What You Need Before You Start
KDP is free to use, but you need a few things in place before the publishing flow will let you finish.
A free KDP account
Sign up at kdp.amazon.com with an Amazon account. There is no fee to create an account or to publish, and you can use the same account for ebooks, paperbacks, and hardcovers.
Tax information
KDP runs a short tax interview the first time you set up your account. It asks for your name, address, and tax identification details so Amazon can report royalties correctly. You cannot receive payments until this is complete.
A bank account
Royalties are paid by electronic transfer, so you need to add a bank account that can receive deposits in a currency KDP supports. Add it under your account settings before you publish.
Your finished files
You need a manuscript file, a cover, and your book details ready: title, subtitle, author name, description, keywords, and categories. AIWriteBook produces the manuscript and cover in KDP-ready formats for you.
The Step-by-Step Walkthrough
Once your account is set up, publishing a single title takes about thirty minutes of focused work. Here is the full flow, screen by screen.
Sign in and click Create
Log in to kdp.amazon.com and go to your Bookshelf. Click the Create button and choose what you are publishing: Kindle eBook for a digital edition, or Paperback or Hardcover for a print-on-demand edition. Each format is its own listing, so most authors publish the ebook and the paperback as a linked pair.
Enter your book details
On the first screen you fill in language, book title, optional subtitle, series information, edition number, and the primary author plus any contributors. Take your time with the title and subtitle, because they are hard to change later and they carry real search weight on Amazon.
Write your description and set publishing rights
The description is the blurb readers see on your product page, so make it compelling rather than a plot summary. Then declare your publishing rights: you own the copyright, or the work is in the public domain. Choosing this incorrectly is a common cause of takedowns.
Add keywords and categories
KDP gives you up to seven keyword fields and up to three browse categories. Use specific phrases a reader would actually type, not single broad words, and pick categories where your book genuinely belongs. If your book is for children, you also set an age and grade range here.
Answer the AI content question
At the manuscript step KDP asks whether your book contains AI-generated content. Answer honestly: AI-generated means the AI created the content even if you edited it, AI-assisted means you wrote it and AI helped refine it. Disclosing AI use is completely fine. Misrepresenting it is what causes account problems.
Upload your manuscript
For a Kindle ebook, upload an EPUB file. For a paperback or hardcover, upload a print-ready, properly formatted PDF sized to your chosen trim. KDP converts and processes the file, which usually takes a couple of minutes.
Upload your cover
For an ebook, upload a cover image around 2560 by 1600 pixels at a 1.6:1 ratio, or build one with KDP's free Cover Creator. For print, you need a full wraparound PDF cover that includes the front, spine, and back sized to your page count.
Preview with KDP Previewer
Before you move on, open the KDP Previewer and read through your book the way a customer would. Check chapter breaks, the table of contents, image placement, and front and back matter. This is the last cheap moment to catch a formatting mistake.
Set pricing and territories
Choose your marketplaces, your list price, and your royalty option. You can also decide here whether to enroll the ebook in KDP Select. KDP shows your estimated royalty for each marketplace as you type the price.
Click Publish
Review the summary, confirm you have the rights, and click Publish. KDP reviews the title, which can take up to 72 hours. When it clears, the book goes live on Amazon and the listing status in your Bookshelf changes to Live.
Getting Your Files From AIWriteBook
AIWriteBook does not upload to Amazon for you, but it does hand you everything KDP asks for in the formats KDP expects. The handoff is two steps.
Finish the Publish step
Inside AIWriteBook, complete the Publish step: confirm your title, author name, and blurb, pick your categories, and generate or upload your cover. This is the same metadata you will paste into the KDP book details screen, so getting it right here saves you typing it twice.
Use the Export step
The Export step gives you the EPUB for your Kindle ebook and a print-ready PDF for your paperback. Download both. The EPUB goes into KDP's ebook manuscript field and the PDF goes into the paperback manuscript field.
