Duplicating words in title and/or subtitle · Self-Publish Non-Fiction Books

Duplicating words in title and/or subtitle

Also, when I was watching your KDP Crackdown 2025 video, at 8:40 you were talking about duplicating words in the title and subtitle. That brought up an important question:

I have a book that I published in 2015 on Meditation. It did well and I decided a while back that I wanted to do a 2nd edition. The 2nd edition is ready to go but your video got me confused about what to do. Here’s why:

The title on the paperback version of the book is fine. It appears on KDP as “Meditation for Beginners: (Subtitle).” There are no duplicated words in the subtitle. It appears exactly as it does on the book cover.

The kindle book title however looks like this “Meditation: Meditation for Beginners (Subtitle) (How to Meditate…for Beginners, Mindfulness Book 1).” Back in 2015 it was popular to add the keyword of the main niche first and then your sub-niche second on the kindle version to help it rank higher. That’s why I did that. And the other stuff in brackets is probably just additional keywords I added back then.

I don’t know if the kindle book title “Meditation: Meditation for Beginners” will be a problem if I upload the new manuscript as it duplicates a word and it won't match the book cover title exactly because the duplicated word won't be on the book cover. However, I hesitate to publish the 2nd edition as a new title for 3 reasons:

1 – The book has over 1400 reviews on it and a 4.2 rating

2 – It ranks on page 1 of the Meditation for Beginners keyword

3 – KDP wants to put the book in Great on Kindle. They’ve just been waiting for me to fix some photo issues in the book. I’ve fixed all that now and just need to upload.

If I upload the book as a new title then I’ll lose all the reviews, I’ll lose the opportunity to have the book put in Great on Kindle, and I’ll lose the books position on page 1 of the main keyword. The word count of the 1st edition is around 12,000 words and the 2nd edition word count is around 29,000 words. I know that’s more than 10% but again I wanted to opt for uploading it without publishing it as a new title to keep the reviews, the rank, and the Great on Kindle opportunity. But again, I really don’t know what to do about the current kindle title. The paperback title will match the new book cover exactly but the kindle title won’t. And the kindle title has those extra keywords.

HELP! WHAT SHOULD I DO??

1 – I’m scared that if I DON’T upload the book as a new title and instead just upload the 2nd edition manuscript that the book might get blocked for using “Meditation” and “Meditation for Beginners” in the title of the kindle version. Plus, I don’t know what KDP will think of those keywords in brackets on the kindle version.

…BUT I’m also scared that if I DO upload the 2nd edition as a new title that I’ll lose everything – my 1400 reviews, my rank on page 1, and my opportunity to have the book in Great on Kindle.

I have no idea what I should do. HELP!

4 comments