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Published May 25, 2026 · Author's Loft

KDP Publishing Guide 2026: Everything You Need to Publish on Amazon

Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform has published over 300 million titles since 2007. It is, by a wide margin, the most important self-publishing tool available to indie authors. This guide covers every aspect of KDP in 2026 — from account creation to advanced distribution strategies.

What Is KDP?

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is Amazon's self-publishing platform. It lets any author upload a book — eBook or paperback — and make it available to Amazon's 300+ million active customers within 48–72 hours of submission.

Unlike traditional publishing, there is no gatekeeper. There is no query letter, no agent, no publisher. You write the book, you upload it, you set the price, you go live.

KDP is free to use. Amazon earns money by taking a cut of your sales — either 30% (on the 35% royalty tier) or a flat delivery cost on the 70% tier. You don't pay Amazon anything upfront.

Setting Up Your KDP Account

Go to kdp.amazon.com and create your account. The process takes 15–30 minutes if you have your information ready.

What You'll Need

KDP supports direct deposit to US banks, and international authors can use Payoneer, ACH transfers, or wire transfers depending on their region. Check KDP's payment page for options available in your country.

Author Central vs. KDP

Your KDP account is separate from Amazon Author Central, though they connect. KDP is where you publish books. Author Central is where you manage your author profile — photo, bio, social links, blog — and see reader reviews across all your books in one place. Both are free. Complete both.

Publishing an eBook on KDP

Supported File Formats

KDP accepts:

For most authors, .docx (Microsoft Word) is the right choice. Save your final manuscript as a .docx and upload it to KDP's manuscript upload page.

Manuscript Formatting Rules

Kindle Create

Amazon offers Kindle Create — a free tool that converts Word documents into Kindle-optimized eBooks. For simple prose books (novels, memoirs, non-fiction without complex formatting), Kindle Create does a solid job. Download it, open your .docx, and let it restructure your document for optimal Kindle display.

For books with tables, footnotes, sidebars, or image-heavy layouts, test the conversion carefully. Open the preview in Kindle Create and on a free Kindle app on your phone before publishing.

eBook Cover Requirements

KDP requires a cover image for eBooks. Minimum dimensions: 1,000 x 1,600 pixels. Recommended: 2,560 x 1,600 pixels for high-resolution display.

File type: JPG or PNG, RGB color mode (not CMYK — Kindle displays in RGB).

Your cover must not contain any content that violates Amazon's content guidelines — including misleading claims, ISBN that doesn't belong to the book, or offensive material.

Publishing a Paperback on KDP

KDP prints books on demand — you don't pay for printing upfront, and Amazon doesn't hold inventory. Each time a reader orders your book, Amazon prints and ships it, taking the printing cost out of the sale price before calculating your royalty.

Trim Sizes

Amazon offers standard trim sizes (page dimensions). The most common:

Choose your trim size before formatting your interior. The interior template you use should match your trim size — KDP provides free Word templates for every standard size on the manuscript upload page.

Interior Requirements

Paperback interiors must be uploaded as a PDF (print-ready PDF, not a scanned document). Your Word document must be converted to PDF with embedded fonts.

Key formatting rules for print:

Paperback Cover (Template Required)

Paperbacks require a cover with front, spine, and back assembled as one image. KDP provides a cover template calculator that determines the exact pixel dimensions based on your trim size, page count, and paper type.

Paper type affects spine width: Standard black-and-white interior (60gsm paper) produces a thinner spine than premium white interior (80gsm paper) for the same page count. Always use KDP's template for your exact specifications.

Printing Cost Calculation

KDP's paperback royalty formula: List price − Printing cost − Delivery cost = Royalty

Printing cost is determined by page count and paper type. KDP shows you the exact calculation in the pricing calculator before you publish. A 300-page black-and-white paperback might cost $3–$4 in printing, leaving $10–$11 of the list price before the delivery deduction.

The printing cost is the main constraint on paperback royalty — a 500-page book has significantly lower margins than a 200-page book at the same price point. This is why many non-fiction authors price paperbacks at $19.99–$24.99 to maintain acceptable per-unit royalties.

KDP Royalties: 35% vs. 70%

KDP offers two royalty tiers for eBooks:

70% Royalty Tier

Requirements:

On a $9.99 eBook at 70% royalty, you earn $6.99 per sale. Amazon deducts a per-MB delivery cost (typically $0.05–$0.15/MB depending on file size — most text-heavy eBooks are negligible).

35% Royalty Tier

Applies to:

On a $9.99 eBook at 35% royalty, you earn $3.50 per sale.

The difference: pricing strategy matters enormously. The authors who make the most from KDP price their books in the 70% sweet spot ($4.99–$9.99 for fiction and most non-fiction) and build volume.

Paperbacks: One Royalty Tier

Paperbacks have a single royalty tier. The formula above shows you what you earn per unit — no choice to make, just math.

KDP Select: Pros and Cons

KDP Select (also called Kindle Select) is an optional program that grants certain benefits in exchange for exclusivity. Here's what you need to know:

What KDP Select Gives You

The Exclusivity Requirement

In exchange for these benefits, KDP Select requires your eBook to be exclusive to Amazon. You cannot sell the eBook (or give it away for free) on any other platform — no Apple Books, no Kobo, no Google Play, no your own website. The exclusivity applies for 90-day periods that auto-renew until you opt out.

