I've watched this video twice - second time taking detailed notes. It's like a mini-course with walk away action items. (I even let the commercials play all the way through as a thank you 🙂)
I appreciate that Jasmyne, but you don't need to watch the commercials. It doesn't actually help my channel, in fact it can hurt it. Watching ads that you're not interested in (solely to generate more money for my channel) is considered "invalid traffic" and my channel can actually be demonetized for it. In fact, it's something I'm dealing with right now. So if you're not interested in an ad, skip it! But I appreciate the sentiment.
Thanks, Craig, I had no idea that I already had my Author Page in so many countries. I thought I would have to create each one separately and I don't! Whew! Good stuff. I look forward to more. :)
Speaking of Author pages, Craig. I thought that we couldn't use Author names that weren't names (like Old Town Books)? If we can, that's great news. :) Please advise. Thanks so much for your excellent videos.
Thank you so much Craig! So many useful tips! I will definitely add the author page, and the 8 extra categories to my books! Appreciate this! Best success to you and everyone reading this.
I've been entertaining the thought of opening a KDP account for a few years so I've been watching videos on the topic for a while now. After bingeing on your videos for the past couple days, I just want to say that I appreciate the information in this specific video. There are some things here that no one else has brought up such as steps to take BEFORE designing and uploading anything to KDP. Thanks!
I watched a previous video of yours and you suggested to put your website on the spine of your book for various reasons therefore I went immediately and bought a domain! Thanks for your tips and tutorial!♥️
Absolutely excellent video! Thank you so much - As someone who is just dabbling with LC books at the moment I have found this the inspiration I need to get more serious about this - thanks again
@@CraigBabin you mentioned getting a website, which company do you recommend? Also, with a Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest page, is a website necessary? And, how do you feel about Fiverr for marketing?
@@sheilaS1111 I don't remember mentioning needing a website, I think what I said is that you need an online store to sell your books from; as long as you have an authors page on Amazon ... that'll do. By marketing are you referring to hiring an artist to create logos and banners for you? If so, yeah Fiverr is fine. Just make sure you're using somebody reputable.
Craig, this is a GREAT VIDEO! I followed it step by step. The only problem I came across was with the author page. I didn't realized that KDP carried over accounts from Amazon Advantage. But with a couple of calls, Author Central told me you can have more than 1 author page. So I created a second on under my branding so only the new and current books I am creating will show up. Thanks for all your useful information! Now let me see if I can sell some books!
Soooo enjoy your videos! I’m focusing on ads/optimizing this week. Launching a new book this week how many reviews do you feel are “enough” to launch? For folks to feel good about buying it lol.
I don't think there's a specific amount, once you start getting into the double digits, people will be more comfortable buying your book. And that's simply because most customers just assume that the first few reviews are probably from family and friends.
thanks so much. ill try to comment on everyone I watch. Is there a way you can upload a up to date video for composition notebooks and journals? the process in kdp seems to have changed a bit. please and thanks so much😍
I think the only thing that has really changed is that you no longer need to to pick an ISBN number when it comes to no content books like journals. Other than that, the upload process should pretty much be the same. But I'll have to take a look at it to see. If I see a significant change, then I will make an update video.
HI Craig, loving the videos. Not sure if you know or if you have done a follow up video yet, but covervault has shut down. If you have I will get to it eventually! Would you have any other recommended mockup sites (paid or free is fine for me) that I could use? Cheers
Great content! Can I have multiple author pages for different Brands? I would like to seperate kids books from adult content for better seperation. Thanks!
