How to Set Up Your Amazon Author Page

My Amazon Author Page at
amazon.com/author/diannebutts

In my July post I wrote:

"Don't have an Amazon author page?! We're going to talk about that next month." 

That would have been August but July got too busy and I didn't get that post done. So let's revisit that idea this month.

I touched on Amazon author pages in my January 2015 post, "25 Free Ways to Market Your Book." (See #2 in that article.) But this month let's go more in depth in how to set up your Amazon author page.

How to Know If an Author has an Amazon Page

When you are looking at books on Amazon, pay attention to the name of the author. Sometimes it's a link. Sometimes it's not. When it is a link, that indicates the author has an Amazon author page set up. Obviously when you click the link, it takes you to the author's page.

When the author's name is not a link, that author has not set up his or her Amazon author page. (Or it's possible they have but that book is not linked to it. If this is the case for you, add that book to your Amazon author page.)

You Must Have a Book on Amazon

Before you may have an Amazon author page, you must have at least one book for sale on Amazon. If you don't, this would be a great time to write an e-book and upload it. See my series of posts "How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-book on Amazon (for Free)" I posted in February, March, April, and May 2016. (Links are at the bottom of this post.) 

If you have contributed to a compilation book or anthology, such as a Chicken Soup for the Soul book or another independently published compilation, and if it is available on Amazon, that counts and you can create an Author page. (Tweet that!  ) You may need to contact Amazon and ask them how to set up your page from a compilation. Let me just say...

I set up my Amazon author page about 15 years ago so I don't remember the details of how I did it, and no doubt details have changed. But it should be fairly easy for you to figure out from AuthorCentral.com.

Amazon's Author Central

To get started, go to AuthorCentral.com. Or you can go to your book on Amazon (or other books) and find the small down-pointing arrow next to the author's name which indicates a drop-down menu. Hover over that and you'll see where it asks, "Are you an author? Learn about Author Central."

It's going to take you Amazon's Author Central. This is where you will open your Author Central account with an email address and password.

Once you do that you'll find the "Welcome to Author Central" page with instructions and links to more how-tos. Click the "Help" button in the upper right beside your name to get right to the basics.

Also on this page is "Author Central News" where Amazon posts news and updates about it's programs.

Once you're in your Amazon Author Central account, you can click on four options across the top of the page. Your:

• Author Page
• Books
• Sales Info
• Customer Reviews.

Click on "Books" to find the books you've authored and connect them to your Amazon author page. Simply click the yellow "Add more books" button, search for you book, and there you go.

The Sales Info tab has sub-menus for your:

• Sales Rank: Shows each of your books and where they rank on Amazon. This will show green and a rise when you sell a book. That's exciting!
• Author Rank: Your overall ranking on Amazon. Like a golf score, the lower the number the better. I heard a long time ago if you're under 100,000 that's good. If you're just starting out you won't be that low, but as I've published more e-books that sell regularly I've been in that zone consistently...which is really cool.
• Nielsen BookScan: Shows when a hard copy of your book sells and in which geographic location. Not all book sales are recorded here since not all bookstores are connected to the Nielsen BookScan. But it gives you a good idea of where sales are taking place. If you advertise in a certain region or hold an author event in a certain location you may see those sales reflected here.

At the Customer Reviews tab you can see all the reviews on your books on Amazon. You can sort them by title, by most recent, etc. It's an easy way to see if you have any new reviews.

Finally, you can click on Author Page and set up many options on your page.

What to Set Up on Your Amazon Author Page

It's pretty easy to figure out what you can do when you get there, but let's just go over what you can set up on your Amazon author page:

Biography

Of course you've seen author's bios on Amazon. This is where the author was able to enter that information. You probably already have a bio you've written for another project (or the back of your book). If not, write one now. 

I think shorter is better. Only a portion will show on your author page before visitors must click to read more. So put the most important info up front. (Tweet that!) Plan it as if what shows will be all that your readers ever read.

Let your personality shine through. Readers enjoy that.

Whenever you need to update your bio or wish to change it, come back to your Amazon Central account to do so.

Blogs

Are you writing a blog? You can connect it here and your latest posts will automatically show up. Pretty cool huh?

This is a great way to direct your book readers to your blog to read more of what you write. It's also a great way to increase your blog's readership. (Tweet that!) 

Events

Are you planning a booksigning? Putting together a live author event? Attending a writer's conference or book expo? You can enter the location, hours, description of the event, and which book you're featuring here. It's similar to an event on Facebook. (Tweet that!) 

I've used this several times. I have it listed on my "to do" list when setting up an author event. It's hard to gauge whether it brings in a bigger crowd to author events. I wonder how many authors actually use this feature on Amazon ... or even know it's here. If we remember to use this feature perhaps Amazon visitors will become aware of it and check it more often.

