As a follow-up to an earlier post about formatting for the Kindle, I thought it might be helpful to do a quick overview of the rest of the process. Using Kindle Direct Publishing, you can upload books to be distributed through Amazon to tablets and other mobile devices. Here is their Terms of Service.

Getting started looks pretty straightforward. But here are a few issues you will want to be aware of.

Royalties

You have two choices of royalties: 35% and 70%.

The standard royalty for KDP is 35%.

To qualify for the 70 percent royalty option, books must satisfy the following set of requirements:

• The list price must be between $2.99 and $9.99

• This list price must be at least 20 percent below the lowest physical list price for the physical book.

• Titles must be made available for sale in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights.

• The title will be included in a broad set of features in the Kindle Store, such as text-to-speech. This list of features will grow over time as Amazon continues to add more functionality to Kindle and the Kindle Store.

Here is a comparison of the two royalty structures, side by side.

Lending

All Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) titles are enrolled in lending by default. The Kindle Book Lending feature allows users to lend digital books they have purchased through the Kindle Store to their friends and family. For titles in the 35% royalty option, you may choose to opt out of lending by deselecting the checkbox under “Kindle Book Lending,” in the “Rights and Pricing” section of the title upload/edit process, but you may not choose to opt out a title if you have chosen to includ the book in the lending program of another sales or distribution channel.

Amazon Associates

If you’re enrolled in Amazon’s affiliate marketing program, Amazon Associates, you can place a link to your Kindle offering on your site. If someone follows the link and completes the purchse, Amazon pays you an “advertising fee” according to their terms and conditions.