In practice, what is the timeline of self publishing on Amazon-KDP?

Woollybear

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Questions:

First: There's a button on the first page of the process that says 'I am ready to publish my book now' (The alternative is a pre-order).

I don't plan to do pre-orders, so I clicked this button. That's the right choice, I feel certain. But I'm not sure.

Second: The book description on the first KDP setup page--I enter it with paragraph breaks but the webpage removes the paragraph breaks. Is this going to be a problem? How do I get paragraph breaks in the book description?

Third: When I 'hit publish' how soon will the book appear to the public? Immediately? I know that when I submit a review of a product it takes a day or two to show up--do books take a day or two? Or are they visible for purchase immediately?

Fourth: The artist I used sent me the final wrap-around cover. How good should the resolution be? If I zoom in I can see the pixels, including on the text. But I need to zoom in to see them. Is that normal?
 

LJD

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I can't answer everything, but yeah, books can take up to a few days to show up. Usually less than 24 hours, in my experience. For example, I submitted a book for pre-order late yesterday morning, and it was up on Amazon by late afternoon/early evening. I always do pre-orders of 1-3 months *shrugs*

I've never had a problem with paragraph breaks in KDP? When I copy/paste, it seems to keep the breaks between paragraphs, and it shows up just fine on Amazon.

(I have, however, had problems with paragraph breaks when I enter things--like editorial reviews--on Author Central and I think I needed some html to fix that.)
 

Woollybear

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Hmmm. Maybe I'll try putting it through a text editor first to keep the paragraph breaks.

Or I'll turn my laptop off and back on. Maybe that will fix it.
 

M. H. Lee

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First: There's a button on the first page of the process that says 'I am ready to publish my book now' (The alternative is a pre-order).

Correct.

Second: The book description on the first KDP setup page--I enter it with paragraph breaks but the webpage removes the paragraph breaks. Is this going to be a problem? How do I get paragraph breaks in the book description?

Based on this comment I assume you're trying to publish a paperback not an ebook. There's some weird glitch with KDP where when you publish a paperback it won't retain paragraph breaks unless you use HTML tags. I put paragraph brackets around each paragraph for my print books. That's the < sign and then a p and then the > sign at the beginning and the < sign and then a /p and then a > sign at the end. I write it out that way because I'm pretty sure if I put the actual paragraph brackets here you won't see them.

Third: When I 'hit publish' how soon will the book appear to the public? Immediately? I know that when I submit a review of a product it takes a day or two to show up--do books take a day or two? Or are they visible for purchase immediately?

For ebook it can be almost immediate or take up to 12 hours or so. For print it's a little longer than that, but usually within 24 hours. You'll get an email when it's approved and by then it's usually already showing up on Amazon.

Fourth: The artist I used sent me the final wrap-around cover. How good should the resolution be?

Again, this varies from print to ebook. Ebook can have a lower dpi and look fine. Print you might want to order a proof copy to see what it looks like. It's just usually less crisp without a high enough resolution, but if you worked with a good cover designer you're probably fine.
 

veinglory

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Yes the paperback display page requires html formatting and only accepts very basic html at that. so for a paragraph: < p > text < / p>
 
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LJD

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Based on this comment I assume you're trying to publish a paperback not an ebook. There's some weird glitch with KDP where when you publish a paperback it won't retain paragraph breaks unless you use HTML tags. I put paragraph brackets around each paragraph for my print books. That's the < sign and then a p and then the > sign at the beginning and the < sign and then a /p and then a > sign at the end. I write it out that way because I'm pretty sure if I put the actual paragraph brackets here you won't see them.

Ah, that explains why I didn't have the OP's problem! I only do e-books through KDP.
 

Woollybear

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This is very reassuring--thank you for the paragraph tips! For all the feedback. Thank you!
 

Woollybear

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Two more questions--

Question five: I want to order a proof from Amazon before publishing on Amazon. Is there a way to do this? (This is actually why I was curious about the 'ready to publish' button in Q1 above.)

How does getting a copy as a proof work, in practice? (I'm just thinking of print--I might need to proof the ecopy too but my brain thinks in terms of print.) Like, can I get everything ready to go and have a 'do not publish until December 15 (or whatever) date? And get a copy to proof in the interim?

Question six: Can I use e-pub to upload to KDP or should I use a mobi file if I have it?
 

veinglory

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Hi there

You can order an author copy prior to publishing, it will have a watermark of the cover saying not for re-sale.

I stick with uploading minimally formatted word, but MOBI should be fine too. I don't know about epub.
 

Marissa D

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I assume that when you talk about getting the final wrap cover, it's for the print edition, yes? AFAIK it should probably be at 300 dpi. Double-check with your artist.

Proofs--they don't send out proofs of e-books. You should be able to check it via their previewer, then fix the file if you find errors and re-upload it. And yes, you can order a print proof before hitting the "publish" button; you publish the ebook and print edition separately.
 

M. H. Lee

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Question five: I want to order a proof from Amazon before publishing on Amazon. Is there a way to do this? (This is actually why I was curious about the 'ready to publish' button in Q1 above.)

