Self-publishing my second book of poetry using Amazon KDP and Canva

When I published my first book of poetry "Colliding Contrasts" in the Summer of 2021, I decided not to use Amazon KDP as I wanted the images of my painting to be true to the colours of my artworks and for the book to have a quality finish. However, my second book is all in black and white, so I thought that I would give KDP a go to reach a wider audience with my poetry. As someone who was completely new to self-publishing on KDP, I have been very happy with how easy the process was. I created the layout for my book using Canva and saved it as a PDF which was then uploaded to KDP, a very quick and easy process. I then created the cover using the cover creator provided by KDP. The paperbacks are of nice quality, indeed much better than I anticipated. I wouldn't hesitate to use KDP again, I may even create another full-colour book. 

I have a recently uploaded YouTube video where I talk about this process and where I also read out a couple of my favourite poems from my new book "Distraction in the minutiae, poems from nature". 

You can see it here:-




You can see my book here:-


A charming collection of poems exploring the natural world of the author's locality. From the flowers in her own garden to the wildflowers on the fells she walks. The poems cover all weathers and seasons, drawing parallels between nature and the self. The author explores her own connections to the location and the importance of surrounding ourselves with nature.

"These short poems were all written over the course of a year and relate to the flowers in my garden, the creatures that live alongside us, wildflowers and places that root us in the landscape. In some I give a nod to the language of flowers, in others, I observe the parallels with our own lives. The renewal of life in Spring and the transience of the flowers give us pause for thought on the fragility of being."

Illustrated by the author.


If you do get the chance to take a look at my book or video, please do let me know what you think, your feedback is always much appreciated.

All in all, I am so far very happy with using KDP, I have made a few sales and hopefully, some reviews will soon follow. I will certainly use them again and I have already started work on my third book.

Have you published on KDP and do you like it? Let us know in the comments below.


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