5 Tips to Improve your Amazon Author Page

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One of the greatest benefits of selling your e-book (or paper book) through Amazon is the vast space they provide you to “advertise” your work. If you are a savvy author, take right away advantage of this marvelous opportunity of an author page and insert lots information about your writing and yourself as an author.

Look at it from the standpoint of a reader; which book would you buy: The one that shows just a boring cover, name of the author, and a very short introduction to the book – or the one which has:

• a beautiful, appealing cover
• an all-embracing editorial review
• an interesting authors bio with a portrait
• lots of customer reviews
• a book trailer or interview video

So, what can you do to improve your appearance on Amazon and improve book sales?  A lot!
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Create an appealing book cover
Rule # 1 for your book cover on Amazon is NEVER to use a white background! White on white is barely visible and your book will not stick out, especially when you chose to have the text in black.
Your book cover should be:

• aesthetically appealing
• targeted to the book’s intended audience
• represent the book’s contents
• use a clean, readable font
• use bold or complementary colors
• use light on dark for dramatic effects
• visit a bookstore to research book cover designs
• test the cover in thumbnail size to make sure it looks good even if it is only one inch high/wide and the title should still be readable

An appealing book cover can be done through the use of software, if you are computer-savvy and creative / artsy – if not, better hire a professional, who is experienced in designing book covers and can provide a portfolio with samples from earlier jobs.
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Write a great editorial review
Write as much about your book as possible and use all the space you get from Amazon:

• Editorial Review—350 characters
• From the Author, From the Inside Flap, and From the Back Cover—8000 characters !!!
• About the Author—2000 characters
• See the detailed information on Amazon.
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Set up your Author Page
Helping customers get to know you is an effective way to introduce your books. Information you add on the “Profile” tab in Author Central appears on the Amazon.com Author Page. On the Author Page you can display:

• books you have written
• biography and up to 8 photos!
• up to 8 videos!
• a calendar of events, such as book signings
• Latest Tweets
• Most Recent Blog Posts

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The Author Page is a good chance to tell readers something interesting about yourself, make sure you include any details about your (writers) background, awards, other books you have written and personal details customers might want to know. Your author photo should be a professional, high-resolution image for quality display.

At the Author Central page on Amazon you get lots of free marketing help. Click the “Profile” tab, where you will see all these sections to add – or to change the information later. It can take several days for the Author Page to appear on the Amazon, so start right now adding content to your Author Page. There are lots of features for you to choose from:

• Your Profile and your Biography
• Uploading Photos & Videos
• Managing Your Blog Feeds & Your Events
• Uploading Book Images
• Managing Editorial Reviews
• Customer Reviews

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Get lots of customer reviews
From Amazon’s Tips: “Anyone registered as an Amazon.com customer is entitled to write customer reviews, including fellow authors and journalists. Reader reviews don’t carry across borders, so ask your friends to copy and paste their reviews to all of your Amazon sites (Amazon.uk.co, Amazon.ca, Amazon.fr or Amazon.de for example). Make it easy for them and provide all the direct links to your sites.
Customer reviews are in order from newest to oldest with the exception of “Spotlight Reviews” that are based on how well the review was written and how helpful it was deemed by our customers.”
(Hint: ask your friends to click on “helpful” at the best reviews of your book).
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Create a Book Trailer & Videos:
You can share your book trailer, video interviews, book signing videos or the new Google Search Story trailers with readers. Your video should focus on specific features of your book or your experience as an author. Hire a professional video maker to create your book promotion trailer and upload the video to YouTube and other video sites. To get an overview of the video production process and lots of tips and links for free images, free music and web sites where to upload and how to market your video, read: 111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer.

Submit your video or book trailer to your own website, your blog or blogs of your friends, show it often on your Google+, Twitter, or your Goodreads site. Ask all your friends to spread the word and to re-tweet your video link or submit it to their Goodreads friends.
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You might ask why I write here only about Amazon’s author page: Barnes & Noble and Kobo don’t offer author pages! You can click on the authors name, but that brings you only to another sales page, where only the book appears – among a dozen or more books from other authors …

Amazon has more cool features to help an author get found. Use every bit of support you can get from Amazon, join the Kindle Forum to ask questions, get help and support from other authors and on blogs, and your book will be a success!

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