Amazon A+ Content: What is it and How to Use it

KDP doesn’t seem to be slowing down in their rollout of new features here and there. Lately we had the huge update about Kindle Vella, and more recently we’ve had another cool update.

Amazon now allows authors to create A+ content for display on their Amazon sales page for books.

If you’re like me when I first heard this news, you probably asked, “A+ content? What is that?”

Well don’t worry, dear reader. We’ve got you covered.

What is Amazon A+ Content?

Amazon A+ Content is additional content that goes on your Amazon sales page. It allows you to use images, text, and tables for various reasons and in a variety of templates. In short, it’s a way to make your book stand out.

This opens a floodgate of possibilities for authors to brand their work, provide interesting information for readers, and make their books more attractive.

We’ll talk further below about some strategies authors could use this space for, but in general it offers a lot of new possibilities, and visual flexibility to your book’s sales page.

Amazon A+ content is created via your KDP marketing page. Keep scrolling for a full breakdown of how to build A+ content. You can also find a detailed Amazon listing optimization guide which you can apply to your Kindle listings.

Where is Amazon A+ Content Displayed?

Amazon has mentioned that the A+ content is displayed in a “From the Publisher” section. The exact location of this section will vary from one viewer to another, but Amazon says that one will generally need to scroll down to see it. Therefore, it is below your book cover, description, buy button, etc.

In our look at various examples, we noticed that it was usually displayed below the book series display, as well as a couple of sponsored book carousels.

It did, however, show above the product details, reviews, etc. So it’s still pretty prominent, even though you do have to scroll down to see it. Most readers who scroll down even a little will have a pretty good chance at seeing your A+ content.

For Which Books Can I Post Amazon A+ Content?

Amazon A+ content can be used with any published KDP book. You can also use it on books that are on preorder and therefore still have a published page for the book.

You can also use A+ content in most of Amazon’s marketplaces, where KDP is available, these include:

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.ca
• Amazon.com.mx
• Amazon.com.br
• Amazon.co.uk
• Amazon.de
• Amazon.fr
• Amazon.es
• Amazon.in
• Amazon.it
• Amazon.nl
• Amazon.com.au

Note that you will need to create separate A+ content for each of these marketplaces, however, Amazon will copy your approved A+ content and have it available in all the marketplaces that use the same language.

This means that if you write some English A+ content, and it is approved by Amazon, Amazon will automatically duplicate a draft of the content in other marketplaces, such as the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and other marketplaces that speak English.

Readers only see content that is in their preferred language. So let’s say you publish your A+ content in Germany, but you wrote it in English. In this case, only people visiting Amazon.de who have English as their preferred language would see it.

How to Create Amazon A+ Content

So let’s walk you through the nitty-gritty steps on how to create your own A+ content, then we’ll discuss some options on how you could use it.

Step 1: Find your KDP A+ Content Page

You start by finding the KDP Marketing page at this link, or by going to your KDP dashboard, finding a book you want to market, and hitting the button that says “Promote and Advertise”

Your KDP Marketing page includes a number of options. This is where you can enroll a book in KDP Select or run a promotion, but if you scroll down a bit, you’ll see this new addition:

Start by choosing your marketplace first, like so:

Then you just have to hit the button that says “Manage A+ Content”, and you will be redirected to this page:

Step 2: Fill in Required Fields

Hit the button that says “Start creating A+ content” in the top-right corner.

You will then be redirected to the Content Details page, which allows you to actually create the A+ content that you’ll need. There is actually a lot of flexibility regarding what you can put down here, so feel free to play around and see what’s possible.

From here, the first thing you need to fill out is the “Content name” and the “Language” fields. These are required by Amazon.

Step 3: Create Modules

Next, hit the button that says “Add Module”.

You will then be given a huge list of options for what you want to start with. Here’s a breakdown of each one (at the time of this writing):

• Company Logo: This is a smaller image area where you can put a company/personal logo. Unlike other image options on this list, this image space is smaller, and will be shown in Amazon’s dimensions of 600×180 pixels.
• Comparison Chart: This is an interesting option, where you can create tables that compare your product to other products. However, know that you can only include your own products in this comparison, not competitor products.
• Four Image & Text: This is a space with four images and accompanying text, great for listing off specific features.
• Four Image/Text Quadrant: Similar to the first set of four images and text, but arranged differently.
• Image and Dark Text Overlay: This is where you can get a larger image, and put some text above it, with a dark overlay.
• Image and Light Text Overlay: Same as the above, but with a light overlay.
• Image Header with Text: This is a standard image header with some text underneath it, great for putting at the top of your A+ content.
• Multiple Image Module A: This is a great option for having several images that your readers can click through, great for showing off different aspects or characters from your books.
• Product Description Text: A standard text section that is aligned on the left side.
• Single Image and Highlights: A specially formatted section with an image and several key highlights, which can be formatted in various ways.
• Single Image and Sidebar: Similar to the Single Image with Highlights, this section also includes a sidebar, making it ideal for trying to fit in a lot of information in one section.
• Single Image and Specs Details: Similar to the Single Image with Highlights or Sidebar, in this version, you also get a “Specs” addition for things like technical highlights, which could be great for non-fiction.
• Single Left Image: This is a simple image on the left, with text on the right.
• Single Right Image: This is a simple image on the right, with text on the left.
• Technical Specifications: This is a table that allows you to add various technical specs to your A+ content. For fiction authors, this might not be important (would love to see someone get creative and prove me wrong though), but for non-fiction, this could be a great place to include additional technical information related to your book.
• Text: A simple heading and text field, centered.
• Three Images and Text: Three images with text underneath them. Great for showing off various features.

