Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
Uploading your book to Amazon is only part of the self-publishing process. Next comes the marketing. To start off a good campaign, it’s ideal to set up your Author Central page in KDP. This gives you a professional page to share with fans and readers.
Even if you already have an author blog, the author page is an extension of how you can engage potential buyers. And it’s very simple to set up.
This is my video of setting up Author Central and is number six of a multipart series I have on YouTube.
Why Set Up Your Author Central Page in KDP?
The Author Central page in KDP is essentially your homepage on Amazon. It will display every book you have uploaded to the platform along with an author’s bio.
You can also include a feed from your author’s blog to further engage fans and potential readers.
On the Author Central page, visitors can follow you so they can get new release updates whenever you publish something to KDP.
Essentially, it’s your landing page as an author on Amazon that you get for free, including a custom URL.
For example, my Amazon Kindle Author Page is: https://www.amazon.com/author/michaelbrockbank. You can then use this URL just as you could with any other link. I’ll go over a few ideas in a moment.
How to Set Up Author Central in KDP
I’m going to assume you have a KDP account and have uploaded at least one book to Amazon.
Step 1: Click the Marketing Link
Near the top of the KDP page, click the Marketing link. This will open a new page containing a variety of things you can do in Kindle Direct Publishing.
Step 2: Choose the Marketplace of Author Central
From here, you can set up KDP Select, which is Amazon’s exclusivity tool, set up ads for your books, or create the author page.
Under the “Author Central” section, use the drop-down tool to select the marketplace where your books are present.
As KDP supports a wide variety of locations around the world, make sure you select the one that is right for you. In my case, I chose Amazon.com.
Step 3: Click Manage Author Page
Click the “Manage author page” button after selecting your marketplace.
Step 4: Add Your Book
In the search field, look for the published book from KDP to add it to your Author Central page. You can search by title, ISBN, or by author name.
Step 5: Join as the Author
Once you find and select your book, click the “Yes, join as…” button. Obviously, your name is going to be different from mine. But, Amazon will show your author (or pen) name once the book is selected.
Step 6: Complete Your Profile
The next page is the Author Central for KDP. Here is where you can edit your information, manage your books, and improve your appearance on Amazon.
At first, your page will be in “reviewed” status. However, this shouldn’t take very long to become verified. In my case, it was relatively quick…before I finished recording the above video, actually.
Click the “Complete your profile” link.
From this next screen, you can:
- Add a photo (make sure it’s the best, professional-looking pic you have)
- Add your bio (to help your potential fans get to know you better)
- Create your custom Author Page URL (to share on social sites, social media, or links)
- Manage blog feeds (if you have an author blog, this is a great place to add the feed)
- Add more videos and photos (to engage your potential readers further)
That’s all there is to it. Now, you have a KDP Author Central page to use as your hub for selling books on Amazon. Just remember to flesh it out a bit and give your potential fans something to enjoy.
In the Author Central video above, you can watch how I set up all of these sections for myself.
Other Sections of the KDP Author Central Page
The profile is only part of the equation. You can manage quite a bit from this page, so I suggest bookmarking the URL.
Let’s take a look at the other two sections real quick.
Books
In the Books section, you can see the details of everything that is connected to your account including the number of editions. So, if you have an eBook and a printed version, your books will show “2 Editions.”
From here, you can click on the books to edit details, read reviews, and find the ISBN and Asin numbers of each version.
It is in the Book section where you would add any new volumes you may have uploaded and published in the KDP platform.
Reports & Marketing
In the reports and marketing section, you can find your book’s sales rank, customer reviews, and weekly sales reports. The sales rank will show your position in the Kindle Store according to the Best Sellers Rank.
You can also look to see how your book compares in certain categories directly from its page.
This is where your marketing prowess will have the most effect. It’s also probably where you will spend the most money as you need to get people to read your book.
If they don’t know it’s there, they won’t buy it.
What Can You Do with the KDP Author Central Page?
Because you receive a custom URL for your KDP Author Central page to share from Amazon, there are all kinds of ways you can promote yourself as an author. And the more you get this link out to the public, the greater are your chances for selling some books.
That’s pretty much the most difficult part of self-publishing: marketing.
No one is going to buy your books if they don’t know they exist. Sure, you might show up in a search or two on Amazon. But you shouldn’t rely purely on the chance someone might be searching for what you wrote.
Share on Social Media
Links are incredibly easy to share on social media. Use your Author Central page from KDP on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and even YouTube. Anywhere you can promote your author page, add your link.
For instance, I have my author page link as one of the default links in YouTube video descriptions. I also have it in my Twitter bio and have plans to add it to my other social accounts as soon as I get a minute.
Link from Your Email Campaigns
If you have an email subscriber list, newsletter, or simply use email a lot during the day, add the Kindle Author Central URL to messages. For instance, I have mine in the custom signature of my email account.
Now, if you actually put in the effort to run email campaigns for your book or have a subscriber list, announcing your page to those recipients can do wonders.
I just keep forgetting to set up my own email subscriber platform.
Create a Link or Button on Your Blog
If you have a blog, you can always create a button or link for your KDP Author Central page as you would an affiliate. In fact, I made a banner for mine similar to affiliate banners.
Since I use Advanced Ads, it’s easy to add these “advertisements” for myself within blog posts and pages. I have them set to random display ads, which share the space with other affiliates and AdSense.
Use as Your Signature on Certain Forums
If you’re active on forums that are relevant to writing, you can add your Author Central page as part of your signature.
Unfortunately, not all forums allow links in such a manner. But I’ve only found a handful where URLs were not allowed. Just make sure you’re actually contributing to conversations and not just spamming the forum.
Link from Guest Blog Posts
When you write a guest post for another website, some site owners will allow for backlinks to your page. See if the owner will let you use your KDP Author Central page instead while informing them they can use an Amazon Associates link.
This way, the blog owner gets credit for the sale while you get credit for selling the book. Both of you win by making money.
That is as long as the blog owner has an Amazon Associates account.
The Author Central Page in KDP Improves Marketability
Setting up your KDP Author Central page is free and merely helps to get your name out there as a serious creator. After the initial setup, it doesn’t take much to maintain the page as everything is automated.
If you connect your blog feed through RSS, which is simple with WordPress, all you’d need to do is offer photos and videos of any updates for your books. The more active you are the better.
Get your KDP author profile set up and accessible today. You never know who’s going to become an instant fan or follower.
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