7 Steps to Create an Effective Amazon Author Page
These days, you can buy everything from computers to perfume on online shopping giant Amazon. But this wasn’t always the case. Back in 1995, when Amazon first launched, the shopping website’s focus was squarely on books.
Despite its diversification, twenty-five years later, Amazon is still the world’s biggest online book retailer in the world. That’s why, as a self-published author, you’d be foolish not to utilise this book-moving behemoth to sell your work.
One issue with Amazon’s popularity is the saturation. In 2018, Amazon’s CreateSpace was responsible for creating 1.4 million self-published books. This whopping figure suggests that even the most talented authors have to fight to be acknowledged in such an overcrowded space.
If you want your book to reach your intended audience, you need to create an effective amazon author page. Here are 7 tips to get you started.
1) Write a memorable biography
This might sound like a given, but many new authors don’t spend enough time writing the bio section of their Amazon author pages. Your biography is a great way to showcase your way with words and tease your audience into becoming future readers. Don’t be afraid to use humour to express your personality or even frame your biography as a short story.
If your book is nonfiction or autobiographical, delve deeper into your influences, qualifications and areas of interest, like this Aaravindha Himadra author page does.
2) Personalize your Amazon Author Central URL
Amazon Author pages start with auto-assigned urls that are often long and filled with random numbers and characters. Not only are long URLS irritating to type and hard to remember, but they also appear less trustworthy. To keep your audience on side and add legitimacy to your page, create a simple, custom URL that includes just your name or book title.
3) Include a call-to-action
It’s not enough just to write a captivating story in your Amazon bio. You need to inspire your readers to buy your book. One way to do this is to include a call-to-action, which is essentially an invitation for the end user to take action. One strategy is to introduce a sense of urgency or fear of missing out. For example, you could include the line “Don’t wait – this low price won’t last!”. Or, inspire curiosity with something like, “See what everyone is talking about”.
4) Upload an author photo
Humans are visual creatures, so adding a photo to your Amazon Author page is a must. Your photo will allow your audience to get a sense of who you are as an author. Invest in or take a good quality headshot (not a selfie) and use it for all your social media profiles – your audience will then easily be able to recognise your content and books on different platforms, which will in turn strengthen your brand visibility.
For added interest, use the upload feature to also include some images that inspired your writing or even a photo of your writing space to humanise your work.
5) Update your Events section
The events section of your Amazon Author profile lets you list the events you’re hosting or participating in and then automatically removes them once the date has passed. If you’re hosting a book signing or planning a live-stream to generate interest in your book, listing the event will help you garner more attendees and bolster hype.
6) Don’t forget the “add more books” feature
If you’re an author with more than just one title under your belt, don’t forget to use the “add more books” feature. This will let you link all your titles to your main page. In particular, Amazon struggles to automatically suggest books you have co-authored with others. Help fans access your whole catalogue by keeping this section up to date.
7) Link Your Social Media Accounts
In this day and age, authors are just another kind of celebrity. People are interested in more than just your writing – they want to know about your life and what makes you tick. By getting people invested and curious about you as a person, you can encourage them to purchase your work.
Achieve the above by linking up your social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Social media also gives fans a chance to interact with you in an informal setting and provide compliments and constructive criticism that you can use to improve future publications.
Using the 7 tips listed, you can create a significantly more effective Amazon Author page in 2021.
