How Do I Publish a Book for Free on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)? The Complete Step-by-Step Process

You can publish a book for free on Amazon KDP by creating a free KDP account, formatting your manuscript, uploading your book file and cover, setting your metadata and pricing, and clicking "Publish." Amazon charges no upfront fees; it earns money by taking a share of each sale, paying you royalties of up to 70% on eBooks and 60% on paperbacks. Your book can go live worldwide within 72 hours.

If you've written a book and dreamed of seeing it on the world's largest online bookstore, here's the good news: you don't need a traditional publishing deal or a literary agent to make it happen. And while professional book publishing services can streamline the journey, you can also do it entirely on your own for free. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) allows any author to self-publish an eBook, paperback, or hardcover completely free of charge.

At Berg Publishers, we've guided hundreds of first-time authors through this exact process, and we've seen how a well-executed KDP launch can transform a manuscript sitting on a laptop into a book earning real royalties. This guide walks you through every step from account setup to hitting "Publish" so you can do it yourself with confidence.

Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon's self-publishing platform, launched in 2007. It operates on a print-on-demand and digital distribution model, which means:

Follow the seven steps below — from account setup through publishing — and your book can be live on Amazon within days.

Go to kdp.amazon.com and sign in with your existing Amazon account or create a new one. You'll need to complete three sections before you can publish:

Proper manuscript formatting is where most first-time authors stumble. Amazon accepts several file types, but these work best:

Your cover is your book's most important marketing asset. Readers genuinely do judge books by them. You have two free options:

This is where SEO for books happens. In the KDP dashboard, you'll fill in:

Upload your manuscript and cover, then use the Kindle Previewer (for eBooks) or the Print Previewer (for paperbacks) to check every page. Look for:

Choose your territories (worldwide is standard), select your royalty plan, and set your list price. A common strategy for new authors is launching an eBook at $0.99–$2.99 to build reviews, then raising the price into the 70% royalty band.

You'll also decide whether to enroll in KDP Select, which gives Amazon 90-day digital exclusivity in exchange for:

Click "Publish Your Kindle eBook" (or paperback), and Amazon reviews your submission usually within 24–72 hours. Once approved, your book is live on Amazon marketplaces around the globe, and your author journey officially begins.

Publishing is free, but visibility takes work. The authors who succeed on KDP treat launch day as the starting line:

Publishing a book for free on Amazon KDP is one of the most accessible opportunities in modern publishing. The platform costs nothing, pays industry-leading royalties, and puts your work in front of millions of readers. Follow the seven steps above — account setup, formatting, cover design, metadata, preview, pricing, and publish — and your book can be live within days.

And if you'd rather focus on writing while experts handle the formatting, cover design, and launch strategy, that's exactly the kind of end-to-end support Berg Publishers was built to provide.