8 Tips for Creating a Professional Author Page on Amazon Author Central

Are you an author searching for an effective way to boost your book sales? Look no further than the Author Page feature on Amazon Author Central. Your Author page is the perfect place to tell readers more about you, share book related content, prove your legitimacy as an author, and sell your books. With these 8 easy tips you’ll be on your way to creating an impactful Author Page on Amazon Author Central.

By the time you’re done reading this article, your Author Page will have:

• An effective bio

• An author photo

• Blog posts and videos

• A clean shareable URL

• All your books claimed

• Editorial Reviews

• International accounts

Getting Started

Before we dive into the tips, it’s important to understand what Amazon Author Central is and How an Author Page works. An article from feedvisor explains that an Author Page on Amazon Author central allows any published author to sell books that have an ISBN. it is free to use and a very successful marketing tool. 

As a new author using Amazon Author Central, you’ll want to follow these step-by-step instructions for creating an account.

1. Visit Amazon Author

2. Click join for free

3. Enter your email address and password

4. Verify your email

With 4 easy steps you’ll be on you way to creating an effective Author Page. Once your account is created, you can search for your books using their ISBNs, and then begin creating your Author Page. 

Tip 1: Create an Effective Bio

Your author bio is the first place readers will go to learn more about you. It should be a way for readers to connect you to your books. 

Things to include in your author bio:

• Interesting facts about you

• Relevant awards

• Hobbies

• Your social media handles

• Your Website

Below is an example of an effective bio from author Rodney Curtis. He includes details about his personal life and career, as well as his website. 

Tip 2: Include an Author Photo

Adding a photo of yourself to your Author page is a great way to personalize your page. This allows readers to put a face to a name and feel more connected to you and your work.

Your photo should be in high definition, colour, and include your whole face. Make sure it is well lit so readers can tell exactly what you look like. 

You can include up to 8 photos on your Author page so don’t be afraid to attach a relevant photo of yourself to different books.

Tip 3: Share Blog Posts and Videos

Adding blog posts and videos are a great way to keep your readers up to date with news surrounding you or your books. 

You can add a blog post by:

1. Selecting add blog from the blogs section of your Author Page.

2. Add the RSS address for your blog. Make sure it’s the RSS and not the URL

3. View your blog under the Author Updates section of your Author Page

You can add a video by:

1. Selecting add video from the videos section of your Author Page

2. Select browse and choose the video you would like to upload

3. When the video is done uploading, you will have to select approve

The videos you upload to your page can include things like book trailers, readings, and any other content related to your books. 

Some things to keep in mind:

• Videos need to be mov, mpg, avi, flv, or wmv format

• Videos need to be smaller than 500MB

• Videos need to be less than 10 minutes long

Tip 4: Customize Your Shareable URL

Your shareable URL should look clean and professional. People will be less interested in your author page if the URL is filled with a bunch of random letters and numbers. 

Changing your URL is simple. All you have to do is select Amazon Page URL, and then edit it so it is clean and simple. Sometimes the URL you choose is already in use so be prepared to have a couple different variations if your first choice is unavailable.

Tip 5: Claim More Books

When you first set up your Author Page, you’ll have already claimed your books. If you’ve written books under a different pen name or as a collaboration with other authors, you can also claim those! 

Here’s how to claim more books

1. Select Add More Books under the Books tab of your Author Page

2. Search for your other titles

3. When you find them, select this is my book

4. A dialogue box will appear where you then select this is my pen name

Once you complete these sets you will have a new Author Page created for that pen name. It will all be linked with the same Amazon Author Central account, and you can have up to 3 pen names for each Author Central account. 

Adding books that you collaborated on is also very easy. All you have to do is click add more books and select your name as author.

Tip 6: Add Editorial Reviews

Do your books have lots of glowing reviews? You can add them right to your Author Page and show them off to your followers

Here’s how to add reviews

1. Select the books tab

2. Choose the book you would like to attach a review to

3. Select add and then follow the formatting guidelines to add your review

4. Preview and then save changes

Kindle copies of your books can have an unlimited number of reviews and physical copies are limited to five reviews, so make sure you are choosing reviews from reliable critics. 

Tip 7: Update Your International Accounts

Amazon Author Central is available in multiple countries, so make sure you set up Author Pages in other countries where you have books published. 

If you have an Author Page set up on Amazon Author Central in a country that speaks another language, it’s a good idea to translate your page to that language. Make sure to hire an actual translator and don’t use google translate.

Try utilizing LinkedIn, one of the largest professional networking sites in the world. With its expansive database of professionals from all industries and backgrounds, you have access to a wide range of potential translators who might be able to help you out with your project. Once you’ve identified a few potential candidates, use an email finder tool to quickly look up their contact information so you can reach out and discuss the project.

