Watch This BEFORE You Publish a Book (Biggest KDP Mistakes to Avoid)

About this video

In a subscriber book-review video, Sean works through submitted KDP books to show recurring beginner mistakes. Mistake one is a poor cover: an animal coloring book for toddlers has hard-to-read title text and wasted middle space, and he says such an easy-to-make Canva-style book in a saturated niche might make only $5-$10 a month; the fix is a clear, bold, easy-to-read title and a less crowded keyword. Mistake two is getting no reviews: a Japanese language manual series (volumes 1-6) has some volumes with zero reviews, and he says to aim for 10-20 reviews right after launch instead of uploading and hoping the algorithm delivers sales. Mistake three is not validating the idea and title against search demand: ‘The Cure for a Poisonous Mind’ will never be typed into Amazon search, whereas books titled around ‘how to stop overthinking’ match the query — he shows one he says makes $868 a day in royalties. He repeats the same pattern for a large-print word search book with zero reviews (a basic cover and a weak ‘better vision’ angle), a thriller with seven reviews that stopped marketing, and a Christian purpose book with 14 reviews whose vague title and cheap-looking cover need work.

Key takeaways

• Make the book title on the cover clear, bold, big and easy to read — that is Sean’s number-one cover rule
• Do not launch and hope: actively get reviews, aiming for 10-20 shortly after launch rather than zero to three
• Validate the title against what buyers actually type into Amazon search, e.g. ‘how to stop overthinking’, not a fancy phrase nobody searches
• Avoid saturated, copy-paste niches like generic animal coloring books for toddlers unless you have a differentiating angle
• Marketing is not optional: reviews plus ads are how Sean says books move from a few sales to meaningful income

Episode details: published October 11, 2024 · 15:42 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Sean Dollwet’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

← Previous: I Published Over 400 books on Amazon KDP - BIGGEST Lessons I’ve Learned · Next: How to SELL Your Amazon KDP Business for 6 to 7 Figures (Full Tutorial) →

All Sean Dollwet videos · Sean Dollwet profile · Sean Dollwet on YouTube