The Free Guide: A Paperback On Amazon, Written By Claude (Built 2026-09-20)

Every step below comes from a file that was checked. The file is named on the step. Nothing here is from memory. Where a step could not be confirmed from those files, the line says VERIFY LIVE BEFORE FILMING instead of guessing.

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What you get (read this first, it is honest)

This is the free way to put one real paperback on Amazon: pick the topic free, let Claude write the book, format it free, make the cover free, tick the one box that keeps your account alive, and launch it without spending on ads.

Say it plainly to yourself before you start: the free route takes your time instead of your money. You will read the one star reviews yourself, and you will format the book yourself in Reedsy instead of clicking one paid button.

The paid tools, named as paid, with today's prices

You do not need any of these to follow this guide.

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Step 1: the free topic pass

Everything in this step is free. Source for the whole step: updated-tools-ideas-3-and-4-2026-09-20.md, row e, and card-video3-amazon-paperback-2026-09-20.md, step 1.

1. Pick one category on Amazon and open its Best Sellers list. Then open the Hot New Releases list for the same category. Best Sellers tells you what is selling. Hot New Releases tells you what is selling that only just arrived, which is the part most people never look at.

VERIFY LIVE BEFORE FILMING: the exact menu path to Best Sellers and Hot New Releases on today's Amazon is not written in any checked file. Click it on camera and read the path off the screen.

1. Type your topic into the Amazon search bar and stop. The autofill list under the box is what real people are typing. Write those phrases down. That is free keyword research and it costs nothing.

1. Install the co-author.ai plugin. It is free, and once it is on, any Amazon book page shows you that book's sales rank and its daily royalties right there on the page. That is the odd fact worth knowing: on Amazon, anyone's book income is basically public.

(Source: card-video3-amazon-paperback-2026-09-20.md, "Prepared before filming" and step 1.) VERIFY LIVE BEFORE FILMING: the install location and the exact figures the plugin prints on today's Amazon page are not written in any checked file. Install it and read the screen on camera.

1. Let Claude read the top 20 listings and the one star reviews, and tell you the gap. This is the step that replaces the $199 tool. The one star reviews are where the gap is, because they are people saying out loud what the existing books failed to do.

The topic prompt, written out in full

Open Claude, paste this in, and swap the things in square brackets. Paste the listings and the reviews in when it asks for them.

I am researching a short non fiction paperback to publish on Amazon KDP.

The category I am looking at is: [PASTE THE CATEGORY]
The search phrases Amazon's own autofill gave me are: [PASTE THE AUTOFILL PHRASES]

I am going to paste you two things:
1. The top 20 listings in this category: the title, the subtitle, the page
   count, the price, the star rating and the number of reviews for each one.
2. The ONE STAR and TWO STAR reviews from the best selling five of them.

When you have both, do exactly this and nothing else:

A. From the 20 listings, tell me what every one of them promises, in a plain
   list. Then tell me which promise is repeated by almost all of them, and
   which promise only one or two of them make.

B. From the one and two star reviews, pull out every complaint that appears
   MORE THAN ONCE. Quote the reviewer's own words for each one. Sort them by
   how often they come up. Do not summarise them into nice language, keep the
   words angry if they are angry.

C. Name THE GAP in one sentence: the thing buyers in this category are paying
   for, not getting, and complaining about.

D. Give me three possible book angles that fill that gap, and for each one say
   in one line why the existing top 20 does not already cover it.

E. Tell me honestly if there is NO gap here and this category is already served.
   I would rather hear that than have you invent one.

Rules:
- Do not invent a listing, a review, a rating or a sales figure. Only use what
  I pasted.
- If I have not given you enough to answer a part, say which part and ask me
  for it instead of guessing.
- Plain words. No marketing language.

Only after that free pass shows you money should you consider Publisher Rocket at $199. Not before. (Source: updated-tools-ideas-3-and-4-2026-09-20.md, row e.)

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Step 2: Claude writes the whole book

Source for this whole step: updated-tools-ideas-3-and-4-2026-09-20.md, row a, and card-video3-amazon-paperback-2026-09-20.md, step 2.

The old way was chatting with the AI chapter by chapter and pasting the answers into a document by hand. That is what makes AI books get spotted: the voice drifts, the same sentences repeat, and you spend a day copy pasting.

The new way is one plan file, then one file per chapter, all written in one run. You give Claude Code the full brief and a sample of the voice you want first, then it writes the folder and you open the finished folder at the end.

Ten thousand words is enough for a short non fiction book. (Source: card-video3-amazon-paperback-2026-09-20.md, step 2.)

Before you start: is it safe to let the AI write into your own folders?

Yes, when you set the fences first. The AI reads a plain text rules file sitting in the folder you work in, and it follows it every single time.

Put it in the folder the book lives in, and write the fences in plain words. For example:

• Never touch, move or delete anything outside this folder.
• Never delete a file. Move it to a folder called Old instead.
• Never open my keys, my passwords, or any settings file that holds them.
• Never send anything out: no email, no upload, no message, without asking me first.
• Never publish anything anywhere without showing me first.
• Always work on a copy, never the original.