Tip 8: Keep Your Author Page Updated

The most important, and probably the most difficult thing to do is keep your Author Page updated. Add new books, update your bio and photos, and remove anything that becomes irrelevant, you don’t want viewers to get caught up in the unimportant things. You should be updating your Author Page at least once a month to keep content fresh and readers engaged.

Final Outcome

After putting all these tips into play on your author page, you should have the following:

1. A detailed and effective bio

2. All your published books listed, including ones you have collaborated on

3. Photo and video related content

4. A linked blog that is updated regularly   

If you’re still feeling a bit lost, check out this short video on setting up your Amazon Author Page.

Written By: Leah Gerber

Conclusion

An Amazon Author page is an effective tool for any author to use and it’s easy to set up as well! You’ll be able to grow your following on your Amazon Author page in no time with these tips. 

Are you an author with an already established author page? Let us know in the comments what you did to create a developed Author Page!

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If you need help turning your book into an audiobook, we offer audiobook production services that will help you reach a wider audience and increase your book sales. 

Listen to some of our audiobook samples here to get started.

How To Write A Book

Almost every good book follows the basic framework that includes the beginning, middle, and a strong ending. It seems so simple before you actually start writing the book. The most important part is to start and have a solid plan moving forward. This article will help break it down for you, so you can finally start writing that book you’ve been talking about for ages!

Title page

I know everyone says not to judge a book by their cover but the harsh truth is that it is the first thing potential readers look at before picking up a book.  It depends on you and your process whether you want to choose a cover before or after your book is finished but make sure that it is professionally edited and fits an appealing aesthetic. As a writer, it is important to decide on a cover that represents your book the best as possible.

Cover design 

This can be your chance to be creative so your book can stand out from the crowd or in this case bookshelf. In an article by Karla Lant available on 99designs, the author goes over the anatomy that goes behind a book cover. There is nothing wrong with getting some influence from other authors that are in your genre (with proper credit!) during your planning phase. 

Some important factors of a book that are important to consider are the front and back cover, the layout, spine, fonts, and more. Typography is also a very important part to consider that will shift how your vision is viewed visually based on the theme of your book. The cover is also space where you put your publishing company logo and your other works near the bottom of your front page.

What is your book about?

Before writing your book it is important to first know what kind of genre it is as the formalities that you book will follow largely depends on this. For example, a nonfiction book would include aspects like a table of contents that are critical for readers to refer back to. Whereas, that wouldn’t really apply for let’s say, a fiction book as it would give out spoilers to the main subsets of a story. Here are some of the components of a book's front matter that is considered.

Formalities

Copyright: Before your readers can get to the fun part of your book, there are first some formalities that you must get out of the way. This includes something called the “Colophon”.

This is the legalese that is placed at the front of the book and provides your book statistical as well as professional information. For example your copyright information, International Standard Book Number (ISBN), and information about the contributors to your book like your editors. 

The dedication page- is also an important thing to consider as it is a place to give recognition to your influencers or anyone who helped you write your book. Another option is to write an epigram which is just a quote that also helps tell your readers inspiration for your work and an idea of what your book will be about. 

Foreword- is a type of introduction that is usually written by a colleague, friend or family member before the body of the book is introduced. 

Body

Now here is when the fun part of the book begins, your body! This is where all your hard work and ideas are placed but it is not just as simple as just a pile of words. There is an important structure to consider in terms of the way that your book will be organized. 

Introduction: This also largely depends on whether your book is fiction or nonfiction and of course what structure you want your book to follow. For the basics though, the first thing you are going to need is an introduction if you are writing a nonfiction book which will give a little insight into your book before you go into it.

On the other hand, for a fiction book, a prologue is used instead which instead provides a space for setting an atmosphere for your story that you will letter go in-depth in. 

Chapters: Everyone knows almost every book has chapters that help divide up a book into digestible parts. Chapters themselves have a sort of structure that is followed that an article by “MasterClass” dives into.  Pacing is a crucial factor of chapters that depends on the topic of your book and how long your book is. 

This is especially important in fiction books, where chapters give the opportunity to incorporate import plot devices such as cliffhangers, focus, a change of perspective, etc. All these factors considered it is crucial to seek balance in order to convey your story, dialogue, and narration in an effective manner. 

Conclusion: At the end of a book there is also a summary that completes the book. For a nonfiction book, this is referred to as the conclusion. This also depends on the type of nonfiction book as academic writings usually contain a clearly stated conclusion. 

The back Matter

About the author: This is a commonplace where authors write a brief summary about themselves. This includes information about their previous work, as well as their education and their personal life.  A blog that is available at Reedsy has a great rundown on how to write an author's bio that you should check out. 

