How to Self-Publish on Amazon KDP in 2026: Step by Step, Royalties and the AI Disclosure
Self-publishing a novel on Amazon KDP takes one evening if the manuscript is ready: you export the text as docx or ePub, create a KDP account with your bank and tax details, fill in three screens (book details, content, pricing), answer the question about AI-generated content, and the book is usually on sale within 72 hours. What takes time is not the platform, it is everything before it: a finished proofread, a cover, a blurb, and metadata that does not sabotage the book. Here is the path in order, with the royalty rates as KDP displays them at the time of writing, and the mistakes that keep coming back.
Before KDP: what has to be ready
Do not start the KDP form with an "almost" finished manuscript. The platform accepts updates, but first readers do not reread. The starting checklist:
- A proofread manuscript, at minimum by a checker and by a human reader. In the Sagoræ workshop, the built-in checker (free, unlimited, no AI) handles spelling and grammar; the AI Corrector reads for style; neither rewrites.
- A clean export: docx for the ebook if you go through Amazon's conversion, ePub if you formatted elsewhere. The workshop exports the manuscript as docx with chapters as headings, which KDP uses to build the table of contents.
- A cover in the requested format (one image for the ebook, a PDF with spine and back for the paperback).
- A blurb, which becomes your product page description; the four-sentence structure is in how to write a book blurb.
- Seven keywords and three categories, chosen beforehand, not inside the form.
If you are still weighing this route against querying agents, the comparison is in self-publishing vs traditional publishing.
Step 1: the account, taxes and bank
A KDP account is created from an ordinary Amazon account. Two screens deserve attention. The tax interview first: a US author enters a taxpayer identification number; an author outside the US declares non-resident status, which avoids US withholding on American sales where a tax treaty exists, all online, no paper. Then the bank details: a local account is enough to be paid in your currency. Royalties are paid roughly sixty days after the end of the month of sale, once a threshold is reached. Fill in both screens before you touch the book itself: a listing with incomplete payment details can be published, but the money waits.
Step 2: book details (the metadata)
This is the screen that decides whether your book can be found. Field by field:
| Field | What to put | The frequent mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Language | The language of the text | Leaving the wrong default, the book lands in the wrong catalogue |
| Title and subtitle | The novel's title; the subtitle carries the genre ("A Harbour Mystery", "Book 1") | Stuffing the subtitle with keywords, which KDP's rules forbid |
| Series | The series name from book 1 | Skipping it, then creating the series at book 2 without linking the first |
| Author | Exactly the same name for ebook and paperback | An extra initial, and Amazon creates two separate pages |
| Description | Your blurb, with the break in the first two lines | A full summary that gives away the ending |
| Keywords (7) | Phrases readers actually type ("cozy mystery harbour town", "second chance romance") | Repeating the title, naming another author (forbidden), writing "bestseller" |
| Categories (3) | The most specific subcategories of your genre | Choosing a broad category where your book disappears |
| Audience | Adult or children's, with the age range if children's | Ticking children's for an adult novel, which blocks some promotions |
Take the time to look at the product pages of three novels close to yours and note the categories they display: that is the best keyword source there is. Note also the words their readers use in reviews ("page-turner", "atmospheric", "locked room"): that vocabulary is the vocabulary of searches, not of authors, and it makes better keywords than yours.
Step 3: the content, and the AI question
You upload the manuscript (docx, ePub, or the format from Amazon's own formatting tool), then the cover. The online previewer shows the rendering on an e-reader and on a phone: check at least the first chapter, the table of contents and a scene with a long dialogue.
This is also the screen where KDP has asked, since 2023, the question about AI-generated content. Two categories, in the platform's own terms:
- AI-generated: text, images or translations created by an AI-based tool, even if you substantially edited them afterwards. Must be disclosed.
- AI-assisted: you created the content yourself and used AI tools to edit, refine, error-check or otherwise improve it. No disclosure required.
A novel written with coaches who never draft (questions, feedback, continuity checks, corrections) falls into the second category: the text is yours. If at some point you pasted a paragraph out of a chatbot, even rewritten afterwards, the first category applies to that passage. The edge cases and the policy as it stands are detailed in KDP AI disclosure: AI-assisted vs AI-generated. The question is not cosmetic: a false declaration is grounds for account termination.
