Andaleeb Wajid's Blog

(sorry for the long gap between newsletters!)

The fun and friendly librarians at Cosy Nook Library asked me to do a Zoom Workshop for children and I agreed immediately because I’ve missed doing this for some time now. Lockdown or not, I haven’t done a workshop with kids after my last outing which was with the brilliant kids in Vizag.

We decided to do a flash fiction workshop on writing horror/ghost stories and I realised that eerily, the workshop had been fixed for 13th September, even though it was not a Friday.

Surprisingly enough, quite a few children signed up and it was a most wonderful Sunday morning, which we spent reading and writing. Everyone was enthusiastic and the children wrote the most whacked out, gory and scary stories with the prompts I gave.

Doing this workshop reminded me just how much I enjoy interacting with children and even though it was not face to face, and over multiple screens, it was great!

I don’t think many of you know that I started my writing career by writing short stories for the children’s supplement of Deccan Herald called Open Sesame, a paper I grew up reading as a child. I sent them a short story when I was 20, at the end of my pregnancy when I was bored out of my skull (this was 21 years ago friends. There was no internet. We didn’t know what to do with ourselves) When my story got published, it felt like a tap had been opened inside and I wrote so many short stories for them over the years, absolutely loving the experience.

What’s interesting is that many of the kids who read my stories in Open Sesame have now grown up and they have turned to reading my books for grownups! It feels surreal when I hear from them!

When I started writing longer fiction, I still naturally veered towards fiction for young adults and my first three novels Kite Strings, Blinkers Off and My Brother’s Wedding are all for that age group, even though they were never slotted in that genre.

However, it wasn’t until I wrote The Legend of the Wolf did I go back to my roots, writing middle grade fiction for kids, and I realised just how much fun it is! I’m also very excited about writing my first picture book for Bijal Vachharajani for Pratham Books!

My son has been asking for a sequel to the Wolf book and I hope to write it soon. Meanwhile, I’ve been rather quiet all these months because I’ve been furiously writing away. I had to complete a mammoth project (writing 365 Ghost Stories for Children) and I’ve been dabbling in a lot of other things.

I hope to finish writing Book 4 of the Destination Wedding Series - Enchanted by You this month and publish it soon thereafter. For readers who have been waiting for this book, please do wait a little longer!

Until then, have a great week (It is Sunday today, right? I keep forgetting), and keep reading!

Hello friends!

Until I come up with Book 4 of the Destination Wedding Series, I thought you’d be happy to see a novella at least from me.

Previously a part of the anthology Something Old, Something New, my novella Coming Home, has been republished with a new cover, as well as a prologue and an epilogue. I hope you enjoy reading this sexy love story.

What it’s about:

When Meesha breaks Jahangir's heart and marries the man her Abbu has chosen for her, an angry Jahangir leaves the small Coorg town of Dhakara, vowing never to return. But when an ailing aunt brings him back to the town, nearly a decade later, Jahangir finds that Meesha is now a divorced, single mother and his heart still yearns for her. Will Jahangir put behind his anger and forgive Meesha and give the two of them another chance or is it too late for him to come back home, to the one place and the one woman his heart has never stopped loving?

Read Coming Home here.

What else is happening?

I wrote this piece about how my desk is so important to me, especially now during the pandemic when everything has become chaotic. Read it here.

The sequel to Twenty Nine Going on Thirty has been delayed and will release only in 2020. My Young Adult novel has also been delayed for next year.

I do have a bunch of books planned for my readers on Amazon though, so I hope to stay busy and give you hours of reading enjoyment.

Dear friends,

This week, I spoke to Neil D’Silva who writes in the deliciously creepy horror genre and is a hybrid author like myself, i.e, who self-publishes and publishes with traditional publishers. So, you see, Amazon KDP is not just for those who like to read romance because Neil is very popular and his books have reached bestseller status here.

Here’s our conversation.

1.     When did you get into self-publishing on Amazon KDP and why? 

I opted to self-publish my first book, Maya’s New Husband, on Amazon KDP in 2015. The book was released on 3 Jan 2015. The true reason to self-publish at that time was that I found the traditional publishing process quite daunting. All those stories I had heard about people getting rejected and even never read by traditional publishers frightened me. I also did not have the patience to wait for two years, which is generally the time taken for a traditionally published books from its conceptualization to hitting the market.

I had written the book and I wanted it to reach the readers as soon as possible, because I had also started talking about it on social media, and that was why I went ahead and self-published it on Amazon KDP.

2.    What was your experience in terms of readers and gaining visibility?

So far, I have 5 self-published books on Amazon KDP, and my experience with each of them has been wonderful. It started with Maya’s New Husband itself. The book hit #1 on Amazon Hot New Releases as well as Amazon India (horror) within a day of its release. The visibility that gave my book was immense. In addition, I talked about the rankings on social media, and that brought me more readers.

As time passed, I equipped myself with the knowledge of more Amazon KDP features, such as KDP Select, which enabled me to use the free book days and other promotional strategies. Amazon itself discounted my book to just Rs. 19 (MRP was Rs. 99) on numerous occasions, which boosted sales. Most of my self-published books also featured on Amazon Prime, which opens a whole new floodgate of readers. I particularly enjoy the KDP Select feature, because there is constant activity there and is a supplementary payment stream.

Today, I am a hybrid author. I have traditionally published books with Rupa Publications, Penguin Random House, and Hachette India, but I still enjoy the Amazon KDP process. In fact, I just self-published a book, Ringa Ringa Roses, in April this year.

3.    How many books have you published so far with KDP and how long has it taken you to do that?

I have 5 self-published books on Amazon KDP so far: Maya’s New Husband, The Evil Eye and the Charm, Bound in Love, Pishacha, and the recently released Ringa Ringa Roses. This has been a journey of five years so far.

4.    Do you get your covers professionally designed? By whom (if you don't mind sharing)?

Yes. They have always been professionally designed, except for one. The covers of Maya’s New Husband and Pishacha were hand-drawn by artist Omkar Pathare. The cover of The Evil Eye and the Charm was designed by The Book Bakers (also my literary agency for my traditionally published books). The cover of my recent release, Ringa Ringa Roses, was digitally designed by Sarbajeet Mohanty.

5.    If given the choice today between traditional publishing and self-publishing, esp today (in Corona times), which would you choose and why?

As mentioned, I actually self-published a book, Ringa Ringa Roses, during the pandemic lockdown. My motivation for that was that I wanted to give my readers something quickly, as there had been some requests for new stories from me. However, I am also awaiting two traditional releases (one with Hachette India and one with Rupa Publications), which I expect to happen later this year, but as you can guess, that will all depend on how the situation with the pandemic is at that time.

