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Let me tell you something: using Helium 10 with KDP might not be what it was built for, but as a Helium 10 Seller Solutions Hub Partner, a guest author at the Helium 10 blog, and someone who's been invited to the Helium 10 podcast, I can say this loud and clear: there’s still a lot of value to get from it.
It won’t connect directly to KDP — there’s no API handshake or native support — but you can use a bunch of its features to do solid niche, keyword, and listing research.
Niche research with Black Box
Black Box is the Helium 10 tool I use the most for niche hunting, even for Kindle books. It lets you search using categories, estimated sales, keyword volume, number of sellers, etc. It's not laser-focused on KDP, but you can trick it a bit.
If you’re looking only for Kindle book ideas… sorry. There’s no “Kindle” filter. What you can do instead is this: try narrowing it down under “Books,” set price under $9.99, image count to 1 (most Kindle books don’t have more than one image), and look for listings with only one seller, ideally fulfilled by Amazon. It’s not perfect, but hey — better than nothing.
Oh, and don’t even bother trying the product targeting with a Kindle ASIN. It won’t work — Helium 10 doesn’t seem to track Kindle book data at all.
Pro tip: If you're combining Black Box and Cerebro, go after paperback or hardcover versions of KDP books with strong rankings. That way, you’re reverse-engineering keywords from a product that’s likely also being sold as Kindle, even if Helium 10 doesn’t show it directly.
Keyword research with Cerebro
This is where things get juicy. Cerebro can give you a full breakdown of what keywords are driving traffic to your competitors. Drop in a paperback or hardcover ASIN from an author in your niche, and Cerebro will show you organic and sponsored keywords. Even though it’s not Kindle data, it’s still your audience.
Listing optimization
Scribbles and Listing Builder are great for writing and optimizing your book listings. They won’t connect directly to KDP — you’ll still need to copy-paste everything into KDP Seller Central — but you can use them to structure your title, subtitle, and description around top-performing keywords.
Market research with Xray
Xray is part of the Helium 10 Chrome extension, and it works just fine on paperback or hardcover versions of your KDP titles. Use it on the product page or search results to get quick stats: sales estimates, revenue, BSR, number of sellers, etc. Again — no direct Kindle data, but you can still make it work.
Review insights
Want to know what readers really think? Use Review Insights to analyze reviews on books similar to yours. You’ll see common praise and complaints, and that gives you ideas for what to improve in your own content. Plot holes? Poor formatting? Bad cover design? All of that pops up here.
How to use for Kindle Direct Publishing
Need a walkthrough? Here's my video tutorial on using Helium 10 with KDP:
Our take on Helium 10 for KDP
Let’s be honest: Helium 10 wasn’t made for Kindle Direct Publishing. There’s no native support, and no Kindle-specific data. But if you’re creative (and slightly stubborn, like most indie authors), you can still squeeze a lot of value out of the platform.
Use Black Box to research niches, Cerebro to mine keywords, Scribbles for copywriting, and Xray for market validation. It’s not a perfect setup, but it works. And if you're selling both paperbacks and Kindle, Helium 10 becomes way more useful.
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About the author
Jordi Ordonez
I’m an independent eCommerce and Amazon consultant.
Clients
I've worked with brands like Estrella Damm, Intersport, Bella Aurora, Lladró, Textura Interiors, Nice Things Palomas, Castañer, Due-Home, and many others.
Lecturer & Teacher
I’ve spoken and taught at events such as Meet Magento, PrestaShop Day, SEMrush, Cambra de Comerç Barcelona, ClinicSEO, EcommBeers, EcommBrunch, Ecommercetour.com, EcommFest, EOI, ESIC-ICEMD, Foxize, Generalitat de Catalunya, Inesdi, Quondos, and The Valley. I’ve also delivered in-company training sessions for major brands like Orange and Adidas.
Writer
I regularly contribute articles to the Helium 10 blog, Shopify, SEMrush, La Vanguardia, eCommerce News, Marketing4ecommerce, and others.
Partner
Helium 10, Jungle Scout, Avask, Helium 10 Seller Solutions Hub Partner, SaaS4Marketing, H10-wp.com, FBASuite.com, and a Trusted Partner of Tracefuse.
Social
LinkedIn, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube, Quora, ISNI 0000000513224289, About Jordi Ordonez