Every author should set up their Amazon Author Central page in the lead up to their first publication. This is true if you are a traditional author, not exclusive to Amazon, or if you only have a short in an anthology coming out. Eventually, your book will be on Amazon, one way or another. Having the Author Central page allows you some control over them, tracking of sales and rankings, and a good bridge for a reader who wants to find more of your work.
It’s easy to do, and free, so there’s no reason not to do it. Yes, you should have a profile picture, but for the camera shy, security conscious, or just plain stubborn, you can get away with a clean professional graphic instead of a photograph. If you’re starting out and have no budget, you can hit Pixabay or the like for this for free, or have a logo done (they are usually about $50) if you have long-term business plans.
As you can see from my primary page, the back-end of the Author Central page offers a lot of information to you, the author, that can aid in targeting your marketing, tracking how well a book is doing (vital if you have handed off control of sales to a publisher, as you’ll never be able to see your daily sales in the way that an Indie author or someone who is working through PubShare will be able to see), and reviews. Don’t read your reviews. Well. Not at first, anyway. Once you’ve gotten to the point where they won’t get under your skin (in my experience, about six novels in) then go for it. Still, don’t give the reviews any weight.
Once you have navigated to the initial author.amazon.com page, you’ll see the join or sign in options. If you have a kdp account (the Indie Author’s publishing account) you can use that. If you don’t, no worries, you will be walked through the sign-in process. Once your account is up, you’ll be prompted at the top to complete some basic tasks. I’ll be working up my open penname, Lilania Begley, to show you the process.
Here’s where you will want to edit your photo and bio. If you don’t already have a bio, you should at least draft one (seems like we’ve played around with that before, do you all want another workshop on bios?) and include it. This isn’t like a work bio. It should relate to your writing, a touch of personal (have a pet?), and perhaps some background relevant to the writing (she was once an apprentice shepherdess and midwife to goats…). And here is where the photo comes in. If you are using a photo, make sure it’s professional level. Well-lit, sharp focus, should normally not be a snapshot. Definitely never a crummy cell phone pic. If you haven’t got a good one, go with a crisp graphic/logo instead. Remember, this is a professional, business branding thing.
Once you’ve got a bio up – it need not be long – and an image, you’ll be ready to claim your first book.
I’ve chosen to use a little cartoon I created for my penname. I also make it clear in the bio who I am, as this is an open penname. Finally, I’m promising more, as currently I have one title published, but I’m working on another that should be out soon(ish). How do you add a book? Very easy. Click on the ‘Books’ tab at the top, and you’ll be taken to your book feed. There, at the bottom, you’ll see a button for ‘Add a book’ and…
Once you click add a book, you’ll be given a search bar. Usually the title is enough. If the book has just been published, it may take a day to show up here, so don’t worry if it doesn’t pop up in the early hours after publication.
Finally, if you click on the ‘Reports and Marketing’ tab at the top, you’ll find some potentially useful tools. Once you have followers on Amazon, they will show here. These are readers who like you well enough to sign up for notification by Amazon any time you have a new release. That’s a powerful tool, and I’m happy Amazon offers it.
You’ll also be able to see the book’s overall ranking on Amazon, which can be handy when you are watching a new release, but I don’t worry much over it. I do my promotions and ads, and with Amazon ads you’re tracking engagement on that page, but that’s a whole ‘nother post… The Bookscan weekly sales report is all but useless and frankly I ignore it. It’s wrong, I know it’s wrong, and it’s misleading – it only tracks a tiny fraction of paper book sales outside Amazon, so really it’s not helpful. The Customer Reviews is… look. Reviews are one of those things that authors struggle with. We need them, don’t get me wrong. But a negative review can be crushing, and for no good reason. However, you might want to evaluate your reviews and watch to see if trends develop. For one thing, this will tell you if the book is hitting it’s target market. If it’s hitting readers ‘wrong’ then you might want to evaluate if your cover needs to be re-done to signal your genre more strongly, and ditto for your blurb. You want to attract the kind of readers who will enjoy your book. (which is why I separated out my romance work from my F&SF).
And this is what it will look on Amazon proper for readers, with a little time and a lot of persistence.
The Author Central setup won’t take long, and it’s important, trust me. I see so many authors on Amazon that don’t have this set up, and that makes it very hard to find more of their stuff. Particularly if you plan to have more than one work released, take a few minutes and get this started. You can always edit it later if you need to. Also, make sure you claim all of your books!
Any questions?
Mad Genius Club 
I am in a lot of multi-author anthologies, and I’ve found that they don’t always show up on my author page, even when the publisher adds in all of the authors on the project. So I manually add myself to the book via my author central page. If I have the publisher’s link to the Amazon book page, I copy the ASIN and use that in the search bar. I’ve taken to do this automatically when a new project is released, so far I haven’t run into any problems with duplicate entries.
