Author Tip: Use Author Central

February 17, 2019

Are you an author? Do you have an Author Central page on Amazon? If not, here are a few really good reasons you should set one up!

  1. If there is an error or a problem with the description of your book, you can access it to correct it.
  2. Did you get a great write up somewhere? You can add reviews to the description.
  3. Feel the need to say something special about your book? You can add a “from the author” note.
  4. If you are in an anthology of some sort, and you are not listed as one of the authors, you can get your name added to the publication.
  5. It creates a list of everything you are published in! Basically, it is a bibliography of your works for a fan to easily browse.
  6. Your fans can “follow” your author page and receive email notifications of your new releases from Amazon.
  7. If you sell your own copies of your books, you can keep an eye on Amazon’s prices easily. More than once (probably around 7 times now) I have found books available for LESS than I can get them as author copies to resell.This can be a great way to restock titles that I take with me to sell at conventions.

Less great reasons to use Author Central:

  1. You can easily obsess over your reviews.
  2. You can easily obsess over your author rank
  3. You can easily obsess over individual title rankings.
  4. You can easily obsess over BookScan Weekly Sales

While those can be interesting and fun, at first, I have known them to cause a lot of grief for some authors. Use wisely and at your own peril.