Cracking the Code on Amazon Central. Learn How!

Amazon Author Page, Amazon Central; Making them work for you!

When you’re looking to figure out the best way to sell your books on Amazon, making the most of your Amazon Author Page through Amazon Central is key!

Amazon Author Page

Your Author Page, found on Amazon is where people learn about you. It’s the place where you educate and introduce potential customers to you and your book(s).  The Author Page shows information about you, the author – your bibliography, biography, photos, blog feeds and much, much more. When customers learn about you it’s an effective way to introduce them to—or better educate them about—your books. You decide how much you want on your page, but really, if you want to sell books, shout it out!

Starting the Process

First and foremost, if you already have an Amazon account for personal use, i.e., if you’ve purchased items on Amazon.com before, use the same email and password for setting up your Author Central Account. If you don’t currently have an account on Amazon, go to Amazon.com and you’ll see a screen for entering an email and then a password. Fill out the information and keep it in a safe place (you will use it again and again). You’ll be prompted to check your email and verify the information you used to set up your Amazon.com account. Wasn’t that easy?

Second, once your book is edited, designed, and loaded into IngramSpark or CreateSpace for printing, you can setup your Amazon Central account. Your Amazon Central account allows you to personalize your Amazon Author Page which is dedicated to your published books! Every time you publish a book, you can add information about your newest book and it will have its own page as well as a full listing of all of your books on your Amazon Author Page. (Are you confused yet?)

The step-by-step setup

It’s okay, setting up your Author Central account seems more confusing than it is. Once your book is ready to publish you can setup your Amazon Central account. Ready? Here’s what you do:

• Go to Amazon.com and setup an account if you don’t already have one.
• Go to authorcentral.amazon.com and click Join Now. Important: Your book must be available for sale on Amazon.com before you can sign up for Amazon Central.
• Enter your email address and the password you used to setup your Amazon.com account and if you are new to Amazon Central it will ask you for information before proceeding further.
• Read Author Central’s Terms and Conditions and click Agree.
• Enter the name you are writing under (given name, pen name – you follow what I’m saying!?). After entering your “name” you’ll see a list of any book title written by authors of the same name. Once you’ve found your book(s) in the list, select it and voilá, your Amazon Author Central account is created. But wait, if your book is not in the list, don’t panic, type the ISBN or the title of your book in the appropriate space. (If you still don’t see your book listed, it probably isn’t for sale on Amazon.com.)
• Go to your email and confirm your email address and identity.

Once your account is setup on Author Central, you can begin populating information such as your photo, book cover images, and your bio for your Author Page. NOTE: It may take 3-5 days before you see your Author Page on Amazon.com. Once you and your book are confirmed, you can connect your blog, your social media accounts, make changes to content, add reviews you’ve collected from peers, and more.

You’re Verified, Now What?

Shout it to the world because you are a published author! You want to sell your books and share your story because you are the expert in your field. Once your account is verified, use it to your best advantage for marketing your book and yourself; you are the author. One important task not to forget is to create your unique Author URL. You can use this in your signature on emails, in social media posts, in your newsletters, and any other marketing materials. Make it easy for people to find your page and watch your sales increase!

What’s the next step? Take action! I won’t lie to you, this will take a bit of time and effort on your part, or you can schedule a time to talk with Peter and me where we can talk about how we can help you make the most out of your Amazon Central page. Your job is to serve your clients or write; let us help you with these other tasks. It will pay off in the long run. Schedule your time to talk  with us today. 

Until next time, #WriteYourWay

Colleen