Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing | Unlock Hidden Features

About this video

Dale Roberts walks through KDP features he says authors commonly miss or never use. He covers exclusive category placement — browse paths visible on Amazon but not in the KDP dashboard, including Kindle Short Reads, which depend on keywords and book length and can sometimes be requested via Contact Us; setting age and grade range so Amazon niches a book to the right readers; and entering a series name and number so Amazon builds one product page for the whole series. He explains Kindle Matchbook, which lets print buyers get the Kindle edition discounted or free, and notes sellers must educate readers because many do not know it exists; he says he prices print higher and makes the ebook free through it. He covers the Look Inside program for print books (sharing roughly the first portion, region-specific, with control over which sections appear, though he says his own application had gone unanswered), Enhanced Typesetting for adaptable, zoomable ebook text, and X-Ray for Authors, which lets authors add descriptions and commentary readers see inside the ebook. He discusses Great on Kindle, an invite-only nonfiction program he says requires high-resolution images, enhanced typesetting, accurate metadata, X-Ray and an Author Central page, and which he says pays a lower royalty. His bonus tip: through Author Central’s Contact Us (or its general email, which he names in the video) authors can attach five additional keywords to a book on top of the seven KDP dashboard keywords, and he advises making them different from the dashboard seven.

Key takeaways

• Some Amazon categories and browse paths, such as Kindle Short Reads, do not appear in the KDP dashboard; placement depends on keywords and length and can sometimes be requested.
• Setting age and grade range, plus a consistent series name and number, helps Amazon niche the book and group a series on one product page.
• Kindle Matchbook lets print buyers get the Kindle edition discounted or free, but authors must tell readers the option exists.
• Look Inside enrollment gives control over which parts of a print book are previewed, and Enhanced Typesetting makes ebook text adaptable across devices.
• Author Central can attach five extra keywords to a book beyond the seven KDP keywords, per the creator’s account of his call with Amazon support.

Episode details: published June 5, 2019 · 14:16 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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