Step 4: pricing and royalties
The royalty rates as KDP displays them today (the help page is the reference; print rates changed in June 2025):
| Format | Rate | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Ebook, 70 % option | 70 % of list price, minus a delivery fee proportional to file size | Price within the required band, roughly 2.99 to 9.99 dollars, and no lower price elsewhere |
| Ebook, 35 % option | 35 % of list price | Any price within the allowed limits, no delivery fee |
| Paperback on Amazon stores | 60 % of list price minus printing cost above a price threshold, 50 % below it | Printing cost depends on page count, ink and trim size |
| Paperback, expanded distribution | 40 % of list price minus printing cost | Bookshops and other online retailers |
Example: a 4.99 ebook on the 70 % option earns you about 3.40 per sale for a light file. A 300-page paperback at 14.99, with a printing cost in the order of four to five dollars, earns you around 4.50. What those amounts become over a year, in three scenarios, is in how much do authors make.
The same screen offers enrolment in KDP Select: your ebook is exclusive to Amazon for renewable 90-day periods, in exchange for inclusion in the subscription reading programme and two promotional tools (free days, countdown deals). It is a strategy choice, not an obligation: series authors often find it worthwhile at launch; authors who also sell wide do not. You can leave the programme at the end of any period, so a first 90 days is a reasonable test.
Step 5: the paperback
The paperback is created from the same listing, with the metadata carried over. Three extra choices: trim size (the common 5 by 8, 5.5 by 8.5 and 6 by 9 inch formats are there, plus metric ones), paper (cream for a novel, white for illustrated books) and cover finish (matte or glossy). KDP provides a free ISBN; you can also use your own, which lets you change platforms without changing the reference. The paperback cover is a single PDF, spine included, whose width depends on the page count: the KDP cover calculator gives you the exact template once the final page count is known. Order a proof copy before publishing: inside margins that are too tight and grey text are invisible on screen. Read the first and last chapter in the proof, and flip through the rest for blank pages and chapter headings that landed at the bottom of a page.
What the workshop does not do: layout
A writing workshop produces a manuscript, not a typeset book. Print layout (mirror margins, widows and orphans, title pages, running heads) happens elsewhere. As of 23 September 2026, three tools come up among independent authors:
- Atticus, 147 dollars as a one-time purchase, exports ePub, PDF and DOCX; it is the dedicated layout tool.
- Reedsy Studio, free at its core, exports ePub and PDF, with templates.
- Scrivener, 69.99 euros as a one-time purchase, exports docx, PDF and ePub, with more settings and more learning.
For an ebook alone, Amazon's free conversion is enough from a clean docx. For the paperback, one of the three above will save you round trips with the previewer. Whatever you choose, keep the workshop file as the master: fix typos there first, then re-export, so the ebook and the paperback never drift apart.
After publishing
The book is usually reviewed within 72 hours. Then: check that the ebook and paperback are linked on the same page (if not, ask support to link them), create your author page, and look at the product page on a phone, where the description is truncated after a few lines. You can change metadata, price and files at any time; only the language and, for the paperback, the trim size are fixed once published.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to publish on Amazon KDP? Nothing: no sign-up or listing fee. Amazon takes its share on each sale, through the portion it keeps and the paperback printing cost. Your real costs are proofreading and the cover.
Do you need an ISBN to publish on KDP? Not for the ebook, which gets an Amazon identifier. For the paperback, KDP provides a free one, or you use your own.
Do I have to disclose AI if I wrote with an AI writing coach? If the tools proofread, questioned or corrected a text you wrote, KDP classes that as "assisted" and requires no disclosure. If text was generated and pasted in, it must be disclosed.
Can you publish on KDP and elsewhere at the same time? Yes, unless you enrol the ebook in KDP Select, which requires exclusivity during each 90-day period. The paperback is never exclusive.
How long before you get paid? A month's royalties are paid about sixty days after the end of that month, to your bank account.
If you want to arrive on KDP with a manuscript that is proofread, exported and ready, Sagoræ offers a free trial, no card required.
✒️ Read next: How to Get Published in 2026: Agents, Editors and What Really Happens After You Submit · How to Write a Query Letter That Gets Read: Template and 3 Annotated Examples · How to Write a Novel Synopsis: The One-Page Method, With an Example
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