Kindle Direct Publishing, or KDP, is the platform authors can use to publish their works to the Kindle. It has a lot of good features, but it could be a whole lot better. Here are some ways it could be improved.

(1) Create a "source" query parameter so sales reports can show which marketing efforts are working.

Let's say you want to promote your Kindle book, so you tweet it, link to it from your website, put an ad on some kindle users' group, and link to it from your Facebook page. You get 100 orders, but you have no idea which efforts worked. In this day and age, that's really dumb.

All Amazon would need to do is allow authors (or publishers, and so throughout) to append a source parameter to the link, then Amazon could report on orders by source. It's marketing 101, but … KDP doesn't do it.

Let authors see reader data, like … (2) how many pages are read in each title, and how quickly people get through the book.

The cool thing about electronic books is that so much is trackable. You know Amazon is collecting that stuff. Why can't authors see it? It would help them create better books, which is better for Amazon and the reader.

… (3) where readers stop.

If most people stop reading the book after chapter 3, that's incredibly valuable information for the author.

… (4) what readers have highlighted.

It shows what they're interested in, or find noteworthy. Basically, the author should be able to see any reader data Amazon is collecting. Of course it would have to be anonymized to protect privacy, but that's easy stuff.

(5) Let authors see whether titles have been shared, and how often.

It's one thing to read a book, it's another to recommend it or share it with a friend. That kind of data can help authors learn about their market and what they should focus on.

(6) Let authors A/B test titles and covers.

It may be hard to do this with titles, since you have to assign an ISBN by title, but there's no reason why an author can't try two or three different designs of a cover and see which one works best. A good cover can make all the difference, and testing is a great way to fine tune.

(7) Email authors when a new review is posted.

Right now, if you want to see if there's a new review posted on your book, you have to go to the book page or your author page. Authors should be able to sign up to get notifications when a new review is posted.

(8) Let authors send updates to purchasers when a new edition is available.

I recently updated my Beginner's Guide to Homebrewing. I would like to be able to send the update to everyone who purchased the previous version. I’m sure lots of authors would like to be able to do the same.

(9) Let authors see purchaser demographics.

If 90 percent of the readers of a particular title are female, or young, or live in cities, authors might be able to tailor their work to appeal to those interests. Certainly Amazon has this information. Why can't they share it (provided it's anonymized, etc.)?

Those are some of my ideas. Yes, I know I've only listed nine ways Amazon can improve KPD. You have to supply the 10th yourself.