How to Set Up Your Amazon Author Page - Publishing for Professionals

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How to Set Up Your Amazon Author Page

Episode 35 • 28th October 2025 • Publishing for Professionals • Unicorn Publishing Company

00:00 - Lynn (Host)

Ready to elevate your career with a professionally published book? Are you simply not sure where to start? Your search ends here. My friend, let's walk the publishing path together and bring your book to life. With the Publishing for Professionals podcast. I'm here to coach thought leaders, executives and speakers on how to successfully self-publish your book while avoiding common pitfalls. I'm Linda Liquidy-Smargis. Join me each week to acquire practical wisdom and proven strategies and find out what the traditional publishing companies simply don't want you to know. This is more than just a podcast. It's a roadmap to becoming a published author. Get ready to write your blueprint for book publishing success with the Publishing for Professionals podcast. Hi friends and future authors, this is Lynn Aliquity Smarchus.

00:40

Back for another episode of Publishing for Professionals, and this week is a topic I know a lot of my new authors don't think about or aren't aware of when they do their self-published book on Amazon, and that is setting up your Amazon author page, and we're going to talk about why it's so important to do that. So today is a solo episode, and before we dive into today's content, I like to share a little story that illustrates how my services work for my client. So recently I was helping a client upload his podcast, his book, into Amazon, and we were doing that and everything was going well. And even though everything was going pretty well, we had a few like things that we had, because it's Amazon right, like you do things on Amazon and everything doesn't always work out like it's supposed to. One of the comments he made to me was that he could not have gotten through the uploading his book on Amazon without me Like he's like I could have done it, but this would have taken me like literally hours to do and he would have probably had to save it and come back to it. We got it done in 90 minutes, which was really good time, especially because we are uploading an ebook and a paperback book. So that is one of the things I love to help my clients with is just uploading their work on Amazon. So I am the only publisher I know of who works with people to upload their book on Amazon and just does that with a 90 minute book coaching call. So if that's something that you also need help with, definitely reach out to me at wwwwriteforyoume Be glad to help you with that.

02:08

All right, let's jump into today's show. Again, welcome to Publishing for Professionals If you're new. Thank you for joining us and, if you return, thank you for joining us. Today's focus is going to be a step-by-step guide to creating and optimizing your Amazon Author Central page, and this is really important because your author page is a marketing real estate that most authors either ignore or underutilize. Today you'll learn the setup process, some optimization strategies and how to manage your author page, because most readers do check your author page before buying your book, and we know how much those first impressions really matter to people. So by the end of this episode, you're going to have a professional author page that converts browsers into buyers.

02:49

First thing I want to talk about is your author name. So one of the things people are not aware of on Amazon is that when you put your author name into Amazon, you need to make sure it's exactly the same all the time. So if I use Lynn Smarges, I have to use Lynn Smarges. I'm not going to use my hyphenated last name for one book and my non hyphenated last name for another book, because then Amazon sees you as two different authors, even though all your books are on the same bookshelf. It's the author that it tags the book to. So if you have a hyphenated last name and you use that as author on your book. Make sure that all your books under that name are on the same exact name. If you use the hyphen, always use the hyphen. If you just use a space, just use a space, because if you put a hyphen in one and a space in another, again Amazon is going to think you're a different author.

03:42

So I have a different pen name for my romance novel that I am writing. It's Violet Ember. So when I do that, I'm going to have a different author page. So I'm going to have a different author page for Illiquity, my creator name that I have. That's another pen name that I have and I've written under my Travel Gluten-Free book. Depending on your book, you can have, obviously, multiple pen names on Amazon, but you do need to use the same name with the same type of symbols hyphens, whatever it is so that Amazon recognizes that all of these books are from the same person. So that's my first tip for your Amazon author page.

04:15

So let's talk about what is Amazon Author Central. It's a free service for published authors on Amazon, okay, and it's a professional hub on the world's largest bookstore, because 80% of people do buy their books on Amazon Separates your KDP account but connects it to your books, right, and it's available in multiple marketplaces such as the US, uk, germany, france, japan and other markets, but it is not available in all markets, so just keep that in mind. So if you are not in the US and you're listening to my podcast, it may be and you can't find it, it may be that Amazon doesn't offer an author central page in your location, so you'll need to reach out to Amazon about that. Why your author page is critical for book sales. First, it appears prominently on your book details page. So when you look at any author's page and on the left-hand side you'll see on the bottom it says the author's name and it will have a follow button. So I always follow authors that I really like and enjoy reading their books. That's really important for me because when you follow an author page, any new books you have come out will automatically be emailed to your followers. So that's really important and a really great book marketing strategy. It builds credibility and trust with your readers because they can go on and see who you are, and so make sure you have a nice little bio write-up on your author's page. It provides social proof through reviews and rankings, and it connects all your books in one place, so it just drives discoverability through Amazon's algorithm. Again, they'll email anyone who follows you when you come out with a new book. So it's basically free SEO and a visibility boost. So you should definitely take advantage of this free marketing experience on Amazon if it's offered in your country.

