I screen recorded the process of uploading a simple paperback to KDP (edited down to 13 minutes). This was for a poetry book written by Astronaut Dr. Sian Proctor. We filmed this to share at a "how to publish your book" workshop at the Analog Astronaut Conference (AAC) held each May at Biosphere II in Arizona.

First off, it's NOT the same as formatting a novel! With a novel, as long as you set the correct guidelines up front, all you really need to do is upload the text and everything will fall into place...for the most part. Not with children's books! There are so many moving parts when it comes to the design especially if the illustrator does not include the text in the picture. (TIP- if this is your first children's book, find an illustrator that will fully incorporate the text! This will save you time and money.) Are you formatting yourself? If so, what platform and tools are you using?

Don’t forget to save it to your calendar; tomorrow morning we will be discussing Amazon ads!! We will share tips to help you understand and succeed. If you’ve struggled with ads before, you need to be here for this call. 💯 If you’ve never done ads but will be in the future…JOIN THE CALL! Leave any questions you’d like answered/discussed in the comments below. SATURDAY MORNING @ 10AM EST!!

For those seeing sales: What made the biggest difference in your sales ? A) Cover? B) Blurb? C) Keywords? D) Ads? E) Publishing more books? For me, the real shift happened when I started treating each release as part of a long term catalog instead of a one time launch, I'm curious what moved the needle for you? And for those not seeing results yet: What do you think is holding your book back right now? Let’s make this practical. Real answers only.

Show of hands, who wants to switch from the morning coffee break to an evening or weekend chat time? 🙋🏽‍♀️ Our topics for the coffee breaks have been good and seem to be helpful, but our turnout is low. I'd like to try changing those meetup times. Please take a moment to vote on a day/time that would work better with your schedule. Then comment a topic that you'd like to discuss below! 😁