To wrap it up, I will not make an absolute choice between self-publishing and traditional. I have seen that both have their pros and cons. I am happy being a hybrid author. What I will rather do is to decide for each individual story. Some stories need to be told and read quickly, for which self is best, but there are some stories that are meant to endure and read by a lot of people, for which I will always opt for traditional modes of publishing.

6.    Tell us a little about your book Yakshini?

Thanks for asking me about Yakshini. This is a supernatural horror thriller that tells the story of a young Maharashtrian girl named Meenakshi who has the spirit of a Yakshini within her. This Yakshini, true to her character, is both a blessing and a curse. When Meenakshi is outraged by the lustful gazes of men, the Yakshini emerges out of her and seeks revenge, brutalizing the men. However, the repercussions of these actions are on Meenakshi, who is soon branded as a witch and cast out of her village.

Yakshini was initially a self-published novel on Amazon Kindle. It caught the attention of Rupa Publications via my agency, The Book Bakers, who then traditionally published it. The journey of this novel has been quite exhilarating, and a special moment of mention was when it was picked up for a screen adaptation. It is one of my favorite books, and is constantly spotlighted by major reading communities. Do take a look!

Thanks for talking to me Neil!

That’s it for now! I’ll be posting an excerpt from Aditi’s story from the Destination Wedding Series on the newsletter very soon because I’m planning to release that book in September.

Till then, keep reading!

Dear readers,

I’m glad so many of you found my posts on Amazon KDP useful. I also thought it would be a great idea to connect you to some successful authors who have published their books on Amazon KDP.

The first author I thought of was Sudha Nair who has published 8 books in the past three years. Here are some questions I asked her and her responses.

When did you get into self-publishing on Amazon KDP and why? 

I got into self-publishing in 2017 because it provided an easy, viable, and sustained way of publishing books without gatekeepers. The traditional route was unreliable and cumbersome and time-consuming. A platform like KDP gave self-published authors like me a chance to tell the stories that I wanted to tell.

What was your experience in terms of readers and gaining visibility?

KDP has given me a platform where I can publish a lot of books in a short time. The way to get more readers and build an audience is to write stories that they love and which will give them a few hours of great entertainment. That has always been my goal with my books. The more interesting and engaging books you write, the more readers and fans you gain.

Although I write in the romance genre, I think every genre has its readers. As writers, we write for ourselves and for our readers. A golden rule is to find the sweet spot between the books that you love to write and the books your readers love to read.

Visibility takes time and patience. As you write more books, you improve your visibility. Contests like the Pen to Publish and social media platforms also give you visibility and a chance to reach more readers.

Your first book - The Wedding Tamasha won the Pen to Publish contest in 2017. What was that experience like and has that helped you get more readers?

The Wedding Tamasha won the KDP contest in 2017 and is a bestseller even today. It was my debut novel and helped me gain a foothold in self-publishing and to reach readers who appreciated my work.

A contest or platform provides a launching pad for a writer, but sustaining readers and growing your audience comes with publishing stories that your readers continue to love.  Instead of resting on my laurels after one book’s success, I continued to write and publish stories that my readers enjoyed. It has held me in good stead over the years.

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How many books have you published so far with KDP and how long has it taken you to do that?

I have published 8 books on KDP in the last three years. They can be found at author.to/sudhanair.

My stories are about inspiring women to achieve their dreams and go after the life that they want. I enjoy writing family dramas, romance, and women’s fiction. My characters range from teenagers to protagonists in their 20s-30s to grandparents. I write contemporary stories that revolve around Indian families and the myriad issues that Indian society faces.

The Menon Women series books, which start with The Wedding Tamasha (mybook.to/theweddingtamasha) follow the story of all the main, strong women protagonists of a South Indian family.

The Nambiars series (mybook.to/nambiars) is about a couple into retirement and how they adjust to life after Mr Nambiar retires.

Dr. Heartquaker (mybook.to/heartquaker) is a romantic comedy about a young doctor who falls in love with an older girl.

Do you get your covers professionally designed? By whom?

Cover is an important aspect of a book. While traditionally published authors have a team to decide on covers, this aspect of a book also falls directly on the self-published author. I have used several freelance cover designers over the years because I like to try out different styles. I have also used Canva to design my own covers. The best part about self-publishing is that you can try out different things, whether it’s covers or content, and experiment with different styles of writing.

Thank you for talking to me Sudha! Readers, do check out her books on Kindle.

Dear Readers,

Finally, let’s come to KDP Select. Many of you have been asking me about this and I got a little busy so I couldn’t post it until now.

Books that have been enrolled into KDP Select when you are setting up your Amazon KDP book, can be read for free by anyone who has a Kindle Unlimited (KU) subscription. I’m sure you’re aware of it but in case you’re not, KU is a subscription plan for readers where they can borrow 10 books at a time, read, return, all for a very nominal fee every month. More on it here.

So, if you as the author enroll your books into KDP Select, you’re probably wondering what’s to gain here if people are going to borrow your books and not buy them. The gain is in the money, baby. Amazon pays the authors for KDP Select from a global fund that is announced every month. Authors however are paid only when readers borrow their books and read it because Amazon calculates the number of pages read and not just the number of borrows per month.

In the 1.5 year experience that I’ve had working on Amazon KDP for my books, I can definitely see that a majority of my income is from Kindle Unlimited royalties. If you feel that you’d rather people buy your book and not just borrow it, I’d still ask you to consider this for a while and see.

However, I’ve also noticed that KDP Select is more useful for fiction, rather than non-fiction. It could be because most non-fiction books are perceived to be more useful than fiction and hence, people want to own them, rather than just read and return them.

You don’t need to do anything extra to enroll your book into KDP Select. When you’re setting up your book for publication on Amazon KDP, just remember to select the box that appears right on top of the third tab.

Once you’ve selected this box, you’re book can be read for free by KU subscribers. You also cannot upload your book on other eBook platforms like Smashwords, Kobo, Google Play etc. There’s a list of do’s and don’ts which is quite easy to follow.

These are some of my books which are up on Kindle Unlimited. You can borrow them or buy them on Amazon and read them on your Kindle device or Kindle app on your phone.

If you want to do a little more reading about KDP Select, do check out this blog - https://blog.reedsy.com/kdp-select/

If you’re not sure about what sort of Global Fund we’re talking about, it’s all out in the open, here - https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/kdp-global-fund-payouts/

From $2.5 million in July 2014 when Kindle Unlimited began, we’ve come to $32.2 million. Not joking. You’ll get just a minuscule portion of this pie because the money you get is calculated by the number of pages of your book that has been read. But the more number of books out there means more people borrowing your book and reading it subsequently.

