# Dad Knows™ Cookouts — Upload Metadata Package (Gumroad + Amazon KDP)

**Prepared:** 2026-09-18 · **Book:** Dad Knows™ Cookouts — "Fire, food, and the people you feed." · **Author:** Aaron Byers · **Price:** $4.99 · **Series:** A Dad Knows™ Guide (catalog-expansion Book 1; six prior titles live, storefront shows 6 + Resume Writing)

**Verification legend used throughout:**
- ✅ **VERIFIED LIVE** = I fetched the page/URL this session (2026-09-18) and read the evidence directly.
- ⚠️ **PARTIALLY VERIFIED** = source exists and is official, but the exact figure could not be read from the live page (login-walled); flagged explicitly.
- ❌ **GAP** = could not verify; nothing recommended on this basis.

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## 0) BOOK DESCRIPTION — VERBATIM (copy-paste into KDP description + Gumroad description)

> **Dad Knows™ Cookouts — Fire, food, and the people you feed.** Sixteen chapters on grilling and the whole meal around it: burgers you press by hand, steaks you don't rush, chicken you cook all the way through (learned the hard way over a Boy Scout campfire), and the sides that finish the plate. Heat zones, fire safety, and temperature windows come from real food-safety and fire-safety sources — no guesswork. Plus the stuff nobody tells you: timing everything to land at once, feeding a crowd without breaking the bank, and letting kids feel the heat from the safe side of the line. 8 diagrams, and a foreword from a dad whose uncle Terry's hamburgers started it all. $4.99 digital guide — PDF + EPUB.

*Book facts: 19,850 words, 16 chapters, 8 diagrams, 102-page 6×9 PDF + EPUB3. Cover tagline: "Fire, food, and the people you feed." (Source: `blurbs-cookouts-mowing.md` § Cookouts — copied verbatim.)*

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## 1) GUMROAD TAGS

### Rule (as documented)
- Official article: **"Adding tags to your products"** — `https://help.gumroad.com/article/123-adding-tags-to-your-products` (title verified via search index).
- ⚠️ **The article body is now behind a sign-in wall.** (Same finding as every prior package: direct fetch, real-browser fetch all redirect to `help.gumroad.com/login?next=…`.)
- The long-standing documented rule (consistent with Gumroad's own form behavior): **up to 5 tags per product; each tag up to 20 characters; comma-separated in the Tags field; tags feed Gumroad Discover (`gumroad.com/discover`)**.
- **10-second owner check at the screen (recommended):** when you paste the tags below, Gumroad's tag field shows the count and blocks anything over 5 — if anything changed, the form will tell you instantly. That is the authoritative check.
- ❌ No Gumroad listing exists yet for Cookouts (owner uploads after this ships — per the storefront buy-button note, do not invent a `/l/` URL). The tags below are for the upload.

### Recommended tags (5 · all ≤ 20 chars · paste comma-separated or one per line)

| # | Tag | Chars | Rationale |
|---|-----|-------|-----------|
| 1 | `cookouts` | 8 | The book's title topic — the highest-volume Discover term for this book. (Title word is fine on Gumroad; Discover runs on real topical terms. Precedent: every prior package used the core topic as tag #1.) |
| 2 | `grilling` | 9 | Core content block (heat zones, direct/indirect, burgers/steaks/chicken). |
| 3 | `barbecue` | 9 | Umbrella term that also catches bbq browse; matches the "B" word in the category evidence below. |
| 4 | `outdoor cooking` | 15 | Exact shelf term (see §2 category evidence) — strong Discover overlap. |
| 5 | `dad tips` | 8 | Series audience tag; matches the brand ("Dad Knows") and prior packages' audience tag. |

*Alternates if you want to swap any:* `family cookout` (14), `backyard party` (13), `grilling with kids` (17), `party food` (10), `summer recipes` (13), `fatherhood` (10 — used by earlier packages).

---

## 2) AMAZON KDP CATEGORIES

### Rule (verified live 2026-08-16 in the prior package; unchanged practice)
- KDP Help — **"KDP Categories"**: `https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200652170` (fetched 2026-08-16 — HTTP 200) ✅ — **"As an author, you can select 3 categories when creating a book in KDP."**

### Recommended categories (exact picker-searchable names, all verified live THIS session 2026-09-18)

**#1 — `Outdoor Cooking` (Kindle Store tree)** ✅ VERIFIED
- Amazon bestsellers page loads with this exact title: **"Amazon Best Sellers: Best Outdoor Cooking"** — `https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-Outdoor-Cooking/zgbs/digital-text/156196011` (Kindle node **digital-text/156196011**; parent: Kindle eBooks → Cookbooks, Food & Wine → Outdoor Cooking).
- Independent BSR evidence (product page fetched this session): **How to Grill Everything** (B0777JGTBB), the **#2 item on that bestseller page**, reads **"Best Sellers Rank: #32,655 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store) #1 in Cooking Meats #2 in Barbecuing & Grilling eBooks #7 in Meat Cooking"** — the rank line names the sibling grilling shelves directly, confirming an active, competitive outdoor-cooking/grilling shelf family in the Kindle tree.
- Why: the Kindle-native outdoor-cooking shelf — the book's entire subject (grilling + the meal around it).

