A+ Content on KDP as low content no ISBN code
I watched a video by Paul Marles
about KDP not giving free ISBN numbers to Low Content books, which means you cannot use the look inside feature to see what the book is about.After struggling through setting up the pages and making the Camino Journal I saw this as a bit of a nuisance , but Paul Marles comes to the rescue by suggesting you use A+ Content to show these features.
I’d previously seen a couple of videos on A+ Content and knew that I’d have to jump in and do that sometime, so I thought the Journal would be a good one to start on, as, when its been approved, it won’t have an ISBN number.
I watched one vid on it and then just tried it out. It seems to throw a few errors up but moves ahead with allowing you to play with the elements. I chose Amazon.US
‘m not sure if I have to put German content onto the German site, I did see somewhere that you manage all the different languages from one site, so depending on the users settings is the language they see.
Main Process
There are predefined formatted elements that you can choose and you add your information to that element, images, lists , headers and text fields, reasonably straight forward, you save to a project name of your own choice and then add a ASIN (Amazon assigned ID code) and then submit it for approval.
Te first one I did bounced a few times and was rejected as I used the term “Bonus” which it didn’t like, so had to edit that out and then it accepted it. So I have 2 awaiting approval from KDP before they will be published.
The Hardback/Paperback book are awaiting approval, then after they are assigned an ASIN code I can attach the A+ data to it.
Issues
Two issues arose,
- Doesn’t like Bonus, Gratis and other such terms, so stops you from submitting for approval before that is fixed
- Images too small to see on mobile. I had to correct this on one (italian) and now have to correct on 2 other submissions.
Mobile can’t look inside so A+ content useful
A comment was made somewhere, I can’t remember where, but Mobile can’t look inside so A+ content useful to show what is in book
Problems with Text and A+ content for mobile
I keep on getting my A+ stuff rejected. Mainly screenshots of Word or Excel, the content looks blurry for mobile. In the end I just used the same lists and did not add images, it made it easier to get something up and running at this point.
For the Camino book I did a direct download of images from Canva and uploaded them, you only got to see part of the images, but better than nuffink.
I’ll need to start being a bit careful about setting up structure of content for A+ for books. Definitely worth it, as mobile can’t look inside, but at least they can explore info.
End Comment
The nice thing is you can create A+ content and have it ready for when the book is published. So while the juices flow you create information, then, as book is being approved it does not have an Amazon Code, so you can’t assign the A+ info to the specific book.
I was concerned that book might take some time to do and by then you’ve forgotten what you need to put in You’re A+ info. So its good to know that is not the case.
Its reasonably straight forward. I will have to do some work for the translated books and also for the AutoHotKey book too. Hopefully it will increase interest in the publications.
The approval process is slow, two to 3 days. And mainly rejection, only French translation approved so far. Almost as much effort as getting the Book approved (not that much) but irritating as you have to come off other tasks to fix it.
I need to get a formula and content blocks setup so that they are easy to do. The 3d book cover is easy, maybe I should put everything in that.
Not so good for low or mid content books though, they want to see he content.
