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Creating an Amazon Author Page

We address the Amazon Author Page last in our social sites to create, not because it is the least important, but because it is one site that will link your fans to not only your books, but all your social sites. Your Amazon Author Page should be one of the last ones you create as it holds all your links, photos, events and reviews.

Here is where your photo and bio comes into play. Make sure you link all your social media outlets from this profile.

SET UP (This is taken straight from Amazon Author Central)

How to set up an Amazon Author Central Account, this is so each of your works can be associated with you and you have a page for followers to come and find out about you and all of your works.

1. Go to https://authorcentral.amazon.com/ and click Join Now.
2. Enter your e-mail address and password and click Sign in using our secure server.
   If you have an Amazon.com account, sign in with the e-mail address and password you use on that account.
   If you do not have an existing Amazon.com account, select No, I am a new customer. You will be prompted to enter the necessary information. This is the normal information you will be asked to enter name etc
3. Read the Author Central’s Terms and Conditions, and then click Agree to accept them.
4. Enter the name your books are written under. A list of possible book matches appears.
5. Select any one of your books. If your book is not in the list, you can search for it by title or ISBN. The book you select must be available for purchase on the Amazon.com website. Selecting the book creates the account.
6. When you receive the confirmation e-mail we send, confirm your e-mail address and identity.

Amazon may contact your publishers to verify your identity, for example, by confirming your e-mail address with them. If you’ve signed in with a different e-mail address than the one your publisher is familiar with, contact them with this information so they can quickly approve you. Other than for confirmation of your identity, your customer information, such as product reviews or purchase history, remains private.

While you’re waiting for approval, you still can use some of Author Central’s features. For example, you can add or edit a photo or biography. We hold your content until verification is complete. Other updates, such as blogging and making changes to the books listed in your bibliography, are not available until you’re confirmed.

Verification might take up to seven days.

Author Pages are created for each individual author listed as a contributor to a book and we aren’t able to create a shared Author Page.

If any of your books have co-authors, both authors can join Author Central and manage an Author Page, both claiming the book. You can use the same photo and biography for both Author Pages, and can reference each other’s Author Pages by including information about your co-author or a URL to their Author Page in your biography. You can also accomplish this in a blog post through your RSS feed, allowing you to direct your readers to each other’s pages for quick access.

Creating Your Author Page URL

An Author Page URL is an easily shared link to your page on Amazon.com. Use your Author Page URL in your email signature, blog posts, Facebook posts and Tweets. You are limited to one Author Page URL. It’s possible that another author has already reserved the URL. If you get a message that says the URL is already taken, please try another variation.

Creating your Author Page URL

1. On the Author Central Profile tab, click add link next to “Author Page URL.”
2. A URL will be suggested, however you may enter text that meets the following guidelines:
   At least 1 character, no more than 30 characters
   May use letters, numbers, dashes, periods and underscores
   No spaces
   No special characters other than dashes, periods and underscores
   Profanity is not allowed
3. If the URL you input is available, click Save.
   Your Author Page URL will go live in approximately 30 minutes.

Source

The entire “2018 Marketing Plan” page has a list of all the topics already discussed.

Linkedin

Becoming a published author is as much of a business as it is a passion and as such you need to be listed on the top business networking sites…LinkedIn.

Now LinkedIn isn’t the social platform that is, well social. Meaning it’s not the place you tell your fans what you eat while in your writing cave like you may on Facebook or the place to send out tweets about upcoming sale on your latest release. No LinkedIn is the place where you create your professional writing resume which traditional publishers and literary agents will come calling and vice versa.

Below we’ve taken some highlights on what you should have on your LinkedIn profile and how you should manage it. For further information, all of the referenced articles will be listed at the bottom of this post.

