Creating Children's Book on Amazon- The small problems.
So as we all know Amazon is "So called" an easy platform to upload ebooks, or other books to sell.
I had struggled so much with this whole system and there was no one to help me. Most videos, and other bloggers do not mention the struggles of uploading a book onto amazon. All sites are very repetitive and say the same thing. Today I will discuss the problems and hopefully help those who have similar problems, like I did.
In my blog I will tell you about how I overcame this obstacle.
Firstly I started watching influential videos, people who said that you can make $100 a day selling Eooks. This was very interesting to me. But they don't explain the steps when selling your Ebook/ book on Amazon. They just say it's so easy, create a book from scratch and upload the book, easy as pie.
But its not that easy. First you have to join amazons sellers account. This was so complicated, you need all your banking details and make sure they all have your names on your cards/banking details, your passport and tax information. Then you have to schedule an appointment with a consultant to confirm your identity. Took a little longer to start than I would have liked.
Once you are done with setting up your sellers account, now you have to add all your card details and confirm you address. Then this is the complicated part, I am still rather confused about the sellers account. You have to add countries, where you want to sell your objects, and you have to pay extra for selling in different countries around the world. So just be prepared for that.
So I created my books myself I didn't hire a graphic designer, as I am one already and I know my way around. But if you don't you can try Fiverr or Canva.com these sites will help you with your book ideas and creations.
So I hand drew all my books, and edited them on Photoshop. It was a lovely feeling creating my books, I loved my ideas and my drawing style, my one book I created in a week. But trying to put the books on Amazon was impossible, I spent almost 4 hours trying to sort out my one book. Just to get it rejected by Amazon, around 5 times. It takes amazon about 24 hours to check your book and some how there was always a mistake, even when its correct. So initially I wanted to post my book on the 1st of January but I was only able to post it 10 days later, due to so many problems with the uploads. You really need a lot of time on your hand and patience when dealing with Amazon KDP. Do a lot of research as well, most bloggers don't give you much information about after you published your book, only on how to do it.
Firstly with my books, I created a book with too little pages in it. No where on anyone's blog says that the minimum page number for a book is 24 pages. My first book was 17 pages. I was so angry because it was a hand drawn book, I had to try and add another 7 pages to my already finished book. This was very frustrating. And my second book was the same. It was 21 pages, so it was very frustrating, I really had to think out of the box with this situation.
Luckily my third book was 31 pages long but it took so long for it to be accepted due to simple mistakes. Firstly, page size is a huge problem, especially for printing. With an Ebook you need to download software to edit your pdf to make it available for the kindle software. No where on anyone's blog does it say this. Make sure you create a cover page separately from your book. Also no one tells you that your cover page must be on one page. Not two separate pages (Back and Front). Which was frustrating because I had made my cover pages on 2 separated A4 pages, so firstly I had find the correct page size, this was easier than finding the correct manuscript size. Once you find the size you have to combine the back and the front onto a new A3 size page.
Secondly every time I uploaded the book there was a problem with the margin/ bleed. My images where too small, the font was touching the margin, there was so many problems with my books. So many errors to fix and once you fix it you upload it again which takes about 10 minutes, and then again more mistakes over simple things. It was a very frustrating job to perfect.
Now I have finally finished the upload, but my book is so big in size and will cost so much to print or upload as an Ebook. Also when uploading an Ebook you must have a different size compared to your printed book. Once you have uploaded your book you can choose how much you will sell it for but my income for the books isn't what I expected it to be.
It was a very frustrating process, and still I have lots to learn. I thought Amazon advertises the books for you, and helps you sell your books. No they don't, its all up to you to advertise the books, so be prepared to put a lot of effort in to just sell one book. Everyone lies, they say "make money in your sleep" oh please, nothing in life is easy and selling books ain't one of them.
So the key is to be patient, do a lot of research and to have a lot of friends who can help advertise your work and buy your product and don't forget to review it. If you have all 3 of these you will be successful.
Anyway below are links to my books. Finally sorted out all the problems, Hope you enjoyed the read and now I have to go learn all about the different platforms found on Amazon so that I can sell my adorable children books.
mybook.to/adventureofweasel
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