Hi Craig thank you for the detailed tips! Another Question is, regarding the mock -up, do you have a tutorial on how to upload the designed mock ups on the page as it is only making us upload the front page and manuscript on kdp ... sorry Im a newbie haha
I don't understand your question. The book mock up is entirely separate from your KDP files. You have to upload a book cover PDF and a book interior PDF to KDP. The mock up is just a promotional PNG that's created in Photoshop to help display your book for advertising purposes, it has nothing to do with KDP. If you're asking me if I have a video that shows you how to upload your book to KDP ... yes I do. You can find it here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6aVbQY3ow8Y.html
@@CraigBabin Got it, I saw a video where it says that we cannot add Book covers if we're selling through KDP Amazon, Just 1 cover page and just create designs for A+ Content
That's a great question. I would say it depends on how unrelated the two niches are. If one of your niches is how to exercise and the other is healthy recipes, then one author is fine. But if one niche is beauty tips and the other is automotive repair, then definitely use two separate author names. It's important to give the appearance of being an authority in whatever niche you're selling in.
The book in this video is not an actual book, it's just a mock up for demonstration purposes. But you can go on Amazon and find plenty of guitar tab books to get some ideas from. Try here: amzn.to/4536EL7
Brother will help me with an information. I work in Amazon KDP. Can I market my book on the marketplace? Creates an Amazon Associate account. Will there be any problem in the account? It would help me a lot if you let me know.
Hi Craig, Thank you for this informative video! I am a little confused, at the beginning of the video you say to open an Amazon Store. Is this separate from the Author page? Thank you.
No, the author page is for KDP self publishers, what a store front is to all other Amazon Sellers. The only way to get an actual store on Amazon is through Seller Central. And Seller Central is for people who want to list their products on the Amazon platform. Your KDP books are already on the Amazon platform, so there's no need to sign up to Seller Central and pay the monthly fees. What I meant by you need a store is that you need a spot where customers can find all of your books in one spot. And for KDP publishers, that would be your author page.
how can I change the Author's name after placing some of my books under my name? I'm just starting out with low-content books with KDP. I like the idea of another name that can be the same as my website and social media.
You can't change your name after you've created your page. And the name of your author page must match the name of the author on your books. But you can create another author page under the same KDP account but with a different name. Just make sure that any future books you publish, have that new author page name as the author of the book.
Awesome tips. One question. If we sell on Amazon KDP, we are not supposed to sell on third party websites. The website that you create for your brand cannot sell them directly I assume. It can only link to proper amazon links. Is that correct ?
Yes, you could post a photo (mock up) of your book on your website with a link to the Amazon product page below it, but the customer would have to buy it from your Amazon product page. If you want to sell directly from your website and ship the books yourself, then I would recommend using a printer like Lulu Publishing, so that you can purchase the books at cost up front. And with Lulu you can still list your books on Amazon through their print on demand service.
The book mock up template comes in a Photoshop file. If you don't have access to Photoshop, you can always use Photopea.com. It's a free Photoshop knock off that you can use straight from your browser. I don't use Canva, so I really don't know what file types they accept.
Thank you for this ! I have a question regarding the AmazonKDP account, is there a way to upload more pictures for my book on my amazon profile? I have seen that other sellers have more presentation pictures, not just the book cover. Thank you!
If you create your own website, then you're only advertising on it. Each book advertisement would lead to your Amazon product page. But in this video, I recommend using your Amazon Author Page as your book store, so in this case you would be selling from your store, because your Author Page is on the Amazon platform.
Thanks Craig. I asked some questions on your video about A+ content on Amazon. Do well to attend to them. I also wanna know if you have any other Mock up tool that's free and available for mobile devices
Are you referring to KDP sizes? Only the sizes they specify on their website. The closest to that size would be 8.25" X 11.69". kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GVBQ3CMEQW3W2VL6
If you're referring to a brand logo, you're absolutely right. Any thing that could possibly be trademarked has to be created from scratch. You can't use any type of preexisting imagery, even if it has a creative commons license on it. Because once you trademark it, you're claiming complete ownership of it. That's the reason that I suggest in the video to create your own image. The wording on Shutterstocks licensing agreement is tricky. They say that you can use their images in the following: "As a digital reproduction, including on websites, in online advertising, in social media, in mobile advertising, as part of product packaging and labeling, letterhead and business cards, point of sale advertising". But I think that when it comes to logos and where you can't use their images, that they're referring to registered trademarks: "Use any Visual Content (in whole or in part) as a trademark, service mark, logo, or other indication of origin, or as part thereof". Indication of origin means ownership. You don't own your avatar of any social media website (unless you created it yourself, or it's your own face ... then you have copyright protection), or if it's trademarked. If you wanted to trademark your avatar, then you would definitely have to create it yourself. But you may be right, I probably should have said "have an image created for you, on a site like Fiverr", instead of buying one from Shutterstock ... just for clarity sake. Thanks for pointing that out. My bad.
