Ye Olde Inkwell

My friend and fellow author, Kathleen Baldwin, recently wrote a blog post about KDP’s A+ Content and how to add it to your book page. Her explanation and research about how to make yours stand out is really good stuff. You’ll want to read that.

First, I didn’t even KNOW this was a thing!

Second, now that I know it’s a thing, I wanted to do it, too!

I don’t want to rehash her post. Instead, I’m going to tell you how I did it with my book, Call of the Dark. The tools I used were Canva (I have the pro version) and Photoshop Elements. You don’t need Elements. You can ideally do everything in Canva, but I wanted to do some cropping on the book cover to get the look I wanted and to make it fit easily into the Canva design.

You can see the product page here. Scroll down to “From the publisher” and check out those graphics, then come back here and I’ll give you the run down. First, I started by signing into my KDP account and then clicking Marketing. Then scroll down to A+ Content. You’ll want to be sure to read the Content Guidelines by clicking here.

You can choose your marketplace – most of the Amazon marketplaces are available (.com to .co.uk, etc.).

Click the button that says “Start creating A+ content” to get started.

Next, you’ll want to pick a module. I recommend looking at the different modules to see which will fit your book and your message. Ultimately, I selected “Standard Image & Dark Text Overlay” for the banner-type look.

Now, you will need to have a working knowledge of graphics. I’m a DIYer so if I can do it myself without paying someone, I will.

Once you have your module selected, pay close attention to the image size specs. Example, the one I selected, the size is 970px x 300px.

Go to Canva and select “Custom Design.” Put in your dimensions of the module you selected. I uploaded my book cover to Canva. Then, you can drop in the graphic and resize it to fit the design. However, I used Elements to crop out that first image from the book cover to the dimensions I wanted, then created the PNG file and uploaded to Canva. It looks like this:

My first finished banner looks like this:

I overlayed the image with the text using their text tool, then added some effects. Hard to see on this image, but it makes the words pop a little. Then I added the Dream Walker series logo (provided by my super awesome cover artist) to the top corner.

Then I added a new page for the second banner. Again, I cropped the book cover in Elements. It looks like this:

I uploaded this into Canva and overlayed more text and copy/pasted the DW logo into the page so it would be in the same place.

I added a new page. I decided to use some colorful backgrounds for the last two images because I couldn’t get the book title to look the way I wanted. I did a simple colored background that pulls color from the book cover. Then added text and again the DW logo. I looked at my reviews to pull some verbiage that would describe the book.

Added another new page. For the last banner image, I decided to add all five book covers to entice readers to pick up the whole series.  I used a darker background, outlined the covers, added text, and boom! All done. I added my author tagline to the bottom, which also feels like the series.

Once I was happy with the design, I exported from Canva as PNGs. These will be higher res and will give the best resolution when displayed on the screen.

Now that I had the design done and exported, I went back to KDP.

Click Add background image and upload your first image. You have to add image keywords—this is for the meta info. It won’t display. Once it’s uploaded, it will look like this. Just ignore that white box. This is for any text you want to overlay, but it’s already created in the image itself. I left it blank.

Add the same module for the remaining banners. Repeat the steps above. You have the ability to preview what it will look like on both a desktop and mobile version.

Once you’re finished, go to the top right-hand side and click “Next: Apply ASINs.” I found it easier to copy/paste my ASIN into the search and add it that way. Much faster than waiting for it to find it by the book title! When your book comes up, click APPLY CONTENT.

Then click “Next: Review & Submit.” Here you’ll see another preview. If you’re happy with the design, click “Submit for Approval.” And you’re done! Mine was approved and started showing up on the product page immediately. And here’s the final product:

What do you think? Will you add A+ content? Let me know in the comments!