Spellcheck and Grammar: Use Word's built-in spellcheck and grammar tools, but proofread your file manually as well. The automated tools may not catch every error.
File Format: Save your content in DOC or DOCX format. Save your work periodically to avoid losing your changes as you go.
Tables: If your book requires tables, select "Insert Table" in Word.
Layout: You can use Word-default paragraph indentations, bold characters, italics and headings in your Kindle book. Avoid special fonts, headers, and footers, which do not translate into Kindle format.
Page Breaks: Insert a page break at the end of every chapter to keep the text from running together. In Word, click "Insert" at the top menu bar and select "Page Break."
Line Breaks: Don't hit enter at the end of a line. Word automatically wraps to the next line as you type. If you need to insert a line break in the middle of a paragraph or sentence, press Shift+Enter together so the spacing between sentences will stay the same.
Image Placement: Insert JPEG formatted images with center alignment. Don't copy and paste from another source.
In Word, select "Insert" > "Picture" > then locate and select the file. If your book has a lot of images, it can be viewed in color by readers using our free Kindle apps for PC, MAC, iPad, iPhone, and Android. Otherwise, images on Kindle are displayed in 16 shades of gray for optimal contrast and clarity.
Don't include your cover image in your manuscript file. When you publish or re-publish your book, we'll automatically add your cover image to the inside.
Spellcheck and Grammar: Use Word's built-in spellcheck and grammar tools, but proofread your file manually as well. The automated tools may not catch every error.
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Working Table of Contents
This was the hardest part for me, I didn’t do this
in my first two books, but if you do it you have to have headings on every page
that is a new entry in the table of contents (for poems this would be the
titles, for books with chapters only the headings on the chapter titles or numbers or however you have each chapter labeled) and to put in these headings you have to use the Headings in the Style
menu and they have to be consistent throughout the whole book. To make a working table of contents, you
first have to use the page break to put an empty page between the copyright
page and the beginning of the book. Then
you Select and highlight each title of the poem on each page (If you were
writing chapters then you would just do this at the beginning of each
chapter) and hit the heading button on
the style menu. There are various
options with the headings and you can adjust the fonts and such. You will be able to tell that it has worked
because the font and format will be different.
It is best if you keep it simple as possible. Once you get through with the whole book,
then you let word create the working table of contents by doing this:
1.
In
the References menu, click "Table of Contents."
·
Choose "Custom
Table of Contents" option.
·
In the menu, remove
the checkmark from "Show Page Numbers" box and change "Show
Levels" to "1."
2.
Delete
the page numbers and leading dots ("………..123") from your new table of
contents.
·
Readers can change the font size, margin size, and line
spacing, so page numbers may not apply to Kindle books. ***
you can put in page numbers if you want but be aware that in different viewing
devices the pages may be thrown off some.
Save changes.More detail here on this if you need it, from amazons kindle formatting page at https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/A1JMIOQ2RP4DPK
Overview
- Make sure each of your books or chapters already has a header name or a number.
- To do this, use the Styles feature to apply a style to each chapter or section heading.
- In most cases, the end result will be best if you apply the same Style to all of your headings.
- In step 3, Word will build the table of contents by detecting these styles.
- Add a blank page before the beginning of your content for your table of contents.
- If your book has a copyright page, you should place the blank page after the copyright page but before the rest of your content.
- In the References menu, click "Table of Contents."
- Choose "Custom Table of Contents" option.
- In the menu, remove the checkmark from "Show Page Numbers" box and change "Show Levels" to "1."
- Delete the page numbers and leading dots ("………..123") from your new table of contents.
- Readers can change the font size, margin size, and line spacing, so page numbers may not apply to Kindle books.
- In order to have the NCX view enabled in the Go To Menu of your Kindle Device / application, please ensure that you create a logical Table of Contents per these additional steps:
- For Title headings to be listed, use "Titles" format under Styles section.
- For Chapter headings to be listed, use the "Chapter" or the "Heading" format under the Styles section.
Complete steps to create a Table of Contents in Word
- Open your book in Microsoft Word
- Near the top of the window, click "Home"
- Go to your first chapter header, and select it by clicking it with your mouse cursor
- At the top of the window, click a formatting style. This applies the style to the chapter header. Word will create the Table of Contents later by finding these styles. You can still change the color and font style of the chapter header as you would any other text in Word. To ensure the NCX view is also enabled, please select the heading styles listed below:
- For Title headings to be listed, use the "Titles" format under the Styles section.
- For Chapter headings to be listed, use the "Chapter" or the "Headings" format under the Styles section.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 for all the remaining chapter headers in your book.
Important: use the same style for all the chapters in your book, or your Table of Contents may not work correctly - Create a blank page before your book's content where Word will put the Table of Contents
Note: The Table of Contents should appear before the main content, but after front matter like copyright information or the title page (if used) - At the top of the window, click "References," and click "Table of Contents"
- Choose a Table of Contents style that you like from the menu
- You should now have a Table of Contents with working links to each chapter in your book
- Select the page numbers and leading dots (“……”), right-click them, and click "Cut." Page numbers may not apply to Kindle books, since readers can change the font size, margin size, and line spacing.
- Save your Word file, upload it to your KDP account, and publish as you would any other content. It can take up to 12 hours to see your changes on the site.
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Now you have a table of contents and you are ready
to create your cover and upload your book!
Once you publish it it takes anywhere from 24-72 hours before it becomes
available. I think that when you publish
with kindle for free it automatically enrolls you in KDP Select for a while, I
can’t remember, its KDP select or Kindle Unlimited or something it enrolls you
in for I think 6 months, but it’s worth it.
You still get paid for books you sell, but officially Kindle owns the
rights for I think its 6 months and you can opt out after that, but I have
stayed in it because it gives a wider audience to your books.
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