No. Amazon KDP is completely free to publish on. You upload your manuscript, create a cover, set your price and publish — all at zero cost. Amazon takes a percentage of each sale as their fee rather than charging upfront.
KDP assigns you a free ISBN when you publish. You do not need to buy one. If you want to sell the same book outside of Amazon (in bookshops, on your own website, via other retailers) you would need your own ISBN — but for Amazon-only publishing the free KDP ISBN is sufficient.
Yes. KDP supports full colour paperback printing. For a picture book you need to upload print-ready PDF files for the interior and cover. KDP gives you specific dimension and bleed guidelines depending on the page count you choose.
KDP says up to 72 hours for a new book to appear on Amazon. In our experience it was closer to 24-48 hours for the paperback listing to go live. The Kindle version can go live faster — sometimes within a few hours.
It depends on your price, the page count, and whether it is a paperback or Kindle. KDP shows you a real-time royalty calculator when you set your price.
The paperback royalty is lower as a percentage because Amazon deducts printing costs. Kindle has no printing cost so the 70% royalty rate is achievable at £2.99+.
KDP pays royalties approximately 60 days after the end of the month in which the sale was made. So a sale in January pays out around the end of March. The minimum payment threshold is £100 by bank transfer or £10 by cheque.
This is worth knowing upfront — there is a significant delay between making sales and receiving the money.
For children's picture books in the UK, £6.99 to £8.99 is a typical range for paperbacks. Going lower increases conversion but reduces royalty per sale. Going higher requires strong social proof (reviews, brand recognition) to justify.
The honest answer: you ask people who have genuinely bought and read the book. Amazon is strict about review manipulation — you cannot offer incentives, swap reviews, or ask family and friends to review books they haven't read.
- Post about the book on Instagram and mention reviews help enormously
- Add a back page to the book itself asking readers to leave a review
- Follow up with buyers through your email list
- ARC (Advance Review Copy) readers — give the book to readers in exchange for an honest review before launch
No. Amazon surfaces books in search results based on keyword relevance, sales velocity and review count. A new book with no reviews and no sales history will not rank for competitive terms.
You have to bring the initial traffic yourself — through social media, email, blog content, word of mouth. Amazon's organic discovery kicks in once the book has momentum.
KDP gives you 7 keyword slots and 2 category selections. These are how Amazon decides what searches to show your book in. Think about what a parent searching for your book would type.
- Specific descriptors: "dog picture book for toddlers", "cockapoo children's book"
- Age ranges: "books for 3-5 year olds"
- Themes: "adventure books for children", "pet books for kids"
Avoid very broad terms ("children's books") as you will never rank competitively. Go specific and niche.
Not to start. You can publish as an individual. If you start earning meaningful income you will need to declare it to HMRC — but there is no requirement to form a limited company before publishing. KDP pays individuals directly.
You will need to complete a tax interview in KDP to confirm your tax status. For UK residents this is straightforward.
Yes. KDP lets you order a proof copy at print cost (no royalty) before approving the book for sale. This is worth doing — seeing the physical print quality is different from looking at a PDF preview. Colours can come out differently in print.
Yes. You can upload a new version of the interior or cover at any time. The book goes into review again (24-72 hours) before the updated version goes live. Existing buyers are not automatically notified of updates.
KDP Select enrolls your Kindle book in Kindle Unlimited, which means subscribers can read it for free and you earn a per-page-read rate. In exchange your Kindle ebook must be exclusive to Amazon — you cannot sell it elsewhere.
For children's picture books the page-read rate tends to be low and the exclusivity constraint limits distribution. We did not enrol in KDP Select. For longer novels it can make more sense.