What Do You Need to Publish Your E-book for Kindle?
You’ve had an idea for a book for years, but it just seemed too difficult to get it published. Perhaps you considered self publishing, but that seemed expensive. There is a new way. It is digital publishing. Yes, your book can be available as an e-book through Amazon for its Kindle e-reader. And it won’t cost you a penny.
More and more authors, professionals and beginners alike, are turning to digital publishing to get their books out there in front of readers. And why not? E-books are the fastest growing part of the modern reading audience, and a good number of authors are doing quite well financially with e-books.
Right now the king of e-book sales is Amazon through its Kindle e-reader device, though there are other companies and sites selling e-books and offer e-reader devices.
Also, more and more companies are beginning to offer self-publishing services for their e-reader devices.
Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is one of the more popular digital self-publishing services.
So, you want to publish an e-book for the Kindle, right? Well, here are a few things you need to be able to do so.
Account
If you want to publish an e-book for the Kindle through Amazon, you’re are going to need a Kindle Direct Publishing account. The good news is that if you already have a regular Amazon account, you can use that account’s user name and password.
Basic information
Amazon is going to have to have your name, address, a contact phone number, an e-mail address … you know, basic stuff so they can contact you if they need to. If you are an individual, Amazon will also have to have your Social Security Number for tax purposes. If you are operating as a business, Amazon will need your company’s Taxpayer ID Number.
If you operate outside of the United States, it gets a little more complicated. For one thing, you can only publish through Amazon if your country has a tax treaty with the United States, though most nation’s do. What you will have to do is get a W8 form from the IRS; this form must contain a U.S. tax ID number, must be signed in blue ink and must include your supplier or vendor code.
But don’t simply take my word for it. Please look over all the requirements for an Amazon KDP account.
Payment information
If you sell e-books, you want to get paid for them, right?
There are two ways to get paid by Amazon for your e-book sales.
One way is by direct electronic transfer of funds to a U.S. bank account. You’ll need an account number and a routing number from your bank. Payments usually come right at 60 days after the end of the month in which your sales occurred.
The other way to get paid is by check. Yes, Amazon will mail you a check approximately 60 days after the end of the month in which your sales occurred. They check will be in either U.S. dollars or British pounds, your choice, but the bank must have a U.S. address.
That’s it!
Yes, that is the basics of what you need to begin publishing e-books for the Kindle. Your account will be set up, Amazon will have all the needed information, now all you have to do is write, edit and format your book.
Something to keep in mind is that formatting a file for an e-book with Amazon is easier than it will look. It will seem quite complicated at first, but I’ve found formatting with Microsoft Word works best, and using the free Open Office software isn’t a bad choice, either. More than likely you are going to run into difficulties and have a few questions, but when that happens don’t forget to check out the KDP support forums for help.
Good luck!
Publishing links
What’s the difference between self publishing and vanity publishing?
That’s not quite how I read the restrictions. If you want direct payment into your bank by electronic funds transfer then you do need a bank with a US address. But if you opt to be paid by cheque then the cheque is made out to you or your publisher and it’s not necessary to say who your bank is or where they are located. Furthermore, a UK author or publisher going down this route will be sent a cheque in UK pounds sterling, which is handy!
As as for the tax situation, the way I read it is that you don’t NEED to have a US tax reference but if you don’t then US tax will be taken off and held on your behalf (called witholding). That can be up to 30%. If you don’t mind being taxed twice – once by witholding in the US and a second time by HMRC in the UK through your income tax – then you can ignore the US taxpayer reference. But if you do get one then you can claim the US witholding back.
Thank you for all the information. You had me totally engrossed.
I have been publishing works of poetry for years and working on a book of my poetry and have always had a problem with finding a way to publish it . You may have solved the problem. Thanks so much for this information.
I don’t have anything to e-publish (yet), but I totally *heart* my kindle!
Bruce, I’m a Canadian and I tried getting around not having a US tax reference to publish my ebook on Kindle and I could find no way to do it. You HAVE to have it. Which is frustrating because it can take a few months to get one from the IRS.
Jack, if you’ve got a Paypal account, I’ll suggest you look into using Smashwords. They pay through Paypal and distribute their sites’ e-books too a bunch of distributors, with Amazon either being one of them or one in-the-works. Sorry, I’m not exactly sure because I work directly through Amazon.