For a first-time author with no existing distribution, KDP Select can be a good launch tool — the KU subscribers are a large, captive audience who actively browse indie content. For authors with existing platforms (email lists, websites, audiences elsewhere), KDP Select can cost you more in lost direct sales than it generates in KU page-read revenue.

Going Wide vs. KDP Select

The "wide" strategy means publishing on Amazon without KDP Select (using the 35% royalty tier) and simultaneously on Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, and Draft2Digital. You sacrifice the KU audience and the 70% royalty tier, but you keep distribution freedom and can sell direct on your own website.

Many successful indie authors use a hybrid approach: publish on KDP non-exclusively at 35% royalty, also publish wide, and sell direct on their own store (e.g., Author's Loft). This maximizes total addressable market while preserving the highest-margin channel (direct sales to your own audience).

See the full royalty comparison across KDP, IngramSpark, and Author's Loft →

ISBN on KDP

KDP provides a free ISBN for every book you publish. When you use Amazon's ISBN, Amazon is listed as the publisher in the book's metadata.

You can use your own ISBN on Amazon instead — buy one from Bowker (bowker.com, $125 for one ISBN, $295 for ten) and enter it during the manuscript upload process. Your own ISBN means your author business is listed as the publisher, which matters for library and bookstore distribution.

If you plan to sell through IngramSpark (which you need to do for bookstore and library distribution), you'll need your own ISBN anyway. Start with KDP's free ISBN for your Amazon listing, then use your own ISBN on IngramSpark.

KDP Categories and Keywords

Categories and keywords determine your discoverability on Amazon. Both are set during the manuscript upload process.

Categories (Two Slots)

You can choose two Amazon categories for your book. These affect your competition set and ranking dynamics — books are ranked within categories, not globally. A book ranked #500 in "Fantasy" might be ranked #5 in "Epic Fantasy."

You can either browse Amazon's category tree and select from the options Amazon offers, or request specific categories when you contact KDP support. The support-request option lets you pick more granular categories than the public tree shows.

Keywords (Seven Fields, Up to 100 Characters Each)

Search terms that Amazon uses to surface books when readers type related queries. Choose terms your ideal reader would actually type — not generic descriptors. Think like a reader searching for your specific book.

Don't waste slots on obvious terms (the word "book" is redundant — Amazon knows everything in its book store is a book). Fill them with specific, descriptive phrases that narrow the competition set.

Book Description and HTML Formatting

Your book description is your sales copy. It appears on the product page and drives conversion from browsers to buyers. Amazon accepts HTML in the description field — use it.

Effective Description Structure

Three paragraphs, in order:

  1. Hook (1–2 sentences): The first line needs to stop scrolling. Lead with the outcome, the promise, the intrigue — not "This book is about..."
  2. What the reader gets (2–3 sentences): Specific detail about what's in the book. For fiction: characters, stakes, world. For non-fiction: what the reader will learn, who it's for.
  3. Social proof or authority (1–2 sentences): Why the author is credible to write this book. Credentials, previous work, or a simple "Written for [audience]" works fine.

HTML in Your Description

Use <br> for line breaks, <b></b> for bold. Don't use italic tags — they render inconsistently on Amazon. Simple is better than fancy.

The KDP Publishing Timeline

Once you click publish, here's what happens:

  1. Upload + submit: 5–15 minutes to fill out all fields, upload files, set pricing
  2. Review queue: 24–72 hours for a first-time KDP author. Faster for authors with publishing history
  3. Pre-order vs. live: You can set up a pre-order (readers can order before the book is live, and it ships on your release date). This is useful for building anticipation and coordinating marketing.
  4. Go live: Your book appears in the Amazon catalog. "Look Inside" becomes available once the preview is generated.

After going live, you can update the content, cover, metadata, and pricing at any time. Changes to manuscript content take 24–48 hours to propagate to the live listing.

KDP Reports and Analytics

KDP provides a detailed reporting dashboard that shows:

The search term report is your most valuable optimization tool. It shows which of your seven keywords are actually driving sales — and which aren't. After 30–60 days of data, update your keywords to double down on what's working.

KDP and Bookstore Distribution

Amazon KDP does not distribute to bookstores or libraries. That's a separate channel — IngramSpark, which Amazon owns a stake in but operates separately.

If your goal is bookstore distribution (Barnes & Noble, indie bookstores) and library availability (OverDrive, Libby), you need to publish through IngramSpark. IngramSpark is free to set up but charges $49 per title to publish (waived during promotions). It requires properly formatted print-ready PDFs, which is more complex than KDP's workflow.

A practical approach: publish on KDP first for speed and Amazon reach, then publish on IngramSpark for bookstore/library distribution. The content can be identical — you just need the correct print formatting for IngramSpark.

Common KDP Mistakes to Avoid

Direct Sales: Maximizing Revenue Beyond KDP

KDP is a distribution platform, not a revenue-maximization platform. Amazon takes 30–65% of every sale depending on your pricing and royalty tier. If you have an existing audience — email list, social followers, podcast listeners — you can sell directly to readers and keep 85–100% of revenue.

Author's Loft lets you sell directly to your readers with no per-sale royalty cut. Your KDP listing handles discovery; your Author's Loft store handles revenue from readers who already know you. The two work together, not against each other.

Compare KDP royalties vs. direct sales on Author's Loft →

Learn about Author's Loft membership for indie authors →

See What You'd Actually Earn

Run the numbers on your book across KDP, IngramSpark, and Author's Loft — free.

Open the Royalty Calculator →
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