For those prolific writers and authors amongst us, creating a series of books will be a highly likely and almost natural process, taking a passion for the written word and hopefully a great idea to extend across several volumes.

What’s more, if you can create a series of books, KDP links them together within Amazon, and this is great because it really helps your readers to find more of your books, which in turn should help you in selling more and reach a larger audience.

So, how do you create a series in KDP?

If you’re publishing a book with a print on demand service, then you may well have decided to use Amazon KDP (formerly Createspace) for your new title, after all, being a part of Amazon, they have one of the biggest platforms in the world for online retail and offer a great free to use service for authors.

Using their platform for self-publishing is fairly straightforward and we have written lots of articles showing you how to upload books, tweak your KDP account and even promote your book on Amazon with their own advertising options for authors & sellers.

But an important part of your publishing journey with Amazon KDP will be your book cover design.
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The first thing to remember is that you will likely publish your book as both an eBook and in print, the eBook will be sold via Kindle and the cover has to be created to certain specifics to work with their book readers, whereas the book cover design for print will need to be created specifically for your paperback and/or hardback (taking in to account the spine width based on the page count) and a different set of specifics.

We all understand that a great book cover design is essential when it comes to catching the eye of your potential reader, ensuring that your book stands out upon the page, looks professional and is readable as a thumbnail.

But what do you need to consider when creating an eBook cover?

The first thing that you’ll need to look at will be the actual dimensions of the eBook, because when it comes to publishers, they do require different sizes for the eBook cover.

If you have ever looked at your favorite author’s books on Amazon, you will see that on each book’s page there’s a section a little lower down which reads ‘From the Publisher’, here you’ll see banners, promotional images, graphs, details about the author, technical information, and other elements to help you sell the book.

Creating content for A+ is certainly worth doing and will enable you to present not only a professional image to your reader, but it also allows you to add further information that will help to explain important contents within your book (and this is great for non-fiction books, guidebooks and manuals).

So, how do you add A+ Content to your book’s Amazon page?

​If you’re a self-publishing author using Amazon KDP, then you may have considered using Publisher Rocket at some point. They offer comprehensive tools that have been used by best-selling authors, publishers, and indie authors alike, giving up-to-date information and helping you to get your book in front of more Amazon customers.

What is metadata and where do I find it on Amazon?

The metadata for your book is the basic information which will help readers to find it, it includes the title, subtitle, series info, book description, keywords, cover image, ISBN, contributors, and publisher. It may seem simple, but it is really worth taking your time on getting these elements set up correctly, when done right, it will help you in reaching your audience.

When you’re publishing your book with KDP, these details are what you will input upon the first page of the upload process, again, the information that you place here will have an impact on how easy your book is to find, so let’s look at each element section by section.

You may or may not have seen that KDP offer a way to nominate your book for two of their eBook promotions, these being Kindle Deals and Prime Reading promotions, and if you are looking at every option in getting your book in front of as many readers as you can through KDP, it may be worth nominating your own book.

First of all, what books are eligible for nomination?

Royalties for your book with KDP

Publishing a book can be an exciting and highly creative process, one which most authors feel compelled to follow, dedicating many hours of hard work and effort into every page. But aside from the creative reasons why authors write books, they still want to get paid for every copy sold.

So, if you have published your book with KDP (or are about to) what royalties do they offer and what should you be aware of? 

Well, KDP splits the categories for print and eBook, offering different options for both, let's take a look at both of these starting with eBooks.

A key element of setting your book up within KDP publishing is in choosing the correct categories for your publication, this option is within the upload process and is on the first page of the set-up process just below the section on keywords.

So why should you research your categories first?

Because when you select the right categories for your work, it can make the difference on how many people find and buy your book, it can also make your book an Amazon best seller, so it really is worth taking your time on this and getting it right from the get-go.

If you have chosen KDP Publishing for your book (and so many authors do), you may have uploaded it and are still waiting to see some serious sales come through, scratching your head, and wondering what’s going on.

But then most of us know that by just uploading your book with the basic information doesn’t necessarily translate into an overnight best seller, there is of course a bit more to it.

So, what should you do to give your book the best chance?

Firstly, you need to approach your book as an advertiser or publisher would, try to step away from it and view it from another perspective, as someone who will be its intended audience, and granted, this can be hard.