Self Publishing a Book on Amazon | The Complete Beginners Guide (2024)

[@mirandathorn]

Thank you, Dale! This is perfect time. I have to do a lecture in October on self publishing for my writer's group and it's nice to have a resource to point them to that's an actual walk through.

[@DaleLRoberts]

Wonderful! Thanks so much.

[@Antzombieslayer]

Very well-informed video Dale. I've gone to your channel when I self-published my eBook 10 years ago. I'm doing it again as I'm self-publishing my second book sometime early next year. I'll use this video as a step-by-step guide to ensure I'm on the right path for success. Thank you for all this information.

[@DaleLRoberts]

Happy to help!

[@tinadietz9262]

WOW. Damn, Dale! This is both generous and thorough, which I've come to expect from you but I'm always grateful for and amazed by.

[@DaleLRoberts]

Thanks, Tina! It was long overdue. I've done some tutorials for beginners, but none quite as deep as this one.

[@coffee_cookies_books]

Fantastic video as usual :) I went the KDP route for my first novel. One thing I heard in a video from Bethany Atazedah was the idea that having the first book in KDP would be a great "push" to push the second book in the series with less needed investment by the reader. So I will likely leave that one there, and then when book 2 comes out at the end of the year that one will not go into KDP. That will then give me a good comparison on performance as well. We shall see how it goes :) LOL

[@DaleLRoberts]

Good stuff! Bethany's one of my favorites.

[@peterwachira4422]

Amazing lessons

[@DaleLRoberts]

Hey, thanks so much, Peter! I see you're a new channel member. Make sure you browse the backlog of videos for channel members. There's a tab on my main landing page that says "Memberships". You'll get all the previous posts and videos there.

[@vanessadawson]

Thanks, I learned so much.

[@DaleLRoberts]

I perfect! I'm currently producing a long-form step-by-step tutorial for ebooks and for print books. Viewers will be able to follow along and not feel rushed in the publishing process. I'm going to keep it as close to real-time as possible so even a day one newbie can keep up. Stay tuned!

[@snoopyfanno1]

I had my book put on audiobook with ACX. It was not AI read, I had many options for readers and auditioned for the reading. I was lucky to get someone to read for free with a 50/50 split on royalties

[@DaleLRoberts]

Well done!

[@robinstrachan2884]

Dale, what are the reasons one would write under a pen name other than anonymity.

[@DaleLRoberts]

To separate brands. For instance, I have some children's books that I didn't feel fit my nonfiction brand, so I used the name Dale Lewis. Multi-genre authors have a much harder hill to climb because readers can be rather fickle. You don't want to publish a steamy romance novel and car repair manual under the same name because it'll confuse your readers. It's much better to keep the niches separated than put together. Now, is that a hard and fast rule? No, but it's certainly worth considering. The few authors who do well with multi-genre have the deeper pockets and reach of traditional publishing companies. Also, some publishing companies hire ghostwriters to produce books for a hot and trending niche. Those are a couple reasons off the top of my head. I know there are other reasons, but they're not coming to me at the moment.

[@wmd_tlj]

Good day Mr Dale. Please 8 have a question. Is the phrase "INTERMITTENT FASTING" trademarked?

[@DaleLRoberts]

I'm not sure. You'll have to look it up on the US Patent and Trademark Office site.

[@mturra81]

Great video!!! There's a lot going on in social media about trademarks of phrases and titles. Can you please do a deep dive video into this subject currently? I'm wondering if someone publishes something with popular terms and phrases, and then someone else trademarks it, do you have to unpublish? 🤔

[@DaleLRoberts]

Hmmm, I feel like that’d be a good question for a lawyer. My gut says if you see there’s a trademark, approach the owner about continued use of the trademark.

[@mturra81]

@@DaleLRoberts It does sound quite tricky! It gets confusing when dealing with timelines. Thank you!!!

[@DaleLRoberts]

Two people pop off the top of my head - Helen Sedwick and Michael La Ronn. Helen wrote the Self-Publishers Legal Handbook. And Michael La Ronn went to college to study law; he has a popular KZbin channel for authors. Give him a shot too. I’ll put this on my list of video ideas. I’d like to know the answer too. Maybe my lawyer will comp me for a video? Haha jk, he doesn’t and probably won’t. 🤣👏

[@mturra81]

@@DaleLRoberts I greatly appreciate the referrals! It is good to know for KDP authors who want to stay compliant and make sure credit is not mistakenly taken away from others. :)

[@dsd5705]

Thank you for this video! Regarding the AI question, I am using AI for some of the editing functions, but not to create the content, do I check “yes”?

