KDP Publishing Tutorial - Kindle Direct Publishing - How To Understanding Titles & Subtitles

About this video

RJ Martinez explains KDP titles and subtitles for low-content books, a topic he says he overlooked when starting and paid for with, at one point, over 40 rejections and another time 30 rejections for getting titles wrong. The rule for the book title: it must match exactly what is on the front cover — e.g. simply ‘Composition Notebook’ — and adding extra words beyond the cover gets the listing rejected. The subtitle is where you can move: load it with the strongest niche keywords, since from his testing the ranking order is book title first, subtitle second, and the seven backend keyword slots third, with the description mainly helping convert browsers. He researches keywords free using Amazon’s own search suggestions via the AMZ Suggestion Expander, then filters Amazon results by Prime and paperback format to isolate KDP listings, showing composition notebooks ranking around BSR 39K–51K whose subtitles are packed with relevant terms like college ruled, blank lined, wide ruled, students, kids and teens. He cautions that subtitle keywords must relate to the niche and the book’s actual interior, that you should describe the interior (blank lined, graph paper, etc.), target the right audience, and not repeat the same keywords, per KDP’s own guidance.

Key takeaways

• The book title must match the front cover exactly — adding extra words to the title gets KDP listings rejected
• Put your strongest niche keywords in the subtitle; his tested ranking order is title, then subtitle, then the seven backend keyword slots
• Research keywords free with Amazon search suggestions (AMZ Suggestion Expander), filtering by Prime and paperback to study KDP competitors
• Top-ranking low-content books (examples around BSR 39K–51K) pack relevant keywords like ‘college ruled,’ ‘blank lined,’ and the target audience into subtitles
• Do not repeat keywords across fields — Amazon combines them for you, per KDP’s guidance

Episode details: published October 6, 2019 · 10:47 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are RJ Martinez’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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