Hopefully that helps to get an idea of what’s possible in the “Module” section. You can mix and match these to your heart’s content.

Side note: Amazon doesn’t specify this in their content guidelines, but in my experimentation, I found that I was only able to add up to five modules for each piece of A+ content, to keep it from getting too long.

Second side note: There’s no way to build links in the A+ content, so if you’re looking to set up a link to your newsletter or something like that, unfortunately there’s no such capability.

Step 4: Add Images and Text

Once you have the layout you want, it’s time to start adding the actual content.

This part will be on you, as Amazon does not provide sample content, though you can see some of their recommended examples.

Good design principles and copy editing skills will be useful here. Use some of the same techniques that you use in your book cover and book description, such as:

• Make sure the images you have are professional and match the brand/genre you’re trying to illustrate
• Keep your description concise and to the point
• Focus on action words and phrases, with the intent to entice the reader to action (aka buying your book)
• Tell a story that helps readers understand more about you and/or your books
• Revise thoroughly

We’ll talk about some of the things you shouldn’t put in your text in our content guidelines section.

Step 5: Apply ASINs

When you’re done creating your modules, hit the button that says “Next: Apply ASINs”.

In this section, you’ll be able to search for your book, or just input your ASIN directly.

Once this is done, you’ll be able to add that A+ content that you just created, to however many books you want. Make sure that it matches appropriately.

Pro Tip: Don’t forget to also put the ASINs for your paperback books in addition to your eBooks.

Step 6: Review and Submit

Once everything looks good, you’ll be able to preview it, and from there make sure everything is okay.

If you see anything that looks off in the preview, you can always go back and edit to make it better.

Once that is done, all you have to do is hit “Submit for approval” and your A+ content will be out of your hands.

If Amazon approves the A+ content, it will go live on the sales pages of the book.

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The Implications for Authors

There’s a LOT of potential for A+ content as a marketing tactic, because this is a great way to set your book and your brand apart.

Before now, we pretty much only had control of the book cover and the words in the book description. We had no control over the way Amazon wanted to display things. And while that’s mostly still true, this is a huge step in the right direction for increased customizability.

And, I might add, this is probably a great way to get people excited about everything else you’ve written. It’s basically a giant advertisement for your brand.

So, what can we do with this?

Here are some ideas we’ve had:

1. Author page 2.0: A+ content is the perfect excuse to really advertise yourself. Put up a nice picture, a little blurb, a list of everything you’ve written, and it can really look pretty nice. Check out this example from Amazon:

2. Advertise your series: With A+ content, it’s possible to make some pretty impressive-looking photo ads. These can be great to advertise other books in the same series, or even other series that you have available, especially if they’re relevant. Check out this example.

3. Create a timeline: This is one of my favorites, especially now in the era of the shared universe. For those who have more complicated timelines to your series or group of series, an image of a timeline could be great potential.

4. Set up an infographic: Like the timeline, other forms of infographics could be great too. Think things like a breakdown of characters, your worldbuilding, maybe even a brief walkthrough of the first act of your plot. The possibilities here are endless.

5. Compare your series: Using a comparison table, you can compare different books that you own, and point out the differences between them. This isn’t to say that you would rank one above the other, but perhaps you can add comparison info like the genre it focuses on, the type of characters you use, etc.

6. Create worldbuilding specs: This might be a stretch, but suppose you could use the “technical specs” section as a kind of world-building breakdown. This isn’t for most genres, but could be a fun experiment. And even if it’s not for world-building, this technical specs area could be great for displaying different kinds of data. Perhaps useful for non-fiction authors.

7. A character carousel: The Multiple Image Module A is the perfect way to set up a character introduction. It can be used for other things that are relevant or exciting about your story, but I’d love to see this in action.

We’d love to hear more ideas if you have them. Be sure to let us know via our contact page what amazing things can be done with A+ content.

Content Guidelines: What to Watch Out For

Now all this might seem very exciting, but unfortunately (or, more often, fortunately), we can’t just put whatever we want into this A+ content space.

Amazon still provides their own content guidelines, and some of them might take you off guard if you’re not careful.

We recommend you read their full content guidelines page, but here are just a few relevant things to watch out for:

1. Don’t put the price of your book or any kind of promotional language like “bonus”, “free”, etc.”
2. Don’t put customer reviews in your text, though you can post reviews from well-known publications or public figures.
3. Don’t mention anything time-sensitive, like “buy today” or “on sale now.”
4. You must own all the rights to any images, logos, or icons, etc. that you use.
5. Any awards or certifications must be proven.
6. You cannot make boastful claims, like #1 rated, or any kind of health-related claims.
7. You cannot include links, or encourage people to visit a site outside of Amazon, even to join your own newsletter or buy your own work.

There’s a lot more, but these were the issues we thought most pertinent to authors. Some of these, like adding reader reviews for example, might be something we would just choose to do and wouldn’t think about it.

Because it’s easy to infringe on these types of guidelines when you’re trying to promote yourself, this is why we recommend a full read-through of KDP’s content guidelines for A+ content.

Bottom Line on Amazon’s A+ Content

So, we’ve covered a few things in this article.

• We’ve talked about what A+ content is, where logistical questions like where it’s located on a seller page
• We’ve discussed the implications for authors, and brainstormed various ways this could be implemented
• We’ve walked through the step-by-step process of creating the A+ content
• We’ve made sure we were up-to-date on any major content guidelines to be aware of

I hope that was helpful for you. Personally, I’m super excited for this upgrade of KDP’s potential, and I fully expect to put it to good use.

My favorite possibility is a nice timeline or infographic. What’s yours? Let us know via our contact page.