When you have your final book files, you've reached the most exciting part of the self-publishing process, and that's uploading your files and clicking "Publish."
Be sure to finish setting up your book and submit your book files at least one day before your planned release date. This is because many retailers take twelve to twenty-four hours to list your book in their store. Aggregators often take longer because they need to send your book to the various retailers who then upload to their stores.
If you set your book up for pre-order, note that Amazon requires the final book files to be submitted at least three days before release date. I recommend you build in a buffer and upload files well before the deadline, or you could risk seeing a draft book file available for sale.
Many retailers allow you to save a draft of your book, so you can set it up as soon as you have your metadata. I take this approach with all my books so I have less to worry about right before the release date when marketing activities can be chaotic.
Even if you choose to distribute your book via an aggregator, such as Smashwords or Draft2Digital, you may still want to distribute your book directly via Amazon KDP. Amazon is the largest source of e-book revenue for many writers, so most choose to distribute directly to Amazon via KDP rather than through an aggregator to keep the highest percentage of revenue.
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