How to put your book on Amazon – Part 1

I imagine there are a zillion places out there (okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little) that will tell you how to put your book on Amazon for some fee or another. The truth is, if you go to Amazon, they walk you through it for the most part and you can actually get through the other side relatively unscathed. Now that’s kind of easy for me to say. For more years than I am willing to share my full time, professional job has been as an administrator. Sometimes it was as a secretary, sometimes an assistant and yet other times running several divisions of a company. Now top that with some back ground in design and I had it “easy”.

That said, I also write a really good “How-to”. I’m going to tell you, in bite size pieces, how to get your book up on Amazon and available for all to purchase. This does not mean anyone will purchase it, I am not teaching marketing right now. But putting it there, yeah, I can do that.

So here are the first very basic steps:

1. Prepare to spend some money. Yes, you can do this on the cheap. And some of you may have people you know to cut out some or a lot of expense but don’t cut yourself short. How much you need depends on a few things. Read the list below and go from there.
2. Write story. (Hard to believe, I know, but extremely important)
3. Get story edited by an editor. I do not mean your mother’s sister’s best friend who loves to read and won the spelling contest of 1984. Unless she’s an editor and then yeah, that’s cool. And that’s all I’m going to say on that.
4. Get the story proofread. Yes, after the editor has their way with you (which if it’s a good editor, it really doesn’t hurt) make sure you get a final proofread.
5. Get a book cover. I was lucky. I could design my own cover. Somebody, somewhere will find fault with it but I love my cover so they can kiss my arse. There are many places online doing book covers, some expensive and some cheap. Make sure you look at the reviews or go by referral or maybe you’re lucky and have a friend who designs.  You’re going to have to do some research and find the right designer for you. Make this happen. Do not let it scare you away. You wrote a friggin novel (or story or whatever the heck you did) and you deserve to share it. Just make sure the cover doesn’t scare people away from it.
6. Go buy an ISBN. International Standard Book Number. You can get them assigned by Amazon or Createspace or from elsewhere else but then someone else owns it and it can be a pain for your future marketing/ownership and well who knows what else.  Just bite the bullet and buy it. (When I last checked they were $125 each or $250 for 10, I bought 10…)
7. There are a few things you need to write in addition to your story, if you want to that is, that you should go ahead and do now: Dedication, About the Author, “Book Blurb” (What does it say ‘on the back of your book’?), Acknowledgments.
8. All right, now you’re at the stage where you have everything you need. I’m going to walk you through the process on Amazon but I have to give my daughter a spelling test so I’ll have to get back to you on that. For those of you that are eager to roll, get yourself over to Amazon and get started!