Your KDP Dashboard (Volume One, of Many)
What I thought, when I started writing Your Mileage May Vary, was that I’d run out of discussion topics pretty fast. I realize I’m saying this at the beginning of only my fourth contribution, but as I approach this entry—whose topic is the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform—I’m realizing that nearly every decision point in KDP is another topic in its own right.
Let’s get going.
Amazon’s KDP platform is the first of its kind; an online portal that makes it possible for the self-published author to upload a digital book and—usually within a few hours—put it on sale, online, in the Kindle bookstore.
It’s easy to use, but it’s not simple. There are decisions to be made, and some of those decisions have consequences.
Before you even begin
First, you’ll have to set up an account. Note that KDP accounts don’t cross borders.1 This is one of the ways the decentralized nature of the internet runs afoul of state- and country-specific tax regulations.
You will have to set up the account using the name that matches the one under which you file taxes, which should also be the name on the bank account you attach to the KDP account.
After you’ve been approved, you’ll be greeted by a big “Create+” yellow button. The current language next to this button offers the following formats: eBook, paperback, hardcover book, Kindle Vella. We’re talking about eBooks right now, but all of these will get covered eventually.
Once you’ve clicked through and selected eBook, you’re going to have three full menus that have to be filled in: Details, Content and Pricing.
Do I have little enough to say about each of these categories to cover all of them in this post? I do not! I can’t even cover the first one in its entirety, because my goodness but there is a lot to talk about. Future Me has a lot of work to do!
Kindle eBook Details (1)
Pretty much everything in this menu will directly translate into how your book is displayed in the bookstore.
Language—the primary language in the book. So far, so good.
Book Title—I’m hoping you have a title.
There is a second spot here for a subtitle, which I have never used, but YMMV. I expect this is more common in non-fiction books.
Series—very important, if you’re writing a book in a series; filling this in enables Amazon to list your book as #X in Series Y in the storefront.2
If you don’t know you’re writing a series—if this is a standalone book that becomes the first in a series (hello, me) you can always go back in and add series information later.
Edition Number—you’re only going to use this if you’re publishing something that was previously published, but now has significant changes made to it.
I can see the potential value for a non-fiction book—say, a current-events book with a new chapter added—but not so much for fiction.
Author—this is the name that goes on the book as it’s sold in the bookstore.
If you were worried, when setting up your account, that using your legal name there would mean all the books you publish would be under that name, you can officially relax, because here is where the pen name goes.
Contributors—there are times to use this, but I can almost guarantee that this moment, right now, setting up your first book, is not one of those times.
You may scroll through the list of contributor titles and think, oh, here’s where my editor’s name goes, or, here is where my cover artist’s name goes.
No. Do not do this.
This section is for material contributors to the final product, and probably does not apply to you.3 And the reason I’m telling you No, in boldface, is that if you get this wrong, and add someone here that you should not have, it’s nearly impossible to get the name removed once the book has been published. So unless you want the editor you hired to proofread your book (to cite a common error) to be listed as co-creator forever, do not use this menu.4
Description—this is what everyone who is interested in reading your book will read about your book beforehand. It’s the book-jacket text, essentially. Do not write it now; write it before now, and then rewrite it a bunch, prior to copy/pasting it in.5
Publishing Rights—unless you’re reprinting a public domain work—and I have zero input on how to do that, so look elsewhere—the choice here is, “I own the copyright and I hold the necessary publishing rights.” I’m going to cover copyright and publishing rights later, but in brief: if you wrote this book yourself, you own the copyright. If you didn’t sell or grant the publishing rights to anybody, you own the publishing rights.
Primary Audience—as recently as a month ago, the question posed here was whether the book was primarily for adults, which was KDP’s very, very poorly phrased way of asking if you were publishing erotica. This led to authors having their books—which had some swear words in it, maybe, or violence they didn’t think kids should read—buried in the netherverse of hardcore erotica.
It now asks if your book has sexually explicit images or title, which is a much better phrasing. Respond accordingly.
There is also a reading age question. It’s optional. I am dubious as to its value, but YMMV.
Next: Categories, Keywords and Pre-orders, plus let’s see how much of the “eBook Content” page I can get through.
I.e., if you’re in Spain, you won’t be able to set up a U.S.-based KDP account.
Example: my book, GRAFFITI ON THE WALL OF THE UNIVERSE, is sold as Book 3 in the Sorrow Falls series. There are links in the storefront to the first two books on the page for GRAFFITI.
“Editors” is for anthology publishers. “Illustrators” is for graphics-heavy books. “Author” is if your book was cowritten. And so on. Effectively, the people who need the “Contributors” menu already know it. If you’re not sure, it’s not for you.
I may be speaking from experience.
Formatting the text in this box is a nightmare I have never been able to fully resolve. Do your best; it will probably better than my best.