Many of my friends and beta readers have a Kindle, but aren’t exactly sure how to get a Kindle book that someone sent them on to their Kindle. Amazon doesn’t make this easy to figure out, but here’s my workflow.

1. First sign into your account on Amazon.com

2. Next click on the “Manage Your Kindle” button on the lower right side of the page

3. Now click on “Personal Document Settings” on the left side of the page

4. Now check the “Approved Personal Document E-mail List” section of this page

If your correct email address is listed, skip to the next step. Otherwise add it using the “Add a new approved e-mail address” link. Your Kindle will only accept documents sent from an email address listed here, so make sure it is correct.

5. Now check and note the “mail to” address for your Kindle device

Each Kindle “device” has its own “mail to” address. So if you have a Kindle app on your phone or iPad or computer, it will have a different address than your Kindle Touch or Kindle Fire device.

6. Finally, in your own email program, send the .MOBI file to your Kindle’s “mail to” address

Make sure you are sending from the approved email address you saw in Step 4. And make sure you are sending to the correct Kindle device “mail to” email address from Step 5. It doesn’t matter what your subject line is — or what the text of the email is (leave blank). Just make sure you attach the .MOBI file to your email (Kindle books are .MOBI files).

That should be it. In a few minutes your Kindle book should be available on your Kindle. Amazon may even send you an email confirmation when the book is available.

Good luck!