Download the cover in KDP Standard
When you export the cover, choose the KDP Standard aspect ratio. That gives you an image sized to Amazon's spec so the ebook cover uploads cleanly without cropping or rescaling.
Upload everything yourself
With the EPUB, the PDF, and the cover saved locally, you go through the KDP flow above and upload them. AIWriteBook handles the writing, formatting, and exporting. You stay in control of the actual Amazon listing.
Royalties and Pricing
KDP pays you a percentage of every sale, and the percentage depends on the format and the price you choose.
Ebook royalties
Kindle ebooks earn a 70 percent royalty when you price them between $2.99 and $9.99 in the main marketplaces. Price outside that band, above or below, and the royalty drops to 35 percent. Most fiction and nonfiction authors sit inside the 70 percent window for that reason.
Print royalties
For paperbacks and hardcovers, your royalty is the list price minus the printing cost minus Amazon's share. Printing cost scales with page count and color, so KDP shows you the exact number before you commit to a price.
KDP Select
You can enroll an ebook in KDP Select, which puts it in Kindle Unlimited and earns you a share of a monthly pool based on pages read. The trade-off is exclusivity: a book in KDP Select cannot sell its ebook edition anywhere else.
Payment timing
Amazon pays royalties about 60 days after the end of the month in which the sale happened, by transfer to the bank account on file. Each marketplace pays in its own currency unless you set up conversion.
Why Authors Choose KDP
KDP is the default first stop for self-publishers, and the reasons are practical.
- It is free to publish, with no upfront cost for an ebook, paperback, or hardcover
- Print is on-demand, so you never hold inventory or pay for a print run
- Your book reaches the largest book-buying audience on the internet
- Ebook and print editions link together on a single product page
- You keep your rights unless you opt into KDP Select exclusivity for the ebook
- Reporting, pricing, and royalty dashboards are all in one place
- Kindle Unlimited gives discovery-stage authors a way to earn from page reads
Also Publish to NanoReads
KDP is not the only place your finished book can live. NanoReads is AIWriteBook's own reading platform, and it works well as a complementary channel alongside Amazon.
Free and one-click
Publishing to NanoReads is free and happens in one click from inside AIWriteBook. There is no separate upload flow and no multi-day review wait, so your book can be readable within minutes of finishing it.
An audience that is already there
NanoReads has more than 100,000 registered readers across web, iOS, and Android. Putting your book in front of them is a low-effort way to gather early readers and reviews while your KDP listing is still in approval.
You keep your rights
Publishing to NanoReads does not take any rights from you, and it is not exclusive. Think of it as a nice extra distribution channel rather than a replacement for Amazon, you can do both.
A Few Things First-Time Authors Get Wrong
Myth: Publishing on KDP costs money
It does not. Creating an account and publishing an ebook, paperback, or hardcover is free. You only ever pay the printing cost, and that comes out of the sale price rather than your pocket.
Myth: You need an ISBN before you start
KDP assigns a free ISBN to print editions if you do not have your own, and ebooks use an ASIN instead of an ISBN. You can bring your own ISBN if you want, but you do not have to.
Myth: AI-written books are banned
They are not. KDP accepts books written with AI as long as you answer the AI content disclosure question honestly. The problem authors hit is misrepresenting AI use, not using AI at all.
The Bottom Line
Publishing on Amazon KDP is a free, well-documented process: set up your account, fill in your book details, upload a manuscript and a cover, answer the AI question honestly, set your price, and publish.
The part that takes real work is having a finished, well-formatted book and a cover ready to upload. That is the gap AIWriteBook closes, it writes the book, formats the manuscript, designs a KDP-spec cover, and exports the exact files KDP asks for.
Write the book in AIWriteBook, export your EPUB, PDF, and cover, upload them through the KDP flow above, and optionally one-click your finished book to NanoReads while Amazon's review runs.