Now that I've encouraged you to use this Events feature, I want to also caution you. As authors we should think about our personal security and that of our families and homes before we tell the whole world exactly where we will be and when. (Tweet that!) Of course we want to attract as big a crowd of book buyers as we can. But we need to somehow balance that with not telling burglars we're traveling and our home is empty and waiting for their visit. Women traveling alone may not want to let the world know the details of where they'll be and when. In the current climate in our nation, if your book might be controversial, you might want to be cautious about posting the location and hours of your event.

Have you ever thought about this?

I don't know the answers to this dilemma, but part of the solution might be:

• Don't post that "we" (your whole family) will be traveling to an event. Say "I" will be there and let people think your strong, armed husband / family is at home guarding the house.



Booksignings

• Don't post your travel plans, such as when you're leaving or arriving. 
• Don't Instagram yourself in the airport or post elsewhere photos, videos, and comments until after you get back home. 

If you'd like to set up a live author event in a bookstore but don't know how, have no idea where to start, or simply want to hear my tips, experiences, and suggestions, check out my e-book Booksignings.

Author Page URL

When your Author Page is created, Amazon will give you a URL here. You can suggest a change if you want to. Make it easy to remember.  (Tweet that!) 

Copy and paste this URL into a place where it is easy for you to access, such as in a Word document or, better I think, an Excel document where you keep all your links (for each of you books, blogs, etc.).

Also keep it written and handy when you do radio interviews so you can state it easily. Keep it simple so people can remember it. The few times I've done TV interviews I've been asked for information to put at the bottom of the screen as I talk. Your Amazon author page is a one-stop shop for all your books (assuming they're all on Amazon) so let your audience know how to find it.

If you wish, create an easy-to-remember short URL on bitly.com. 

What will you want to do with this URL? If you need ideas, I'll list some below under "What Can You Do With Your Amazon Author Page?"

Photos

Add your author photo of your smiling face. A book sales expert told me a nice photo creates a "relationship" with the reader. Relationships are key to book sales. (Tweet that!) 

This is the same reason you should have your smiling face on the back cover of every print book you produce and in the back matter of your e-books.

Videos

You cannot put a YouTube video on your Amazon page. Plus, Amazon has a lot of rules for what they do not want you to include in your video. Be sure to review those guidelines before you try putting a video on your site.

To find those guidelines, click "add video." A box will open with basic guidelines including this one:

• For more guidelines, please visit our video content guidelines.

I'm thinking I shouldn't upload my book trailer videos I've made on Animoto.com because the Animoto logo is embedded at the end. Also not allowed are "comments relating to book reviews and content visible on the Author Page and detail pages" on Amazon.

Amazon states:

You can share video interviews, book signing videos, and other videos with readers. Your videos should focus on specific features of your books or your experience as an author. Uploading Videos

I never thought to take a video at an live author event. I may think about staging that (getting permission first) next time I hold one.

Right now I'm thinking we could just talk to our laptop cameras and tell potential readers interesting information about ourselves or our books, why we wrote it, that sort of thing. We could also "stage" an interview: type the question on a slide for the video then look off camera and answer as if we're answering an interviewer.

How to Create a Video for Your Amazon Page

If you want to create such a video, use your laptop camera. Upload the video to YouTube and edit it.

While you cannot upload a YouTube video to your Amazon author page, you can save it in an Amazon-supported format and then upload it! (Tweet that!) To do that go to your Video Manager on YouTube and click the drop down menu arrow next to "Edit." Choose to save your video to your computer as an MP4 file. MP4 is one of the supported files on Amazon so you can then upload your MP4 file from your computer to your Amazon author page.

(Hmm. Now that I've figured all that out, I may have to try it myself and write a whole post on this topic! Wouldn't that be fun?! I'll work on it when I have time.)

What Can You Do With Your Amazon Author Page?

Here are some ways you can use your Amazon author page URL:

• in your email signature, 
• in Tweets, 
• in an occasional Facebook post,
• in all your social media bios (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.).
• Link to it on your blogs and web sites. 
• Be sure to put it at the end of your book trailers.
• Include it on your business cards. 
• Put it in your guest posts on other blogs and... 
• your bio at the end of your magazine articles. 
• Include it in the back matter of every book you write. 

Anywhere you advertise yourself, your books, or your brand, you should include an easy link to your Amazon author page because your page will list all your books that you have available for sale (on Amazon). With one click visitors can go to the detail page of any of your books and purchase it. (Tweet that!)

One More Tip...

If you're writing under a pseudonym, you can also open an Amazon author page for your pseudonym. (Tweet that!) You can do so from your regular author page; you don't need a separate account. But to everyone viewing your pen name page there will be no connection to who you are unless you put it there.

