- Would you like to learn how to self publish
a children's book on Amazon in five minutes?
Yeah, well make sure you stay tuned to today's video.
Self-published authors (till dings)
get a chance to win a piece of $12,500.
Get more details from our sponsors,
North Street Book Prize competition,
later in the video.
Hey, I'm Dale L Roberts,
bestselling author, as well as the self publishing advocate
who wants to show you how to publish books that sell.
And today marks the fourth and final installment
in the How to Self Publish a Children's Book Series.
If you missed any of the previous part,
might I recommend you visit any of the links down below
where we talk about researching,
writing, and producing the children's books,
that way we can publish it.
To start out this video,
it's important that you prepare in advance.
You're going to want to make sure that your eBook
and print book metadata is all in order.
That means your title, subtitle, book description.
(bell dings)
The next thing is, make sure you have all of your covers
set for your print and your eBook,
and also your description is HTML formatted.
Don't know what that is?
I think you know,
down below we've got a link to showing you
exactly how to do HTML formatting and why it's important.
And also you're going to want to make sure that you have
properly formatted interiors for both eBook and print book.
We showed that in the very last tutorial.
So I think it goes without saying,
you need to set up a KDP account.
So if you haven't set it up yet,
please do so.
You're going to make sure that you set up your tax info
as well as your bank account info
before you can even publish a single book.
All right, so let's go ahead.
Let's start the clock and see if we can do this in about
five minutes.
Let's start out with eBook.
You're going to sign into KDP,
then click on Kindle eBook,
fill in your title,
subtitle,
series name,
and number, if applicable,
and edition number, if applicable.
(relaxing jazz music)
Fill in the author name and any contributors.
Note: only put contributors
if you have permission from them ahead of time,
otherwise leave them off.
Fill in the description.
Now, I highly recommend formatting it in HTML,
as I mentioned before.
Verify you own the copyright.
Fill in the seven keyword slots.
Now, remember back in the very first part of the series,
when I had to do seven keywords?
We're going to slip those seven keywords in here.
So just copy and paste them straight on over.
(relaxing jazz music)
Now, set the categories.
This is probably going to be a bit more labor intensive,
and I'm just going to just skip kind of right through it.
But you want to pick two categories that are relevant to
your publication.
So that way Amazon can categorize you properly inside their
Kindle store or their bookstore.
Select the age and grade range.
Now, we've done all our due diligence on this
and we did our research in the very first part
of the series.
So all you're going to have to do is put in the age ranges
and of course the grade range for those specific ages.
Next, select, I am ready to release my book now,
or you can select the pre-order option,
should you need time to promote your book launch.
For demonstration purposes,
I'll be releasing this immediately.
Click save and continue.
Now we're on to step two:
the Kindle eBook content.
Digital rights management is a
way to protect your eBook against piracy.
However, it hinders most readers
from sharing from one device to the next.
Be careful.
Once you select this, you cannot remove it.
I'm just going to select no.
Now upload your manuscript.
Now, this is the MOBI file that we created
in the previous video with the Kindle kids book creator.
Next, upload the Kindle eBook cover.
I have one ready-made and I select the
upload a cover you already have,
and then upload your cover file.
I have a JPEG file for my cover.
Go ahead and launch previewer to see how it looks on Kindle.
(relaxing jazz music)
Bear in mind,
you should have already seen it through the Kindle kids
book creator in the previous video,
but it always is a good idea to double check to make sure
the layout looks just right.
Once you're set, click book details in the top left corner,
scroll down to the bottom of the page.
If you have your own ISBN and publishing imprint,
you'd enter it here.
Otherwise, leave it blank.
It's not essential to eBooks.
Click save and continue.
Next, decide whether you want to enroll your eBook
in KDP select or not.
If you select this,
your eBook cannot be published elsewhere
while enrolled in KDP select.
I'm going to select it.
For territories, keep it on a worldwide
if you own the rights,
selecting individual diminishes your reach.
Now, let's choose pricing.
To make it easier for newbies,
select view service,
where KDP will give you a good idea on the normal pricing
for your niche.
Now, select other marketplaces and adjust the pricing
below the dollar.
It's how most pricing is done
and customers find it more appealing.
Now, click publish your Kindle eBook.
Once it's done processing,
you'll be prompted to start your paperback.
Let's do it right away.
The nice part about doing print right after eBook
is the metadata for the book
is already going to carry right over.
So you'll see the title, the subtitle,
the author name, the series name
and number and carries on over.
I highly recommend you tweak your book description
for your print book.
There are features you don't have electronically,
but have on print.
Another suggestion: use keywords relevant to print books.
Admittedly, I'm being lazy and I'm not changing it,
but I'll change them later.
I'll leave the category selection as is
and then select save and continue.
In the next step, we'll need an ISBN.
I'm going to select assign me a free KDP ISBN.
Feel free to use the second option
should you have your own ISBN.
For publication date,
you can select the date if it's been previously published.
If you're releasing it right now,
just leave it blank.
KDP will timestamp it after publishing.
Now, select your print options.
You can choose the type of paper, the trim size.
I'm choosing five by eight for my book.
The bleed setting should stay as no bleed
if it's a normal print book without graphics spilling over
the edge of the page,
and choose whether you want your cover
to be a soft matte or glossy finish.
Next, upload your manuscript.
I'd recommend a PDF as the best format.
Upload your cover file.
PDF is the only file type accepted.
Scroll down and select launch previewer.
This part takes a while,
so be patient.
Before we get to the very next step,
I want to share with you how you can win up to $5,000
(till dings)
with your self published children's book.
winningwriters.com presents the sixth annual
North Street Book Prize competition
that is available for self published authors
just like you in six different categories,
and one of those categories happens to be
children's picture books.
They're awarding up to $12,500
for all the winners across
various categories.
If you'd like to enter for a chance to win
the grand prize of $5,000,
head on over to winningwriters.com/dale.
Once the print previewer appears,
go through your book.
If there are any issues,
it'll tell you in the left panel.
Some issues are minor and won't create an issue.
In the event they do,
contact KDP support for assistance.
Click approve.
Scroll down and you'll see a summary of the print costs.
You do not have to cover this charge.
Cost is included when a customer orders your book.
Now, click save and continue.
Here's the distribution reach.
Again, leave it to worldwide to reach the most markets.
Now, price your book.
Stick close to a price other books in your niche
are selling.
To reach even more markets,
select expanded distribution.
Your royalties will drop in that category only.
Some trim sizes of books will not get expanded distribution.
Now, select the seven marketplaces and adjust the pricing
so it's below the dollar,
like we did the eBook.
Once you're set, click publish your paperback book button.
Then you're done.
And within about a day to three days,
your eBook and your print book should be available
on the Amazon marketplace.
You'll get an email letting you know about it.
And congratulations,
you're officially a children's book author.
(triumphant music)
Big kudos to you and a banana sticker for sure.
Did you miss the rest of the series?
Did you miss the first few parts?
Might I recommend that you backtrack?
I'm actually going to leave a link to the video right here.
You just click on this very next video so you can see
exactly what you need to do to start this full process.
I'll see you there.