How to Get Your Book Sales Page Looking Good on Amazon

/ harmonykentonline

Hello SErs. Harmony here. Recently, while checking out a new book release of mine, I navigated from the ebook page to the paperback page, and I recieved a shock. While the ebook page looked great, the paperback page was all garbled. Here’s the difference between the two:

 

The Kindle Version

The Kindle Version

The Paperback Version

The Paperback Version

You can see how bunched togther the paperback version of the book blurb is. Some of the sentences even run into one another. This looks so unprofessional. Appalled, I got right to work and updated the description on my KDP dashboard. I then checked each of my other books and found the same scenario. The ebooks were all fine, but the paperbacks were all jumbled up.

Before the move from Createspace this had never happened.

In due course, the changes were approved, and I waited the requisit 72 hours to check the sales pages. To my dismay, the problem persisted. Desperate, I contacted the KDP help desk. They responded promptly and asked me to provide the ISBNs for each and every book. All of a sudden, I regretted having written so many, lol.

Next thing I know, they email telling me I have to input HTML code into every single book description so that it will format correctly. So it was a waste of time going through and finding and submitting all of those ISBNs! Drat it!

So, for about ten of my books, I have now entered the HTML code required for the paperbacks.

Why the paperbacks require the HTML when the ebooks don’t is beyond me.

You can edit your book details by clicking the three dots to the right of your book details … see below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You will see this box for entering your book blurb:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a list of the code that Amazon says they accept:

Here is the URL for that graphic: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201189630

However, when I tried to use the <blockquote>, Amzon wouldn’t let me submit. It gave me an error warning. Instead, I used the header and italic options, and they seem to have worked. I went through each and every book and its blurb and submitted the changes.

I then waited the 72 hours and checked the sales pages. Here’s what I got …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Much better!

If you haven’t already, I recommend that you check your paperback sales pages to make sure that they’re formatted correctly.

I hope this HTML and post helps you get your book sales page to look the way it needs to and that this post saves you some of the time it took me to get to the bottom of this. When my paperback books got transferred from Createspace to KDP, nobody told me that I would need to get into HTML or change my book descriptions. For all this time, I simply assumed (silly me) that because the ebook pages were fine then the other pages would be fine too. After all, it’s all the same KDP dashboard now. Just goes to show.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Let me know in the comments below.

41 thoughts on “How to Get Your Book Sales Page Looking Good on Amazon”

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  7. Thanks so much for this info, Harmony. I’m late with catching up on all my favorite blogs, but I’m sure glad I dropped in here tonight. My paperbacks are wrong, too. Just one long paragraph! GAH. They didn’t look like that when I switched over from CreateSpace, because I checked them that first week, and all was fine. But I’ll definitely need to get those sorted out right away. And double thanks for the link to the html. I haven’t used any in a long time, and have forgotten a lot of them. Very useful!

    I have to work on the last chapter (I think) of my WIP tomorrow, but I won’t put this off for long. It looks very unprofessional! So glad you shared your findings! 🙂

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    • I can’t remember, but I think I probably did check early on, because that’s what I would usually do. As you say, the problems came later. Which makes me suspect a software update that Amazon didn’t bother to tell us about. I’m so glad this post is helpful. Good luck with the updates and the final chapter of your WIP 🙂

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  13. Yet another problem to add to my list. I hope my publishers checked and fixed any errors, though I don’t know if they went through CreateSpace before. (I have no idea how publishers do that stuff.) I’m afraid to look.

    Thanks for posting the fix, cumbersome as it is.

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  17. I only currently have one indie paperback, and that one appears to be fine. I must have done HTML when I submitted it. I kind of remember doing that. This is definitely good to know moving ahead. My other books (from my publisher) appear to be okay.
    Why is it always something with Amazon?
    Excellent information, Harmony!

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