Yes. Start your print book and get in all the information on the first two pages. On the second page of set-up you can review an electronic version of the print book by clicking on Launch Previewer at the bottom of the page. I'd recommend using it before you order the physical copy. It's set up to look just like if you were to flip through the book so check that things are on the correct side, that your headers and footers look right, etc. After that all looks good, then order the physical proof copy. Do this by saving as draft and going back to your dashboard. You'll see "Continue Setup" and next to that a gray box with three dots on it. Hold your mouse over that box and you should see an option for Request Printed Proofs. That's how you order a proof copy. As mentioned above, it's going to come with a big white bar across the front of the cover that says "proof copy - not for resale" or something along those lines. It's not pretty, but for a first book you probably do want to see the physical proof before you hit publish.

Question six: Can I use e-pub to upload to KDP or should I use a mobi file if I have it?

You should be able to but if you have the mobi that's the Amazon-specific format type. For years I just uploaded a formatted Word file, but now upload the mobi.
 

TrinaM

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print cover - 300 dpi

Yes, you can order a proof copy. When you are using the previewer, you have the option to order a physical proof. I recommend doing this the first time, especially if you are new at this. You can verify your gutters, etc. They don't charge much for them, either.

You can upload an epub. I do it all the time. Works wonderfully.
 

Woollybear

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AWESOME. Thank you. :Hug2: :hi: :hooray: :e2flowers

Question Seven: I assume I can use other html, like "<" b ">" for setting off in bold. Yeah?

Question Eight: And how long can I make the key word strings and does it help? Like, if I used a key word of climate fiction grounded in planetary science (I won't use that, because it's horrid, but I'm using it here as a f'rinstance) would that one key word pull in people looking for climate fiction and also people looking for planetary science? Do I double the bang by making longer strings, or does it undercut me?
 

veinglory

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I don't see the KDP experts using keyword strings more than 2-3 words, so I assume there is no advantage, but I don't know for sure.
 

Woollybear

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Thank you. And thank you for holding my hand through this!

Question ten.

I'm getting this message after uploading the formatted PDF and cover:

It looks like you've made some changes to your manuscript or book cover. Please preview and approve these changes before continuing.

I launched the previewer, and I see no issues to approve. I would expect Amazon/KDP to call out what the issues are that they see, and I don't see such a dialog box, either. Is the program just being buggy? Is this a confusing way for them to say: Preview and approve? Because I have no idea what issues they mean.
 

M. H. Lee

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With print books on KDP every time you upload a cover and/or interior file it makes you use the previewer. So I just check for whatever I changed to make sure it looks okay and then approve. On the left-hand side in the previewer they'll flag any issues they saw like a mismatch between book size and cover size, but they tend not to see most of the ones you need to keep an eye out for like headers, page numbers, ISBN number match, etc.
 

Woollybear

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OK. I really don't see anything. I'm going to approve it and move on.

The left side had a few things like "Check that the details on your PDFs and your inputted info match."

The cover title font is a strange font and the T looks like and I to some people, so maybe the software got confused about that.
 

Woollybear

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Question eleven.

I want expanded distribution, right? That really does a number on the print cost. I plan to search the forum for discussions on this.

ETA: I also asked on Indian Roads dedicated 'expanded distribution' thread.
 
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Woollybear

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And Question Twelve.

I think I am finally getting the hang of this-- Tell me if I understand --

If I want to be in Kindle Select so that KU users can read my pages for free, does the restriction of exclusivity with Amazon only apply to the e-copy?

Can I 'go wide' with KDP and Ingram Spark (etc) on the print copy while also being in kindle select for the e-copy?
 

M. H. Lee

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Question eleven.

I want expanded distribution, right?

That's really up to you. As you noticed, choosing expanded distribution means that you probably have to sell the book at a higher price. But it also means your print book will show up on other sites like Barnes & Noble and can be ordered by libraries. When I first published in print I just used Amazon's print option so chose expanded distribution. I've now listed all of my print books with IngramSpark as well so turned off expanded distribution through Amazon since expanded distribution covers the same retailers as IS does. At the time I made that decision it was much more costly to go with IS. Now they provide free ISBNs if you're in the U.S. and you can usually find codes for listing your book for free so that's not as big an expense anymore.

If we're talking fiction here, print is never going to be your biggest seller. It'll be ebook. So honestly, first book, I'd just choose expanded distribution on KDP and price a little higher. But your next post made it sound like you're doing IS? In that case, do not check expanded distribution on KDP.

Also, if you list your ebook in KU that only requires exclusivity for the ebook format. Print can be published wide at the same time that your ebook is in KU.
 

Woollybear

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OK. Everything is coming together. Thank you all!
 

Woollybear

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Yes, I did that. I had it professionally formatted, got a great PDF, uploaded that, and it looks fine to me on the preview.

That's exactly why I don't understand the error message that says there are issues.

My best guess is the title font is hard for the software to read and thus was flagged as not matching the metadata I entered.
 

Al X.

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Yes, I did that. I had it professionally formatted, got a great PDF, uploaded that, and it looks fine to me on the preview.

That's exactly why I don't understand the error message that says there are issues.

My best guess is the title font is hard for the software to read and thus was flagged as not matching the metadata I entered.

Oh, gotcha. Yes, that can occasionally happen. The software does scan for inconsistencies in the front material and the metadata.