Also, since we are talking about money, how does one get paid? Since you enter your bank details and tax information when you set up your account, Amazon transfers the money that you’ve earned for a month once 60 days are completed. So, any money that you make in July will get credited to your account in the beginning of October. Amazon pays out only money that you have made from the US and Indian market at the moment. The other markets information is given to you but only when you reach a certain threshold do you get paid.

With this, we come to an end of this series. But I’ve got other KDP related articles coming up, interviews with bestselling authors who have aced KDP in India, etc. Until then, happy reading and happy writing!

Read Part 1 of this series here.

Part 2 on Kindle Create can be read here.

Dear readers,

I started writing very early, when I was probably ten or so and those stories were predictably ripped off from Enid Blyton and other writers I was reading at that time. I didn’t think writing would become my career and it had been a hobby for me. When I was 28, I wrote Kite Strings, my first novel, and it had taken me two years to write it, simply because I didn’t know how to write at that point.

I was an instinctive writer, opening up the Word document and letting my characters take my story forward wherever they wanted. This led to much heartache for me because sometimes, the characters would paint themselves into a corner and I would have the most difficult time extracting myself from there.

I’ve learned quite a bit, since then and although Kite Strings was eventually published when I was 31, I realised that this was what I wanted to do all along. Write books. So, in 2012, I took back the publishing rights and released it myself on Amazon KDP. Of course, there is that whole story about how I didn’t know how KDP worked and wondered why my book never showed any sales.

Since then, I’ve let Kite Strings stay on Amazon KDP although I’ve changed the cover a couple of times. (Another post to discuss covers, maybe?)

(I also saw a couple of recent reviews on the book and I had to agree with them. One of them was very sweet, written by someone who wanted to go back to the very first book I had written because she liked my other books so much!)

Sharing a couple of chapters from the book here -

Vellore, 1990

If I were to know that after today, the three of us will never play again, I still won’t be able to do anything. We are on the terrace flying kites and a warm wind buffets them wildly. Puffs of breeze blowing about only serve to undo hair that our mothers have pulled back tightly and held in place with pins. Rehana and I are mere spectators watching Basheer shake and tug at the thread, as he holds his head against the cobalt blue sky, eyes squinted.

A memory of holding the gritty manja covered string in my hand surfaces. I remember the crisp, papery kite with a weight of its own in the sky, the wind crackling it and then the lightness in my hand as another captured it. Naturally, Basheer has never let me fly his kites after that.

The terrace of our house looks out over Vellore and we can see really far, right into the imposing mountains in the distance. Other flat terraces are dotted with children flying kites like Basheer; some are just watching.

Across the terraces, no one speaks. Concentration from the kites wavers for only a little while, before it slides back to the sky with determination.  However, for Rehana and me, watching Basheer fly a kite is like watching TV. We continue talking to each other, while encouraging him periodically. He glares at us now and then and it is the only indication that our constant chatter bothers him.  

Basheer is a little younger than me and he’s a silent boy. He’s shy and he stutters when he speaks to us but when he is staring at the sky, he becomes a different person altogether.  His brow bunches together in numerous lines, his eyes turning inward into slits as they follow the kites bobbing around in the sky.

Once I asked him what’s the big deal about flying a kite.

‘I mean, you just make sure it rises in the air and then you try to make it fly high. What’s the point in that?’

He curled his lips and sneered, ‘What would you know, Api?’ It’s one of the few times he’s spoken to me disrespectfully. He’s the only one to ever call me Api. Rehana always calls me by my name and Mateen, my three-year-old brother calls me ‘Pee’ sometimes.

I pestered Basheer to explain what he meant. He shrugged and stumbled over the words. ‘You have to…you’ve got to feel the power of putting a kite in the sky and, and… letting it fly without letting it go out of your control.’

The logic seemed warped. ‘You want to let it fly, and you still want to hold it in your hands?’ He turned away, a little irritated and proceeded to ignore me for the rest of the evening.

I look up and see his sky-blue kite duel with a maroon one. I pluck Rehana’s sleeve and we both try to follow its journey in the sky. The maroon kite is wildly circling ours.

‘Yes, Basheer, go on, cut out his kite!’ we scream.

With deft flicks of his wrist, Basheer moves his kite up and down. His fingers have a crisscross pattern of cuts, some have dried and some have bled afresh from the manja on the string. Sweat runs down in a thin stream at his temples as he concentrates on saving his kite. He’s desperately trying to manoeuvre it away from that horrid maroon one.

The fight is over in two minutes. Basheer stamps his feet and flings away the spindle, walking away angrily. Our blue kite dances a bit in the air, flips and falls away from our sight. A whoop follows its descent. On the same line of houses as ours, a young boy is jumping and waving wildly on his terrace. He’s probably fifteen.

He’s clapping and hooting and my face feels warm. Without really thinking, I slide my foot from my rubber chappal, pick it up and fling it hard in his direction. The slipper falls on his terrace and Rehana shakes my arm and whispers in horror, ‘Are you mad?’ The boy is laughing again. Feeling a strong surge of irritation, I pull out my other slipper and this time, with a short prayer I swing my arm right behind me and fling it forward. The slipper hits the boy’s shoulder and he flinches.

We stop laughing when we see him bend down to remove one of his slippers. Rehana and I run to the door that leads to the terrace, and we barely get it open when we hear a thud! Rehana giggles. Dark streaks are spreading across the sky, gently bringing in dusk when I realise that I don’t have my slippers. How will I explain their absence to Ammi when I go downstairs?

Rehana runs across the terrace once more, and is back before I can even guess what she’s doing. She holds out two well-used slippers. The sole is flat like a chapathi and it’s almost the same colour as my own.

I slip my feet into them. They feel grainy, as though they have been sprinkled with wet sand. Yuck! Rehana glares at me. ‘Just wear them Mehnaz! You’ll be lucky if Taima doesn’t notice the difference.’

The sole of my chappal slaps against the stairs. It’s two sizes big. We walk down the darkened stairway and when we finally reach down, Rehana and I run to the bathroom to wash our faces and hands. Is there any guilt on our faces? Will I be able to wash it out, I wonder, as I rub my face vigorously with the Hamam soap that is kept on the soap dish.

