Does anybody here know how to self publish on Amazon

I am thinking of putting together a book about one of my rescue dogs. "Cherokee, the life of a rescue dog".

It's about this guy...

I have plenty of good quality photos of him during the 15 years of his life. The first one is from the Dallas Morning News in an article about a puppy mill bust about 15 years ago. A very frightened puppy is going into the shelter on a stick and loop tool wielded by a pound employee. He has been everywhere. Several dog parks. Doggie splash swimming pool days. The Cotton Bowl during dog day. The last photo is the one above on the last day of his life. Mrs. Snowdoggie, who is a creative director with a large advertising firm and an award winning graphic designer is doing the layout and some of the photos.

I don't really expect to make a lot of money, or any money doing this, but it would be a nice tribute to a very special dog and I could sell or give them away at dog rescue events and other dog events. I heard you could do this at cost on Amazon, including the printing.

This guy knows

On GRM even

#metoo. I've published four books on Amazon. The hardest part is formatting. I got a e-book, "Basic Fiction Formatting" for Open Office (because I won't pay Microsoft's extortion price for Word). There are probably others, if you use a different software. That e-book may have been free. Anyway, it isn't difficult. Ask me anything.

ddavidv said:

#metoo. I've published four books on Amazon. The hardest part is formatting. I got a e-book, "Basic Fiction Formatting" for Open Office (because I won't pay Microsoft's extortion price for Word). There are probably others, if you use a different software. That e-book may have been free. Anyway, it isn't difficult. Ask me anything.

Formatting isn't a problem at my house. Mrs. Snowdoggie does this for a living, has Adobe InDesign and knows how to use it. We can come up with the product to upload. I am more interested in cost of printing and legal rights to the book? Can I print up a box of books to take to events and sell for a reasonable price. Can I take the book and print copies elsewhere if I find somebody cheaper than Amazon? What is the process when I have something ready to upload? 

Amazon is "print on demand".  When someone orders a paper copy of your book, Amazon's elves print it. They do not stock copies made in advance. It takes several days for that to happen. Yes, you can order in quantity to sell yourself, should you want. And your copies will be cheaper than the cover price, to allow you to make some extra. 

I'm not aware of anyone else doing print-on-demand. Most publishers will have you commit to a pretty expensive, huge order that will sit in your garage for all eternity as you eek out sales. 

Frankly, I sell waaaaay more e-book versions of my books than paper copies.

They do the same with CDs, actually pressing them when you order. Or did; I read an article about in the WSJ

It is pretty easy. There is no cost to do it. You're just putting it up for them to print on demand as has been described. We've noticed some color inconsistency between print "runs", which doesn't really matter for most use cases, but FYI. Also, we found out through a friend of a friend that someone's copy was printed in the wrong order, and the best I see on forums is that Amazon doesn't really care about that as far as the print shop being held accountable. It's up to the buyer to return the book on their own if they want to.

I'm not sure how to go wrong with it. I've read that finding a publisher is only for if you're already famous or if somebody wants to give you $400,000 upfront. Otherwise, self publishing is the way to go, and no one does it easier and with less risk than Amazon. They even provide the ISBN for you.

The most anxiety producing part of the whole thing is getting the bleed area and paper size right and all that, but if your wife does InDesign work for a living, then it's gonna be cake for you two.

If you choose the correct format/paper size ratio, it can also be eligible for wider distribution to book resellers through Amazon. You can take the option to have it available on Amazon for like 40% royalty after cost, and at the same have them submit it for wider distribution at maybe 20% royalty after cost. I have zero idea on how the wider distribution thing actually works, but someday my ship may come in and I will have more to tell you.

I don't think I'd bother to do it this way, but frankly, compared to Shutterfly, this is an 80% cheaper way to do family photo album books, if one were so inclined. Just make your book, get a couple author copies, then shut it down.

They also provide a Mac or PC program for converting to e-book.