How to Publish a Book on Amazon KDP, Step by Step (2026)

Publishing a book on Amazon no longer requires a publisher, an agent, or a printing press. With Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), anyone can get a book for sale —as an eBook and in paperback— within days, with nothing paid up front. This guide walks you through the whole process, from opening your account to hitting "Publish," and flags the mistakes that cause the most rejections.

1. Create your KDP account

Sign in at kdp.amazon.com with your Amazon account. Before you can publish, you must complete two required sections:

• Tax information. Amazon runs a short online tax interview. If you're outside the U.S., you typically declare your country and get a reduced treaty withholding rate.
• Bank details. This is how you get paid. You need an account that accepts deposits in the marketplace currency (USD, EUR, GBP, etc.).

Without both, KDP won't let you publish.

2. Prepare the book interior

The interior is the content: text, chapters, table of contents. Amazon accepts several formats, but the two that work best are:

• DOCX for text-only books (novels, essays, nonfiction).
• PDF for fixed-layout books (paperbacks, illustrated books, workbooks).

Rules that avoid rejections

• Use correct margins and bleed for the page size (trim) you choose. For paperback, KDP requires a larger inner margin for the spine (the gutter).
• Insert page breaks at the start of each chapter, not blank lines.
• Number your pages, leaving the front-matter legal pages unnumbered.
• If your book has images, upload them at 300 DPI.

A badly laid-out interior is the number-one cause of "Error processing interior." If you'd rather not wrestle with Word, Booklee outputs the PDF and EPUB already formatted to KDP spec.

3. Design the cover

For an eBook you only need the front cover (JPG or TIFF, at least 1600×2560 px). For paperback you need a wrap cover —back + spine + front in a single file— whose dimensions depend on your page count and paper type.

The cover is the first thing a buyer sees, at thumbnail size: the title has to be readable and the genre instantly clear. We cover this in depth in how to design a book cover that sells.

4. Fill in the product detail page

This is how people find you:

• Title and subtitle. The subtitle is gold for Amazon's internal search: use it to spell out the benefit or content.
• Description. The first two lines show before "read more." Hook the reader there.
• 7 keywords. Think about how your reader searches, not how a critic would describe the book.
• Categories. Pick specific niches: it's easier to be #1 in a subcategory than invisible in a broad one.

5. Choose print options and price

For paperback you pick trim size, color or black-and-white, and matte or glossy finish. Amazon shows your printing cost; your royalty is the price minus that cost minus their cut.

For eBook, the 70% royalty tier requires a price between $2.99 and $9.99 (with per-marketplace equivalents). Below or above that range you earn 35%. We break it down in how much you earn on Amazon KDP.

6. Declare AI use and publish

KDP asks whether you used AI in the text or cover. If the answer is yes, check it: it doesn't penalize your listing, but hiding it violates the terms of service. Then hit "Publish" and Amazon reviews the book (usually a few hours to 72 hours).

Pre-publish checklist

• Tax and bank info complete
• Interior with page breaks and correct margins
• Cover readable at thumbnail size
• Description with a hook in the first two lines
• 7 reader-focused keywords
• Specific, not generic, categories
• AI declaration checked if applicable

Publishing is free and reversible: you can edit the listing, the price, and even the interior afterward. What matters is launching. If you'd like to skip the formatting and design work, Booklee writes, formats, and prepares your book for KDP end to end.