If you’re an author with a book for sale on Amazon, you may be overlooking a prime (pun intended) spot for advertising yourself with no cost to you. If you’ve heard of Author Pages but aren’t sure where to start, or if you set up a page years ago and think it might need an update, then keep reading! We’re going to show you some simple ways to optimize your account in order to get the most out of this free online real estate.
Author Central
If you haven’t already done so, go sign up for an Amazon Author Central Account. Step-by-step instructions for how to do that can be found by visiting: http://amzn.to/2mPUbGU.
Once you have your Author Central Account set up and confirmed, it’s time to start optimizing your page. There are six main areas that you will be able to personalize, and I’ve included links to detailed instructions on Amazon with each one to make it easy for you.
- Current, professional headshot, and up to 7 additional images to share (http://amzn.to/2BfJnXC)
- Current biography (helpful tips from Amazon: http://amzn.to/2Dxcc74)
- Blog feed URL (more info on how to get that: http://amzn.to/2Bfohc9)
- Original video file (not hosted on YouTube) about you or your book (guidelines: http://amzn.to/2BftXml)
- Links/information about any upcoming live events (http://amzn.to/2FXdKWG)
- Personalized URL for sending people to your Author Page (http://amzn.to/1nNN94B)
After you’ve got your page set up, make a note on your calendar to check in on the page once or twice a year to ensure that it remains current. If you’ve got a new book coming out, that’s a great time to revise your bio. If you just had a new headshot taken, remember to include your Author Page on the list of places online to switch it out.
International Sites
Something that is often overlooked is the fact that creating an Author Page on the Amazon.com site does not automatically give you an author page on their international sites. As of this writing, Amazon has 15 localized storefronts/URLs worldwide, but only four of those offer authors the opportunity to grab their Author Pages. In order to do so, you will need to check each of these sites and claim each Amazon Author Page in order to control what your author presence looks like internationally.
- UK – https://authorcentral.amazon.co.uk
- Germany – https://authorcentral.amazon.de/
- France – https://authorcentral.amazon.fr/
- Japan – https://authorcentral.amazon.co.jp/
Even though most people who are searching Amazon in Germany, France, and Japan are not native English speakers, English is the third most spoken language in the world (after Chinese and Spanish); so by broadening your reach to include an international audience, you have a good chance of reaching a new category of book buyers.
Over the years, we’ve worked with a number of clients who wanted to know what the benefit was to creating one more online space to keep up. If you’re still asking the same thing, I’ll tell you what I told them:
Having a perfectly optimized Amazon Author Page will NOT turn your book into a best-seller or be the game-changer you’ve been missing; but WITHOUT an optimized Amazon Author Page, you will not be able to ensure that the information shared about you is accurate, or receive free exposure to a much wider audience for you, your books, website, and brand.
The choice is yours.
Carrie Koens joined the Weaving Influence team in May 2012 and has held a number of roles, including three years as the Book Launch Director (a title she stepped away from in June 2016 in order to focus on the needs of her growing family), and she currently serves the team as a Writer and Consultant. An INTJ with a penchant for culture, book stores, Parisian cafés, Indian curry, British mystery shows, and her passport, you can find her on Twitter @CGKoens.