I have recently been exploring tools to help in writing, and self-publishing. Most times, effort is placed on the writing process, but that’s only about a third of the work in putting your written masterpiece out there for the public to enjoy. It also takes some good editing, formatting, and cover art. Then there’s the matter of marketing, and getting your book in the hands of your audience. A well written book won’t sell, if it can’t be found.
That’s what KDP Rocket helps to do..
To learn how to become a self- published book marketer, you can’t do without the information located at Kindlepreneur.com, and the hard work that Dave Chesson pours into helping the self-published author to succeed.
If you have no budget, and can’t spend money, he tells all the free secrets to fine tuning the process, and finding keywords to place your book in front of your target audience. Get ready for hours, and hours of work in searching keywords, using tools to analyze the results, and nail down the niche you plan to serve.
Want a faster, and easier way to match the knowledge you have, to a reader who wants to pay you for it? Harness the power of software to do that leg work in a matter of moments. Visit Dave’s site to get his personal secret weapon: KDP Rocket.
It works great, but as a blind person, my ongoing concern for new software is… Is it accessible? Will it work with my screen reader? If it doesn’t, then I just bought an expensive bit of software to do nothing more than clutter my hard drive. Not to mention, it means money down the drain for me.
Good news.
I was able to test drive Dave Chesson’s software, and use it on my MacBook, using Voiceover.. The ride is a little bumpy, but the bottom line is that it works. I hope to give a similar good report for Windows users, but at the time of this writing, all my Windows machines are down. I expect it to work just as well though.
I linked a recording of my initial experience with KDP Rocket to this post, so use the player and download links to hear how it sounds. I think you’ll see for yourself how simple it is to search for book ideas to write about, and check out how much competition you’re up against… or not. You may find a wide open field. Or just as important, you may find that your ideal book idea has no audience.
Remember, this is not a lesson on how to find your ideal book idea, or use KDP Rocket to market your idea. Check out Kindlepreneur.com, and Dave will tell you how to apply the information in the reports.
Here’s what I cover in my audio tutorial:
- Unpacking and installing. For the Mac universe, it’s a snap.
- Click the DMG file to extract.
- Copy the application into the Applications folder.
- Initially running and installing the license code.
It’s all super easy to do.
- Reviewing the home screen.
- Unlabeled graphics. There’s a few, but not important for the searches. They’re mostly logos, or links to video tutorials on the web.
- Searches. Buttons for Idea Searches, and Competition Searches are easy to find and use.
- Searching, and how the reports are displayed.
- The search box appears the same for both searches, and other than having no key echo in typing your search, is excellent.
- When the screen reloads, the report is ready.
- Using the swipe, Control+Option+(left or right arrows), all the cells in the resulting table can be read.
- Analyze button. Gives deeper report information, and is also excellent to use.
- Export. For better navigation, and to have a record of the search reports, an Export button sends it to a CSV file.
Just remember that the exported file won’t have the Analyze buttons. Still, it lets you know what’s there, and interesting to follow through on.
Is there any downside to navigating and using KDP Rocket?
- The report tables. Though swiping from cell to cell works, There is no way to:
- Move to the next or previous row. Moving up or down.
- Column headers aren’t read when navigating. I found that writing the headers in a separate text file to refer to when deeper in the grid helps to keep column information straight.
- Exporting. Works great, but the button is at the bottom. For large tables, it isn’t easy to get to. Sometimes stopping interacting with the table, then tabbing past it works. I couldn’t get it to work all the time, but I’ll admit, it could just be me missing something. I’m not an expert on the Mac.
I give a 5 star rating for doing what KDP Rocket claims. It helps you match book ideas to a potential audience, and does the hard marketing footwork for you.
I give it 4 stars in accessibility. Sure, a few minor bumps, but everything you need to access works, and is readable.
My main purpose here was to put the interface through its paces, and see how screen readers handled it. For better information on what to do with the reports the searches deliver, visit Dave’s site.
My final word to potential self-published authors, even blind ones, this is very usable software. The price tag is worth all the saved hours in research, and finding your target market.
Match your skills and knowledge as an author to connect with the audience who is looking for you, and is willing to pay for what you have to say.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download