Comments on: The startling importance of your “Look Inside”

By: The 5 Rules of Good Advertising - Hidden Gems Book Blog

The 5 Rules of Good Advertising - Hidden Gems Book Blog — Fri, 24 Mar 2023 12:06:04 +0000

[…] Top 100 lists on Amazon. Make sure your blurb crackles and entices readers to learn more. Edit your Look Inside so that it shines and hooks potential readers within the first few pages. Make your book as good as […]

By: MJ Mumford

MJ Mumford — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 15:43:05 +0000

Thanks for a great article. I had a slightly different experience with my Look Inside, which I believe was detrimental to my sales for almost a whole year.
Last November, I hired a professional designer to format my debut novel in Vellum. However, when my book went live on Amazon, I was shocked to see that the “e” in Prologue was dropping to the next line (among other weird formatting issues).
When I contacted the formatter, she explained that “That happens sometimes” and said there was nothing that could be done. Deferring to her many years of experience, I accepted her answer and left it at that.
As recently as last week, I began ruminating on it and contacted KDP support to see if it might be an issue on their end. Surely enough, they were able to resolve the problem within a couple of days. It’s not perfect–there’s still no drop cap in my first paragraph–but at least the word Prologue is intact on the same line.
I informed my formatter about it and she thanked me for the reminder to contact KDP if anything wonky was going on with the Look Inside.
It was a good lesson, but I’m kicking myself for having waited so long to address the issue!

By: Dawna Raver

Dawna Raver — Sat, 23 Oct 2021 00:32:50 +0000

Thanks for this article. I’m definitely looking inside my Look Inside. I have 2 questions though: it seems that Amazon defaults the look inside to your 1st chapter no matter what comes prior. So what you’re saying is look at the hook of your first chapter or prologue and make sure it’s captivating, yes?
My other question is how much front matter should put before the beginning of the book? Should I put things like copyright, TOC, and other nonstory items in the back-matter instead so that more story is available?
Thanks