by Monique Martin

Created on: February 22, 2010   Last Updated: February 23, 2010

If you’re a budding novelist who wants to self-publish your book, but have been discouraged by the high price of vanity presses and POD (Print On Demand) services like Lulu, Amazon has an answer. Amazon has created an easy to use platform that will let you digitally publish your book and offer it for sale in the Amazon Kindle bookstore.

Amazon’s DTP (

Digital Text Platform) is a great way to publish your work as an ebook and, best of all it’s free! Here’s what you need to get started.

Sign-up for a free DTP account. If you’re already an Amazon user, you can use that account. Fill out the account profile information, including the payment section so you can receive your royalties. Once you’ve created your account, you’re ready to get started publishing!

1. Enter Product Details

Select “add new”. On this screen you will enter the title, description, author name, keywords, categories and product image. You will also select the DRM (Digital Right Management) settings. The DRM setting will keep people from making unauthorized copies of your work. Some authors are choosing not to activate this protection in favor of a broader readership to encourage a following.

Tip: If you have a basic photo editing software, take some time to design a book cover. Books with cover images are much more appealing. You can purchase inexpensive stock images from sites like iStockphoto and use them to create a snazzy looking cover.

Be sure to save your entries at each step of the publishing process.

2. Confirm Content Rights

This is where you confirm that you have the rights to publish the material in the US and globally.

Note: Do not try to publish Public Domain works. Amazon has curtailed uploading and publishing of those works.

3. Upload & Preview Book

Now you’re ready to upload your book. This might take a few tries to get the spacing just right, so don’t worry if you have to re-upload. You can upload files that are .html, .txt and .doc. Some .pdf files work and some don’t so avoid this format if you can. The best format is .html. It might take some time to manually adjust your spacing before you hit on the best format for the conversion.

Upload your file. It will take a minute or two for the conversion into the Kindle format.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to preview your book at this stage. If the spacing or pagination is off. Fix your file and re-upload.

4. Enter Suggested Retail Price

Be sure to price your book well.

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