05:54

What do readers see on your author page? Great question. So readers will see your professional author photos. So make sure you have a good photo of yourself. Make sure it is it shows your face right, it's not too close or too far away, and that it shows who you are right now. Obviously, if you have a pen name and you don't want to show your face, you can put a different image on there as well. That's perfectly fine. But you want to make sure you have a image that is easy to see and that is professional, that explains and it obviously represents the genre that you're writing in. Okay. That's also really really, really important.

06:32

Another thing is you want to make sure that you have a compelling biography, a complete catalog of your books. Okay, and if your books are not all linked to the correct author name, you can ask Amazon about that. I know you can go in and change the author name, but there's certain restrictions on that. So check Amazon for changing the author name if you need to do that. If all of your books are not connected to your author name and customer reviews across all titles okay. So that's really important that your customers can give you reviews across all those titles right that are in there, so that way you can see who's giving you reviews. It used to have a blog feed and updates. They don't have that on anymore and they also don't have the video content piece, so you can just write your bio on there, and I think some authors were grandfathered in on that. I know I was not one of them, unfortunately, but they don't have that video content piece anymore. It's just strictly text. So keep that in mind when you are filling out your author bio page.

07:31

The missed opportunities authors make most. And before we jump into this, make sure that you are liking and subscribing to this channel. If you're listening to an audio or if you're watching this on YouTube, setting it up once and never updating it, okay. So if you have new books, you want to make sure you go in your author page and say, hey, I've got this book and this book so that your people who are reading it know what books that you have out, and make sure those are only the books under that author name. And using generic, boring bios okay, low quality or no photos that's not good, because then people don't know who you are or what you look like and they can't make that emotional connection. Okay, not claiming all your books, and this is where, if you have a slight difference in your author name, this can mess you up, okay. So make sure all your books are under your author name on your author page, ignoring the analytics and insights available. So check those out on your author page because those are super important. Professional versus the amateur author page, right, make sure your page is well optimized, okay, and avoid those common mistakes that can hurt your credibility.

08:35

Let's get into the next piece of this podcast, which is setting up your Amazon author account. Okay, before you begin, make sure you have your published books on Amazon, okay, so even if you publish through like Lulu or Draft2Digital, you can still put those also through Amazon. Ok, you don't just have to publish on Lulu or Draft2Digital. Ok, you can also go from Draft2Digital and publish on Amazon, and the same with Lulu and the same with IngramSpark OK, so you can have those also on IngramSpark and other ways to get through plus Amazon. All right, you want your high professional quality headshot to get through plus Amazon? All right, you want your high professional quality headshot.

09:11

Make sure you have your author biography ready to go and that there's multiple lengths of your biography, because I know it has changed how many characters and words you can put in your author bio on your Amazon Author Central account. Make sure you know all the books you have on your bookshelf and even the co-authored books, right? Or when I get listed as an editor on one of my clients' books, it also goes to my author page. So that's why I make sure that people link me in their Amazon on their book when they're uploading their book as an editor, if they would like to do that, because then that builds my credibility and people can see my clients' books as well as the books that I have written as well. Also, if you can link your social media account in there I'm not sure if that's a rule that they have gotten away with or done away with, but if you can make sure you do that as well.

09:58

So here's your step-by-step account creation process. You want to go to your authorcentralamazoncom, all right, or whatever link you have in your country. Sign in with your existing Amazon account, click join the author central and follow the prompts. You're going to use the same email as your KDP account because you want everything in one place. Okay, verification process.

