Do you want to publish your own book?
Then stay tuned because I am going to show you the easiest way to publish your book in
this 3-part series!
And we'll start right NOW!
Hey guys, I am Arun from Tech Library TV and today I am going to show you how to self publish
your own paperback book on Amazon using KDP or kindle direct publishing.
In case, you are looking to publish your "ebook" on Amazon, then you can check out my other
video shown on the notification right now on your screen.
This is a three part series because we have to cover a lot of specifications and details.
If you take them all at once, nothing will remain in our heads.
So, let's take slowly and that's why this became a three part series.
The first section is all about Paperback Content - ISBN, Date, print options, and your manuscript
uploading.
In the 2nd part - i will show you all you need to know about designing the book's cover
using cover creator.
And also about uploading your own cover as a print-ready PDF.
In the last part of this series - we will get into the details of Paperback rights and
pricing.
This video is actually in response to a request from one of Tech Library TV's subscribers:
So, thank you, Mehfuza Rubi for your comment and here is a shout out to you!
There are two ways to print a paperback book through Amazon.
One is thru KDP which is still in the beta stage and the other is using CreateSpace service
by Amazon.
In this video, we are going to talk only about KDP.
I might do a session on Createspace later as I am yet to explore that service and when
I do, you can be sure to get a complete walkthrough of how Createspace works.
Now, Amazon KDP is known for its ebook self-publishing industry.
Starting late 2016, KDP has been supporting Paperback publishing too, which actually is
a great news because every published author out there knows how tiresome and time-consuming
it is to go through a traditional book publishing process.
And regardless of whether you have experience publishing your paperback book or not, Amazon's
KDP has great features to offer that is going to make it all seem ridiculously easy.
Publishing a paperback using KDP has 3 important steps to take care of:
1. Paperback Details,
2. Paper back Content,
3. Paperback Rights & Pricing.
The first section, which is the "Paperback Details" section, is actually very simple.
It's quite self-explanatory
What's more important and confusing is the 2nd part - the Paperback Content.
And that's exactly what we are going to see in detail here in this first part video.
If you still have any questions on filling your Details section, you can let me know
in the comments section below.
So, let's jump to our 2nd tab - paperback content.
The best part of KDP is the free ISBN that comes along with it.
Just imagine, in the traditional world of publishing, ISBN alone costs an arm and a
leg for small time authors who are just starting out.
KDP can provide you with a "FREE ISBN" to publish your paperback.
Publication date: if this is the first time you are publishing your paperback book, leave
this blank; if not, enter the date on which your book was first published.
Print Options: This is the most important section because the sales revenue from your
paperback books is directly connected to the settings you choose here.
NEVER leave this section to its defaults.
I repeat - NEVER LEAVE THIS SECTION TO ITS DEFAULTS.
And the settings that i am going to show you should work for majority of the situations,
unless you have a completely different requirement and you know what you are doing.
On the other hand, if you are a beginner and are looking to publish a regular paperback
book for your fiction or non-fiction book, then the settings we are going to see now
should fit most of your needs perfectly.
So, with print options, there are 4 different metrics for us to understand:
1. interior and paper type,
2. trim size,
3. bleed settings and
4. cover finish.
Let's go over all of them one-by-one.
1.
interior and paper type: interior refers to the color of your book that comes in 2 options
- B&W and color - Choose B&W unless you have images in your book, that has to be printed
in color.
Color printing increases your printing cost.
We will see how the cost is calculated in a few minutes, but for now, just choose B&W.
Paper type can be either cream paper or white paper.
This is again your choice, but if you have images that you are ok in printing in B&W,
then go for Black & white interior with white paper.
If you just have text in your book and not many images, go for cream paper.
You can decide the paper type based on the book cover's color that you are planning to
design.
I strongly recommend white paper type which works best for all situations and looks contrastingly
better compared with cream paper... but the choice of paper type is completely yours.
2.
Speaking of the book covers - i suggest Glossy finish as it gives a shiny look - It makes
black covers darker and artwork on your cover more striking.
It's typical for textbooks, kid's books, and nonfiction...
Matte finish will have a minimal soft glow on the surface and a subtle, polished look.
It's typical for novels and other fiction.
but again this is your choice.
3.
Coming to the Trim Size - "Book sizes" are known in printing business as trim sizes since
that's where the book is trimmed at the last stage of production.
Click on 'select a different size' and choose 5.5 x 8.5 in.
This is the standard size for a lot of the books.
The size you choose determines the number of pages - and number of pages determines
the printing cost.
The more the pages the more will be the cost; at the same time, if you want the standard
size like a regular sized book - go for the 5.5 x 8.5 in or the 5.25 x 8 in (i.e. 5.25
wide and 8 in high).
If you are confused how to design this page setting in Word, KDP helps us with pre-designed
paperback manuscript Word templates so we can download and start writing in it.
I will provide a link to that page in the descriptions below.
4.
Bleed settings - 'BLEED' is nothing but the overflowing design elements on to the edge
of the page.
That obviously looks too bad when the book gets printed.
We will choose No Bleed.
Changing the bleed settings will not affect the printing cost.
To summarize, the cover finish, paper type, and bleed settings will not affect your printing
cost.
But Colour and trim size affects your printing cost, that's why we don't want to leave these
to the default settings.
These steps cover 50% of important settings for printing your paperback book.
Next comes uploading your manuscript - the book content that you get once you finish
writing.
Typically, your Word Document.
Now that we saw the 4 basic and important settings, here is a 7 Step checklist to use
BEFORE you upload the manuscript because if certain conditions are not met, your manuscript
might get rejected.
#1.
Add page numbers first, even before you start typing the book - because if you add them
later, it can disturb other formatting. here's a quick walk-through of how to do that.
#2.
Indent the paragraphs. You can watch the screen on how to do that.
#3 Paragraph spacing and here's how to do that.
#4.Justify Text
#5.
Set page size
#6 Set margins
Lastly #7.
Save file as a PDF - here I recommend the FREE Foxit Reader PDF printer.
You can get its download links from the description below.
Just follow the settings shown on the screen to make your PDF ready for uploading to KDP
This file is now ready to be uploaded as our paperback manuscript.
Once uploaded it will process for a minute or two based on the number of pages in your book.
That's all.
This completes our 1st part in this 3 video part series.
I will see you again in the 2nd part, which is all about cover creation for your paperback book.