Discussion questions Are an interesting aspect to add that will help your readers discuss your book with friends and keep a conversation going.

Index: This is an interesting tool that writers use that fiction writers are starting to pick up on as well. An article by Reedsy outlines the importance of indexes as helping buyers to find their interest in a book and is highly correlated with sales as well!

Audiobooks

The audiobook is a growing field where more and more book readers are utilizing programs such as Audibly. An article by Clare Thorp available on BBC is something authors should seriously consider in investing to widen their customer base.  The increasing popularity of audiobooks, as well as podcasts, attracts publishers to build teams to produce amazing listening experiences for their audiences. If you are interested in audiobook production / editing teams to help with the formation of your next audiobook, check out Jony Studios here!

Conclusion

Writing a book doesn’t have to be as complicated as it is first made out to be. Following these steps helps break it down so you can finally get rid of your writer's block. With the rising audiobook use among new readers, considering making your book available in audio format is also important. Readers will appreciate it when a book is also narrated by the author as well! What aspects of book aspects did you notice before and didn’t consider until after reading this blog? Let us know below!

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If you need help turning your book into an audiobook, we offer audiobook production services that will help you reach a wider audience and increase your book sales. 

Listen to some of our audiobook samples here to get started.

Hemingway Editor Review - Will it Improve Your Writing!?

Along with staying relevant with the newest book marketing and writing, we also enjoy checking out the newest tools that can help authors throughout the entire writing process. This is our full review on the Hemingway editor.    

I’ve heard a lot of authors speaking about using Hemingway in their own writing.  

But you may be wondering what it is, and how it may be able to help you in your writing journey?

Unlike other writing tutors like ProWritingAid, Hemingway is not a comprehensive writing tutor. This is because it instead focuses on securing words and making them more impactful and concise.   

We decided to check out Hemingway Editor and compare it to other writing tools. So, you can make a more informed decision. Let’s get started.      

In this well thought out review you will learn:

• An outline of Hemingway Editor and how to best use it 

• The cost associated with Hemingway 

• How hemingway compares to other related solutions         

WHAT IS HEMINGWAY?

Hemingway is named after a well known master of literacy, Ernest Hemmingway. The tool aims to “make your writing bold and clear.” But that being said it isn’t a comprehensive writing coach or grammar checker, like ProWritingAid and Grammarly.     

Instead, it’s a powerful and minimalist device to better the method of your writing. 

But you may be wondering how? It can be done by either pasting your work into Hemingway editor or writing straight into the editor, it then highlights your writing with different colours. Each colour is associated with a different Hemingway improvement.     

So these are the suggestions that are made by Hemingway: 

• Yellow Sentences:  Hemingway identifies these sentences as structurally complex or lengthy. So the tool gives a suggestion to simplify or split the yellow highlighted sentences.  

• Red Sentences: Hemingway identifies these sentences as sentences that could confuse readers. Best thing to do here is reword the sentences until the red highlight disappears.    

• Purple Words: Hemingway feels these sentences have a more simpler and suitable replacement. To see Hemingways suggestention hover over the words.    

• Blue Words: These words are adverbs or hesitant and weak language. Hemingway suggests omitting these words.   

• Green Phrases: These phrases indicate that passive voice has been applied. This can be appropriate under some contexts, but active voice is usually preferred.     

HOW TO USE HEMINGWAY EDITOR – HEMINGWAY APP AND ONLINE

The Hemingway Editor tool can be applied in two ways:

• The Online Hemingway Editor, free 

• The Hemingway App, in app purchase 

Paid vs Free Hemingway Editor

You can find the Hemingway Editor online for free. Also the good news is that the creators have released they want to keep it this way.

But the Hemingway App is only available for a one-time purchase of $19.99. This price is consistent with the Windows and Mac version of the Hemingway app. Purchasing the software also qualifies you to free upgrades.   

This is how the online Hemingway Editor differs from the paid app.  

Since we have compared the Hemingway App to the Hemingway Editor, let's compare alike writing tools, like ProWritingAid and Grammarly.     

HEMINGWAY VS PROWRITINGAID VS GRAMMARLY

For this case, there isn’t a clear winner. Hemingway is able to do certain things while ProWritingAid and Grammarly are able to do other things.    

But, overall, I believe Hemingway is an affordable and amazing option for writers. It will secure the style of almost any writer out there. The best way to know if Hemingway is a good fit for you is to the free version, the full app version is a great value for only a one time payment of $19.99.  

Important Notes: ProWritingAid typically has better grammar, but I feel Grammarly has better control on commas and where they belong.     

From above one can note, ProWritingAid has the most features. But, if you don’t require all the features that come with ProWritingAid or are on a budget, Hemingway Editor is more worthy of your time and attention.    