Surprisingly, Ammi has not been curious about where I have been all evening. For once, I don’t hear the litany that I dread so much - ‘Kahan thi…Kidhar thi…Kya kar rahee thi…’

The kitchen smells gloriously of biryani. If our family and Rehana’s is in Vellore at the same time, Ammi makes biryani at least once. Chachi is a good cook too but to me, biryani-making is like an obstacle race. Obstacles that Ammi clears with utmost ease. (I’ve often imagined her saree-clad, holding a huge ladle, jumping over large barricades) Of course, Asifa Chachi is so petite and demure that the obstacles just collapse all around her.

In the hot kitchen, Asifa Chachi is with Ammi, trying not to look like an eager pupil when Rehana walks into the kitchen, declaring that she loves my mother’s biryani. I can see the strain on chachi’s face as she fights to keep the smile pasted there.

‘What’s for dessert? Chachi, why don’t you make some of that chocolate pudding?’ I ask with as much enthusiasm as I can muster.

She beams at me. ‘I’d love to! But I don’t think there’s any cocoa powder here,’ she says glancing at the shelves. ‘When we return to Bangalore, I’ll definitely make some for you!’ I nod, thankful that Ammi hasn’t reminded me that she has given Chachi the recipe for the pudding.

Basheer’s mother, Zohra Phuppu hardly speaks to anyone. She’s like a spectre, observing her sisters-in-law usurp her kitchen whenever they visit from Bangalore. That night when Sadiq Chacha asks her about Basheer, she shakes her head because she doesn’t know where he is. When Basheer comes back, Abbu and Chacha both question him. ‘Kyon, mian, where were you?’ Abbu asks, looking officious as he sits on the sofa.

Basheer hangs his head and doesn’t answer. Abbu’s face is turning red, a sure indication of his rising anger. I don’t want Basheer to face Abbu’s ire especially on the day he’s lost a kite.

‘Abbu! I had sent Basheer to the market to get . . . to get some things for me,’ I intervene, laughing a little nervously.

‘Go have your dinner. And if I hear from your mother that you came home late again, I’ll skin you.’ Abbu says to Basheer sharply. Basheer wipes a tear and runs away. Abbu is the same man who dotes on me, and yet he can inspire such terror in another. It’s not a comforting thought.

*****************************************************

Sometimes Ammi and Chachi take Phuppu with them to Gandhi Road and force her to buy new clothes. But Phuppu prefers her frayed sarees and Ammi and Chachi stop taking her along on their expeditions in search of blouse pieces and new jewellery designs.

Abbu and Chacha bring new clothes for Phuppu and Basheer from Bangalore each time. Once, Abbu got angry when we arrived in Vellore and found Phuppu wearing a faded saree. Ever since then, Phuppu wears the clothes her brothers bring for her, but probably only till we stay in Vellore. After we return, I’m sure she wears her old clothes again. Maybe they comfort her, make her believe that things aren’t too different from when those very clothes were new.

Rehana and I sleep next to her in the nights. She’s changed drastically since her husband went away. We are not supposed to talk about it, or mention the subject in front of her but we talk about it when we are alone.

I look at her huddled form, my happiness at coming to Vellore dissipating a little each time I see her sad eyes. When life is almost perfectly for one person, why is it all wrong for another?

Her mother-in-law lives with Phuppu and Basheer and she mutters insults at Phuppu and acts ingratiating towards Abbu with equal ease. Abbu dislikes Ammabi (we have to call her that because the old woman disliked being called Dadi), and often tries to ignore her.

In Abbu’s absence, Ammabi likes to boss us around. I often answer her back. Ammi always lets me think I’m getting away with being rude because she never scolds me right away. But after a pause, she reminds me about my manners in a way that makes my face flush with shame.

Phuppu got married when I was very little. But a year after she gave birth to Basheer, her husband just left them and went away. Abbu and Chacha have tried to get her to come back with us but she refuses. She also insists on taking care of her foul-mouthed mother-in-law so Abbu has fixed up the house that he had grown up in, and he settled Phuppu, Basheer, and Ammabi there. 

I love coming here because this is the house which is ‘Vellore’ for me. This is where life becomes an interminable string of events, where there’s no homework and playing with Rehana is all I do. But all this is marred forever because of Ammabi. The old woman is forever taunting and ridiculing Phuppu, rocking her body slowly, her breath emitting strong Pan Parag fumes.

‘Rehaan,’ I whisper. She shifts sleepily and squints at me. The zero-watt bulb glows dully, and I can barely distinguish Rehana’s outline as she turns towards me.

‘What?’ she whispers.

‘Do you think that boy would have found my chappals?’

She half sits up, leaning on her elbows. ‘Why?’ she asks.

‘I was just wondering whether his mother would get upset with him when she finds out he’s lost his chappals,’ I say, unable to meet her sharp gaze.

‘Isn’t it too late to think about that now?’ she whispers and slaps my arm.

‘Ouch! Ok, whatever,’ I mumble and shut my eyes.

Bangalore

The first time I see Aasia, I feel happy because I foolishly think that she’s here to play with me. Then I learn that Ammi has asked for a young girl to help out with Mateen and so an old acquaintance who we called Khala has brought her to Bangalore so she can stay with us.

Khala’s burkha is faded and each time she visits us, the black seems to have seeped out a little more, making her look tired and insipid. Ammi brings tea in an old brown tea cup which confirms Khala’s social status. Khala sits on the sofa, her back slightly hunched as though she’s afraid her body will touch the sofa completely and maybe sully it and Aasia sits down on the carpet near her leg and looks around awed.

I try to see my house through her eyes. The huge ceiling, the big chandelier that rocks gently, the lovely ivory walls, unblemished and clean; it’s quite intimidating. I feel a little kind towards her at first, but then I realise that this will be her home too.

Aasia—thin, dark, with two oily braids tied right till the curved end with a pink and green ribbon—fascinates and repels me. She’s older than me, but I call her Aasia and she calls me Apa. She comes from a small town called Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu. Before Khala leaves, she turns to Aasia and says, ‘Now be a good girl. These people will take good care of you. I’ll write to your mother and tell her that you reached safely.’ Aasia nods quietly, her eyes wide and glistening and I wonder how it must to leave her family and come all the way to Bangalore to live with strangers.

Aasia is quiet and keeps out of the way of both my parents but she loves Mateen like her own brother. Each day before I leave for school, I watch her playing with him. She can play all day with him while I struggle with Maths and Geography I think enviously.  But one day, I see her in the backyard, scrubbing Mateen’s clothes. One by one, she shakes the brightly coloured clothes and hangs them out to dry on a thick nylon rope, which is fixed to a pole.

