How to Publish an eBook on Amazon KDP (2026 Step-by-Step Guide)

Go to kdp.amazon.com and sign in with an Amazon account (a regular shopping account works, or create a dedicated one). You'll need to complete a tax interview — KDP requires this before you can receive royalty payments, and US authors will fill out a W-9, non-US authors a W-8BEN. This step alone trips people up because the tax interview asks for an EIN or SSN and can take a day or two to process if you're claiming a tax treaty benefit as a non-US author, so do this before you're ready to publish, not the day you want to go live.

You'll also add a bank account for royalty payouts and a publisher/author name — this doesn't have to match your legal name, but it's the name that appears on every book you publish under this account unless you override it per-title.

From the KDP Bookshelf, click "Create" and choose eBook (you can add a paperback or hardcover edition to the same title later without starting over). The Details screen asks for your title, subtitle, series information if applicable, edition number, author name, and description.

The description field is the single highest-leverage piece of copy on this entire form — it's what shows on your Amazon product page and it's what converts a browser into a buyer. Lead with the outcome or transformation the reader gets, not a summary of the table of contents. "A 30-day system for building your first $1,000 in freelance income" outperforms "This book covers freelancing, client acquisition, and pricing" because the first tells a reader what they get and the second tells them what's inside, which is a much weaker hook.

You get two browse categories and seven keyword slots, and both are genuinely undervalued by first-time publishers. Categories determine which bestseller lists your book is eligible for — a category with less competition means an easier path to a "#1 Bestseller" badge, which is real social proof even in a narrow subcategory. Search Amazon's category tree for the most specific subcategory that honestly fits your book rather than the broadest one; "Business & Money > Job Hunting > Freelancing" beats "Business & Money" for a freelancing guide, both because it's less competitive and because the readers browsing it are more qualified.

Keywords are what your book matches against when someone searches Amazon directly, which for non-fiction is often a bigger traffic source than browse categories. Use actual phrases a buyer would type — "freelance writing for beginners" — not single disconnected words. Amazon's own search-suggest (type a partial phrase into the Amazon search bar and see what autocompletes) is free keyword research that most authors never bother checking before publishing.

The Content screen is where you confirm your book isn't public domain, select DRM (Digital Rights Management — most authors leave this off since it does little to prevent piracy and can complicate legitimate reader use across devices), and upload your manuscript file and cover.

KDP's own previewer renders your uploaded file exactly as a Kindle device would, across several virtual device sizes. Actually use it — check at minimum a phone-size and a tablet-size preview, since a table of contents or image that looks right on one can be broken on the other. This is the step most authors skip and where most last-minute reformatting gets triggered.

Your cover needs to be at least 2,560 x 1,600 pixels for the recommended quality tier, in RGB color, as a JPEG or TIFF. If you generated your cover with an AI tool like getebook.ai, check the resolution before uploading — many AI image generators default to a lower output size than KDP's recommendation and need an upscale pass.

This is where the actual math matters. KDP offers two royalty options: 35% at any price point from $0.99 to $200, or 70% for books priced between $2.99 and $9.99 (with a delivery fee deducted based on file size, which is negligible for text-only eBooks).

The 70% tier is the obvious default for almost every non-fiction book in that price band — a $6.99 book at 70% nets you roughly $4.55 per sale versus $2.30 at the 35% tier for the same price. The 35% tier only makes sense above $9.99 (where 70% isn't available at all) or below $2.99, where you might deliberately price low for volume or as a loss-leader into a series.

You also choose whether to enroll in KDP Select, which requires 90-day exclusivity to Amazon (no selling the eBook elsewhere, including your own site) in exchange for eligibility in Kindle Unlimited's page-read payouts and access to promotional tools like Kindle Countdown Deals and free promotional days. For a first book with no existing audience elsewhere, KU exclusivity is usually worth it — the incremental reach from KU's subscriber base tends to outweigh what you'd realistically sell on other platforms at that stage.

After you submit, KDP reviews the book before it goes live — typically 24 to 72 hours in 2026, though it can run longer during high-volume periods. You'll get an email when it's approved and live, at which point it can take a few more hours to fully propagate across Amazon's search index.

The most common rejection reasons aren't exotic. Content that reads as low-effort or AI-generated without proper disclosure has drawn increased scrutiny — KDP requires you to disclose in the publishing form whether your content is AI-generated, and inconsistent or missing disclosure is a real flag reviewers check for, separate from whether AI-assisted content is allowed at all (it is, when disclosed). Formatting so broken that the previewer itself throws errors is the second most common cause of delay, which is exactly why the previewer check in step 4 isn't optional. Metadata that doesn't match content — keywords stuffed with terms unrelated to the book, or a title that overpromises relative to the actual content — draws manual review and possible rejection under Amazon's content guidelines.

If you do get rejected, KDP's notification email usually names the specific guideline violated. Fix that specific issue and resubmit rather than guessing at a broader rewrite — most rejections are narrow and fixable in under an hour.