[@DaleLRoberts]

You check "no"' since you're only using AI for assistance. If AI generated the content, then you'd tick "yes."

[@dsd5705]

@@DaleLRobertsThanks for the prompt response! Super live your channel.

[@MohamedAbaakil-lg3ij]

thank you so much

[@DaleLRoberts]

You're welcome!

[@beatrocker91]

Dale or anyone, I self published a kids book on Amazon. I unfortunately used their ISBN. Am I able to get my own ISBN for the same book now that I can afford one or is it too late? Also I have the same book but now in another language. Do I need a separate ISBN for the translated book or can the same one be used?

[@DaleLRoberts]

Just delist the book and publish a second edition with the new ISBN. I cover ISBNs in this video: Buy Your Own ISBN or Not? kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqbQhHqDgJJ1hpo

[@reynold1350]

Hi Dale, great content as usual. Can authors also enroll in KDP select and publish on Pubby for reviews at the same time during the 90 days?

[@DaleLRoberts]

Hmmm, you might want to ask KDP support that question. It seems like it should be good, but I'm not 100% sure.

[@reynold1350]

@@DaleLRoberts Cheers Dale.

[@barbaramartinez7871]

I apologize, this may be off topic, but I noticed accessing categories on Amazon is wonky. My book is in the American Historical Fiction and American Historical Romance categories. I used to go to Literature & Fiction and keep choosing until I reached my category. Now when you choose Literature & Fiction, there is no choice for Historical Fiction. Same with Romance category. Are you aware of changes Amazon is working on and eventually these will be added back in or is Amazon trying to make it harder to find books in those categories which I realize doesn't make any sense. Thanks for all your videos. I hope there is some kind of clarification on this topic. PS - there was a prompt to complete a short survey on this on Amazon and that made me wonder if they are creating changes to the presentation of categories and seeking feedback. I commented that I could not longer find historical fiction/historical romance.

[@DaleLRoberts]

They're constantly changing categories in order to better serve the customers. I'd recommend either contact support or get access to Publisher Rocket. Rocket helps scour Amazon for the best categories without having to constantly track down a category that may or may not be there. Send your feedback; they're listening.

[@DanRenaudJax]

What about giving away a bunch of copies on the condition they read it as a sales tactic

[@DaleLRoberts]

Yep, that's what's called an advance reader copy. Give away the copies, but make sure they post a review. Here's a video where I cover it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gIu2iZmdh7R1o6M. I hope that helps!

[@OTHMANE_DESIGN]

can i publish kids stories thats about 24 page?

[@DaleLRoberts]

Sure, but you won’t be able to do the hardcover through KDP since the minimum page count is much higher.

[@pix8890]

Hello Sir, My kdp account has been closed and amazon didn’t reinstate it after many requests. Now can i open another account in the name of my wife? Is there any risk of being terminated by kdp after this? Waiting for your precious response

[@DaleLRoberts]

You've got two options, and I'd address it in this order: 1) Reply to the email notification about your account termination. If you don't see it, check your spam folder. If you still don't see it, make sure you're in the right email account associated with your KDP account. That's literally the ONLY thing you can do to reinstate your account. 2) Hire a lawyer to represent you and get your account back. BUT, that's barring you didn't violate any rules. What you shouldn't do is open another account, especially if you're impersonating someone. That could get you in trouble BIG time and I'd hate for that to happen. Could your wife open an account with KDP? In theory, yes. I just don't know if Amazon will deny or revoke access to your wife because of your termination. They're known for closing accounts for some of the wildest reasons and trying to get access back in is much harder. According to their Terms & Conditions, they reserve the right to close your account for any reason they want without justification. Sadly, we all agree to their Terms & Conditions, so there's very little wiggle room. They further go on to state in the Terms & Conditions that they do NOT want terminated account holders to open another account, because if they're caught, they'll be banned again. My recommendation? If you're looking to publish your books on Amazon, there are many alternatives you can look into. And, remember, there is life off Amazon through retailers like Barnes & Noble, Apple, Google Play Books, Kobo Writing Life. Where one door closes, dozens of other doors are still open. Give them a shot; you might surprise yourself.

[@pix8890]

@@DaleLRoberts Thank you for your reply sir. My doubts are cleared.Much appreciate your response🙏

[@PapaU81]

Beware!!! of Amazon KDP , don't put your eggs all-in-one basket. They will terminate your account for the littlest mistake. And you're out of business. Ruthless, Got me for a simple title Error out of 6 million books.What's the chances, lol

[@DaleLRoberts]

Yep, I’ve got many videos covering the dangers too.