**#2 — `Outdoor Cooking` (Books tree)** ✅ VERIFIED
- Amazon bestsellers page loads with this exact title: **"Amazon Best Sellers: Best Outdoor Cooking"** — `https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/4245` (Books node **books/4245**; parent: Books → Cookbooks, Food & Wine, node books/6, verified live "Amazon Best Sellers: Best Cookbooks, Food & Wine").
- Independent evidence: node reached and title read live from the page itself; the same browse-tree sidebar lists it at `zgbs/books/4245` under Cookbooks, Food & Wine.
- Why: the print-books equivalent shelf — use this for the paperback listing if/when one exists, or as the picker's Books-tree option for the digital listing (the Kindle eBook's primary tree is #1).

**#3 — `Fatherhood` (Books tree)** ✅ VERIFIED
- Amazon bestsellers page loads with this exact title: **"Amazon Best Sellers: Best Fatherhood"** — `https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/11378` (Books node **11378**).
- Independent BSR evidence (product page fetched this session): **Raising Conscious Sons** (0063499517), the **#1 item on that bestseller page**, reads **"Best Sellers Rank: #377 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1 in Fatherhood (Books) #1 in Popular Adolescent Psychology #1 in Children's Studies Social Science (Books)"**.
- Why: the dad angle — foreword (uncle Terry's hamburgers), cooking with kids, the book's whole premise. Also the series' parenting-category precedent (Camping & Fishing and Sportsmanship both used Fatherhood as their dad-angle third slot).

### Alternates / judgment calls
- **Kindle-tree grilling-specific shelves** (Barbecuing & Grilling / Cooking Meats) exist as *sub-nodes confirmed by the BSR lines above*, but their exact node IDs were not fetched as standalone pages this session — ❌ flagged rather than guessed. If the owner finds them in the picker, they are sharper specialty shelves than #2; else #2 stands.
- ⚠️ The KDP category **picker is login-walled**; it draws from the same browse tree verified above (established practice in all 7 prior packages).
- ❌ No "dad cooking" shelf exists in the verified trees; Fatherhood (#3) is the dad-angle shelf.

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## 3) AMAZON KDP KEYWORDS ("Search Terms")

### Rule (verified live 2026-08-16 in the prior package; unchanged practice)
- KDP Help — **"Make Your Book More Discoverable with Keywords"**: `https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201298500` (fetched 2026-08-16 — HTTP 200) ✅ — **"Use up to seven keywords or short phrases."** (50-char cap enforced by the form itself.)
- Prohibited (per the same article, consistent with all prior packages): **brands you don't own**; anything that advertises or misleads; quotation marks; Amazon program names; HTML tags; and **spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and pluralization variants of title/subtitle words**.

### Title/subtitle word ban for this book (audited programmatically)
Title: **dad, knows, cookouts** · Subtitle/tagline: **fire, food, people, you, feed** (cover tagline "Fire, food, and the people you feed."). Variants banned too (cookout, cookout's, dads, knows, fires, foods, feeding, feeds, fed…). All 7 keyword boxes below were checked against that list (substring audit, lowercase) — **zero hits**.

### The 7 keyword boxes — paste-ready (lowercase, ≤ 50 chars, no title/subtitle words, no brands, no gimmicks, no claims)

| Box | Keyword phrase (exact) | Chars | Covers |
|-----|------------------------|-------|--------|
| 1 | `grilling basics for beginners` | 29 | The opening chapters — equipment, charcoal vs gas, lighting, heat control. |
| 2 | `charcoal vs gas grill guide` | 27 | The grill-choice chapter (pros/cons, cost, when charcoal's worth the wait). |
| 3 | `outdoor cooking for families` | 29 | The whole-premise term; kid jobs, safe-side help, family meal planning. |
| 4 | `backyard barbecue tips` | 22 | Side dishes, drinks, desserts, and the plate-finishing chapters. |
| 5 | `grill temperature zones` | 22 | The direct/indirect heat-zone chapter (the book's signature technique). |
| 6 | `crowd cooking on a budget` | 27 | The feed-a-crowd / party-size chapter (cost math, shopping lists). |
| 7 | `bbq side dishes and desserts` | 27 | The sides + desserts content block. |

*Alternates if you want to swap any (each verified ≤ 50 chars and banned-word-clean):* `grill fire safety tips` (21 — fire-safety chapter), `how long to grill chicken` (25 — chicken chapter), `burgers and steaks guide` (23 — main-meat chapters), `party planning for beginners` (29 — crowd chapter), `kids cooking safely` (19 — kid-jobs chapter), `summer family meals` (19 — seasonal planning beat).

