Amazon A+ Content for Books: Enhanced Listings That Drive More Sales

Scroll past the standard book description on any major traditionally published title and you will likely find something different below it: a styled banner image, a series reading order chart, author quote modules, or a formatted section of interior content previews. That is Amazon A+ Content. It lives in the product description area below the fold and gives you a canvas that goes far beyond plain text.

For indie authors, A+ Content is one of the more underused tools available. It does not require a publisher's resources to create, it costs nothing to add, and a well-built A+ section can measurably improve the conversion rate of a book that is already getting traffic. This guide explains what it is, how to access it, what to build, and whether the time investment makes sense for your catalog.

What A+ Content Is

A+ Content is an Amazon product listing feature that replaces the plain-text description area below your book's "Product description" with a structured combination of images, formatted text, comparison modules, and header banners. It does not replace your main book description (the text that appears at the top of the page under the book title) — it supplements it further down the page.

The standard book description is limited to basic text with some light HTML formatting (bold, italic, bullet points). A+ Content lets you add:

• Full-width header banner images
• Text and image side-by-side modules
• Multi-column text blocks
• Comparison chart modules (useful for showing series reading order)
• Image-heavy modules for interior design or mood imagery

When a reader scrolls past your blurb and sees a clean, visually coherent A+ section, it signals that the book is professionally produced. That signal affects buying decisions even when readers don't consciously register it.

Who Can Use A+ Content Through KDP

A+ Content on Amazon is most commonly associated with brand-registered sellers in the retail space. For authors using KDP, the access path is different and somewhat simpler.

KDP authors qualify for A+ Content directly through the KDP marketing tools — no separate brand registry enrollment is required. Amazon opened this access to KDP publishers as part of the broader self-publishing support infrastructure. If your book is live on Amazon via KDP and in good standing, you can create A+ Content for it.

The key eligibility requirements:

• The book must be published and active on Amazon through KDP (not just distributed via a third-party aggregator)
• Your KDP account must be in good standing
• A+ Content is available for both ebook and print KDP titles

Authors who distribute only through IngramSpark or through aggregators like Draft2Digital — without a direct KDP account — may not have A+ Content access, since the tool is tied to the KDP publisher relationship, not the product listing itself.

How to Access A+ Content in KDP

The A+ Content manager is not on the main KDP dashboard. Here is where to find it:

1. Log in to your KDP account at kdp.amazon.com
2. Click on the "Marketing" tab in the top navigation
3. Select "A+ Content Manager" from the dropdown
4. Click "Start creating A+ Content"
5. Choose the language and select the ASINs (Amazon product IDs) you want to apply the content to

You can apply a single A+ Content module to multiple ASINs at once — useful if you want a consistent series banner across all books in a series without rebuilding it from scratch for each title.

Amazon reviews A+ Content submissions before they go live. Approval typically takes 24–72 hours. Content that violates Amazon's guidelines (no pricing claims, no references to competitor products, no time-sensitive claims like "limited offer") will be rejected.

Module Types Available

A+ Content is built by combining modules from a set of available templates. The modules you will use most often for books:

Module Type	What It Does	Best Use for Books
Header image banner	Full-width image at the top of the A+ section	Series branding, mood photography, author photo
Image and text (left/right)	Image on one side, text on the other	Interior page spread, author quote with portrait
Text module	Formatted multi-column text with header	Extended pitch, thematic description
Comparison chart	Table comparing multiple products	Series reading order, book bundles
Image only	Single image, full or partial width	Map of fictional world, character art, interior sample
Four-image and text	Row of four small images with captions	Character intros, series overview

You can stack up to five modules in a single A+ Content build. Most effective book A+ sections use three to four modules — a header, one or two content modules, and a comparison or series chart at the bottom.

What Makes Good A+ Content for Books

The biggest mistake authors make with A+ Content is treating it as a second blurb. Restating what is already in your book description wastes the visual real estate and gives readers no new reason to buy.

Effective A+ Content for books does one of three things:

Deepens the reading experience pitch. The description tells readers what the book is about. A+ Content can convey what reading it feels like — the tone, the atmosphere, the emotional payoff. An image of a moody forest for a gothic thriller communicates something that words describe less efficiently.

Establishes series context. For series authors, a comparison module showing all books in reading order is one of the highest-converting A+ configurations. A reader who landed on book 3 can immediately see there are two books before it and five books after it. That context drives series buy-in.

Builds author credibility. A module that pairs your professional author photo with a quote about why you wrote the book creates a human connection. Non-fiction authors especially benefit from this — it answers the implicit reader question of "why should I trust this person."

What to avoid in A+ Content:

• Stock photography that has no relationship to the book's content or tone
• Text-heavy modules that compete with rather than complement the description above
• Modules that look unfinished because images are low resolution or poorly cropped
• Anything that would look unprofessional on a major publisher's listing

Image Specs and Requirements for A+ Modules

Amazon has specific image requirements for A+ Content, and submitting the wrong specs is a common reason for rejection or poor rendering.

General requirements across all modules:

• Format: JPEG or PNG
• Color mode: RGB (not CMYK — CMYK images often render incorrectly)
• Resolution: 72 DPI minimum for web, though 96 DPI or higher renders more sharply on retina displays
• File size: Under 2MB per image
• No text overlays that contain pricing, time-sensitive claims, or prohibited content

Module-specific dimensions (approximate — Amazon occasionally updates these):

• Header banner: 970×300 pixels minimum, 1464×600 pixels recommended
• Image and text module (image portion): 300×300 pixels minimum
• Comparison chart product images: 200×200 pixels minimum
• Full-width image module: 970×300 pixels minimum

Create your images at the recommended dimensions rather than the minimums. Images that are exactly at minimum size sometimes appear pixelated on larger screens.

Writing A+ Text Modules

When you include text modules in your A+ Content, the text should do work that the description above cannot do in its format.

Good uses of A+ text space:

The series pitch. If your book is part of a series, use the text module to pitch the series as a world, not just the individual book. "The Ashford Chronicles follows one family across five generations of a crumbling empire" does more to hook a binge reader than another version of the individual book blurb.

The author's intent. A short paragraph about why you wrote the book — the question it answers, the experience it captures, the gap in the genre you wanted to fill — resonates strongly with readers who are on the fence. It makes the book feel authored rather than produced.

The reading experience. Phrases like "for readers who finish the book and immediately flip back to the beginning" or "reads fast, leaves slowly" communicate tone and reader experience more efficiently than plot summary.

Keep A+ text modules short. Amazon limits character counts per module, and dense text blocks rarely convert better than tight, evocative prose. Aim for 100–200 words per text module, not 500.

Is A+ Content Worth It?

The honest answer is: it depends on how much traffic your book listing already gets.

A+ Content improves conversion — the percentage of people who visit your listing and then buy. It does not generate traffic on its own. If your book's listing gets 20 visits a month, optimizing conversion from 3% to 5% adds roughly one additional sale per month. If your listing gets 2,000 visits a month, the same conversion improvement adds 40 sales.

The time investment to build good A+ Content is two to four hours for a first-time build, including sourcing or creating images, writing module copy, and going through the submission process. For a book with meaningful traffic, that is a high-ROI investment. For a brand-new book with no marketing behind it yet, it makes more sense to prioritize traffic generation first.

That said, there is a strong case for building A+ Content before driving traffic to a listing rather than after. A listing that already has professional A+ Content in place converts better from the moment your first ad impression or BookBub feature sends someone to the page.

For how to drive traffic to a listing once your content is optimized, see Amazon Ads for Books.

A+ Content for a Series

Comparison modules are the most powerful A+ tool for series authors. Here is how to use them effectively:

Set up a comparison chart that shows each book in the series as a separate column, with the book cover as the image, the book title as the header, a short one-line description of that book's hook, and a "Buy" or "See on Amazon" link.

This module type essentially creates a mini series catalog inside every individual book's listing. A reader who discovers book 3 via an ad can see the full series layout without leaving the page, and click directly to books 1 or 2.

Tips for series comparison modules:

• Use consistent cover image crops across all books so the row looks cohesive
• Keep the per-book descriptions short (one sentence each) — the module format is not built for long text
• Link each book directly to its Amazon product page
• Update the module when new books in the series launch rather than building a new one from scratch

Monitoring A+ Content Performance

A+ Content does not have its own analytics tab in KDP. Amazon does not provide a direct comparison of "conversion rate before vs. after A+ Content." You estimate its impact indirectly.

Ways to track A+ Content's effect:

• Record your book's conversion data (units sold / page views) from KDP's "Sales Dashboard" for 30 days before adding A+ Content
• After the content goes live, track the same metric for the next 30 days under similar traffic conditions
• If you run Amazon Ads, compare the ad conversion rate (orders / clicks) before and after the A+ Content goes live — the ad dashboard shows this per campaign

It is imperfect measurement, since many variables affect conversion simultaneously. But a 30-day pre/post comparison under similar ad spend is the closest you can get to a controlled test without a formal A/B setup.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does A+ Content affect Amazon search ranking?

Amazon has stated that A+ Content does not directly influence search rank. It affects conversion, which indirectly affects rank (more sales signal relevance to Amazon's algorithm), but adding A+ Content alone will not move your search position.

Can I use A+ Content for a book distributed only on Amazon via KDP?

Yes. All active KDP titles are eligible regardless of whether they are enrolled in KDP Select or not.

How many books can I add A+ Content to?

There is no stated limit on the number of titles that can have A+ Content. You can apply the same A+ module to multiple ASINs to save time across a catalog.

Will Amazon reject my A+ Content?

Amazon rejects A+ Content that includes prohibited elements: pricing or discount claims, references to competitors, time-limited language, customer reviews or star ratings, or images that include logos Amazon hasn't approved. Non-book-related imagery or text is not grounds for rejection, but low-quality or misleading content sometimes is.

Can I update A+ Content after it goes live?

Yes. You can edit and resubmit A+ Content at any time. The updated version goes through the same 24–72 hour review process before the new version appears on the listing.

LiberScript ensures your manuscript is formatted to the standard that makes A+ Content worth building in the first place — because an enhanced listing only converts readers who are impressed by what they find inside. Get started with a Day pass to format your manuscript today.