The Publishing Journey – Step 9: Set up Author Pages on Amazon and Goodreads
In the group of writers I meet with monthly, all channels of publicizing one’s name and books are discussed. This week the Author’s Pages on Amazon and Goodreads were mentioned, and there was enough interest (and angst) to get the topic put on the agenda for the next meeting.
I had occasionally checked out Author pages on Amazon, so I knew what this was about. And setting up the Author page was pretty easy. I searched for my novel, The Three Lives of Mary Sutton, clicked on my name, arrived at a blank author page where I was invited to verify my identity, add a short bio, and select the language I wanted my page to appear in (a crucial step before the page was activated). The only oddity: the page clearly had a space where the author could upload a photograph, but a notice at the side said “Author’s Pages are no longer allowed to upload photos or videos.” Hmm – seems with all the money Jeff Bezos has he could afford to update the form for the Author’s Page to remove the tell-tale icon for uploading a photo.
The whole process took maybe ten minutes. (Check it out HERE!)
Encouraged, I continued to Goodreads. Again I selected my novel (available to pre-order only at this point) and entered my name, expecting to be routed to a form. Aagh! Instead I was routed to a page listing the audio books recorded by Allyson Johnson (who knew there was such a person?) and there was my precious book listed at the bottom!
Goodreads support, I must say, is outstanding. I posed about “two authors with the same name” at 7PM on Wednesday, had a response by 11AM on Thursday asking for more info, and by 3AM on Friday the Goodreads Team had set me up with a separate page, explained the source of the problem and the fix they had arranged. Now I was free to address the process of signing up for a Goodreads Author’s Page.
Whoa! This is a formal form indeed! To complete it I will need
An official author email address (which must be the same as my Goodreads account email address). Hmm. My author website does not include a “Contact Me” section; I expect folks to leave a comment if they want a conversation. I’m reluctant to use my personal email, or the alternate email I use for the little side business I’m involved with. I guess another gmail account is in my future.
And what is a Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) email address? I guess this is something I will get when the Kindle version of my book appears – or maybe I should have it already since the book can be pre-ordered.
“Below is a list of books associated with this author. Please indicate which of the following works are yours.” For some reason my book is listed three times with three different item numbers. I suspect that this refers to different formats – Kindle, Hardcover, and maybe Barnes and Noble? Need to explore.
But wait! the wonderful Goodreads Support Team set me up with a page already! It’s pretty bare bones, and I’ll have to figure out how to add some pizazz, but you can check it out HERE!
I’m officially an Author!