Publish mystery, thriller and suspense novels for free using Kindle Direct Publishing.

Create and sell beautiful Kindle books to millions of readers worldwide.

Free File Conversion: Upload your manuscript and convert it into a Kindle eBook for free.

Track Worldwide Sales: Track sales as they happen and use our real-time insights to grow your audience.

Marketing Tools: Benefit from Amazon's powerful marketing tools and global distribution. Enroll in KDP Select to get more promotional benefits.

Start publishing your mystery, thriller or suspense novel today.

Join the thousands of mystery, thriller and suspense authors on KDP. Here are some of their stories:

"Your only judge is your readership. And that's the way it should be."

Keith Houghton, author of Killing Hope

I was banging on publishers' doors for 30 years before Kindle Direct Publishing opened theirs. Like most aspiring authors, I thought of self-publishing as a cottage industry, mostly tainted by mothballs. My feet were planted firmly in the traditional agent-to-publisher route, mapped out with dead-ends and rejection slips. Naively, I believed if my writing was good enough then it would sell. What I didn't gamble on were the odds being stacked against me. To get an agent, open a publisher's door, so many things--all beyond my control--had to line up just right. The key was finding an agent who believed in my work. It took three decades and dozens of hopeful letters to get a foot in the door, and even then, it closed at the final step.

I believe everything happens for a reason. I broke with convention and looked into KDP. The Kindle was the new kid on the block. It offered a means for unknowns like me to get my work in front of readers, fast. But I didn't know what to expect. Amazon was in the throes of giving self-publishing a facelift--revolutionizing reading in the same way the jukebox popularized music. It was exciting but daunting. What if it didn't work out? What if it was a flash in the pan? People don't believe me when I say I'm shy. The thought of exposing my work to public scrutiny was scary. Worse than that, the fear of not selling a single book was a reality check.

I bit the bullet and launched my first crime thriller Killing Hope through KDP in November 2011. As it turned out, it was the best career decision I ever made.

Within two months, Killing Hope had hit the Top 20 in the U.S. Kindle Store and reached the #1 spot in its categories internationally. Sales were exceeding all my expectations. Better yet, I was getting plenty of reader feedback and using it to shape my future books.

And I was kicking myself for not taking the plunge sooner! I have ditched my day job and now write full-time. KDP's versatility means I can edit my books, update their stats, and choose pricing promotions on my own schedule. KDP Select is like having my very own publicist working full-time behind-the-scenes, free of charge. Enrolling in KDP Select opened new doors for me and my books. Not only can I schedule zero-price book promotions to help boost sales, my books also attract great royalties on borrows through the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. For writers like me, it is a win-win all-round. Running regular KDP Select giveaway events on my Gabe Quinn thrillers gave them unparalleled exposure, resulting in a quarter of a million downloads worldwide, 100,000 of which were actually paid sales.

I am in complete control of my writing career. What's more, I get the kind of royalty rate unseen in the rest of the publishing world. But perhaps the best thing in KDP's favor for me is the absence of literary snobbery. Anyone with a story can publish it and have people on the other side of the planet reading it the next day.

Your only judge is your readership. And that's the way it should be.

"The success has been very empowering--and I couldn't have done it without Kindle. For the first time in centuries authors are able to make a living and really connect with our readers."

C. J. Lyons, best selling-author of Blind Faith

Watch my video

I've been a writer all my life but never thought about making a career of it until a few years ago. I worked 3 jobs to put myself through medical school, but after 17 years of medicine, I sold my first book to a NYC publisher and decided to quit medicine. When I was in medical school I wrote science fiction and fantasy novels, but during my pediatric internship, one of my fellow interns was murdered and I switched to writing thrillers and suspense. It was my way of coping with the trauma. For my characters, I like to highlight ordinary people who are able to find the courage to make a difference in the world.

"It can take so many months to work with agents and publishers, so you are better off just going direct with self-publishing."

Michael Prescott, author of Stealing Faces

Since 2009, I started focusing on independently publishing eBooks as I had already been published in print for several years. To start with, I wanted to bring back the old books that were mostly out of print. One book, "Rip Tide", had never been published. I was going to bring it out on Print on Demand with CreateSpace, and at the time publishing to Kindle through KDP was an afterthought. But of course the Kindle version sold much better. It took a while for my books to build up in the bestseller lists, but they took off recently.

Learn more about publishing popular content on KDP:

Business & Investing

Comics & Graphic Novels

Kindle Vella - NEW!

KDP Kids

Literature & Fiction

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Non-fiction

Romance

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Teens & Young Adult

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Publish mystery, thriller and suspense novels for free using Kindle Direct Publishing.

Create and sell beautiful Kindle books to millions of readers worldwide.

Start publishing your mystery, thriller or suspense novel today.

Join the thousands of mystery, thriller and suspense authors on KDP. Here are some of their stories:

"Your only judge is your readership. And that's the way it should be."

Keith Houghton, author of Killing Hope

"The success has been very empowering--and I couldn't have done it without Kindle. For the first time in centuries authors are able to make a living and really connect with our readers."

C. J. Lyons, best selling-author of Blind Faith

"It can take so many months to work with agents and publishers, so you are better off just going direct with self-publishing."

Michael Prescott, author of Stealing Faces

Learn more about publishing popular content on KDP: