Having an author page on Amazon Author Central is a very important marketing tool for all self-published authors. Amazon is still the biggest online retailer for books, so having a presence there really makes a difference in your discoverability. An Amazon Author Central page can let your potential readers know about who you are and what kind of books you write. It can also help them explore your back catalog if they already read and liked one of your titles!
If you distribute your books to Amazon through PublishDrive, you will not be able to use the Author Central's sales tracking features (we have our own sales analytics!), but you can still take advantage of the author page. Buyers are a lot more likely to show interest if an author they don't know yet has a photo and a short bio.
Just to look at an example, here is bestselling author N. K. Jemisin's Amazon author page:
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You can get a similar author page in just a few simple steps:
- Go to Amazon Author Central and click on 'Join for free'.
- If you created a KDP account in the past, you can use that to log in or you can simply use an existing Amazon account. If you never had any of the two, you can create one in this step.
- Enter the author name that you use for most of your books. You can later add more pen names too.
- Claim the books that you've written and are already on Amazon. You have to claim at least one book before you can start creating your author page.
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If for some reason you cannot claim your books, contact Amazon's customer support. - You will also need to verify your account before you can create an author page.
When all the above steps are done, you can finally get started with your page!
The most important things to add are the following:
- A professional photo
- A short biography that focuses on your career as a writer and your achievements. But don't forget to add a few personal details too, that can make you more relatable to your readers!
- If you write in more than one language or your books are translated, it is worth adding your bio in those languages too
- Your bio can also contain links to your social media and/or official website
- You can customize your shareable author page URL
- Make sure to claim all the books you have written so they can be found easily. If you need help linking series or adding certain books to your author page, let our support team know and they will be happy to help.