Hlo sir I really like your idea for promotion bt i am confused a bit bcoz u said share the url of each amazon country marketplace bt in new author page their is a single url can I use that only in worldwide and if not than how can I get others url
Amazon has now changed their promotional links to "one link". So you only need to promote the one author page. If someone from another country clicks on that link, they'll be taken to the Amazon author page in their country.
@@CraigBabin Have you updated your author link on your RU-vid account? I'm in Canada, but when I click on your Amazon link from here, I'm taken to your US author page.
@@Svartr.HrafnSvartr It's an affiliate link, so it's suppose to (in theory) send you to the marketplace of whichever country the viewer is in. But it seems to only work with product pages and not author pages. 60% of my RU-vid audience are in the US (only 1.5% are Canadian), so I just point the links to the US platform instead of the Canadian one.
@@CraigBabin No worries. Amazon isn't too difficult to navigate back to the .CA pages and listings. I think most Canadians are quite used to everything being US-centric!
Craig, very informative, a question for you, Please help me understand. If my books are under my name, do you recommend creating the author page as my name? Can I choose a pen name as an alternative to my author's name? Of course, I will research all the platforms to make sure the name is available and not taken.
If your books are written/created under your name, then yes, by all means create your author page under your name. That's the way I do it. If you chose to use a pen or store name, you can do that as well. Just keep in mind that there is more to making money online than just self publishing low content books. That's just one income stream. You ultimately want to have multiple incomes streams working for you all at once. And to keep those streams cohesive, you'll want to create them under one brand. In this modern day and age, it's less about selling a product and more about selling a brand. So if you're planning on being the face of your brand, then you're customers will be buying into you ... so you may as well use your own name as your brand. Especially if you take the route of using RU-vid to promote your income streams, then your customers are really buying into you. Now if you're going to build your income streams around your meditation studio, then make that studio name your author name. Just keep all of your income streams cohesive under one brand.
When I put my name in, it separates my name with a comma and adds the last name in front. So the formatting and what my chosen author name is are being thrown off. How do I plug my name in so it's not formatted that way?
@@thismomof5 If you are putting only one word in each of the 3 name boxes and it's giving you a comma separation, try putting two words in the first name box and one word in the last name box. But it should work with just one word in each of the 3 name boxes. Make sure that you're not putting anything in either of the prefix or suffix boxes. If it doesn't correct itself, contact KDP.
Hi Craig.. do you do ads when you're posting your books on Facebook? and what do you think of Facebook Store? Where you can just promote all the notebooks in the store for visitors to choose. Also, I do have a question.. do I have to have a photoshop knowledge / photoshop software to have this work? Hope my questions make sense.
Hey Elyana, I personally prefer using Facebook groups to promote my products for FREE, instead of using paid ads. I use groups to get traffic to my RU-vid page all the time. Join a bunch of groups that are in a similar genre as you and just leave useful tips and comments, when people start seeing you as someone who is knowledgeable in that genre, they will seek you out. All you have to do is leave a link at the bottom of your post, to wherever you want them to go. And yes, the Facebook store is a great way to display all of your books on your Facebook page. As for ads, if you've done your research and you know there's a big market for your particular product on Facebook, then yes, Facebook ads are definitely worth it. And finally, you only need to know how to do, what I've shown you how to do (in the video) in Photoshop. So you don't have to be a Photoshop master. And no, you don't have to have Photoshop, you can also use the free alternative Photopea. You can find it at Photopea.com I hope this helps.
@@andrejohn4216 Just search for groups on Facebook that are based on whatever theme your book is about. So if you're creating word search puzzle books about Halloween, search for groups that discuss Halloween.