HEMINGWAY EDITOR ONLINE AND HOW TO USE IT:

You would see a screen similar to the one below when accessing the Hemingway Online Version.

This version of the Hemingway Editor offers two modes: Edit and Write 

The ‘Write’ mode is utilized for free of distraction writing in a minimalistic setting. When using the Hemingway’s ‘write’ mode, the screen would appear like this, once you delete the pre written work Hemingway has written :

While you can create a short piece using the Hemingway ‘write’ settinging, it is not something I would recommend.  

I say this because there is no way for you to save your work, like by logging in or cloud. So, if something happens and the browser crashes, you will lose everything  you have been working on in the Hemingway ‘write’ setting. 

By using the ‘Edit’ option, one is able to utilize the complete range of the Hemingway analysis.  

This would include the three sections below:

1. Formatting options, found at the top of your screen 

2. Also includes colored highlights of your writing, which indicates the types of improvements Hemingway believes you should make.

3. Also this really cool feature that summarizes all the findings Hemmingway was able to find, this is located on the right side of your screen

Let us look at these three sections closer.

THE FORMATTING OPTIONS WITH HEMINGWAY EDITOR

Hemingway offers the following formatting options for your text:

• Bold

• Quote

• Link

• H1

• H2

• H3

• Numbers

• Bullets

• Link

• Italic

These Formatting options are great for bloggers. This is because one can clean up their writing style in the Hemingway editor and then utilize the listed formatting options for your text to be prepared for publication. 

COLORED HIGHLIGHTS IN THE HEMINGWAY EDITOR 

Now Let us take a peek at the colored highlights being used.  

Yellow Highlights

Yellow highlighted sentences indicate they are hard to read. Thus hemingway reccoments splitting it up or shortening it. 

Red Highlights

Red highlighted sentences are very hard to read. These sentences are similar to yellow sentences, but a lot worse.    

Purple Highlights

Purple highlighter words show complex words being used for which simpler substitutes exist. 

The way to see the substitute words is to use your mouse to hover over the purple word. You can see an example of this below.  

Blue Highlights

A blue highlighted word means Hemingway thinks it is weak. 

Using your mouse to hover over the highlighted word, you would see the suggestions Hemingway makes to improve your writing.  

Hemingway can give suggestions to improve an adverb, like this picture above.  

Above, Hemingway is able to suggest how to make a qualifier stronger.  

Green Highlights

Text that has been highlighted in green suggests that passive voice has been used. 

SUMMARY OF HEMINGWAY EDITOR 

Hemmingway gives a summary of your writing, which is located on the right hand side of your screen. Having this feature is great because it provides the following information.   

Readability

Hemingway is able to analyse your writing to be able to assess the reading level it is written at.   

As stated by the creators of Hemingway, the average American is able to read at a tenth-grade level. Making sure your writing is below or at this level will make it easy for the average american to access.   

Enrest Hemingway's writing is said to be fifth-grade level. Proof that clear and concise language does not weaken the quality of one's writing.   

Words

Hemingway is able to show a word count for your writing.

The following information would be displayed, By clicking on ‘Show More’

Number Of Adverbs

Hemingway is able to show us the number of adverbs in your writing and calculates if this is a tolerable number. 

Use Of Passive Voice

Hemingway is also able to show us how often passive voice is used in your writing and then calculates if this is an acceptable number.  

Complex Language

This characteristic exhibits the number of  simpler words suggested in your writing.  

Hard To Read Sentences

Hemingway is also able to identify the quantity of yellow sentences in your writing. 

Very Hard To Read Sentences

This characteristic shows us the amount of times red sentences were found by Hemingway 

With all the above info put together, Hemingway offers us a useful summary.  

WHY WE LIKE PROWRITINGAID MORE THAN HEMINGWAY

Although Hemingway is very easy to use. Although, if I had to choose, I would choose ProWritingAid. I say this because: 

• Using ProWritingAid is like having a personalized tutor. The software provides an in-depth look into your areas of strength and weakness, no software does it like them.   

• No matter what your writing style is, the software can tailor to it 

If you are just looking for something that fits your budget, then forsure have a look at Hemingway.  

But, if you are looking for the best writing editor, ProWritingAid is the best one out there.  

Conclusion

Now that you have a good understanding of how Hemingway Editor works you can use it to help yourself and even compare it to its rivals.  

But here's a Reminder:

• There is a free and paid version of the editor

• It’s aim is to improve and tighten your writing 

• I still think ProWritingAid is the leading solution  

Have you ever used the Hemingway Editor? Have you used any of the other writing solutions I have mentioned? Let me know in the comments below.

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If you need help turning your book into an audiobook, we offer audiobook production services that will help you reach a wider audience and increase your book sales. 

Learn more here and listen to some of our audiobook samples

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Contact us here to get started.