How to Publish with KDP: Part Seven A

Image courtesy of bigstock.com

Hello SErs. Harmony here.  Here is the first part of the seventh installment in the post series dedicated to taking a step-by-step look at how to get your finished manuscript from your computer and on sale on Amazon in both ebook and paperback.

If you’d like to take a look back at the previous posts in this series, please click on the links below:

Outline: https://wp.me/p7OGru-29c

Part 1 (Software for Writing) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-29t

Part 2 (General Formatting Necessities) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-29J

Part 3 (Ebook Conversion) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2ah

Part 4 (Paperback Formatting) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2eS

Part 5 (Image Software for Making Book Covers) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2gi

Part 6 A (Using Amazon’s Cover Creator Tool for eBook) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2gQ

Part 6 B (Making your own ebook cover to upload to Amazon) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2hQ

To make it easy to browse back and forth, I’ve set all links to open in new tabs. As this series progresses, I will update the links for you so that each post includes links to all past posts in the series.

So, here’s Part Seven A: Using Amazon’s Create Tool to make your Paperback Book Cover.

First of all, you’ll need to log in to your KDP account and find the book you’ve set up on your dashboard. Click on the ‘edit paperback content’ option by clicking the three dots on the right-hand side of the row.

Scroll down the page until you come to the ‘add book cover’ section. As with the ebook in Part Six A, you’ll want to click on ‘use cover creator …’

 

 

 

Also as with the ebook, follow the prompts and choose your images, fonts, etc. This time, you will also need to consider the spine text and back cover, instead of only front-cover matter. The creator tool will walk you through all of this, including choosing styles, etc.

For a quick refresher on the creator tool options, see Part Six A: https://wp.me/p7OGru-2gQ

It is worth noting that if your page count is below 100, then KDP will not allow you to add spine text. Instead, this slim area will be left blank.

Below is an example of a finished cover using Amazon’s cover creator tool and viewing it on their online previewer. I used one of their stock images for this mock-up …

 

Amazon will add the barcode for you when they process and publish all the files into a book.

As with the ebook cover creator, Amazon’s stock images and templates are limited. So, if at all possible, please try and make your own bookcover for upload, which I will show you in Part Seven B on April 20th.

Once you’re happy with the cover, click on ‘save and submit’, and KDP will save your book cover for you.

That’s it from me for today. I hope you’ve found this post useful. I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, and I’ll see you all again on Monday, April 20th, where we’ll be taking a look at making your book cover for your paperback: Part SevenB–Creating your own PDF file.

 

©Harmony Kent 2020

(If you're reading this post on or after April 20th, 2020, then here's the link for Part 7 B in the How to Publish with KDP series: https://wp.me/p7OGru-2kf. Please note, the link won't work until April 20th, 2020.)