- Are you wondering, "How do I publish my book on Amazon?"?
Well, today we're gonna learn how to create a KDP account
so make sure you stay tuned.
Hey, I'm Dale L. Roberts, best-selling author
as well as a self-publishing advocate
who wants to show you how to publish books that sell.
Stick around to the very end because, actually,
I'm gonna show you not only how to create a KDP account
but I'm also going to show you how to self-publish a book.
It's gonna be a little bit off this video
but I promise you it will be worth it
if you stay to the end.
So, why exactly are we gonna publish books
on Kindle Direct Publishing anyway?
Well, it goes directly over to
the online juggernaut known as Amazon
and it's bringing in the lion share of profits
when it comes to publications.
So, why not align yourself with someone
who has that reach and that audience that you can leverage
to really grow your off their brand?
Before you do open up your KDP account,
there are some best practices you need to consider.
First of all, open only one account.
They are very, very, very fastidious
on tracking people that open up multiple accounts on KDP.
They do not like it.
They only like to have one person, one account;
don't try to test them.
Avoid black hat tactics.
Now, judging by the fact that you're watching
a how to create a KDP account video,
you may not be very familiar with those black hat tactics
but if it seems too good to be true in doing it,
then it probably is too good to be true.
And if you've been banned from KDP for any reason at all,
I would just recommend go find alternatives.
You know, there's other websites
you can be able to self-publish to.
There's no sense in trying to open up yet another account
only for them to shut it down.
And most importantly, follow the Amazon guidelines
and I'mma talk a little bit more of that a little bit later.
Go to kdp.amazon.com and click the Sign up button.
Sign in with your Amazon login
or you can click Create your KDP account.
Review the KDP terms and conditions.
Now this is the part that I told you
we're gonna kind of briefly discuss.
It's going to be a lot of text
and it might take you anywhere
from about a half hour or longer to kinda peel through that
and some of it is gonna be filled full of legalese
and you might be saying, "Oh my gosh, whatever."
It is important that you at least
familiarize yourself with it
so if you don't go through all of it right now,
make sure you go through it later.
And your account is created now.
Essentially, as soon as you accept those terms,
they will go ahead and allow you to have access.
But just a quick heads-up:
They are not going to allow you to publish to Amazon
until you've filled out your tax form
as well as your bank account information
because they're gonna need to track taxes
as well as pay you, of course.
And they aren't going to publish anything
until you have filled those out.
Click Update Now under
"Your account information is incomplete."
Select the country you live in.
Now under "Author/Publisher Information,"
you're gonna fill in with your name,
mailing address, and phone number.
Now, don't try to fool them with
a different type of a mailing address
or a fake phone number.
Honestly, it's gonna be in good hands.
You're gonna wanna make sure
that you're giving them accurate information.
Now comes the part of getting paid.
Now, you're gonna get paid out
60 days after the close of every month.
So for instance, all of your earnings
that you make in January, you're not gonna see
until about the beginning of April.
Payments come by three different ways
and that includes direct deposit, wire transfer, or check.
They were gonna get rid of check a while ago
but apparently, they've held onto that.
Now, there is a minimum threshold in order for you
to actually get a check sent to you.
So you're gonna need to make sure
that you refer to your region through the KDP help page
and see what exactly that threshold is.
In the United States, I believe it's $100.
Now comes the tax information and this is quite possibly
the biggest hurdle and unfortunately,
you're probably gonna have a lot of questions.
You're gonna drop some inside the comments
and I have no issue with that whatsoever.
But I assure you, I am not a tax professional
and so, if you have questions
about how to fill out these forms,
KDP may not help you and I may not be of very much service
so you may want to reach out to a qualified accountant
to walk you through some of those steps,
to make sure everything is put together just right.
Click Tax Information.
Now, for the U.S., you're gonna be using
either a social security number or an EIN,
also known as an Employer Identification Number.
So, if you have a business or an LLC of some sort,
you most likely will have an EIN
and that's where you put it.
Now, outside of the U.S., you will need a tax ID
Now, regardless of the region that you're in,
you know, if you have no taxes in your region,
that's fantastic.
You're still going to need to get a tax ID number
and, again, this is where you're gonna want to
consult an accountant to figure out
how you get a tax identification number.
And before you think that you're gonna
be able to fool Amazon
and putting in some fake information
and a bunch of random numbers,
they do go and they check to make sure everything
and they confirm that it's all on the up and up
before they allow you to publish to their platform.
So you won't receive any payment from Amazon
until they have confirmed all of this information
and you won't be able to publish on Amazon
until you've done that.
If you have questions and you're hung up,
obviously you can drop some inside the comments down below
or you could scroll down to the very bottom
of your Amazon account and it says Contact Us.
Left click on that
and everything's fairly intuitive from there.
Hey, I told you I was gonna tell you
how to self-publish a book.
In fact, I did an entire video series
that walks you from point A to point B
with very little work in between.
That's in this very next video.
Go ahead and click that and I'm gonna walk you
all the way through from beginning to end.
See you there.
(upbeat music)