It’s no surprise that there are a lot of authors and small press publishers who want to get their work on the Amazon Kindle!
Unfortunately, making that happen is not always as easy as it should be, and that’s why I’ve put together Publish Your Book on the Amazon Kindle: A Practical Guide, which is now available in print, on the Amazon Kindle, and on Mobipocket.com.
I wrote this book specifically for folks who don’t have a lot of – or any – technical background, and who are frustrated with the seemingly mystical process of getting a book published on the Kindle. Chances are you’re an author or publisher who doesn’t want to deal with a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo and just wants to get the job done so you can get back to writing. This book will take away the mystery and frustration, and give you a clear path to success.
Based on my experiences publishing In Her Name and helping folks on the Amazon DTP and Mobipocket publisher forums (where my user ID is kreelanwarrior), I put together a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to getting your book formatted and published on both the Amazon Kindle and Mobipocket Reader.
The book will take you through all aspects of the process, including:
- The main options you have for publishing your book to the Amazon Kindle
- How to set up your author/publisher accounts on Amazon DTP and Mobipocket.com
- The pros and cons of the most popular input file formats, including Microsoft Word, Rich Text Format, HTML, and PDF
- Detailed steps on how to prepare your book for the Kindle, including the cover, inserting images in the text, and creating a Table of Contents
- Understanding reflowable text and its impact on formatting
- How to create images that will look their best on the Kindle
- How to handle charts and graphs
- A layman’s explanation of Digital Rights Management and why it’s important to you as a publisher
- How to deal with smart quotes and other special characters
- How to preview your ebook on your Kindle
- Contact information for Amazon and Mobipocket
- and more…
If you have specific questions, suggestions, or would like more information, please feel free to contact me.
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#1 by adam hartung on February 3rd, 2009 - 11:26 pm
Smart move at Amazon. Management isn’t getting enough credit for being ahead of the market. Today with companies cutting back everywhere, Amazon management is finding growth. Superior! Read more at http://www.ThePhoenixPrinciple.com
#2 by Beth Cattano on January 23rd, 2010 - 11:08 am
Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will come back again – taking you feeds also, Thanks.
#3 by Rosana Hart on March 7th, 2010 - 5:41 pm
I just bought this book today, Michael, and found I had to keep shifting gears because Mobipocket no longer is allowing for new signups. Since you recommend using their Creator and then uploading to Amazon, virtually all your content is still pertinent, but it would be lovely if you would edit it!
#4 by Michael R. Hicks on March 9th, 2010 - 5:18 pm
Rosana – Sorry about that! Yes, Amazon – which owns Mobipocket – closed it down to new publishers and redirected new folks to Amazon DTP. I plan to update the book at some point to reflect that and other changes that have come into play since it was published, but haven’t yet had the time…
#5 by Marie Kobres Bone on May 18th, 2010 - 12:05 am
I am getting questions regarding my published book- that is available at AMAZON and others — etc
The name of my book is -
“The Elephant Hotel – Hedwig & the Tagebuch – by Marie Kobres Bone”
the question they are now asking is: – “WHEN WILL YOUR/THIS BOOK BE AVAILABLE ON KINDLE? – What is the procedure- cost, time, etc to get my book published on Kindle? I am very interested. Thank you.
mbonemarie@bellsouth.net
#6 by Michael R. Hicks on May 24th, 2010 - 11:20 am
Marie -
You can put your book in the Kindle store (along with many other venues) for free. The two main avenues are DTP, which is Amazon’s own publishing process (dtp.amazon.com), or Smashwords (www.smashwords.com). I’m leaning more and more toward Smashwords, because they now have distribution deals with B&N, Apple, and Amazon for the Kindle, as well as a variety of other formats. Their royalty rates are also generally the best. Hope that helps!