Hard lesson learned with Amazon: I learned that my book cover wasn't communicating well, especially on the Amazon search page where covers are very small. (My subtitle was not large enough to read.) So I researched, developed and designed (with professional designer) a great new cover. We tweaked the subtitle a bit so I also learned that this metadata change required a whole new ISBN/ASIN for each book version (paperback, hardcover, ebook). The change, including new description, revised pricing and new A+ content took $$ and 4 weeks, but was finally ready June 5 and uploaded to Amazon. I did online Amazon KDP chats with agents who assured me they could link the old and new versions, and also attach the good ratings (13 five-stars) I'd accumulated so far to the new version (since no book content had changed). At their advice I "unpublished" all 3 older versions. I then wanted to design and launch my first Amazon Ads campaign, with targeted keywords and product ASINs. I was ready for big sales! But then: disaster. I checked my book listings on line and saw my orgiinal cover, with its old description and A+ content, for both the paperback and hardcover. I paused my Amazon Ads campaigns (since theyfeatured my paperback), and I reached back to KDP chat agents several times to help fix. They told me it could be done; they first had to transfer the reviews, which would take 24 hours, then they said they would de-link the old and new versions. But when I checked today there was no change -- still showing the old covers. So I had a live phone call with Amazon KDP, including a supervisor, and learned: (1) because my new cover is a new nonfiction 'edition' it is not possible to transfer the reviews, and (2) the old covers will continue to be shown until the new book has more sales than the old one. Apparently, "old" and "un-published" book versions stay on the Amazon database forever. They couldn't say what causes this or how it could be changed. Arghh! The prior agents all assured me this would work out, but the live agent, and his supervisor, told me no, it's impossible. Leads me to wonder, on prior chats was I talking to bots not people?

https://subscribepage.io/booklaunchpanelshow

To the published authors, did you edit your book yourself hire a single editor or hire multiple editors? I’m curious what has worked for y’all. Any insight on the process, cost, timeframe, etc. is welcome.

It's our biggest livestream of the year! You'll get to meet some of our Book Launchers team, win prizes, ask your questions and have a lot of fun! It's at 10am PST on Saturday and goes for 2 hours. The link to the live is in the calendar (or right here: https://youtube.com/live/o70YO1RvaNk). I hope to see you there.

Back in April, we did a 2 hour training on all things Audiobooks. We covered the should you, could you, and the how-to details of audiobooks. It's now training that will unlock for those who are in the group for 45 days and participating. For new people, there is also a training course that unlocks as you comment, like, and post in the community ... so say hello and make a friend. 😁