Amazon Author Page And Central

(written while tired. my apology, but intuition suggested I publish it soonest.)

I pass this along because it is cheap and relatively easy. Amazon has two websites that I use: Amazon Author page and Amazon Author Central. Note: I use them. They are useful, but not very useful. But they are free and informative. And free and informative can be very useful for someone, especially an author who is self-published. 

My lack of enthusiasm might have more to deal with a day of a day, but I continue to avoid mentioning them even though I visit them regularly.

Amazon Author page is a site devoted to the author, which can also be built and maintained by the author. Why have an Amazon Author page? If you’re selling on Amazon, you can create your page, list all of your books on it, and make it easier for shoppers and readers to cross from one of your books to another. It clears the clutter of other authors from someone who just wants to find out about you and your work.

Currently, mine has three sections: Home, About, and All Books. Home has bits of the other two. About is basically a bio page. And All Books lists all of my books. (‘All’ is something to discuss below.) So, Home has all of my books, which duplicates All Books, and Home has the first few lines of my bio. Did you notice the redundancy? 

Amazon’s Author Pages have gone through iterations. Once upon a time, it even included links to my social media and blog posts. It was a good idea. That iteration vanished. Versions pass through unnoticed by me, and that’s fine. The site is there.

It was, and at least partly still is, a handy site for readers and shoppers who have stumbled across me or my work. It is also handy as a way to tell folks how to find me. Whether they like Amazon or not, they may trust doing a search on my name or a book title rather than going to this or another of my blogs. Every opportunity to be found has a value, and this one is free. If you have a book, you might as well have a page.

Things change, but I suspect you can still build your page by going to…

Amazon Author Central is the back store that the public doesn’t get to see. Home, Profile, Books, Reports & Marketing are the main headings.

Home is the catchall again.

Profile is your bio that you build.

Books seems like it would be simply a list of your books. (Congratulations if you have more than one.) But it is also a way to check on unexpected activities. Some of my books properly show the paperback and the Kindle versions, but some show several paperback versions. I suspect someone is trying to spoof my sales, redirecting buyers to somehow make money from them, but I’ve never investigated it further. I’ve never heard complaints from buyers, so for now, I assume they are a nuisance. Contact Amazon to learn more. Even though I don’t track it down, I’m still glad for the tool.

Reports & Marketing is the section I check a few times a week. I particularly visit Sales Rank. The formula for calculating Sales Rank is probably secret and shifting, but basically, every time a book sells, the Sales Rank jumps. It is the easiest way to track sales. On one page, I can see all of my books and – sigh – notice that none spiked today. Wa wa. It would seem that every book sale should generate a note from Amazon, but that’s impractical for high-volume sellers. It would seem that every royalty payment would mention which book sold and for how much, but I don’t recall seeing such, and discounting sometimes means Amazon dropped the price enough that I can’t sort out the full-price sales from the others.

The Sales Rank’s formula does not rank sales but sales frequency. If total sales was measured, the Bible and Shakespeare and a dozen other books would top Amazon’s recommendation list, leaving hot new sellers in the cellar. Instead, Amazon wants to point out books that are selling many copies every minute. That helps them push topical and fashionable titles. So, my typical Sales Ranks are in the millions (sad), then one book sells, and the Rank jumps up to something like 100,000 (glad), and drifts down towards the millions unless another one sells. I’ve seen that algorithm guessed at, but I doubt Amazon will publish something they may consider Competition Sensitive.

There are other tools, always other tools. Reviews and comments can be managed. It is good to keep the content fresh and accurate. As you may have guessed, I am aware of the possibilities, but I get the great majority of the benefit simply by having the public Author Page. Other authors obviously make other choices. Go for it, but in general, I suggest you take that first step – and don’t be surprised if Amazon yet again has changed the names, the menus, the formats, the options, the whatever. As long as they let you spell your name right. Right?