The Kindle Questions - How do I publish my book on Kindle?

Once you have finished writing your book and decide to publish it via Kindle you need to work out how to upload to Amazon's Kindle ecosystem.

How do I publish my book through Kindle?

This useful Lifehacker article runs you through the process.

There are two main ways to upload your book to Amazon - one is via Word and the other is via HTML. The latter option is a little too complicated for someone like myself, so I will refer you to a Kindle e-book which goes through this process in thorough detail.

The Microsoft Word option is a lot simpler (for those of us not schooled in the language of HTML). However, I would add a couple of additional pointers that the HTML document does not pick up on but are included in another useful e-book: How to Publish Your Book on Amazon's Kindle, by Alun Richards (given the book's price it is too short - but it is certainly useful):

1. It will help the formatting of the book significantly if you convert the document in Word from an A4 file to an A5 file.

I was using Microsoft Word 2007, so I undertook the following steps: Go to Page Layout --> Size. Select Custom, as they do not have an option for A5. Then under Width enter 14.8 cm and under Height enter 21 cm.

This will allow you to see what your book will look like on Kindle - and most importantly - give you an idea of how many pages your book will be on Kindle.

2. Make sure you 'fully justify' the main body of text. Once you have converted the file to A5, you will see how unprofessional the standard alignment looks.

3. Remove page numbers as Kindle does not like them and it can mess up the formatting of the book.

How do I upload any pictures in my book to Kindle?


First, a couple of rules:

Any single image can be a maximum of 127 kb and can only be in the following formats: jpg, gif, png or bmp.

Any colour images will be converted to grey-scale as Kindle is a black and white reader.

I get the impression that uploading too many photos may be a problem too.

How do I upload the cover image for my book?


The option for formats are more limited than for pictures within the book, you have to choose between jpeg, .jpg or tiff formats.

The picture must be a minimum of 500 pixels in width and height.

A great place to go to find a great cover for your book is istockphoto.com  - you can buy good photos for a reasonable price here.

Clearly, your choice of cover will play an integral role conveying the professionalism of your book so make sure you pick an image that isn't overused and accurately conveys the first impression you would like your book to give.

If I make a mistake after publishing my book on Kindle, can I change it?


Thankfully you can. I have heard of authors go as far as changing their covers to try and improve sales.

As self-published writers, I think it is crucial that we try and avoid spelling mistakes and grammatical errors before we publish our work, so hopefully this will not be too much of an issue.

To conclude, publishing a book on Kindle seems relatively straightforward - although there are several pitfalls that need to be avoided.

(Once I publish a book onto Kindle I will update this article with any necessary adjustments.)