This week I self-published my first book on Amazon! Yeah, I know, probably won't be a New York best seller, but, hey, I did it!
So here are a few things I learned in the process of doing this.
1) Picture art. They recommend 300dpi for the cover. My daughter... I mean my cover artist, (she got paid in shopping trips and mom's eternal love), used a lower dpi when she drew it on her computer and so we had a little problem there. Nothing that can't be worked through, but just bare that in mind.
2) Also, make sure the picture is in the right format, not PDF and orientated the right direction. She drew it rotated to the right 90 degrees and even when we flipped it in the cover creator, we had issues with it staying where it should be orientation wise. So save in the right format and orientation to begin with.
3)Use the templates that KDP offers for your actual manuscript. Luckily, the nice writing teachers I had through our local community college got us set on the right direction there. Now, that doesn't mean there won't be format issues. I had about 10 pages I had to go in and manually fix before KDP set up would let me proceed.
4) When you set up the financial information, use a checking/saving account that isn't important, just in case. We had to start an account for a heat pump loan with a credit union so we put the minimum amount in and just let it sit. Now I'm using it for the spot to send any money I make on Amazon, (haha). The reason to do this is so if there is some breach of information at Amazon, you don't lose all your money in a major account.
There you have it. I'm published. I hope that everyone who dreams of writing a book can and does. If you are interested in seeing my book, (which I hope you enjoy), it is at Amazon under "The High King's Sword".
Happy writing and good luck!
