Published on KDP. Stay Tuned for Updates!

[mightyblues78]

Today, I have self-published the first volume in my serialised short horror story collection, Darkness Calls, via Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing programme.

www.amazon.co.uk/Darkness-Calls-Collection-Stories-ebook/dp/B007JWGJT8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331717800&sr=8-1

I thought that others may like to know about my experiences, so I've started this thread to keep interested members up to date with proceedings. Also, if you have any questions, post them in this thread and I'll try to reply as soon as I possibly can.


To begin: the actual publishing process.

- Filling in the information on the book details screen was very simple, each point has an information button to explain what is required which can be very handy.

- The actual uploading of the book file is fast and you are able to check a quick preview of how your book will look on a Kindle device before continuing to the next stage.

- A quick word of warning: make sure you read the Formatting Guide before you try to upload your book. I didn't the very first time I tried and the result was a jumbled mess! Correct use of page breaks, spacing and paragraph sets is very important to make sure that your book looks and reads well on the screen.

- Having uploaded the book file and cover image it is then simply a case of determining your price point and royalty rate (which is partially constrained by your selected pricing) before sending the book for publishing.

- My book was in review for approximately 1 hour before being approved for publishing. It was then a further 11 hours until my book was visible and available for purchase on all the Amazon sites that I had selected on the book details page. This is an excellent turnaround time in my opinion.


...which brings us up to date. I have, this morning, set my book to be made available for FREE between Friday 16th March and midnight on Sunday 18th March 2012. Amazon gives you the opportunity to promote your book as a free download for a total of 5 days during a 90 day period.

Thanks for reading this post, I hope it has been of some use. I will update the thread as new information comes to light and to let anyone who may be interested know how my book is performing. As I mentioned above, if you have any questions about the process, then please just leave a question in this thread and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Thanks,
Andy.

[Lily]

Congratulations, Andy. May you have many sales.

[mightyblues78]

Well, the free download period has finished and I was really pleased with the take-up. Overall, 217 people on Amazon's US, UK and German sites downloaded a copy. If just 5% of those people write a review then I'll have 10 reviews (good or bad) to my name which I'm very happy with!

As I mentioned in my first post, KDP gives you the opportunity to make your book available for free for a total of 5 days in any 90 day period. This has proven to be a good way of promoting my work and increasing the chance of getting reviews which, in turn, can further promote the book.

Thanks for reading, I'll update with any more news as things progress.

Cheers,
Andy.

[Richard]

Good for you Andy. Glad your publishing efforts went well and I hope it continues with the rest of your series.

[Lily]

Congratulations again, Andy. I've added your book to the carousel.