Today I learned…

Setting up a book for pre-order in the Kindle Direct store is neither quick nor easy!  I thought that having a title, ISBN, and book cover would be enough,

BUT WAIT…THERE’S MORE!

What about a 4,000 character description of the book?  Should that be the same as the back cover? Or different?  Should it be the full 4,000 characters?  Is that too much for someone to get through?  Does less look unprofessional?  How much is enough?

AND THEN…

What about categories?  I get to choose two, but I have to be very careful.  There isn’t a “help Moms be more positive” section.  Is it in humor?  Not really.  Self-help? Maybe.  Parenting?  Oh my, then the subcategories start, and I have to go there and pick a subcategory under the category for each one!  The choice I make could be the boost the book needs, or its undoing, depending on where it falls on the bestseller list of those particular categories.

AFTER THAT…

KEYWORDS!  If you have a website you know that keywords are the be-all, end-all for search engines.  I get to pick seven.  Seven!  How do I know which keywords to pick?  They aren’t supposed to have words from the title, but the title totally explains the book.  So I hopped over to trends.google.com to see what people are searching for, and you know what?  They aren’t the words I would have picked for my keywords.  Back to the drawing board with those… (OK, to be fair, Google Trends is a fun place to play!  Maybe I spent a little too long there.)

 

That’s what’s involved on the first page to fill out to set up for https://kdp.amazon.com preorder.  It took an hour and a half.  I don’t have an author page yet, and haven’t gotten to the point where I can upload my cover (maybe a good thing because the final copy is–literally–somewhere between Nashville and Bulgaria!

Somewhere between the brain-fog and literally learning how to do every step as I go, it’s going to take me a bit longer than anyone else.  But do you know what?

 

I. WILL. DO. IT. ALL.

 

Why?  Because we are changing the lives of women for the better!  This book is important, and it WILL get into the hands of the women who need it.  Plus, when you publish YOUR book, you’ll have a much easier time, having seen the steps here!

 

Looking to sharing more as I go,

Jen

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