Support for Indie Authors discussion

Second topic today...seems to be a consensus that if you have multiple books on the market it is almost imperative to have an Author Central Page (ACP) on Amazon.

For those of us that are just starting out with one book, and another one, or maybe two, on the way do you maintain better control of revisions/updates, etc. by not having an ACP and just working out of your KDP author page?

Thanks,
Maurice

Something I don't understand about my Amazon Author Page - even though I have two books on Amazon, only one of them is listed on the page. This one sells significantly more copies than the other; could this be the reason why? Why has this happened?

Does that book have more reviews, or is it in a genre that has lower competition? That could effect where your title lands for people searching in the genre. If not, it could be that participation in the ACP increases the product's SERPS for amazon.com.

Have you tried adding the other title to your ACP? If there is a noticeable bump in sales without changing anything about the title's page that could be the case.

Use science, test it out and post your results for the class.

Update: I've just added my 2nd book to the Author Central Page. I'll keep you posted if this has any effect on sales!

I've contacted Amazon. Currently the ACP site says that there are benefits to marketing through them but they are not listed explicitly on the page itself. Hopefully they'll get back to me shortly.

Looking forward to hearing how the second book fares, Rachael. Good luck!

I don't have an author page on Amazon. Do you have to pay for it?

Amanda wrote: "I don't have an author page on Amazon. Do you have to pay for it?"

I believe it's free for everyone so long as you have a book being sold through Amazon.

Ok thanks. I do. Just another area I have to keep track of if I set it up...oh man...there are so many:)

Amanda wrote: "Ok thanks. I do. Just another area I have to keep track of if I set it up...oh man...there are so many:)"

An author page is actually pretty easy to maintain. My author page is linked to my blog, so every time I do a blog post it shows up on my author page. That way my author page stays active without me actually having to log in and do stuff.

Melissa wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Ok thanks. I do. Just another area I have to keep track of if I set it up...oh man...there are so many:)"

An author page is actually pretty easy to maintain. My author page is link..."
How did you set up your blog url on author centra page?
I uesed http://www.blogname.worpress.com/feed/ and I am still not getting feeds - any suggestions?

I just set it up tonight and I haven't blogged anymore today but I copy and pasted the url from my RSS feed site. I think that worked. I see my blog from earlier today on my author page.

Can you have one of those pages if you only sell through kindle? Or do you have to have print books?

I only do kindle so yes because it let me do it:)

My best selling short wasn't even listed...so I dunno how effective this is.

Do you think it could actually hurt sales?

Definitely can't hurt. And as an indie author it is especially important to have your ducks in a row.

An author central page is just a way to personalize the landing page for your books. You can put up pics, book trailers, links to your blog or Twitter feed, and a bio.

Do note though, each market has a separate author central page and not all have the option. Last time I checked, it was just US, UK, DE, & FR. But each one is separate, so if you update the info on one, it won't carry over to the other.

Well that's annoying.

That's inconvenient. Is it a language thing?

Obviously not a language thing if US and UK are different. That's really inconvenient.

No, just a market thing, I think. It's strange that they can't just import all of the info over, or that it's only certain markets, but I don't pretend to understand international business regulations.

My co-author and I both have author pages. (Hers gets about 9x the views mine does -- geez, I wonder why that is?) The main benefit (as I see it) is that people can follow you, and if they do, they are notified any time you release new work (as I understand it). So, in that sense, it is sort of like having a mailing list.

How many people are inclined to do that, I have no idea. Amazon (as far as I know) does not report when people are following you. But people do learn about our new releases very quickly: within an hour or two of release. So they are getting the word some way, and since we don't do anything except post in on our blog, it seems like people following us must be a large part of the reason.

Jenycka wrote: "Obviously not a language thing if US and UK are different. That's really inconvenient."

Yes, it is. I believe Christina is correct and it has to do with the way the different markets are run, and the fact they are in many way independent. We haven't bothered to set up author pages off Amazon.com. The only other market in which we sell significant number is Germany, and it just hasn't seemed worth it.