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Thanks for sharing your experience :). You said "It seems I'm never really happy (with your book's manuscript)" -- which I think speaks positively about you as an author. I know this goes without saying but editing your book and going through many drafts is tedious and time-consuming but it's how good books are made, there is no other way whether or not we use AI or not. On a different note -- regarding what you wrote here: "I have a lot of ideas. I just don't know how to market the books. I suppose I'll figure that out sooner or later, but by that time I'll have a lot of books to choose from." just a heads up: Amazon gives newly published books a nice boost which KDP authors call "the honeymoon period" it's the first two weeks or so of your book being published, Amazon will be more likely to expose your book to more eyeballs. It's important that make the most out of this honeymoon period to market your book, get sales and let Amazon know how to position your book. In other words, don't wait until you have a lot of books published to market them. @chrisraydog has several great vidoes on his channel, on using Amazon ads during the launch phase of your book -- in case you're interested ;)

@@bookswithmariel Thank You! I’ll check that out

@@Mimi-xz3vl for people who have already been publishing and selling books on Amazon the shift that's happening is easier to grasp. I understand how strange this may sounds if you haven't yet published or have an understanding of Amazon's algorithm. No one's said this was a "threat" or "much more complex" or "difficult to handle" ;)

@@PuelaLunaris thanks Puela :)

Thank you :)

@@everybodylovessnoopy 101% agreed (Snoopy looks cute as ever :) )

Hi Barbara, I think we're all in the same boat here where until we actually live the changes, it's all pure speculation. That being said, I've always thought of running ads as having my books placed at the front shelf of a bookstore... With this in mind, no matter how differently the interior design of the bookstore changes or how the bookstore's computing system changes-- if, say you have a really good gardening book (with useful content, thoughtfully written, effective book cover, etc), the book will stand out and be at the reach of your target book buyers, regardless of any changes that happen to the bookstore's system. In the same way, I personally think it won't matter what type of ads we run, but rather how we set up our ads (e.g. the way we research and decide which keywords, products, categories to target). But at the end of the day, I think ads work differently for different people. I know people who say auto ads are the best, or people who are good at running keyword ads. I'm like you, category ads and product ads are what work best for me :).

I can see the point you're making but I do see a world where our pal, Innovation, not only coexists with AI but is strengthened by it - when used wisely. That being said, you've given me an idea for a future YT video, may I feature your comment when it comes to it?

@@bookswithmariel I agree this is a valid topic for video content. Yes you may feature my comment. 😄

Awesome, thanks 😄

How is writing for readers not more fundamental than writing for search engines?

Go to your book's product page and right above your author bio there's a link you can use to upload your videos :).

@@bookswithmariel for amazon kdp?

@@DayNuhLee yup

Thanks for sharing your views, Mickael. I appreciate that your have a different angle, especially since you've taken the time to explain your reasoning behind your views. I agree with your psychology/user experience-based skepticism regarding the whole “common-sense-knowledge-basedness. There is the danger of something like this tending to over-generalize and/or make erroneous assumptions. And with any change involving AI still being considered as the wild west, it's tricky to find the middle ground between fear/suspicion for AI versus developing a lazy dependency for it. I’ve been giving it a lot of thought and I think the most level-headed approach any business should have to any techy changes coming our way should be one that comes from common sense (not the ‘so-called one’, but the gut feeling we all have), which is why I think you cannot go wrong with having an audience-focused approachAnd...I think here is where our perspectives clash ;) : 1) You said “If you always align your product with your audience you are not truly authentic” emphasizing on “always” and “truly”. And with your dinosaur example you are suggesting that having an audience-focused approach gets in the way with creativity, am I right? I think I can see what you mean but it's a very partícular close-minded type of seller/selfpublisher you're referring to. For instance, the only scenario where I see your reasoning making sense is if a selfpublisher - who walks around eggshells around all the ‘wokeness’ going on - emphasizes the usage of pronouns and includes nonbinary and inclusive conceptive in their books ‘just to please the woke buyers and/or for the fear of censorship', i.e. if you sell books you don't like just to please others - ofc that's inauthentic and lousy and a big no-no. Which is why in the video I mentioned that if after doing research you notice a demand for two types of books, go with the subject matter you both like and know about. 2) Read any literature on audience awareness and you'll see that none of it suggests being ‘’inauthentic’ or ‘giving up creativity'. Think of any decades-old children's book that is still beloved by children today. Take books like “Matilda” or “The Witches” by Roald Dahl for example. They're time-defying stories children love because the author understands children's sense of humor, and what keeps them up at night. He 'gets his audience’. His Illustrator, Quentin Blake, also understands this wicked sense of humor that gets kids cracking up, and delivers simple yet expressive character illustrations thoughtfully created to make a fantastic story even better. THIS is the audience-awareness I'm referring to. And in order to have this thoughtful and effective time-defying audience approach, you SHOULD NOT underestimate your audience's intelligence or imagination. Stop thinking that doing audience research for a dinosaur book for six year olds, limits your creativity. Don't underestimate kids’ ability to appreciate a sick book with “ugly bad-ass creatures”. (What you may learn through your research though is that kids ages 8 and up might appreciate “ugly bad-ass creatures” more and that your target audience is actually a slightly older demographic) 3) Lastly I think that with the current keyword-centric way e-commerce search algorithms are built, “products that were doomed to be useless make a buzz out of nowhere and get famous for no reason” is already happening and it was actually easier to “gamify the system” than before AI came into the mix.

