Once first time authors have self published their books, they’ll setup their Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) accounts in hopes of making their first sale. However, many will skip a crucial step – setting up an Amazon Author Central account!
As the platform that ultimately allows writers to build their Author Pages on Amazon, Amazon Author Central’s ability to help you track book sales, see and respond to reviews, interact with your audience, fix issues with your listings and add editorial reviews to each of your books is invaluable to your overall self publishing business.
Any author with a book listed for sale on Amazon can sign up for an Amazon Author Central account.
Now, let’s talk about Amazon Author Pages
Once you’ve set up your Author Author Central account, you’ll be able to get started on an Amazon Author Page – which will be your new or existing readers’ go-to source for any information they could possibly ever want to know about you and your work.
An Amazon Author page is ultimately where people will head to read your author bio, see or buy your books, find links to your site or social platforms and learn more about you. Let’s say, for example, that a reader loved your first book and is interested in buying your second. Or that they’ve read your work and want to know more about your personal or professional background. Amazon Author Pages acts as a one stop shop for them to get all of this done, while showcasing a complete library of your products.
Here’s what you should include on yours in order to reap its sales benefits.
1. Biography and social media links
Tell your audience about yourself! While the traditional workforce relies on resumes to tell prospective employers about their professional history, this is your chance to highlight your achievements in life and as an author to your prospective readers. You’ll be able to list all of your books in a separate section on your author page, so we recommend using your bio area as a means to showcase your personal and professional achievements, projects, hobbies and any other information that your readers would find interesting.
This is also where you’ll list your social media, website and blog links. Make sure to hyperlink them in the text so that anybody reading can simply click through.
2. Professional author photos and relevant videos
Readers like to associate a face to a name. It’s worth noting that you can branch out and get creative with the author photos you add to your page. Of course, it’s best to include at least one professional author shot – but many writers also showcase a variety of personal photos that relate to the content they publish. If you’re a famed interior designer, upload photos of yourself standing in the homes or businesses you’ve decorated, at awards nights receiving recognition for the work you’ve done and so on.
If you’d like to step it up a notch, add a few videos to your profile. Amazon Author Pages support up to eight videos in either avi, wmv, flv, mov or mpg format that are a maximum of 10 minutes in length and less than 500 mb in size. Showcase yourself speaking at a design conference, teaching your audience DIY decorating tricks or put together a video compilation of your best work. The opportunities are endless.
3. A library of your books
If a reader has devoted the time and energy to looking up your Amazon Author page, chances are he or she is interested in finding out about the other books you’ve written. Take advantage of the fact that you can showcase all of your work in a digital library format and be sure to keep this section updated whenever you publish new products. When an Amazon user lands on your page based on a keyword search, imagine their delight (and your heightened opportunity to make sales) when they realize that you’ve written an entire book series about decorating on a budget. If the entire series hadn’t been listed here, they likely would have never stumbled upon it.
4. Editorial reviews
Most of us are familiar with Amazon’s generic review section, but what many authors overlook is its incredibly valuable editorial reviews section. This is where you can list up to five testimonials that other industry leaders within your niche or valuable contacts of yours have made about your book(s). Your editorial reviews are a prime channel through which to easily boost your credibility and position yourself as an authority on the subject you’re writing about.
If you don’t already have any influential contacts you can ask for feedback, consider reaching out to a targeted list of your peers via e-mail and asking them for reviews in exchange for you mailing them a free copy of your book. You can also offer to promote their business or books on your own webpages in order to pay forward the favour.
5. A convenient feed to your blog posts
What better way to increase traffic to your blog than by linking it to your Amazon Author Page? Whether you’ve just started blogging, are hoping to get more hits on your site or already receive thousands of visits per month, there’s no downside to linking your feed to your account. Whenever you upload a new blog post, it’ll automatically update on your Amazon Author Page – allowing users to visit your site with one simple, effortless click. Now how’s that for convenience?
6. Follow button
Typically, the Follow button on your page is already activated. This function allows Amazon users to subscribe to your updates and be notified whenever you publish a new book or make important announcements on your Author Page.
Double check that it’s not turned off by clicking the yellow +Follow button on your page. The more subscribers, the better!
Lastly….Don’t overlook international author pages
Now that you’ve gone through the motions of updating and optimizing your Author Page, there’s one last step to consider. Given that Amazon is broken down into international markets (ie. Amazon Canada, Amazon US and so on), you could be missing out on lots of sales if you choose to only set yourself up on one site. Although it’s time consuming, consider expanding your reach by creating an Amazon Author Page within the 13 Amazon markets that exist globally today. While not all of them have an Author Central section yet, there are four that do in addition to the Amazon US Site.
To set yourself up within different Amazon markets, visit the links below and repeat the steps listed above. You can use Google Translate, given the fact that you likely won’t speak all four languages (to those that do, we’re seriously impressed).
• UK – https://authorcentral.amazon.co.uk
• German – https://authorcentral.amazon.de/
• France – https://authorcentral.amazon.fr/
• Japan – https://authorcentral.amazon.co.jp/
Happy selling, and as always, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions about how to set up your Amazon Author Central account.
