Amazon A+: What is it and how can it increase sales of your book?

What is Amazon A+ for books?

Amazon A+ is a content rich way of giving customers more information about your book on Amazon. This extra content includes information browsers wouldn’t be able to glean from the product description or book jacket alone. This extra content appears under the section ‘From the publisher’ and usually comprises a selection of images or tables giving the reasons why a customer should add your book to their basket. It goes beyond the usual information that you can add for your title to show readers the reasons why they should buy your book and acts as an extra sales incentive.

Does Amazon A+ for books work?

• Amazon A+ for books increases your conversion rate
  
  The main aim of Amazon A+ is to increase a customer's understanding of the book which hopefully then leads to a higher conversion rate (the number of times a customer goes on to buy the book after browsing the content). According to Amazon, it can increase sales by 3-10% but, of course, this is an average and the results will vary between products. However, evidence shows that media-rich content, with eye-catching graphics to keep the browser’s attention, gets more impressions than text-only content online so, if you want customers to spend more time on your Amazon product page engaging with your book, spending the time to enhance the listing is worth the effort.
   
• Amazon A+ for books develops your author brand
  
  Amazon A+ also lets you develop your author brand and tell your story. It’s a way of showing readers why you wrote the book, what your inspiration was. What is your book’s Unique Selling Point (USP)? Amazon A+ is how you can tell people. It’s also useful if you have multiple titles or have written a series – you can have consistent A+ content across all titles.
   
• Amazon A+ for books grabs a browser’s attention
  
  There are different types of shoppers who browse Amazon, those who read every detail and those who skim a page. Amazon A+ allows you to cater to both of these. The incorporation of graphics with the key information alongside the more detailed information in the blurb gives both options, so customers can absorb the information how they choose.
   

What should I include in Amazon A+ book content?

Have a look at your book page on Amazon and think about what is missing. Do you have any illustrations from the book which could be incorporated into a graphic? What about a quote from you as the author? A statement from you alongside a photo helps to make that connection between you and the customer and could be that extra nudge they need to buy a copy. Endorsements from well-known people or publications can also help (as long as you have their permission) so Amazon A+ is a good way to make good use of these.

It can be hard knowing where to start, but it’s worth looking at titles in the same genre as you to get some ideas. For a business based book, Will It Make the Boat Go Faster? by Ben Hunt-Davis and Harriet Beveridge (https://amzn.to/3HDDBDJ) is a good place to start. This A+ content made use of the fantastic endorsements that the book had achieved as a starting point for creating the content for the page.

For a fiction title, Earl, Honey by D.S Getson we used different elements to create really eye-catching content. Here graphics based around the front cover and the tagline draw people in. The quote from the author also helps to engage customers with the background of the story.
 

What cannot be included in Amazon A+?

Amazon does have some guidelines to what you can and cannot include, so you’ll need to stay away from any pricing information. This includes special promotional pricing or delivery pricing. We can also only include endorsements from verified organisations or public figures so we wouldn’t be able to make use of the customer reviews that have already been left. We’d also advise against comparing yourself to other authors or similar titles – this is an opportunity to sell your book, not draw attention to others!
 

How do I add Amazon A+ content to my book?

Amazon A+ content is added via the publisher’s Amazon account, not your Author Central account. If you are a Matador author and you are interested in this, such content would need to be uploaded via Matador directly. We've recently launched a service offering the opportunity for us to create and upload Amazon + content on your behalf.

Amazon A+ is based on content blocks, so under this new service, we will create and upload up to five modules of content, one set of revisions and then upload to Amazon on behalf of our authors. The printed book and Kindle product pages have to be uploaded separately, as does each territory (amazon.co.uk, amazon.com etc) so we would submit the content to include the Kindle edition (amazon.co.uk and amazon.com) and the printed book (amazon.co.uk and amazon.com – if appropriate).

This article first appeared on Troubador Publishing Limited's blog.