Thanks very much for reading @@bookswithmariel Mariel, I really appreciate the time you've taken to reply. 1) About the summary: yes, you understood the message perfectly. About your reply: you have nailed exactly my thoughts on the near-future market (and the current one as well). With many people going for "get-rich-quick schemes" for their own reasons, I'm concerned that some will take literally the fact they have to align with target audiences, no matter what. Meaning: I can see people including stuff in their books just to please the market, as you well illustrated. Thus flooding the market with "checklist" books, like a robot would do, filling out a checklist of technical points to adress, pack it up, and put it on the platform simply for technical sells, claiming it's for the audience. That's the authenticity problem I was referring to. 2) About your reply: I completely agree with everything you pointed out. Well-researched audience enhances any product people can make, it will be relevant to the readers while being produced with passion and authenticity. It's especially true when people take a conventional genre and change small portions of it, to reinvent the genre creatively: readers already know and love the theme/races/magical system/etc., but suddenly it becomes a new genre! i.e, a race cannot do a certain thing anymore or can do something they couldn't before (e.g, immortals having to confront mortality for the first time, or reversed). It feels amazing and engaging for readers! Though, as I have pointed out in the n° 1), I am concerned that some will not acknowledge that, and still simply take conventional stuff and re-do them without inventing anything (especially with "lazy AI dependency", as you mentioned), just because it worked before and *might* work again for their benefit. All in the name of audience, it's unethical - In the meantime it's really unfortunate if people do this in good-faith because they only know one genre and have not researched outside of it. So, indeed, audience research is key! 3) Yes I'm sure it has always existed, some authors need to publish a lot for a product to be recognized, meanwhile others simply tweak here and there the SEO, and boom, they make a buzz with only one product in store! Eventually the outcome is from technical adjustments to link the target audience to the product, it doesn't really have to do much with the quality of the content itself. Note: I know this is quite a theorical point of view, looking from afar and focused on possible negative outcomes rather than positive ones, but that's because I try to understand and anticipate where any of these news will lead the whole system to, and what mistakes to expect and avoid doing. It's not meant to be grim about the present/future, sorry if it sounded like that! Again, thanks for taking the time to read! :)

Thank you for sharing some food for thought, Mickael :). I agree with your concerns and perhaps adding to the grimness I think that inevitably there will always be a certain percentage of people with a lazy/robotic mentality producing - what you well described as - 'checklist' books. It is why so many people watch RUclips videos on how to get away with publishing AI-written books using plagiarism checkers. As Elon Musk once said, (paraphrasing here) humanity as it is now isn't prepared for AI, we should have been exposed to AI more gradually with enough buffering to prepare, not as suddenly as it's happened. But here we are.

Wow, Batman. Calm down. watch the whole video and you'll realize this IS NOT bad news. The AI system mentioned in this video is not a predictor- it's not a robot that randomly suggests books to customers on a whim. Basically, the message is this - regardless of any AI/algorithmic changes that are bound to happen in the future, these are geared towards using common-sense knowledge-based systems. Consequently, if you want to build your self-publishing business on solid grounds -focus on creating authentic, good quality books and you'll be fine. Use your God-given common sense, make books that are relevant to your target audience, and you are good.

