Why your KDP book is not selling: a checklist to find the cause

1. Is the book being found?

1. Search your main phrase on Amazon in a private browser window. Is your book anywhere in the first few pages?
2. If not, check your title, subtitle and seven keyword boxes: do they contain the phrases buyers type, or words only you would use?
3. Check your categories. A new book in the biggest category is invisible; a more specific one gives it a list it can appear on.
4. Check the niche itself: if the first page is full of books with thousands of ratings, the problem may be the niche, not the listing.

2. Is it being clicked?

• Look at your cover at thumbnail size next to the first-page books. Can you read the title? Does it look like it belongs in this genre?
• Compare your price with the books around you. Far above them needs a reason; far below can look low quality.
• A book with no ratings sits next to books with hundreds. Early honest reviews matter; Amazon's rules forbid paid or swapped reviews.

3. Is it being bought?

• Read your description as a stranger. Do the first two lines say who the book is for and what they get?
• Break one big block of text into short lines and a few bullets.
• Check the Look Inside preview: the first pages should show the real content, not five pages of front matter.
• Make sure the details (page count, size, large print or not) match what the title promises.

Change one thing at a time

If you change the cover, title, price and keywords on the same day, you will never know what worked. Change one thing, then watch the Best Sellers Rank for two or three weeks: rank moves every hour, so a single look tells you nothing.

When to stop fixing and start the next book

If the niche has little demand or is locked by long-established books, no listing change will rescue it. That is the cheapest lesson in publishing, as long as you check the niche before writing the next one.

BookIntel's Book Tracker records a book's rank, price and ratings over time, for your book and the ones you compete with, so you can see whether a change made a difference.