article – I always wanted to be a published writer. Yes, I know I’ve published 1,000 reviews and articles on The Gadgeteer over the past 24 years, but I’m talking about being the author of a book — a real physical book. The only problem is that I suck at writing fiction. I tried but no luck. But that didn’t stop me from realizing my dream of publishing a book.In fact, I have 23 published (So far) it’s easy, fun, and fast. Even if you’re not a writer, I’ll show you how to do it!
If you’re a writer, you can publish a book even if you’re not!
All you need to do is create a Amazon KDP account. What is KDP? It’s Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon’s self-publishing platform that lets you publish ebooks, paperbacks, and even hardcovers completely free. The books will even appear on Amazon. That’s right, people can buy your book and you’ll get royalties on every sale. Don’t get super excited about being the next George RR Martin because I’ve only made $10 and $10 on the 23 books I’ve published so far. But that’s totally fine with me because it’s a fun experiment and not something I’d hope to be another source of income (at least not yet).
What types of books can you publish with KDP?
The types of books you can publish on the KDP platform are limited only by your imagination. You can publish fiction, non-fiction, comics, cookbooks, travel guides, and more. But you can also create books with low to no content. I’m sure you already know what fiction and non-fiction books are, but little and no content may be a new term for you. Some examples of low-content books are children’s coloring books and activity books. Examples of non-content books are journals, composition books, and journals that have mostly blank, horizontal, or dot grid pages.
My first book published with KDP was draw your own comic book. This is a less content book consisting mostly of various blank comic panel pages that you can use to draw your own comics.
But I’ve also included tips, tricks, and ideas on how to create characters and stories. I had a lot of fun creating this first book.
Then I created a bunch of no content composition notebook. Since I first started this project last September, I decided to make a couple of Halloween-themed notebooks.
Interestingly, spell The book you see above has sold more than any other book I’ve written to date. I guess a lot of witches and warlocks shop on Amazon! 😉
Create the interior of the book
The first step in publishing a book is to create the internal structure of the book. Inside is content. If you were a writer, that would be your story/manuscript. But let’s say you’re not a writer and you want to create a lined journal, journal, journal, etc. You can do the same.
KDP expects to be in PDF format internally. So you need to create multiple lined pages with page numbers to create the interior.You can create interiors from scratch using MS Word and other software, or you can download free ready-made blank/lined interiors from Book Bolts, creative factory. Just Google “KDP’s free lined interiors”. Book Bolt is a really cool site that also lets you generate perfectly sized book cover templates for your next step.
Create a book cover
Once you have the inner pages, you need to create a cover for your book. Book Bolt, Creative Fabrica and canvas is an excellent tool for this task. You can also use cover creation tools built directly into Amazon KDP, but they are not very user friendly. Creating the cover is the hardest part of creating a book, because the cover has to be a specific size based on the number of pages in the book. Tip: There are many tutorials on YouTube for creating interiors and book covers for KDP books. Once you’ve successfully created a book cover, the next time is much easier.
Submit your book and cover to KDP
When you’ve finished the interior and cover, you can upload them to KDP and create a book description, add categories, keywords, and even set a price for your book and see the royalty price per sale.
How long does it take to publish a book?
After you submit your book to the KDP platform, it may take days or even weeks for Amazon to approve the book. But once it’s approved, it’s on Amazon, like 1,000 books out there. As an author, you can buy the book at print costs, but I find it’s faster and only slightly more expensive to buy it like a regular customer if you’re an Amazon Prime member.
final thoughts
While there was a learning curve, I had a lot of fun exercising my creative muscles creating these low- and no-content books. Even though I’ve made less than $30 on published books so far, I’m still excited every time I check the KDP report page and see that someone has bought one of the books I’ve created. KDP is a great way to create the ultimate notebook, journal, and more, and you can even earn a few bucks!
Check Books published by Gadgeteer.
