Amazon Ads can now be used by Kindle Direct Publishing authors to advertise their traditionally published books as well as their KDP titles in the US.
Amazon has also changed the way that they ‘identify your brand for any new campaigns in the US’. The company says when setting up a new Sponsored Brands campaign in the US, you now need to ensure the book is claimed in your Author Central account.
It adds that you may be able to use Amazon Ads for more of your books, including:
- Titles published outside of KDP
- Co-authored titles
It seems a puzzling move, in that I can’t see that many authors would want to shell out for advertising a traditionally published book that should really be the responsibility of the publisher.
That would particularly be so, given the fact that most trad publishers offer no more than 25% of royalties for ebooks and considerably less for print books, so an author using Amazon Ads would face wafer-thin or non-existent margins.
The switch to Author Central also seems odd, as despite the name it hasn’t played much of a central role previously, although I suppose it could be used as some sort of double-check against piracy.
You can continue accessing Amazon Ads through your KDP account or Author Central. Click on the Reports + Marketing tab in Author Central, then click on Amazon Ads for the advertising console.
When signing into Amazon Ads, you will be automatically connected to your Author Central account, syncing the titles and pen names associated with it.
To claim a book or pen name in Author Central, click on the Books tab in Author Central.
To promote your traditionally published titles, you can follow the same campaign creation steps and advertising strategies that you use for KDP advertising.
KDP adds three more downloadable reports
Kindle Direct Publishing has added downloadable versions of the Orders, KENP Read, and Pre-orders reports to the KDP reports beta.
These three reports are now available to download, in addition to the Payments and Prior Months’ Royalties reports.