One day when Ammi is making breakfast and Mateen wakes up, Aasia runs to the room to amuse him. I follow her and when I see her bend towards the little cot, something fierce surges in me and I yank Mateen out of her arms.

‘He’s crying, Apa, and I have to look after him,’ she protests mildly.

I hold Mateen’s soft body in my arms and swing him forwards and backwards, a game that used to make him giggle endlessly. But now he just squirms in my arms and stretches his arms out towards Aasia and says, ‘Aashhi!’

I push him back into her arms. Mateen stops wriggling and grins, showing his pink gums and his white baby teeth and although I want to stay angry with him, I can’t.

At breakfast I notice that Abbu looks pensive as he speaks to Ammi. ‘I’ve told him what I feel about going into business with that man. I just hope he’ll listen to me when he comes here this morning’

Ammi nods and calls out to Aasia.

‘Fill the jug with water.’

Ever since Aasia has come, Ammi has stopped asking me for help. She never asks me to set the table, or to fill water in the ice-trays. I get up before Aasia can come and I’m back at the table with the filled jug. Ammi looks surprised.

‘Doesn’t he know what a cheat that man is? Sadiq himself was telling me the other day about how he tricked Raeez bhai out of the partnership. And he wants to start a business with that man? Just because he is his wife’s brother?’ Abbu’s deep voice cuts into my thoughts and I wonder why Abbu disliked Rehana’s mamu, Afzal so much? I can’t believe that he’s a cheat and whatever else Abbu likes to call him. He seems such a nice man because whenever we visit Rehana’s house, he gives us big Cadbury bars, not the small ones that Ammi always buys for me. Rehana and I often compete to see who will eat the slowest and naturally I always lose.

Afzal Mamu has also taught us plenty of new card games and tricks and I display my newly acquired skills one Sunday afternoon when Abbu and Ammi look bored. But with a sense of growing discomfort, I realise that Abbu’s eyes have become small and his face is red. Feeling as if I’m on a hurtling train destined to crash somewhere, I continue. When I finally pick out the correct card and show it to them hesitantly, Abbu leans forward and takes it out of my hands.

‘Who taught this to you?’ he asks quietly. My mouth is dry as I reply, ‘Afzal Mamu.’ He leans back and turns to Ammi who looks embarrassed. ‘You know how I feel about that man. What were you doing when she was learning cheap tricks from him?’ he bellows. The cards that I am arranging slip and scatter near his feet. There are tears in Ammi’s eyes but they flash with anger when she looks at me. ‘Go to your room and do your homework!’ I’m banned from visiting Rehana’s house for a week after that. Not fair.

Later, in my room, I hear the sound of Chacha’s Fiat stopping near our house. I push open the window to see if Rehana has come with Chacha. The compound wall of our house blocks much of my view of our street, but I can still see the top of his car. The white Fiat stands solidly on the road. I hear only one door shut. No Rehana. 

I get engrossed in a book that I have borrowed from the school library. When I shut it finally, I notice that it’s nearly lunchtime and I don’t feel like having lunch, but Ammi will never hear of it. I often wonder how long Ammi will control how much I eat, and what I eat. 

If I don’t want to eat rice for lunch, Ammi won’t let me make a simple sandwich. It’s still food, isn’t it? According to her, we simply have to follow her cardinal rules about rice for lunch and rotis for dinner. Why can’t it at least be the other way around?

The house seems unnaturally quiet, fully and forcefully bringing out the feeling that I inhabit a separate world and visit this one occasionally. In the living room, everyone is silent and only Mateen is playing with his toys.

Abbu gets up wearily and Ammi follows him, looking worried. ‘I’m not having lunch today,’ Abbu says and goes into the room. Ammi is quiet. Does this mean I have to be as old as Abbu for Ammi to stop telling me about having lunch and dinner and breakfast?

Why hasn’t Chacha stayed back for lunch? Later on, I look in on Abbu. He’s sitting up with his head thrown back on the pillow. His eyes are closed and I sit near him. Sometimes just being near him is enough. He makes me feel so safe, but an inexplicable happy-sad feeling also runs through me.

He smiles when he sees me and reaching out behind him, he hands me a small flat bottle of liquid balm. I open it and tip the bottle against my fingers to coat them with the cool liquid. Then I rub my fingers on his forehead and he shuts his eyes.

There’s this line in the middle of his forehead. It’s like a crease, like his skin has been folded there. I wonder if I can straighten it out. Maybe I should use more of the liquid. Feeling the harder pressure on his forehead, Abbu winces. ‘What are you trying to do?’ he asks. He will laugh if I tell him.

‘Trying to get rid of your headache’, I say instead. He smiles. ‘Why didn’t Sadiq Chacha stay back for lunch?’ I ask suddenly. The smile vanishes.

Maybe I should have realised that this is probably the beginning of something big and unpleasant, but it doesn’t occur to me. After all, I am only thirteen.

Much of this book is very close to my own life but it has been fictionalised of course. I’d love to hear from you if you read the book! You can get it here.

I haven’t forgotten about the post on KDP Select. It’s coming soon. Till then, take care!

Dear readers,

I’m glad you’re finding this entire Amazon KDP series(this, this and this) on the newsletter informative and useful. I am not yet ready with Part 3 as I promised but hope to post it soon.

Meanwhile, I’ve dabbled with the Pre-order option on Amazon KDP a few times now and I thought I should let you know what it does and what it doesn’t.

If you have readers in India, they cannot actually pre-order your book as they normally would do for a book that is posted by a publisher. Readers can only ask to be notified when the book goes live or add the book to their wish list. This automatically makes it frustrating for the readers as pre-orders are available for the US market only. (I haven’t checked the other markets, so I don’t know for sure but they’re definitely not available for the Indian market).

So why put up a book for pre-order?

There are a few reasons –

It increases interest in the book.

Helps create a buzz (of sorts) about the book.

There’s a shareable link that you can post on social media (but again, Indian readers can’t buy from the link until the book goes live).

On the backend, where you are setting up the book, you will come across the pre-order section in the very first tab eBook Details. This is what it looks like.

If you choose the Make my Kindle eBook available for Pre-order, you will be asked to enter a release date. Let’s say, I choose July 31st.  This is what I see:

As you can see, I am informed that I must submit the final file before July 27, 2020. Here’s a little more about pre-orders if you want to read and decide for yourself.

Putting up a book for pre-order is exciting but it’s a good idea to know the ground reality as well. Here are a few questions you have to consider before doing this.

