Support for Indie Authors discussion

What is everyone's view on linking books on Amazon KDP via the 'series' function? My books are autobiographical, non fiction accounts of my travels around the world. They have different titles, and either could be read first. However, they obviously include the same lead character (me!) and are within the travel genre.
I've read conflicting information whether Amazon require the books' covers to reference that they're in a series. (Later info suggests this is no longer important?)

I understand the benefits of a series in that it provides greater visibility of both titles to readers and also allows for 'bundled' price promos. However, my understanding is that if a book is added to a series, it then references this when displayed on Amazon. eg my book The Two Week Traveller would say something like - The Two Week Traveller (Book 1 in the series Matthew Lightfoot Travel books). Is that correct? I'm not keen on that as it suggests you have to read both books rather than being standalone works.

I'm interested to know the views of others and whether anyone has experience of using the series function on Amazon?

I've given it a try when they added it (10/2020), and it was quite buggy - the book was stuck in "updates pending" for eternity, no matter how many times the support "fixed" it, until I removed it from the series. I won't try again until I have book two actually about to release.

For fiction, having the series bundled correctly is a good move, because it allows for buying "smart bundle" - one-click purchase of all books in series you don't own yet. And you can generate one link - just for the series' page - to use, rather than X individual links.
For biographies, not sure.

Tomas wrote: "I've given it a try when they added it (10/2020), and it was quite buggy - the book was stuck in "updates pending" for eternity, no matter how many times the support "fixed" it, until I removed it ..."
Thats what I thought. For fiction, with the same lead character, it totally makes sense. For non fiction, with the same genre and 'feel' but different, unrelated material it could confuse readers who think you have to read both books for it to make sense. I would, however, like to be able to do price promos for readers buying both books.

S.U. wrote: "It is possible to include books in a series without giving them a number. It would say Part of "Insert Series Name".

In your case, it would be something like 'The Two Week Traveller (Part of Matt..."

Using Amazon' series function, you have the choice of whether books in a series are numbered of not.

The two books I have written so far which are contemporary retellings of Jane Austen novels set in an Amerian high school say 'The Austen High Collection' after their titles, with no numbers because it doesn't really matter what order they are read in and you can read one without the other.

I can only assume if your books did have a specific order and followed one after the other, you could select that option and they would say 'This Series #1', for example, but I haven't had cause to use that yet, so I don't know.

FYI: S.U. I looked for your books under "The Austen High Collection" on Amazon and I didn't find them

Gail wrote: "FYI: S.U. I looked for your books under "The Austen High Collection" on Amazon and I didn't find them"

Those are actually my books, not SU's books :)

That's strange because I just searched the series name (in a browser I never use to look at Amazon, without logging into my account) and the books came up... albeit I had to select Kindle ebooks from the left-hand side to get them on the first page.

I used it recently to add my series. However, I'm a bit confused. Obviously if someone looks at one of the ebooks in the series, I want it to show the others. The same for paperbacks. Then there are the large print editions. If someone looks at onein the large print edition, I want them to see the rest in the large print edition. In addition, I have combined them into one ebook, which has the same series name. I ended up creating four series with the same name and I'm not sure how that's working out.

Matthew wrote: "What is everyone's view on linking books on Amazon KDP via the 'series' function? My books are autobiographical, non fiction accounts of my travels around the world. They have different titles, and..."

There are several benefits to having a series page on Amazon. Their search algorithm will promote you to people looking for a series. Plus you will get an additional series product page where you can put a new Blurb about the entire series and all your books will show up on this page. Great for using as a link in marketing for all your books. I don't see any down side at all to having a series page on Amazon. You can even link books to your series which are related but not specifically part of the series. For example, You could title your series "Joe's Travels Across the Globe", link all your books in that travel series. Then have other books like "Joe's restaurant recommendations in Thailand" which are part of your travel guides.

Sorry, that was a long winded way to say, Series pages on Amazon are worth the effort of setting them up in my opinion.