@@bookswithmariel Great response Mariel [I just found your channel, and plan to self-publish] - Thank you for producing such a clear video, with valuable and engaging content for “Self-Publishing” entrepreneurs. 🪭 ~~ 🙋🏼‍♂️🙇🏼‍♂️

Thanks Alexander :) and good luck on your selfpublishing journey!

You're welcome :). In case there's something I missed, here's the complete licence www.creativefabrica.com/subscription-license/

@@momtomaryjean Thanks Shelley! :)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts :). 💯 Agreed -- "The impact a book has on readers is experiential!"

Well, this video refers to selfpublishers who publish and sell books on Amazon specifically - I guess you could make the argument that they are content creators of a sort - and I agree with you, in the ideal publishing world authors/selfpublishers prioritize their target audience. I think a lot of selfpublishers do publish their books with this perhaps very obviously thoughtful approach. But believe it or not, there are also a lot of publishers prioritizing other factors (for instance, gaming the system with savvy keyword tactics) over having an audience-focused approach.

@@mehaboobbasha7231 Thanks for watching!

Smart questions, Jon :). From the context of the white paper, and all the sources mentioned in the video-- I think the overall change is not there won't be a need for keywords but rather a shift from our current, high prioritization of keywords, to a higher prioritization of audience over keywords; i.e., making sure all the elements that make up our books and their listings (book cover, manuscript, title, subtitle, backend keywords, book description, A+ content) align to what our target book buyers want. Which, IMO, isn't at all a bad approach to have when you're selling books on Amazon. If - as you well mentioned in your first paragraph - you have an audience-focused approach when creating your books, I would assume you have a similar thoughtful approach when deciding which keywords to use. In which case, I personally wouldn't worry too much or make any drastic changes but rather just do more audience research and create and publish books accordingly. On the other hand, I think it'll be a difficult change for selfpublishers who rely heavily on practices such as: keyword stuffing, buying keyword lists, rely on getting fake reviews, or have become heavily dependent on keyword tools. As for how or when this change will happen that's something we should all keep an eye on. On this note, something interesting I've noticed is Publisher Rocket's new update where it's focusing on suggesting "relevant" keywords. I think tiny changes and updates like these are quite telling of the big picture - where Amazon is heading. And also the fact that keyword tools are adapting/updating in alignment to having a more audience-focused approach is also a good determining factor of the reliability of a tool/ software.

Lol. Thanks? 😊

Oh are you referring to my thumbnail and some of the AI-generated images I included in my video? I am not familiar with Luma or Kling but aside from the the 5-10 AI images I prompted and generated through Ideogram, my whole video was human made - from script to voiceover to hours put into editing each slide of the video. Just to be clear :)

Thanks for the warm welcome back, Craig! :)

Thanks John 😊

@@plumstone4982 Great observations! I think having a timely heads-up about this shift is actually good news for serious self-publishers, whether they are keyword-savvy or more audience-focused, and especially for self-publishers like you who already practice audience-focused strategies. Unfortunately, it'll probably be challenging for those who rely on 'how-to-get-away-with-publishing-shadily' strategies from RUclips. As for content creators, I think it's a golden opportunity to make all sorts of fresh new content. I always appreciate your thoughtful comments :)

I was scammed for over $3000 by amazon KDP Publications.

Thanks 👍!

Hi. Thanks for watching and commenting! Are there any aspects of making a+ content in particular that you're struggling with/ would like advice on?

​@@MarlenaBooks you are not sure I'm accurate about what? I'd love to clarify :)

Thanks for the recommendation! Tbh I've been drooling over procreate for years... Unfortunately I don't own any apple device :P. I work on a Lenovo Thinkpad and I've found Clip Studio Paint to be the easiest to use. But still drooling over procreate! 💜

A gold rush for who? Please enlighten this old-timer.

Thank you so much 🌻! I get what you mean, it makes me cringe when I see the hyped up thumbnails, I try to avoid watching them as much as possible too (but I watched and rewatched more than a dozen to make the parody depicted in this video).

What do you mean?