10:22

So you need to claim your books. Amazon matches you to your books and you have to say yes, this is my book. What to do if your books don't automatically appear? Okay, then you need to go through the books tab and manual book claiming process, which can be kind of tedious because it's Amazon and there's always help. There's chat available. You can phone call them as well, and that is typically more helpful than just putting in an email sometimes. So, again, make sure you enter your author name exactly as it. The waiting period for verification typically takes about one to two or three business days, depending on how busy Amazon is. Ok, if Amazon rejects your claim, you need to file a petition with them and you know, work it out with Amazon. It's Amazon. That's all I'm going to tell you. There's not a lot you can do about it sometimes Just depends, right, but definitely keep up with them. Like you know, it's a pain and it's time consuming and the best thing to do is obviously be prepared and make not make these mistakes that cost you all this time. All right, and I can definitely help you with that. So if you're interested in me helping you with that, definitely check me out at rightforyoume and book a discovery call.

11:34

Multiple country author central accounts. The US, uk and other marketplaces have little differences in their author accounts. You need a separate account for each marketplace. So if you publish your book in the US and you also publish it in the UK and you do worldwide distribution, you'll need a separate author account. If you'd like to do that. I don't do that just because for me, I'm not pushing my international sales a lot, so I just have one on amazoncom, which is the US version of Amazon. You want to maintain consistency across the regions, obviously, make sure for cultural sensitivity. You're not putting anything in your author bio that's offensive to people in other nations. Prioritize your marketplace based on your audience. Just like I said before, I'm only on amazoncom because the US audience is my audience.

12:18

You have on your author dashboard. You have the books tab, which is your catalog overview. You've got your author's page tab where you build your profile, sales info, tracking your book performance and customer reviews. You can monitor the feedback on there. And then there is your bookshelf, which is where all your books are. All right, my friends, we're going to take a break right here. When we come back, we'll talk to you more steps on how to set up your Amazon author page. So stay put and don't go anywhere. I'm going to be back with some more great content.

12:46

Hey friends and future authors, I know what it's like to sit at your desk staring at your manuscript and wondering if you're the only person who feels alone when writing your book. That's why I created the Publishing for Professionals Virtual Writing Retreat, a sanctuary for leaders like you who are crafting books to elevate your thought leadership. Our writing retreat offers writing blocks publishing support. Sign up today at wwwwriteforyoume and click on events to register for this complimentary writing retreat today. Now let's get back to the show. Hey friends, future authors, we're back. Remember to sign up for the virtual writing retreat. It's wwwwriteforyoume. This is the last free one we're going to have, so jump on it now, because it is limited in participation. So let's get back to the next segment of our podcast, which is optimizing your author page for maximum impact. We're talking about your KDP Amazon author page.

13:35

When you create your compelling author biography, do the three-tier approach, which is there's a short 100 words, a medium 250 words and long, 500 words. 500 words is basically like a really short blog post or one page of content if you're using a 12-point aerial font. So structure that works credibility, personality, call to action. What to include in your professional bio? Relevant credentials, maybe your expertise, why you're qualified to write the book okay. Career highlights and achievements. Personal touches that create connection and what drives your work and passion. You want to avoid in your bio generic statements, cliches, excessive humility or excessive arrogance or arrogance period, irrelevant personal information and any outdated achievements okay, and make sure that you're writing in the first person sorry, write recommended in the third person for professionals and for your SEO. You want to include natural keywords okay, don't keyword stuff it Call to action. Directing readers to your website or email list okay, because you want readers to go to a place to sign up for. Whatever it is that you are wanting them to sign up for, because they cannot. Amazon does not give you emails of people who buy your books, which is why I always recommend for my clients that they put a QR code in the front of their book or some way for the reader to reach them, because Amazon does not collect email addresses for you.

14:58

So, selecting and uploading your author photo, it has to be a minimum of 600 by 600 pixels in a JPEG format. So there's two formats for pictures. There's JPEG, which is JPEG, or sometimes JPG, and then there's PNG. Okay, so the JPEG is the less defined one, but that's what Amazon wants. So make sure that your bio picture is 600 by 600 pixels in JPEG format, which can be easily done on Canva by using a custom size project.

15:27

So you want your professional photo. What your photo communicates about your brand? Okay, look out for your background and lighting. Make sure they look good. I always tell people if you don't want to have a professional photographer take your picture because of budget constraints or other constraints, that's perfectly fine. You can literally stand out in front of a tree and dress professionally and just take a headshot from your stomach up, you know. Take obviously a few of them because if you blink or something right and you want the best headshot possible for your Amazon bio, okay, okay. So make sure there's consistency across platforms. So if you use your author bio here, make sure that same author bio picture is used in other places where you are promoting your book.