Do you want to move up the release? Then you have to submit the file on a new date, 3 days before the release date. In this case, if I want to release my book on 28th July, I have to submit the final file before 24th or 25th.

Do you want to delay the release? Here’s where it gets tricky. You can delay a release by 30 days, which means, instead of 31st July, I can release the book on 31st August. But I can do this just once. If I delay again, I will not be allowed to set up a pre-order for a new book for a full year. So choose your release date carefully.

You can also cancel the pre-order and un-publish it from the store but you will not be allowed to set up a pre-order for a whole year after this.

Here’s what you need to do before the deadline

I often end up cutting this close but here’s what you need to do before the release date:

Upload the final file at least two days before the release date. This is because once you finish entering the information on all the three tabs, you will see this button.

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The moment you hit on Submit for Pre-order, the book gets locked on the dashboard and after a few hours, it will appear on the Kindle store as an eBook available for pre-order.

You are allowed to edit the final file right until the last date, but be careful because once you reach the last date, the dashboard will be completely locked until the release date.

If you have uploaded a file with errors, you will not be able to do anything until the book is released. Only then will the dashboard get unlocked and you will be able to upload a new file.

So, is Pre-order the right choice for me?

I’d say it’s not worth the effort or the hassle. This is especially because you are not allowed to cancel the pre-order and release the book right away if you want to. You can only move up the release to a certain number of days and it can get frustrating.

It also adds no value to your sales figures. So it seems like a lot of trouble that you are unnecessarily putting yourself through.

You can however use it as a way to enforce a deadline upon yourself (believe me, this is no fun).

Some specific news for my readers (I don’t want to do a new post just for this)

Friends, as you all know, my last eBook Smitten by You is not the end of the Destination Wedding Series. Readers have been asking about Aditi’s story and when it will be releasing.

Here’s the thing. I don’t know as yet because I haven’t planned it out. I’m busy with few other writing projects and my publishers who are bringing out the sequel to Twenty Nine Going on Thirty will be able to confirm when it will be out only later this month. If it releases as planned (Corona having a good laugh at my expense), then I will have to postpone Aditi’s story by a few more months.

That’s it for now!

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Dear readers,

Thank you for subscribing to my newsletter. The first part of this series was published on 4th July and many people have found it helpful. I’d promised to write a little more about Kindle Create, so here goes.

As I mentioned in the first post, KDP allows us to upload our manuscripts as Word and PDF files but there are other formats that it accepts too. I’m not going to go into the others but I’d like to take some time to talk about Kindle Create.

If you want your eBook to look professional without breaking your head over issues like formatting and what goes where, I highly recommend that you download Kindle Create on your computer. There is an MS Word plugin too but I didn’t like it very much.

There’s something very important that you need to remember about Kindle Create. There is no spell-check here, and neither are there any track changes for you to keep track of the changes that you make, unlike that in Word.

But don’t worry if it all of this sounds confusing. It’s actually quite simple and intuitive. Don’t let it overwhelm you at all! I’ve been working on Kindle Create for all my books and I can vouch that it makes my books look extremely professional.

Here’s what working with Kindle Create looks like once you’ve installed it on your computer.

1.       Double-click the Kindle Create icon.

2.       Click on New Project from File.

3.       Choose the first option – Novels, Essays, Poetry, Narrative Non-fiction and upload your manuscript.

4.       You’ll get this screen and it’s perfectly fine. Just hang on a bit.

5.       Click on Continue (which appears after the file has been imported).

6.       Click on Get Started.

7.   Okay, so now, your manuscript has been uploaded and Kindle Create has detected the chapters. This entire space is your working view. (I’m using one of my books as a sample. But of course!)

8.   On the top left corner, you have the Chapter Titles section. Click on Accept Selected.

Now, it’s time to take this apart, section by section. Let’s begin with the left hand side column:

There are three sections here.  

1.       Front Matter

2.       Body

3.       Back Matter

Let’s look at each of these in detail.

Frontmatter

1.       Click on the + sign next to Frontmatter.

2.       Click on Title Page

3.       You’ll get this screen.

a.       Enter your Book Title.

b.       Enter a Subtitle if you have one.

c.       Enter your name.

d.       Leave the publisher page blank. (Alternatively, you can come up with a publishing name that you want to use across all your KDP books, but that’s another topic for later)

e.       Click on Create Page.

f.        Here’s what the finished page will look like:

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a.image2.image-link.image2-281-439 img {
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g.       Now click the + sign next to Frontmatter again.

h.       Select Copyright.

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i.         Enter your name under Copyright Owner.

j.         Enter year of publication.

k.       Under the Rights section, remove what is not applicable for you or retain as it is.

l.         Click on Create Page.

m.     Here’s what the finished page will look like:

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n.       Now you can go back to Frontmatter and keep repeating the earlier steps to fill whatever is applicable for you. Kindle Create will create the relevant pages for you.

Body

1.       Now that you’re done with the front matter, let’s look at the Body. This will have your manuscript divided into chapters.

2.       Click on Chapter 1 and the central portion will open up to Chapter 1.

3.       Go over your manuscript carefully. Look out for typos and other mistakes. I often find myself spotting several mistakes at this juncture because it looks different from the usual Word file. But there’s something important that you need to know at this point. So please pay attention.

If you make changes here, in this file, there will be differences in your final Word file and the final file that you create here. You will not be able to download your work here as a Word document.

The moment you hit SAVE, a folder is created that you need to save at an appropriate location on your computer. It will have the .kcb file and the word file that you uploaded originally. It looks something like this:

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4.       Now, once you’re satisfied with the manuscript completely, move on to the next section which is the Backmatter.

Backmatter

This is a great new addition in Kindle Create which allows you to add the following features to your manuscript:

Click on those which are relevant to you, fill the pages and click on create page and that’s it, you’re done.

Well, not quite. So far, we were only looking at the left hand side of the screen. Let’s look at the right hand side.

There are 5 menu options on the top.

1.       Print Settings – This is not applicable if you are working on making an eBook only.

2.       Theme – This one lets you choose from 4 options – Modern, Classic, Cosmos and Amour.

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a.image2.image-link.image2-188-222 img {
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Each Theme changes all the aspects of your book, from font, to chapter headings, to even the separators between passages. So fiddle around and see what you like best. I personally feel Kindle Create should offer many more options. I usually choose Amour because I’m publishing romances and those have nice curly fonts for headings.

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a.image2.image-link.image2-225-197 img {
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3.       Save – Clicking on this will save your file.

4.       Preview – Now this is a great feature. Click on this, and you will see this screen.

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Choose which device you want to preview your work in. You can choose from Tablet, Phone and Kindle e-reader.