• Make sure that your profile is “complete.” This means adding, at a minimum, your industry, location, at least 5 skills, education, photo, at least 50 connections, a summary, and two past positions. Once it’s complete, LinkedIn will invite you to share your profile on Twitter and Facebook so that your friends can see it.
• Add “Author” and the name of your book to your work experience. Be sure to include a description of the book, and a link to purchase in the work history. Personally, I enter the publication date as the “Start Date” and do not specify an end date. (I’ll always be the author of my books. That will never change. So an end date would just be silly!) You also have the ability to attach a video or photo to each position you hold. Be sure to upload your book cover image and if you have a book trailer, add that as well. If you have a sample chapter you offer, you can link it here as well (or if you want to capture e-mail addresses, to an opt-in page to download it), so that people can get the excerpt directly from your LinkedIn profile.
• A compelling headline is what can cause people to be interested enough to click on your name to find out more about you. Your photo and headline show up all over the network – next to any answers you give, your activity stream, in search results and lists of ‘people who viewed this profile’ …. Your headline should include the words writer and/or author (if that is going to be your primary use of LinkedIn), perhaps something talking about the style of writing or title of a book perhaps. It may include the word ‘blogger’.
• Update your profile URL to have a vanity URL. People won’t remember the system-generated URL, but they may remember your name. So, update your URL to reflect that. For example, mine is http://www.linkedin.com/in/dianeschroder.
• Don’t forget the links back to your website, blog or Facebook page perhaps. You can add three links altogether and you should use the ‘Other’ category as this allows you to create the search terms that act as the link. Add your Twitter account if you have one as this allows users who are nosy (like me) to find you easily on that network too
• Finally, add some details about how people can contact you – an email at the very least and preferably a telephone number too. Never give anyone the opportunity not to give you money

The entire “2018 Marketing Plan” page has a list of all the topics already discussed.

References:

Linda Parkinson-Hardman, Article “How Authors and Writers can Use LinkedIn Effectively”

Tara Alemany, Article “LinkedIn for authors”

Twitter

Setting up a Twitter account is fairly easy, and is something we recommend you do early on so that you can connect with people, potential fans and of course other authors.

To set up a Twitter account you will need too:

1. Choose a profile name – This needs to be your “pen” name or your “author name”. Try and keep it short, but remember once you have decided and you start to gain fans, it is not something you want to change (Fans and people who know you will get confused and you could even lose your following). Once your account is set up, your Twitter name will follow this format: @(your name). Ours is @BookRhythm
2. Add your profile picture – Use one of the pictures that you had done for Marketing 1.2
3. Complete your bio – Do this using your shorter version from Marketing 1.1
4. Add your website address – You won’t have your website ready yet, that will come later but once you do remember to keep your Twitter updated with all of your social media accounts. For now you could add in your Facebook Link.
5. Start to follow people – These people should be friends on Facebook, authors you have connected with, authors you love to read and even pages you have connected with through your Facebook or other social media accounts.
6. Start Tweeting – Yes let everyone know that you now have an account. Not sure what to post? Watch others and see how and what they are doing. Your main objective at first is to chat with people and look around Twitter to get familiar with it and the way it works.
7. Check Twitter regularly– This is really important. You want to keep an eye on who is talking to you and about you. Many people forget (or don’t know) to do that. CONVERSATION AND GETTING INVOLVED IS KEY on Twitter – if you’re not talking to people, replying and responding you may as well not use it because you won’t get results. This is a known fact.
8. Download the Twitter app on your phone. This is an easy way to stay on top of the activity in your account and those around you.

If you are still having a few issues getting around Twitter and working out how to use all of the functions to your advantage, then check out this helpful link from Twitter that is designed just for authors. https://media.twitter.com/best-practice/twitter-for-authors

There are other more in depth strategies as you familiarize yourself with all of the social media platforms and we will cover those later. These include linking up your Twitter to Facebook so that everything you post on Facebook also posts on your Twitter account and vice versa (Note: this does not mean you do not need to tweet and check Twitter regularly as people and fans will respond there also).

The entire “2018 Marketing Plan” page has a list of all the topics already discussed.