Recently, I have been making a lot of use of the Kindle X-ray feature on my Kindle HD. If you do not know what the Amazon’s Kindle X-ray feature is, then you are not alone.
For many months, I have noticed a small item in the Product description are of books I have purchased that simply stated “X-ray.” In nearly every case it was “Not Enabled.” I never looked further into the feature until I found out how much I was actually using it.
What is Kindle X-ray?
Kindle Xray is the name for the file in Kindle ebooks that contains content pulled from Shelfari (and possibly Goodreads), which is Amazon owned, and extra information from Wikipedia and Youtube.
Amazon first introduced the X-ray feature with the launch of their Kindle Touch in 2011. This feature was carried over to the Kindle Paperwhite as well as the newer Kindle Fire tablets and the iPad app. (X-ray does not work with older devices, non-touchscreen devices and many apps, including the Kindle Android app.)
The Kindle X-ray feature lets users find background information about the characters and places mentioned in the ebook: who or what the characters are, how they are related, where do the characters appear in the ebook, locations and more. Currently this information is extracted from Shelfari, Wikipedia, and Youtube but I can bet Goodreads, recently purchased by Amazon, will soon start to provide information as well.
How Kindle X-ray works
In a nutshell, Kindle Xray allows readers to read background details of the ebooks they purchased, such as commentaries, location descriptions, character details and more.
- Kindle X-Ray for books allows the reader to easily find chapters and locations mentioning concepts, places or ideas, as well as characters and places. Readers can also explore author biographies and obtain additional background information.
- Kindle X-Ray for textbooks is useful for learning more about a specific topic. One tap brings up all related pages in the book itself as wells as related content from Wikipedia and YouTube.
Benefits of Kindle Xray
Every published author on Amazon is made aware of Shelfari and Goodreads. In fact, the “Congratulations” email received recommends you set up your Author Central account, where you can include additional book details provided on Shelfari.
- Kindle Xray does not require an Internet connection to use. All the additional information is separate from the actual ebook downloaded and is stored locally on your device or app.
- Kindle Xray is invaluable in helping your readers fill in the “blanks” when they can’t remember particular character or backstory. Especially if it has been a long time between books.
- XRay
- lists all the characters and give a brief description of each
- provides descriptions of the popular places
- provides common terms mentioned
- lists all the times and places a particular word appears in the book
- breaks down the viewing options for the lists by the page, current chapter and entire book.
This may not be your cup of tea, but you’d be surprised how many users do use this feature.
So the question is…
What can you, the self-publishing author, do to attract more potential readers and sales using Amazon’s X-ray Feature?
I’ll be covering Amazon X-ray in further detail, offering some ideas on how to effectively set up your Amazon X-ray and how you can take advantage of the technology for improved book sales.
FYI
Older devices required books to be manually added or “sideloaded”. Early generations of e-readers lacked Internet connectivity, so depended on sideloading, or copying e-books onto a memory card or via USB connection to a computer. Kindle Xray does not work with sideloaded books.
