UI Challenge: Self-Publishing Book through Amazon

Overview

81% of Americans want to write a book. In fact, 31% of all e-book sales in the Kindle store are of self-published e-books.

Challenge

Design a product for self-publishing a book on Amazon, decreasing the entry barrier to self-publishing.

Recommendations and Next Steps

I posted my UI challenge on LinkedIn and received some feedback. My next step is to reiterate based on that feedback. 

• "This may not have been important to the process, but I was thinking about where a self-publisher would get cover art for the book. Is there an option to hire someone or perhaps indicating that this could be a service? Just curious...this point is not that important, but something that I thought about. I am not sure where people get their book covers. Maybe this is assumed that they already have one.

• A nice feature might be to see what the book would look like in different dimensions.

• A pie chart usually symbolizes a comparison of categories. The user felt that a linear (straight line) would better serve visually.

• Robert Cialdini has a book called The Small Big! One of the principles he uses is to focus on the smallest number. For example, when starting on a process, indicate something like ("You have already come 25%! Keep it up!"). Once you get past the halfway mark, focus on the smallest number ("You only have 25% left to go! Almost there"). These are tiny little persuasive tricks.