The last few months we have focused on the number one reason why writers today choose self-publishing over and over again — CONTROL.  Via self-publishing, writers control book titles, book covers, book content (story and words), publishing, copyrights, and promotion.

But we also have to sell our e-books.  To do this, we turn to Direct Sale Vendors.  Direct Sale Vendors sell our e-books for a percentage of the sale.

Who are the top Direct Sale Vendors?

• Kindle Direct Publishing Platform (Amazon) — KDP
• Barnes & Noble ePubit Platform (Nook) — ePubit
• Apple iTunes Connect Platform (iPad) — iBookstore

Listing the KDP platform first was not by accident.  Why?  Because the leading e-reader on the market today is the Amazon Kindle.

First introduced in 2007, the Kindle continues to improve and has multiple versions available today:

·         Kindle
·         Kindle 2
·         Kindle DX
·         Kindle Keyboard
·         Kindle Touch
·         Kindle Fire Tablet

Last week, we discussed the first two questions we must ask ourselves before uploading our book to Amazon to sell:

1)      Do we have a converted manuscript?
2)      Do we want to sell via the regular Kindle Direct Publishing Platform, or do we want to sell via the exclusive Kindle Direct Publishing Select Platform?

So what’s next?

First we want to visit the KDP home page.

From there, we will sign in using our Amazon account.  If a new user doesn’t already have an Amazon account, there is a button allowing them to set one up.

Once inside, we want to click over to the Bookshelf where we will add our title, select which platform we want to use, and complete other information including:

• Book Details
• Contributor Details  — if self-published, the contributor is the author
• Publisher Details  — if self-published, the publisher is the author
• Language
• Publication Date
• Rights  — specifically copyrights
• DRM — this can’t be changed once selected
• Categories — we can select two
• Keywords — we can use seven

There is also a section requesting an ISBN number.  This is not required to sell via KDP.

Once we’ve finished all of the above sections, we’re ready to upload our book and book cover.  Upon completion, we will have the opportunity to preview our soon-to-be-published e-book.

When satisfied, users sign (or electronically approve) the Terms & Conditions.  That’s it.

Seems simple enough, right?

How long will it take Amazon to actually load our book for sale?  It depends on the language — English usually takes twelve hours and all other languages can take up to forty-eight.

Come back next week when we continue our Direct Sale Vendor series with the Barnes & Noble ePubit Platform.  But for now…

Remember— selling e-books through a personal website and through Direct Sale Vendors provides us with the best of both worlds when it comes to distribution and maximizing our revenue.

For more information on selling with direct sale vendors, please check out our free resource: Getting Started with Direct Sale Vendors.