5.       Publish – Once you’re sure that everything is in order, hit the Publish button. Please note that by doing this, you are not automatically publishing this to your KDP page. Kindle Create and KDP are not directly connected. What happens here is that a .KPF folder is created and you get this screen.

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a.image2.image-link.image2-186-284 img {
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Click on Show .KPF folder and it will direct you to where you have saved the file.

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a.image2.image-link.image2-125-343 img {
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The .KPF file is what you need to upload in the KDP page where you are asked to upload your finished manuscript.

Below these menu options, there’s a full list called Text Properties.

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a.image2.image-link.image2-251-88 img {
max-width: 88px;
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Fiddle around with these and see if you want to make things look more interesting here. For instance, if you choose the third option, Chapter First Paragraph, your page will look like this.

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a.image2.image-link.image2-274-207 img {
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Check each of the elements and use whichever is applicable to you. Or don’t. I don’t use any of these elements. But suppose you have a quote from another writer at the beginning of your manuscript, you can use the second option under Standard Elements.

Save your work and hit Publish once you’re satisfied completely. Locate your .KPF folder as shown above and upload it onto KDP and complete all the remaining steps.

Your book is ready to be published!

Friends, I’m hoping this tutorial has helped you to navigate through Kindle Create. Many people I know prefer working on MS Word and don’t use it but I think that barring a few issues like the inability to do a spell-check (for god’s sake, Kindle Create, make it happen already), it’s still a very good option to make sure your book looks just perfect.

Happy publishing!

Thank you for reading. Subscribe to get more of these posts into your inbox directly.

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Dear readers,

First of all, thank you for all the support you’ve shown to the first part of my Amazon KDP series on self-publishing. I’m glad that it has helped clear the confusion for many of you who wanted to know how to go about self-publishing on Amazon.

But what I’d like to talk to you today is to discuss the merits of self-publishing and a few demerits as well.

Before I do that, here’s a little back story. I’m afraid I’m too much of a writer to jump into something without giving a back story.

I first ventured into self-publishing in 2012, when I had taken back the publishing rights for my first novel Kite Strings and decided to self-publish it. There wasn’t much awareness about Amazon KDP back then and I didn’t really give it much thought as I uploaded the book and hit the publish button and thought that was it.

That experience was rather disheartening because I barely had sales and the only time people downloaded my book was when I offered it for free. Of course, Kite Strings had already been published traditionally but I was not happy with the publishers and wanted it to have a better impact. So, yeah, I was obviously disappointed.

Also, I made no money. And that was a bummer. It wasn’t like I was expecting to earn pot loads of money but I was just surprised that I wasn’t making any money.

So, it turned out that I’d made a silly error when I was setting up my KDP account. I hadn’t entered my financial details there, and by that I mean my bank details (yeah, how stupid could I have been?) or my PAN number (which they ask under a different name - TIN - Tax Identification Number.)

Only last year, I realised my mistake and updated my account with this information, so the small amounts of money that Kite Strings had earned finally got paid out to me. After that, I hesitatingly put up my book My Sister’s Wedding on Amazon KDP and then, I never stopped writing.

So I wanted to ask you a few questions.

Is this your first novel?

Do you feel like you simply must hold your book in your hands for it to feel real?

Do you want to see reviews in mainstream magazines and newspapers and will you feel extremely disheartened if that doesn’t happen?

If your answer to all these questions is yes, then I would advise you to try traditional publishing first and come to Amazon KDP only if you don’t succeed there.

However, if this is your first novel and you don’t have the patience for traditional publishing - let’s face it - any book you pitch to a publisher now and if it gets accepted, it will most likely get published only towards the end of 2021 or early 2022 , and you don’t want to wait, then Amazon KDP is for you.

Here are a few more questions I have for you:

Do you plan to write more and often?

Do you want to publish regularly?

Do you want to build a strong reader base?

Do you want to earn money?

If your answer to all these questions is yes, then self-publishing on Amazon KDP is a good choice for you.

Did I say ‘earn money’? Yes, I did.

Amazon pays your earnings to you, every sixty days. This means that the earnings in July will get paid in October and so on. More on that in another post.

Anyway, Amazon KDP has opened the doors for many first time authors who have been doing very well. But if you want to venture into the world of self-publishing with Amazon KDP, you have to be aware of all that it entails.

This means that you may never get to see your book in print although I think you can get a Print-on-Demand publisher like Pothi to bring out your book but I don’t know about the details of this, so I can’t say if it’s worth it or not. (wait for Part 2 of my Amazon KDP primer on Kindle Create for eBooks for all about formatting a book for KDP).

However, on Amazon KDP, if you want to bring the print version out, you can set it up, but only people in US, UK and a few other foreign markets will be able to buy it. You can order author copies for yourself from the US market at the cost price but the shipping charges are extremely prohibitive.

So, to quickly sum this up:

Merits of publishing on Amazon KDP

You can publish quickly. It takes literally minutes to set up a new book and hit publish.

You can publish as often as you want.

You are in control of everything - from cover design to formatting to editing.

You get paid every two months, provided your book is selling or getting borrowed on Kindle Unlimited.

You have the freedom to write whatever you want and whichever genre you prefer.

You are your own boss.

Demerits of publishing on Amazon KDP

Since there are no editors, no publishing house backing you, you are on your own here and will need to hire an outside editor to look at your work.

You might miss out on typos and publish a book with some errors. This happens to me for every single book. The only good thing is that errors can be corrected by uploading a new file on the KDP dashboard. But it takes a couple of hours for the new file to go live.

There is no paperback option for India as yet.

Your book will probably/most likely not get reviewed in mainstream media and you may not be invited to literature festivals (although those are only happening on Zoom now ) although that’s not always the case.

You’re on your own when it comes to marketing your book. You’ll have to enlist friends and family to spread the word, and of course, social media.

If you have any more doubts, please let me know. I plan to compile an FAQ piece as well, which should help you figure out more about KDP.

Coming back to me, I think Amazon KDP has been really great. For the past ten years since I became a published writer, I’ve been trying to get a job that would pay me money to write fiction. Yes. I just want to keep doing this for the rest of my life. But I’ve never found a job like that obviously.

Amazon KDP comes close though, because the money is paid out regularly, and it’s tangible and not a once a year, flash in the pan. And the most important thing is that I treat it like a job.

If writing is your passion, Amazon KDP will help you make it into your career, but:

Only if you put in the time and the hard work.

Chart out a plan.

Decide on fixed goals.

