Liz offers a helping hand for self-published authors
An introduction to Amazon A+
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Authors need all the help available when we promote and market our books. This is especially so when self-publishing. And it’s an expensive business.
I’m sure that, while browsing Amazon for your favourite authors, you will have noticed that some books – mostly published by mainstream publishers – have extra goodies on their page, enticing you to buy.
This is one that Joffe Books put on the page for Murder Among the Roses.
The good news..
The good news is that this is not just for mainstream publishers and big name authors such as Richard Osman.
I have a couple of self-published books and the publishing rights to a number of my Harlequin Mills and Boon romances have reverted to me, which I’ve since republished with new covers.
While poking about on the “advertising and promotion” link on the Amazon Kindle publishing site, I discovered that this little extra – Amazon A+ – is not confined to big name authors and publishers with money to spend on marketing.
Anyone can do it. And it’s free.
And more good news. It’s not that difficult.
Here’s one I did earlier for my Little Book of Writing Romance.
And this is another example I found.
As you can see, there are a variety of options, all of which Amazon lays out for you in its guidance on Amazon A+.
Amazon A+ : First things first
To start, log onto your Kindle publishing account and choose the book you want to promote. Under Manage Your Title, click on the Promote and Advertise link.
This will offer you various options. Scroll down to A+ Content.
Click on Choose under “Choose a marketplace” and you will get a drop down menu asking on which Amazon page you want the A+ content to appear. You can’t progress further until you’ve made this choice.
The UK is my biggest market so that’s the one I chose.
Moving on
At this point you will be offered help on the following:
Getting Started With A+ Content
A+ Content Guidelines – there are some rules about what you can add. Reviews, for instance, are not allowed.
A+ Content Examples
Getting Started with Amazon A+
Once you have familiarised yourself with the Guidelines, go back and click the Manage A+ Content button (under the Choose dropdown in screenshot above). This will take you to the A+ Content Manager screen shown below.
Click the button, top right, to Start Creating A+ Content.
At this point you will give your project a name in the compulsory Content Name box, click Add Module at which point you will be shown a whole range of opportunities.
You may want to double click this image to enlarge so that you can read what the options are. This screenshot shows only the first 6. Scroll down on your own screen for lots more.
Click on the options
Click on any of the options and you will be shown exactly what you need to fill the spaces. This is the thirteenth option on the screen, the Standard Single Left Image, which I’ve cropped out of the whole collection so you can see it more clearly.
Click on that cute little dog and this is what you will see on your Content Details screen:
My screenshots are not that great, but your own screen will tell you the size of the image you need, and give you a place for a headline and space for any copy.
Take your time to check out all the various options you might use. Look at the examples Amazon provides and go to the website and see what the big publishers are doing with Amazon A+.
Next, the graphics
I use Canva to create my graphics. You can do a lot there without paying. I use Pro, which gives me more options and a lot of images.
If you’re not confident using the program, I can do no better than direct you to Canva Tips for Authors at Facebook with Jeevani Charika/Rhoda Baxter.
There are links to her really helpful videos on YouTube.
And finally
Once you have your image (or images), you can upload it to your chosen module. Fill in the various text boxes if you haven’t done so already. (For this dummy, I’ve borrowed an annotated image from Joanna’s post about Bregenz Opera and added gibberish text.)
Once you’ve done that, click on Next: Apply ASIN at the top right of the page and paste or type your book’s ASIN number into the box provided.
When you enter your ASIN, the details of your book will appear immediately below. Click on that and your book will appear in a list in the section at the bottom of your screen.
Then tick the box alongside your title, click on Apply Content in the middle right hand corner then Review and Submit at the top right.
You will be shown the content you’ve created as it will appear. This is the desktop view of the dummy created here. The mobile view (not shown) uses a portrait format with the image at the top and the text underneath.
If you’re happy with it, click Submit for Approval at the top right. (Needless to say, I won’t be doing that. This one goes in the bin!)
Occasionally, Amazon comes back with a request to fix something, but generally it will appear on your page in a day or two. Try something simple to start with. You can always go back with something more ambitious later.
Good luck with Amazon A+.
Liz, this is brilliant! And very generous of you. Thank you so much.
My pleasure, Annie, and I hope you found it helpful. Additional thanks should go to Joanna for giving it a dummy run and adding the “click here” pointers to make it all clearer!
No problem, Liz. I found it much easier than I’d expected, having never even looked at Amazon A+ before. But I’m a belt-and-braces girl so I like everything to be laid out in teeny steps with lots of pointers. Hence the “click here” additions. I hope other readers find them helpful. I now have no reason not to use A+ myself as I know how straightforward it can be. Many, many thanks.