That file is the one to have open on screen. It is the file that says what the AI may never touch. (Source: card-video3-amazon-paperback-2026-09-20.md, step 2 safety line, and the same rules file pattern used in the video 1 and video 2 free guides.)

Prompt one: the plan file, written out in full

You are going to help me write one short non fiction paperback for Amazon KDP.
In this first step you write NOTHING of the book itself. You write the plan only.

The book's angle is: [PASTE THE GAP AND THE ANGLE FROM STEP 1]
The reader is: [WHO BUYS THIS, IN ONE LINE, AND WHAT THEY ARE STUCK ON]
The promise on the cover is: [THE ONE THING THEY GET BY THE END]
Total target length: about 10,000 words.

Create one file called PLAN.md in this folder, containing:

1. The working title and three alternatives.
2. The one sentence promise of the book, in the reader's own words.
3. A chapter list. For a 10,000 word book, plan 8 to 12 chapters of roughly
   800 to 1,200 words each. For EVERY chapter give me:
   - the chapter number and title
   - the one thing the reader can do differently after reading it
   - the 3 to 5 points it covers, in order
   - the word count target
   - the specific complaint from my one star review research that it answers
4. A STYLE section: sentence length, reading level, whether it uses "you",
   what it must never sound like, and a list of banned words.
5. A REPETITION section: the ideas that must appear ONCE ONLY in the whole
   book, and which chapter owns each one, so no two chapters say the same
   thing in different words.

Rules:
- Do not write any chapter content yet.
- Do not invent statistics, studies, names or quotes anywhere in this plan.
- If the angle is too thin for 10,000 words, tell me that now instead of
  padding the chapter list.
- Show me PLAN.md and stop. I will approve it before you write anything.

Read the plan before you let it write. This is the ten minutes that saves you the whole book.

Prompt two: the chapters, written out in full

Run this only after the plan is approved.

Read PLAN.md in this folder. It is approved. Now write the book.

Write ONE FILE PER CHAPTER, named 01-<short-title>.md, 02-<short-title>.md and
so on, in this folder. Do not put the whole book in one file.

Here is a sample of the voice I want. Match this, do not copy its content:

---
[PASTE 200 TO 400 WORDS OF WRITING IN THE VOICE YOU WANT. YOUR OWN WRITING,
OR A PASSAGE FROM A BOOK YOU LIKE THE SOUND OF.]
---

For each chapter:
- Hit the word count in PLAN.md, within 10 percent.
- Cover the points in the order PLAN.md lists them.
- Answer the one star complaint PLAN.md assigned to that chapter.
- Open with the reader's problem, not with a definition.
- Every chapter ends with one thing the reader does before the next chapter.
- Follow the STYLE section exactly, including the banned words.
- Follow the REPETITION section: an idea owned by another chapter must not be
  re-explained here, only referred to in one line.

Never do any of these:
- Never invent a statistic, a study, a date, a named person or a quote. If a
  point needs a fact I have not given you, write [FACT NEEDED: what it is] in
  the text and carry on.
- Never write filler paragraphs to reach a word count. Tell me the chapter is
  thin instead.
- Never use the same opening sentence pattern twice in a row across chapters.
- Never touch, move or delete any file outside this folder.

When every chapter file is written, print one table: chapter number, file name,
word count, and every [FACT NEEDED] you left, so I can fill them in.

Then you open the finished folder. That is the whole writing step.

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Step 3: the inside and the cover, free

Source for this whole step: updated-tools-ideas-3-and-4-2026-09-20.md, rows b and c, and card-video3-amazon-paperback-2026-09-20.md, step 3.

The inside of the book

Reedsy Studio, free. It writes and typesets in one place, and it exports both the Kindle file (EPUB) and the print ready PDF for the paperback. Its own page says the core writing and formatting are free "and they always will be" (reedsy.com/write-a-book, checked 2026-09-20).

That is the part that matters: one place gives you both files. Kindle Create is free too, but it does not hand you the paperback PDF as cleanly.

VERIFY LIVE BEFORE FILMING: the exact export buttons and the order of the steps inside Reedsy Studio today are not written in any checked file. Do the export on camera and read the buttons off the screen.

The paid step up is Atticus at $147 one time, no subscription, and it runs in the browser now so it works on any machine (atticus.io, checked 2026-09-20). It is the step up, not the default.

The cover

Use KDP's own Cover Creator, free, inside the upload flow. It sizes the cover itself.

Here is why that matters more than how it looks: the spine width and the bleed are the thing that gets a paperback rejected, and Cover Creator gets both right on its own. (Source: updated-tools-ideas-3-and-4-2026-09-20.md, row c.)

VERIFY LIVE BEFORE FILMING: where Cover Creator sits inside today's KDP upload flow is not written in any checked file. Click into it on camera.

And the bigger reason. The real risk with a cover is not that it looks amateur. It is using an image you do not own. There is a 628,000 view video about exactly that: Jenny Hansen Lane, "The Copyright Mistake That Cost Me Six Figures on Amazon KDP!" (youtu.be/5sEojReUtIo). Cover Creator removes that problem for book one entirely, because you are not bringing in someone else's image.