Since February 2019, I have published 7 eBooks on Amazon KDP and the response has been very good(but could be much better). These are the books I’ve published on Amazon since last year:

My Sister’s Wedding

One Way to Love - Jasmine Villa 1

Loving you Twice - Jasmine Villa 2

Three times Lucky - Jasmine Villa 3

It was Always You - Destination Weddings 1

Remembering You - Destination Weddings 2

Smitten by You - Destination Weddings 3

Coming up next - a primer on Kindle Create and then one on KDP Select. Until then, keep writing!

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Dear readers,

Many people have been asking me about Amazon KDP and how it works so I decided to do a small primer of sorts about it. It’s very simple and you can do it easily without this primer too. But if you feel overwhelmed and confused, feel free to reach out to me and clear your doubts if any.

1.       Make sure your book is ready. And by ready, I mean that it has been edited and proof-read. It’s a good idea to hire someone to do this for you as you are bound to miss out on typos and small errors which can completely ruin your reader’s experience. Is your book ready for the world? Are there absolutely no typos in it? Good.

2.       Sign up for an Amazon KDP account here. Since you most likely already have an Amazon account, you can sign in, using the same account. Once you do, you’ll come across a page like this:

3.       Click on +Kindle eBook. You’ll come to this page with three tabs - Kindle eBook Details, Kindle eBook Content and Kindle eBook Pricing.

4.       The first tab is Kindle eBook Details and it will have all the information that typically goes into your product page on Amazon. Fill all the details here. This includes:

a.       Language – Which language is your book in? KDP supports a number of languages (some Indian, many foreign and of course, English) Make the appropriate choice.

b.       Book Title – What is the name of your book? It goes here into this field.

c.       Series – Is your book a standalone novel or a series? If so, enter the series name and the relevant number.

d.       Edition Number – You can leave this blank.

e.       Author – Enter your name here in these fields.

f.        Contributors – If your book is an anthology featuring titles from other writers, you can enter their names here or leave it blank if it’s not applicable to you.

g.       Description – This one’s crucial. This is the book blurb that you usually see on the book page. It has to draw the reader, make them curious enough to want to buy your book immediately. Here’s the description for one of my eBooks.

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h.       Publishing Rights – Choose the first option – I own the copyright and hold the necessary publishing rights.

i.         Keywords – Keywords are important especially if you know something about metadata. Relax, I know nothing about meta data either. All you need to do is to enter things that people might probably enter on Amazon to search for books similar to yours – it could be adventure, romance, and specific keywords too, like coming-of-age. There’s a link which helps you choose the correct keywords, so please click on that and use the appropriate keywords to describe your story and get the right readers to your door.

j.         Categories – This refers to the genre of your book, whether it is fiction/nonfiction, and under fiction, further genres such as adventure, romance, historical, horror, thriller, humour, etc. Amazon offers a number of categories but you can choose only two, so please go through these carefully and choose the right category. You’ll find that categories matter a lot when it comes to how your book gets rated. For instance, if you choose a very common category, it’s very difficult to stand out there. But that doesn’t mean you can choose an obscure category either. Here’s what Amazon says about categories -

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a.image2.image-link.image2-60-202 img {
max-width: 202px;
max-height: 60px;
}

k.       Age and Grade Guidance – This is optional.

l.         Pre-order – If your book is ready for release, then choose the first option which means the book will go live as soon as you hit publish. However, if you want to make it available for pre-order and publish it later, you can do that too. Please be very careful before making this choice. If you choose this, you will have to upload your manuscript before the date they specify. For instance, if I want to publish a book on 30th July, I will have to upload the final file before 26th or 27th July. After that date, this dashboard is locked and you will not be able to access it until 30th, when your book goes live.

5.       Click Save and Continue.

6.       The second tab is Kindle eBook Content.

7.       Fill all the details on this page. This includes:

a.       Manuscript -  Digital Rights Management – I always enable it so that people cannot share my book in unauthorised ways. Then click on the Upload eBook Manuscript. Click on this button and you will have to upload your manuscript in the required format. I usually either publish as a .docx or a KPF file. There are many formats which can be used here such as PDF or HTML. The KPF file can be generated using Kindle Create for which I’ll do another tutorial.

b.       Kindle eBook Cover – Upload the cover that you’ve prepared for your eBook. You can get this done professionally or you can use Canva. I avoid using the inbuilt Cover Creator which is the first option here. It’s not that great. KDP accepts only JPEG or TIFF Files. The ideal dimensions for your eBook should be 2560x1600 pixels. Also, please ensure that the size is not more than 50mb.

c.       Kindle eBook Previewer – Click the Launch Previewer button and you will be taken to a window which will show you exactly what your eBook will look across different devices – Kindle, phone and tablet.

d.       Kindle eBook ISBN – eBooks don’t need an ISBN number so you can let it be. There’s another field for Publisher which you can leave blank.

8.       Click Save and Continue.

9.       Fill all the details on this page. This includes:

a.       KDP Select Enrollment – If you choose this option, then your book will be available for Kindle Unlimited subscribers to read for free. If you’re publishing fiction, I highly suggest you opt for this because a huge chunk of my income comes from here. Yes! Authors get paid when readers read your book for free. That’s probably for another post so I can explain better.

b.       Territories – I always opt for All Territories (worldwide rights).

c.       Royalty and Pricing – Now here’s where it gets interesting. You have two royalty plans here – 35% and 70%. If you’re going to price your eBook below Rs.99, then you will be able to select the 35% royalty only. If you price it at Rs.99 and above, then you can opt for the 70% royalty. You have to select your Primary Marketplace here and the one I choose is Amazon.in. I would highly advise you to price your eBook from Rs. 99 to 125 and not higher than that. In fact, Rs. 99 is a very popular price point.

d.       Book Lending – eBooks that are priced at 70% royalty option are automatically enrolled here.

e.       Terms and Conditions – Just read this and then, voila, you’re done.

10.   Click the Publish Your Kindle eBook button.

That’s it.

Really.

Your eBook could get published within 72 hours, although it usually goes live within a few hours. Sometimes however, it can take longer than that and it can be quite frustrating, but please do stay patient.

You will also be offered the option to start your paperback and while it’s tempting to convert your eBook into a paperback, they are not yet available in amazon.in which means that you can set up your paperback and even publish it, but only those in the US, UK and some other foreign markets might be able to buy it. It’s a bit pointless at this time.

I hope this has been useful in helping you self-publish your eBook on Amazon KDP. I’ll do another tutorial on Kindle Create and another on KDP Select and why you should enroll your eBook on it.

Until then, happy writing and publishing!