How to bundle books on kdp

Do you have multiple books in the one series? Did you know you can link them together on Amazon so readers can purchase the whole series in one go?

There’s a reason why they keep making Star Wars movies, Marvel comics and Game of Thrones books – people love a good series. We fall in love with characters and settings, and we don’t want the journey to ever stop. Creating a world and linking it between a series of novels is not only fun, it is smart business. It creates multiple entry points through which readers can discover your work. And it ensures that those who like what they read can purchase more from you. In fact, many readers specifically look for a series, as there is a certain comfort in knowing you’re investing your time in something deep and ongoing.

It should come as no surprise then, that we publish a series here at Old Mate Media. The Wild Imagination of Willy Nilly series centres on an adventurous young boy, his dog and his sceptical sister. We have three books currently available: The Little Green Boat, Follow the Breadcrumbs and The Fastest Kid in the World. You can find them all here – you’ll love them, trust us they’re great.

Imagine our disappointment then when we saw there that the books in the series were not showing up together on Amazon. As we searched for the first book in The Wild Imagination of Willy Nilly series, The Little Green Boat, and the other two were not organically linked to it. A kindle book series bundle had not been automatically created.

Amazon page showing that the series is not available

Obviously this is not what you want readers to see when searching for your book. How do you create a kindle book series bundle on amazon? Luckily, after a bit of hunting I discovered it’s an easy fix.

Five Steps to Linking your Kindle Book Series Bundle on Amazon

Step 1: Create a series name for your books

Each book must sit under the one series name, this needs to be exactly the same for each book. For us, the series name is “The Wild Imagination of Willy Nilly.” Then each book has its own name

• First Book: The Little Green Boat
• Second Book: Follow the Breadcrumbs
• Third Book: The Fastest Kid in the World

Step 2: Edit your book descriptions to add the series information

In your KDP Bookshelf, you will need to edit each book description to link them together as part of a series. So you must:

1. Login to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).

2. Click on the ellipsis button ("…") next to the big Promote and Advertise button next to your book title.

Bookshelf page showing ellipsis menu option

3. Select edit eBook details. Look for the second section under Book Title, which is Series.

Edit page where you enter series name and number

4. Here you can add the Series Name in the first box and the series number for the book (1, 2, 3, etc.) in the second box.

5. Scroll to the bottom and click Save and Continue.

6. On the next page, simply click Save and Continue a second time.

7. Click Publish Your Kindle eBook.

8. Now you must repeat this process with all the books in the series. Remember to keep your Series Name exactly the same for each book.

Step 3: Ask Amazon to create the Series Bundle

The final step is notifying Amazon of your series’ existence. Luckily, this process is quite simple.

1. Click on Help at the top right of the KDP screen.

2. Then look and press the Contact Us button.

3. Select Amazon Product Page

Amazon product page in Contact Us

4. Click on Kindle Series Bundles

5. Fill in the details on the contact form. You will need each book’s ASIN, and to be safe I would include the series name as well.

6. Click Send Message.

Note: If you need to add a new book to the series in the future, you can use this same form again.

Step 4: Wait

As always – in our experience at least - the team at KDP are very fast to reply. Only a few hours later, I received a reply email saying the books had been linked and giving us a link to the series page. I now had a Kindle book series bundle! The series page now looks like this, and you can visit it here.

Amazon series page up and live

Step 5: Announce and Celebrate

Now all your books can be purchased as a series, celebrate this with a blog post (here is an example) and a social media post. Tell everyone about your Kindle book series bundle. After all, what a bonus for your readers to be able to buy all these fabulous stories in one go.

Important things to Know About a Kindle Series Bundle

Whilst the bundle concept is great, I did find a few restrictions that are less than ideal. Not enough to put you off linking the books together, but it’s good to be aware of them up front.

1. You can’t discount the bundle.

How great would it be if you could offer a discount to buy your whole series? This is a popular feature Apple offers with its apps. Unfortunately this feature is not available now, but hopefully it will appear in the future.

1. You can’t write a specific description for the series.

You’ll see on our series that the description is actually just a copy of what appears for The Little Green Boat. This is the first book in the series. That’s because the series description is just pulled from the beginning of the sales page for the first book in the series.  You can modify this book’s page so it better suits the series page, but at what cost? It’s a challenge to make a great series blurb, and a great singular book pitch, in the same text blurb.

1. Only four stores available.

Currently, only Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and Amazon.co.jp support the series options. How frustrating, right?! We did ask Amazon for comment on its plans for rolling the feature into the other stores. So, can you create a kindle books series on all of Amazon’s stores? No. A representative told us: “I'm unable to promise a timeframe at this time, however, we are still evolving and feedback like yours motivates us.”

1. Kindle only, no paperback.

For some bizarre reason, this service is only currently available for Kindle books, not paperbacks. It really does not make any sense. Surely most authors have the paperback and digital versions of their books already linked in the Amazon ecosystem. But here we are, until further notice at least.

Now you Know How to Make a Kindle Book Series Bundle on Amazon

So there you have it! Now you know how to make a kindle series bundle in five easy steps. You can link your kindle series on Amazon and also use it as a marketing opportunity. If you run into any problems linking your books, be sure to let us know your experiences below.

Naturally, you cannot have a series of books, without finished books. If you are still at the beginning stage, head up to our services in the main menu for a detailed breakdown of each step in the process. We edit, design and publish books for indie authors. And we also work on overall branding strategies for creating a series. It’s free to reach out and start a conversation. And why not check out Old Mate Media’s library of available books.

How do you bundle books on Amazon?

How do I create a collection in KDP?

How do I group books on my Kindle?

How many books are in a bundle?