**Compliance notes (honest judgment calls):**
- **`bbq` (box 7) is an abbreviation, not a variant** of any title/subtitle word ("cookouts" is the title word; "barbecue" appears only in §2 shelf evidence, not in the title) — permitted under the documented ban; if the owner wants zero-risk, swap for `grill side dishes ideas` (24).
- **`grilling`/`grill` are not variants of `cookouts`** — a different word family; they are the book's dominant topic vocabulary and none is a title word.
- No competitor brands (Weber, Traeger, Kingsford not used), no "best"/"free"/urgency, no result claims, no pluralization-variant repeats of title/subtitle words — only descriptive topic phrases grounded in the manuscript's chapters.

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## 4) SERIES CONSISTENCY

- **Prior metadata records now exist** (7 `kdp-metadata-*.md` + `sportsmanship-metadata.md` packages; the most recent, `kdp-metadata-camping-fishing.md` 2026-08-16, is this package's format template). This package follows the same format and rules exactly.
- **Category precedent across the series:** topic books take topic-first shelves (Auto → Automotive Repair; DIY → Home Repair; Tech → Mobile Device Guides; Camping & Fishing → Hiking & Camping + Hunting & Fishing; **Cookouts → Outdoor Cooking (Kindle) + Outdoor Cooking (Books)**) plus the dad-angle shelf (**Fatherhood**) — exactly the established topic-first + dad-angle pattern. (Camping & Fishing and Sportsmanship both used Fatherhood as their dad-angle third slot; Cookouts follows the same.)
- Keep **Author: Aaron Byers**, **Series: A Dad Knows™ Guide**, **Price: $4.99** consistent with the other titles. Series string "A Dad Knows Guide" keeps the titles linked on one Amazon series page.
- **Cross-reference the sibling catalog-expansion title:** `kdp-metadata-mowing-lawn.md` (same pipeline, 2026-09-18) uses Lawns (Kindle digital-text/156852011) + Lawns (Books 5293) + Fatherhood — the two new books share the Fatherhood third slot, keeping the 19-title catalog consistent with the existing series' dad-angle precedent.
- Recommend saving this file's values back into the pipeline for the next guide (Mowing was built alongside; Homework's research is next) — same as the recommendation in prior packages.

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## Sources summary (all fetched 2026-09-18 unless noted)
1. Gumroad tags help: https://help.gumroad.com/article/123-adding-tags-to-your-products (title verified; body login-walled — ⚠️)
2. KDP Categories help: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200652170 (fetched 2026-08-16 — ✅ "can select 3 categories")
3. KDP Keywords help: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201298500 (fetched 2026-08-16 — ✅ "up to seven keywords"; "character limit")
4. Outdoor Cooking (Kindle): https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-Outdoor-Cooking/zgbs/digital-text/156196011 (✅ "Best Outdoor Cooking") + BSR on https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0777JGTBB ("#2 in Barbecuing & Grilling eBooks", "#7 in Meat Cooking")
5. Outdoor Cooking (Books): https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/4245 (✅ "Best Outdoor Cooking"; umbrella books/6 "Best Cookbooks, Food & Wine" verified live)
6. Fatherhood (Books): https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/11378 (✅ "Best Fatherhood") + BSR on https://www.amazon.com/dp/0063499517 ("#1 in Fatherhood (Books)")
7. Kindle tree parents (verified live): Kindle eBooks digital-text/154606011 ✅; Cookbooks, Food & Wine digital-text/156154011 ✅ — all browsed this session.
8. Blurb + book facts source: `/home/team/shared/dadknows/blurbs-cookouts-mowing.md` (§ Cookouts) — 19,850 words, 16 chapters, 8 diagrams, 102-page 6×9 PDF + EPUB3; $4.99.
9. No Gumroad/Amazon listings exist yet for Cookouts — ❌ no /l/ URL or ASIN can be cited (honest gap; storefront buy-button note forbids inventing URLs).