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Sunday 13 March 2011

Amazon Kindle Sign Up for Non-US Self-Publishers


I have had quite a number of authors ask me about publishing their books using the Amazon Kindle digital platform. For US authors, it is a valuable, but many authors outside the US are confused as to whether they can use it. For a time, I was also convinced that non-US citizens could not use it because they could not provide a US bank account and tax number.

Well, you can publish through Kindle from anywhere as long as you have an Amazon account. Go here, sign in, and then create a Kindle Direct Publishing account. When you come to the section about your address, fill it in manually, rather then using the auto prompts, and the sign up process will bypass the section for providing US tax information. You will then be assigned a publisher code and taken to the content upload section.  
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4 Comments

4 C O M M E N T S:

Malignant Carp said...

The one caveat to being a non-US resident is the IRS policy on royalties, namely that they withhold 30% of all royalties to non-resident aliens until they can prove their alien status. Personally, I think that Amazon needs to call itself a distributer to get around this nonsense.

To gain tax exemption, you need to fill out form W7 and submit it along with a notarized copy of your passport or other accepted identification and a signed document on the publisher's letterhead explaining why an ITIN is necessary. That is to say that you need to get Amazon to send you such a document. I've heard from a few people who said it's hard to get them to do so. Smashwords, on the other hand, offers it freely once you've made $10 worth of royalties.

Once you've secured an ITIN, you can submit form W-8BEN to be given the tax exemption. Smashword's royalty FAQ covers tax withholding quite well.

Editor said...

Thanks for those additional details, Malignant...

ivinv said...

I think it's important to differentiate between self publishing (by the author, of course) and vanity publishing where the company banks on your vanity.

Authopublisher's top 5 Self Publishing Supertars

Editor said...

Ivin,

That point has been made many, many times on the site and in various articles here.

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