Make your own image for book two, once you know the topic sells.

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Step 4: the one rule that closes accounts

Sixty seconds, read off Amazon's own page, box ticked on screen. Source for this whole step: updated-tools-ideas-3-and-4-2026-09-20.md, row d, and card-video3-amazon-paperback-2026-09-20.md, step 4.

The old advice was "just do not say it is AI". That advice closes accounts.

Here is KDP's own line, word for word from their page:

"We require you to inform us of AI-generated content (text, images, or translations) when you publish a new book"

(kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200672390, checked 2026-09-20.)

And their own definition of what counts:

• AI generated means the tool made it, "even if you applied substantial edits afterwards". This is you. You tick the box.
• AI assisted means you wrote it and the AI cleaned it up. That one does not have to be disclosed.

So if Claude wrote the chapters, that is AI generated, and you tick it. Ticking the box is not a penalty. Hiding it is what gets the account closed.

VERIFY LIVE BEFORE FILMING: the exact label on the disclosure box and where it sits in today's upload flow are not written in any checked file. Tick it on camera and read the label off the screen.

The upload limit

The old "3 books a day" number is gone. KDP's page now says 10 titles per book format each week. (kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200635650, checked 2026-09-20.)

That is the real ceiling to know: 10 per format, per week. Not per day.

VERIFY LIVE BEFORE FILMING: read that number off their live page on the day you film, because it is the kind of number Amazon moves.

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Step 5: the real money, and the free launch

Source for this whole step: updated-tools-ideas-3-and-4-2026-09-20.md, row g, and card-video3-amazon-paperback-2026-09-20.md, step 5.

The paperback maths, said honestly

Nearly every video says "70 percent royalties" and stops. That is the Kindle number, and it is not the whole truth either.

KDP's own formula, word for word:

"(Royalty rate x list price) - printing costs = royalty"

(kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200634500 and .../G201834330, both checked 2026-09-20.)

For a paperback:

Worked through on a real book. KDP's own example prints a 333 page book for $5.00. So a $12.99 paperback pays you:

60 percent of $12.99 = $7.79, minus the $5.00 print cost = about $2.79 a book.

Not $7.79. $2.79. That is the number nobody says out loud.

VERIFY LIVE BEFORE FILMING: $5.00 is KDP's own example for a 333 page book. Your print cost depends on your page count, your trim size and whether it is black and white or colour. No checked file holds a printing cost for any other page count, so read your own number off KDP's own printing cost tool before you say a figure on camera.

For Kindle:

• 70 percent only inside the listed countries, and only after a delivery charge of $0.15 per MB in the US.
• Otherwise 35 percent, with no delivery charge.

(Same KDP pages, checked 2026-09-20.)

VERIFY LIVE BEFORE FILMING: the actual list of countries where 70 percent applies is not written in any checked file. Read it off KDP's own page.

What that adds up to

(Source: card-video3-amazon-paperback-2026-09-20.md, money math.)

The ceiling shown, with its year said out loud: Sean Dollwet said $35,000 to $40,000 a month from books, on his own video, in 2021. That figure is five years old and it is his, not a promise about yours. (Source: card-video3-amazon-paperback-2026-09-20.md, proof table, youtube.com/watch?v=JrFZ_ky7AzE.)

VERIFY LIVE BEFORE FILMING: no second earner at $20,000 a month or more exists in the checked files for this topic. One proof is said, never two invented. (Source: card-video3-amazon-paperback-2026-09-20.md, proof table and "Open for Reis" item 2.)

The free launch, in order

Do not run ads on a brand new book. Ads on a listing with no reviews burn money into a page that cannot convert yet. Fixing the listing is free and it lifts every later click. (Source: updated-tools-ideas-3-and-4-2026-09-20.md, row f.)

Do it in this order:

1. Fix the listing first. The A+ content and the look inside. This is free and it is the thing every click lands on.

VERIFY LIVE BEFORE FILMING: whether A+ content is open to every new KDP account today, and where it sits, is not written in any checked file. Check it in your own KDP dashboard before you say it on camera.

1. Your own audience next. Anyone who already knows you. Free.

1. Then Shorts and Pinterest pointed at the listing. Free traffic, aimed at one link.

1. Amazon ads come after your first reviews. Never before.

VERIFY LIVE BEFORE FILMING: no Amazon Ads cost per click was pulled in the checked files, so no ad number is claimed here. (Source: updated-tools-ideas-3-and-4-2026-09-20.md, "What is missing".)

The launch order above comes from Ken Fornari's 2026 launch video (youtu.be/2EXuuPz-IgQ, uploaded 2025-04-23) and his AI specific one from a seller with 40,000 books sold (youtu.be/As72iG1b_OQ, uploaded 2026-06-09).

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Links

TRACKED LINK NEEDED BEFORE PUBLISHING on every link that leaves with the video: the free guide link, the sponsor link and the ending card link each go out as a named tracked address on Reis's own domain, added to the tracker first, never the raw destination. (Source: card-video3-amazon-paperback-2026-09-20.md, metric 11.)

The video links and the Amazon help pages quoted in this guide are citations shown on screen, not published links.

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Open items before this guide is published