Here’s the thing with anthologies – Amazon will only add the first ten listed on the project. After that, you have to manually add the book to your author page. So you’re doing the right thing there.
One thing with images and author photos – Amazon tends to crop photos to fit their template. If your original is off-center (as was the one I’d planned to use), you might not end up in the picture at all. (I think it came down to the edge of my hat, and then the background). That might work, or might not.
I do need to find something to use in place of a photo.
If you like, I did a cat avatar for you a while back 😀 Or ping me with what you want and I’ll work something up.
Get someone to shoot you. The one in my Author Central was specifically shot for it. (I thought the shirt was the most “creative type” shirt I owned.)
I can do it at Foolz for anyone who is there.
Remember to come prepared if you want to take her up on it. What sort of clothes convey what sort of writer you are? A bit?
It gives your readers a central place
On customer reviews, while I agree that authors shouldn’t let the negative ones get them down (easier to say than to do, I realize), I often read reviews when I’m looking at an author I haven’t read before, and sometimes when looking at a book by an author I’m familiar with. I’ve seen a lot of very useful advice given in some of those reviews, if you can pick the gold out from the dross. I’ve tried to give useful advice myself a few times, when I thought the writer looked promising but definitely needed to work on a few issues. So I wouldn’t dismiss reviews entirely, just sift through — or even have someone you trust sift through, and make a list of things you might need to work on.
Yes, that’s also a good point. It’s a balance, and one that took me a long time to achieve. Other writers may hit it intuitively, but most fixate on a hint of negative and it impacts their writing. So I always suggest a new writer not read their reviews. Having a trusted person to look is good advice.
This one’s mine: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Caroline-Furlong/author/B08LF3GHMS?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
That cover for Contact Angeles is on point!
Thank you! ❤
I also encourage everyone to make themselves a “Creator” page over at tvtropes.
Just copy and paste your bio, and an updated list of the books you’ve written, categorized by
series, would be a good start.
But going farther and providing a stub for each series and book would be ideal.
I’ve bought many things I’ve discovered on wikiwalks through the site of ultimate time wasting.
There have also been many times when I’ve wanted to share my enthusiasm for a book I’d just read, but wasn’t nearly enthusiastic enough to create a dozen or more pages just to add a few sentences and cross-links!
Huh. I did not know this was a thing.
I also encourage everyone to make themselves a “Creator” page over at tvtropes.
Just copy and paste your bio, and an updated list of the books you’ve written, categorized by
series, would be a good start.
But going farther and providing a stub for each series and book would be ideal.
I’ve bought many things I’ve discovered on wikiwalks through the site of ultimate time wasting.
There have also been many times when I’ve wanted to share my enthusiasm for a book I’d just read, but wasn’t nearly enthusiastic enough to create a dozen or more pages just to add a few sentences and cross-links!
*opens Author Central for the first time in a couple years.* Wait, how did I end up with 180ish followers?
You write stuff people want more of. 180 people! Imagine all of them in one room, that’s a lot!
Huh, I’ve got 47. Even that many surprises me.
Something about managing multiple pen names with one KDP account might be useful.
Made mine recently! Space Cowboys 2 had to be added manually through sending screenshots of my name in the copyright and contents pages, then I was able to create the page.
https://www.amazon.com/author/james.copley
GASP!!! 486 followers???
*Throws confetti*
Thank you. Wow! I never thought I would have so many, considering I’ve only been at this for a little over a year.
That’s awesome!
I’d add that you should think carefully about your author photo in “does it match your genre”?
A while back, Bill (who’s on 20Books) mentioned that an author there was having issues. This Author thoughtfully provided his author avatar photo. He wrote, IRC, YA time travel romance.
Dear Daughter saw his author avatar pix and screamed “Sunoco Parking lot Stalker!”
It was not a good look with his books.
Something to think about.
Look your best! You only get once chance to make a first impression.
Does this signify “Fantasy” to you?
https://madgeniusclub.files.wordpress.com/2023/03/karenmyers_a_closeup_portrait_comic_drawing_of_an_intelligent_g_39ff325d-82c4-4dbe-a1cd-82cb446b1e0c-1.png?resize=438%2C438
Fantasy and humor, for sure!
My official portrait (see this reply’s pic) is my 60+ lbs self of a few years ago, and rather than do another photo, I’m minded to go the “illustration” route instead. The green is also the color of my Perkunas Press. And while I don’t do outright humor, I certainly have plenty of sarcastic, rueful, teasing, etc. banter going on.
While I (of course) want new readers, and my own demographic is shrinking, I really don’t want to signal “young-and-woke”, despite my gender.