16:04

Okay, so make sure you change your photo every two to three years, or if you have a major change, like if you cut your hair short or if you let your hair grow gray, right, don't have an old picture up there. People won't recognize you and that's a huge turnoff. I remember talking to somebody one time and her photo had her picture with her hair dyed black, which is really pretty and then, when I met her online, her hair was completely gray and I literally thought it was meeting another person. Now, there's nothing wrong with letting your hair go completely gray I'm letting mine grow out too but it's If it's like completely different and it looks like a completely different person. You need to retake your picture right, like if you gain weight, lose weight, whatever it is, make sure that your picture looks like you.

16:45

Unfortunately, you can't add feeds and blogs to your author page anymore, or video content, so we're going to move on to our next section, which is ongoing management and optimization. So how to optimize your page and monitoring your author page analytics. So you have a sales dashboard on your KDP account. You can track your sales and patterns, identify which books drive them as traffic and get geographic insight about your readers. Okay, so you can use this data to inform your marketing decisions. So if you see that you have a bunch of people in the UK buying your book, then you definitely want to set up an Amazon author site in the UK.

17:20

Manage your reviews across all your books. Okay, there's certain things you can and cannot do about reviews. You can report inappropriate reviews and use that feedback to improve your future books. Don't engage directly with negative reviews, but you don't want to be like argumentative, right. So you can say something like thanks for your consideration reading my book. I will take this for improvement in the future books, right, but just don't be argumentative with them on a review. So make sure that you keep your author page current again updating your bio, adding new books, refreshing any type of information that you need with seasonal or timely updates. Your optimization strategies you can do A-B testing for different bio versions. I have not done that, but you can do that to see which bios attract more people.

18:07

Make sure you have strategic keywords in there for your discoverability and cross-promoting your books on your author page and then leveraging the customers also bought sections in your Amazon page to build your book series presence. So common technical issues that I find on Amazon author pages is books not appearing on your author page, photo upload failures or links not working properly Okay, so if any of these are an issue and you can't figure it out, make sure you contact Author Central support. Okay, there's also International Author Central Management, all the same, we've mentioned before, and then you can integrate with your broader author platform, driving traffic from your author page to your email list by telling people where to go to find freebies and things like that. And you can also use your author page as a link right, you can. There's a link that you can share your author page and you can use that in promotional aspects as well. So that's another marketing thing you can do.

19:03

Use your Amazon, your Amazon author page, so you can use your Amazon author central page as part of your marketing kit, your marketing media kit. So let's wrap this up your author page is the foundation of your Amazon presence and free marketing tools. So definitely take advantage of it, because most authors have weak author pages, but yours can stand out, okay, so just make sure you set up and claim your author central account, write and optimize your author bio with the three-tier approach I talked about earlier and upload your professional photo and make sure that all of your content on your author page is up to date. So your initial setup takes about one to two hours and your updates typically take about 15 minutes. So make sure you have your author by your template ready and your author page optimization keywords ready right. So author pages remember they build credibility over time. With your consistent updates. Your author page should be your great first impression for anyone who is looking at your book on Amazon. So make sure that you're sharing your author page URL and definitely get that into place.

20:04

All right, my friends, I hope this was a really good episode for you and valuable. If you did not know about Amazon author pages, you are not alone. I have so many people who don't know about that and need to set it up. So make sure that you have hit that subscribe button and leave a rating and review for publishinglishing for Professionals on wherever you're at, because I would love to have you back next week for our next episode.

20:25

Until next week, this is Lynn Aliquity, reminding you to keep writing, keep dreaming and keep creating. Your book is waiting to be born. Hey, my friend, thanks for joining me on the Publishing for Professionals podcast. I hope this episode has equipped you with actionable strategies for your publishing journey. Remember, your expertise becomes truly valuable when it's transformed into a professionally published book that represents your unique brand. If you found today's discussion valuable, make sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, so you get the next episode dropped right into your podcast player. Remember to start the dream of writing your book today, because your strategies could be the missing piece in someone else's success puzzle tomorrow.

21:04 - Speaker 2 (Host)

The information in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. The content shared by the host, guest and any affiliates is not intended to substitute for professional or financial advice specific to your situation. Always seek the advice of a qualified professional with any questions you may have. The opinions expressed on the show are the guests or the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the views of Unicorn Publishing Company. Unicorn Publishing Company, the host, guests and affiliates are not responsible or liable for any decisions made by listeners or action taken here to based on the information discussed in this podcast. By listening to this podcast, you acknowledge and agree to release Unicorn Publishing.