PLATFORM TIPS & HIDDEN FEATURES
Hidden Features Most Authors Don't Know About — Platform Tricks That Save Time and Increase Visibility
Every publishing platform has features that most authors never discover because they're buried in settings menus or simply never promoted. These twelve hidden capabilities can meaningfully improve your publishing efficiency, discoverability, and income.
Difficulty: Beginner-friendly
Time to Fix: 5–15 minutes per feature to set up
Platforms Affected: KDP, Kobo Writing Life, Draft2Digital, BookBub, Facebook Business Suite, Google Analytics, Scrivener
Best For: Authors who feel like they're missing something in the platforms they use every day — and who want practical, immediately applicable tips rather than theory.
Amazon KDP — Features Most Authors Miss
1. The Additional Categories Request
KDP gives every book two categories in the standard upload process. But there is a way to get your book listed in up to ten additional categories — by contacting KDP support directly after your book is published.
How: Go to kdp.amazon.com > Help > Contact Us > Choose 'My Book Question' > 'Update Book Details.' In your message, request specific additional categories (use the full category path — for example, 'Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mysteries > Cozy Mysteries'). This can significantly increase your visibility in category searches without any additional advertising spend.
2. A+ Content — The Free Visual Upgrade
KDP's A+ Content feature lets you add visual modules below your book description — author photos, comparison tables, editorial quotes, and image-text combinations. A well-designed A+ Content page improves conversion rates for browsers who are considering your book. Access it: Your KDP dashboard > A+ Content Manager. It's completely free.
3. Price Matching Across Amazon Marketplaces
If you set your price in your primary marketplace (usually US or UK), KDP will auto-calculate prices for other marketplaces. But you can manually set prices in individual marketplaces independently — which is useful if you want different pricing in Germany, Japan, or Australia based on market norms.
Amazon Author Central — The Author Profile Most Authors Ignore
Author Central (authorcentral.amazon.com) is separate from KDP and manages your public author profile on Amazon. Most authors set it up once and never return — but it has ongoing value.
• Add editorial reviews to your book page — reviews from bloggers, writing magazines, or other authors can be added here and display prominently above reader reviews
• Set up Author Page tracking to see which of your titles readers click most
• Add your author biography and photo — an incomplete author page leaves sales on the table for readers who want to know who wrote the book before buying
• Connect your social media accounts — your Tweets and blog posts can appear on your Author Central page
• Claim all your pen names — if you write under multiple names, you can manage them all from one Author Central account
�� TIP: Create a separate Author Central account for each marketplace where you have significant sales — US, UK, DE, JP, AU. Author profiles and editorial reviews need to be set up independently on each marketplace's Author Central.
Kobo Writing Life — The Promotional Tools Most Authors Don't Use
Kobo Promotions Tab
Each book in your KWL dashboard has a 'Promotions' tab that lets you apply for Kobo's editorial promotional placements — featured positions in genre-specific sections of the Kobo store, similar to what BookBub does for the broader market. These promotions are free for authors to apply for. Most authors never check this tab.
Price Promotions
KWL has a built-in price promotion tool that lets you schedule a limited-time discount without permanently changing your price. You can set start and end dates, which is useful for coordinating with external promotions (BookBub Ads, newsletter swaps) without having to manually change and restore your price.
Kobo Plus — What It Means for Your Income
Authors enrolled in Kobo Plus (Kobo's subscription service) earn a per-page-read rate — similar to KU but without the exclusivity requirement. The rate varies by market. Opt in (or out) through your KWL account settings > Distribution > Kobo Plus. Wide authors can participate in both KU-like subscription income and wide retail simultaneously.
Draft2Digital — Underused Features
Universal Book Links (Books2Read)
D2D's Books2Read service creates a single link that automatically routes readers to their preferred retailer based on their location and device. Add these links to your back matter, your website, and your social media instead of Amazon-only links. Wide authors who switch from Amazon-only links to Books2Read links often see noticeable improvements in non-Amazon sales.
D2D Print — Free ISBN for Print Books
Draft2Digital's print distribution service provides a free ISBN for print books — unlike IngramSpark, which charges for ISBNs. If you're using D2D anyway for ebook distribution, adding print through D2D for library and retail distribution is often more economical.
Subscription Box Formatting
D2D auto-generates end-matter pages (series page, about the author, newsletter signup CTA) that can be customised in your account settings. Authors who take the time to configure these properly see better email list conversion from readers who finish their books.
Scrivener — Features That Save Writers Hours
Snapshots — Your Built-in Version Control
Before every major revision, take a Snapshot of the scene: select the document in the Binder > Documents > Snapshots > Take Snapshot (Mac: Cmd+5, Windows: Ctrl+5). You can compare current text against the snapshot at any time and restore the original with a single click. This is your undo button for major edits — not just Ctrl+Z.
The Corkboard View — Structure at a Glance
Switch to Corkboard view (View > Corkboard) to see all your scenes as index cards. You can drag scenes to reorder your manuscript structure visually, without moving any actual text. Add a synopsis to each card and use this view during outlining.
Compile to Multiple Formats Simultaneously
Scrivener's Compile function can export your manuscript to EPUB, MOBI, PDF, and Word simultaneously with saved presets. Set up your compile settings once for KDP, once for Smashwords/D2D, and once for your editor's Word format — then compile all three in under two minutes with saved presets.
Writing Statistics — The Motivation Panel
View > Writing History shows your daily word count history going back as far as you've been using the project. Project > Project Targets lets you set a manuscript target and a daily session target, with a progress bar that updates in real time as you write.
�� TIP: Scrivener's tutorial project (Help > Interactive Tutorial) covers more of these features than most users ever discover on their own. It takes about an hour to complete and pays back that investment within a week of regular use.
How ScribeCount Helps
ScribeCount itself has features that many subscribers discover only gradually. The Sunburst Chart showing income by format and platform across your full catalog, the Historic sales view comparing year-over-year performance, and the UTM link tracking for newsletter and social media campaigns are among the most powerful — and most underused — tools in the platform. As with the features in this article, the value is in knowing they exist and building them into your regular workflow.