This rejection to publish this sea of similar books perhaps has a lot to do with this "going after hot/trendy niche" mindset that's being promoted online. And if potentially half of these selfpublishers are hiring the same ghostwriters, inevitably the ghostwriters will recycle the content they wrote to meet the requests of all these selfpublishers. For your next book, I'd probably first look through the "look inside" pages of different selfpublished books on the topic, compare their table of contents and for your own book take a completely different angle. Build a table of contents that is unquestionably different, and move onwards whether you write the book yourself or hire a ghostwriter. Good luck!

Thanks for the supportive comment Jim! Glad to see you're publishing again :)

Thank you for watching 😊

Oh please do! I hope you enjoy it. I really like the mission behind your website and YT channel btw!

My pleasure! Keep up the great content Danny :)

Hello 🌞! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I always appreciate your kind and supportive comments, thank you!

You're doomed. Just kidding. It's up to you and your goals as a content creator, go with your gut!

Thanks Angie :) I highly recommend you check out the podcast I mention too, I promise you'll find it helpful!

Thanks Chris! :)

Hi Computer Loverz, thanks so much for the mega compliment 😊 and I'm glad you found the video helpful!

​@@bookswithmariel Most welcome and I have a question, hope you can answer. Yesterday I was checking the "A+ Content Guidelines" and I noticed it says, Resolution should be at least 72 dpi (Dots per inch). So, is there gonna be any trouble if it's more than that, like 300 dpi or so, also the resolutions, can I upload more resolution images than it asked there, have any idea?

@@bookswithmariel I'm a beginner KDP publisher. So, I just wanted to make sure that I'm doing everything right. Hope you can answer the question I am confused about.

Since they say you need "at least 72 dpi", you are fine using a higher resolution image. Be prepared to be patient and be prepared to be okay if in your first attempts uploading the a+ content images are cut off or blurry. Keep tweaking/modifying until it looks good. Depending on the a+ content module you decide to use, size/resolution will vary, see examples here: kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GCKLH8V7ULLD5EXY

No problem:)

Hi Shauna! I'm going to try my best to walk you through it: 1. So your KDP main page where the main menu includes: bookshelf- reports- marketing, click on "Marketing". 2. then on the Marketing page select the marketplace you want to make your A+ content for and click on the 'Manage A+ content' option. 3. now once on the A+ content Manager, select the option thay something along the lines of "get started with A+ Content". 4. click on "select module" and you'll be shown an array of different A+ content module options --- choose the one you like, whether its a banner, a carrousel, etc. 5. And once you click on the image icon (through which you upload your A+ Content png file) KDP will tell you the recommended dimensions/size required for your file --- this is how you know the px requirement for each A+ Content module. I hope this helps! And also check the A+ Content section in KDP's guidelines' page for tips and 'do's and 'don't's.

Thanks so much, Natalie! I agree with you, although there are many videos out there on a+ content, few delve into actual design talk. That being said, I also think A+ content does not need outsourcing, I think that if you have the skills to make the layout of your own book/book cover - making A+ content yourself is more than doable. *I use Canva to make all my A+ content and I get my book mockup templates on either Creative Fabrica or Creative Market (search for book/magazine mockups)

I completely agree with your comment. I've watched many videos from many different content creators and Maplus contriel's stand out to me for their simplicity and clarity. really refreshing. I am just gathering steam on my KDP journey and after making several books with no sales I am looking at A + content as my next step in self-promotion. I too, would like to see some more detailed information on the subject.

You're welcome :)

Hey thanks for the great question :). So what I meant by having a book title with keywords that weren't Amazon-optimized was to simple coming up with a book title (example: rad unicorn colorists book for children) without researching on Amazon if such keywords were actually being search by customers who visit the Amazon website/researching if there is a demand for such a book on Amazon (you can find this out by: let's say you type in "unicorn coloring book for kids" in the search bar and the search bar automatically gives you suggestions to this exact or similar keywords customers search for

Thank you very much Libby! :)

Thanks Anthony! And sure -- so for the size of the A+ content module I use the exact size that Amazon provides (e.g. 970x600px), but I try to make sure that the mockups I display on the module (e.g. book mockups, pages from inside the book) are the best quality possible (meaning if the book mockup is a file I have on Canva, I'll resize it 2x its size before downloading it as a png file, and pasting it onto the A+ content module). Hope that helps!

@@bookswithmariel ok, this makes sense. Thank you!