Watch This BEFORE You Publish a Book on Amazon KDP (Biggest Beginner Mistakes)

About this video

In this subscriber book-review episode, Sean critiques several submitted Amazon KDP books and identifies the mistakes killing their sales. The dominant problem across almost every book is zero reviews; he recommends Book Bounty (which he says has a 15-day free trial and a $25/month plan) as an easy way for beginners to get them. The second recurring flaw is unclear positioning: titles/subtitles that never say whether a book is fiction or non-fiction or name its genre. He shows competing romance titles whose subtitles name the category (e.g. ‘a steamy midlife romance,’ ‘a spicy roommates with benefits romance’) and advises putting searchable genre/category phrases in the subtitle, since customers search those phrases and Amazon ranks on them. He praises ‘Colin the Capybara’s Listening Adventure’ for its descriptive subtitle and strong reviews, but notes its BSR of 379,000 means modest sales, so he suggests testing a more emotional cover and improving marketing, citing children’s author K. Sanders Diggs’s TikTok posting as a model. For a witch-detective book rated 4.1, he advises pushing the average above 4.3 (where it displays as five stars) or applying review feedback to a new book. He warns a ‘machine learning crime fiction’ book has no proof of concept — the genre doesn’t exist because there’s no demand — and urges publishing only in proven topics. He also flags a possible trademark risk in a ‘Chefman’ air fryer cookbook, noting he checked and the trademark appears to cover electric deep fryers, not books, but calls it sketchy. He closes by pitching his coaching program, which reviews students’ books before and after publishing.

Key takeaways

• Zero reviews is the number-one sales killer; he recommends Book Bounty (15-day free trial, $25/month plan per the video) to get reviews as a beginner
• Put the genre/category in the subtitle (e.g. ‘steamy midlife romance’) — customers search those phrases and Amazon ranks books on them
• Aim for an average rating above 4.3, where Amazon displays five stars; a 4.1 rating suppresses fiction sales
• Only publish in topics with proof of concept — existing books already selling; an invented genre like ‘machine learning crime fiction’ almost never works
• Check brand names against trademarks before publishing (his Chefman check found the mark covers deep fryers, not books, but he still calls it risky)

Episode details: published November 21, 2025 · 14:48 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.

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