You can manage up to three Author Pages this way, though they will not be associated in any way on Amazon.com.  Managing Your Bibliography

If you haven't yet set up your Amazon author page, or if there are some steps here you haven't yet completed, why not do so today?

Or if your Amazon author page has been set up for a while, why not schedule some time to update your bio, list an upcoming event, add a new photo, connect a new blog, or create a new video?

Tweetable:

Why not open or update your #AmazonAuthorPage today? Here's how.  Tweet that:  

Related Articles:

• How to Make Your Manuscript a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 1: Formatting Your Kindle Document
• How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 2 - Front Matter, Back Matter, and Images
• How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon - Part 3 - Get Your E-Book Covers Here! (Not All Free) 
• How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 4 – Uploading Your Ebook

Ways to Market Your Book - Amazon Followers and Giveaways

See the yellow button under my photo?
That's Amazon's Follow program.
Please Follow me on Amazon!

In the previous post we talked about how to get reviews for your book posted on Amazon, Goodreads, and elsewhere. In the four posts before that, from February to May, we walked through the process of getting your book up and running on Kindle. This month, whether your book is on Kindle or is a print book, we are going to talk about some exciting programs Amazon has made available which can help you market your books.

These programs are Amazon's "Followers" and "Giveaways" programs. (Tweet that!) Let's talk about Amazon Followers first, and then we'll talk about Amazon Giveaways.

Amazon Followers

Amazon launched its Follower program in July 2015. If you haven't noticed it, log in to your Amazon account, go to your own author page or the page of an author you'd like to follow, and click the yellow follow button under the author's image. You can see the yellow Follow button under my photo in the image above.

Don't have an Amazon author page?! We're going to talk about that next month.

Amazon does not let us know how many Followers we have. There's no way to find out. However to know that you have at least one, you can follow yourself.

Just what does it mean to have Amazon Followers? Amazon will send out a message to your Followers whenever you release a new book.  (Tweet that!)

You Might be Invited to Talk to Your Amazon Followers

Also, Amazon might invite you, the author, to send out a personal message to your Followers. (Tweet that!) Right now this feature is by invitation only. However I have been invited to send that message several e-books I've released in the past year.

The invitation from Amazon comes in an email. The subject line of the email says something like "a question about your book." When you open the email, you'll see Amazon is asking if you'd like to send a message to your Followers. Obviously it's a no-brainers to take advantage of this opportunity.

At first I didn't really know what to write in my message, But I studied what some of the other authors have written and used that as a guideline.I try to keep my messages short. And I try to use all the best practices I know about selling to customers. (Now that's a huge topic for another time. Or another e-book.)

I have noticed a few things about these messages Amazon sends to our Followers:

1. My message goes out to my Followers a few days after I write it. (I know this because I follow myself so I get my own messages.)
2. Apparently Amazon sends the messages from authors out even at later dates. I have received messages about books that came out quite some time ago after following authors.
3. You can edit the messages you send. I assume then the edited message will go out to new Followers.

It's my understanding that not all authors are invited to send a message to their Followers, so it's possible you may not get that invitation. If you don't, it doesn't mean you've done something wrong, made Amazon mad at you, or Amazon doesn't like your book, as I've heard some authors speculate. I think it's just a program that is developing. Maybe Amazon's algorithms analyze how many books an author has available, how many sales, how many Followers ... in other words, how active the author is. I don't know, I'm just guessing.

How to Get Amazon Followers

So the question I'm sure your wondering about is, how do we get Followers? (Tweet that!) I've been letting my contacts know they can Follow me on Amazon by putting a notice in my email signature line: "Please follow me on Amazon" with a link to my Amazon page. I put the same info in a Tweet that goes out regularly. We can also put a notice on Facebook occasionally.

Another way -- perhaps the best way I've found so far to gather a lot of Followers -- is to use Amazon's Giveaway program. We will talk this more in a little bit under Giveaways.

Related Articles on Amazon Followers:

Here are a couple of articles I found helpful where you can learn more about Amazon Followers:

• Amazon Follow Lets Authors Connect With Fans on The Digital Reader

• Email to Amazon Followers: What to Write? By: Chris McMullen July 23, 2015

Amazon Giveaways

In 2015 Amazon started its Giveaway program. This year Amazon added e-books and products "fulfilled by Amazon" (FBA) to its Giveaway program. Go to Amazon and look at a produce, perhaps your book or e-book. Scroll down below the reviews. Look for a button that says "Set up an Amazon Giveaway."

This is a great program for authors because we can give away our own books and it becomes a great advertising tool. (Tweet that!)

"During the week that a contest runs, traffic to the product pages for the giveaway prizes increases by more than 40 percent in weekly growth, Amazon said."  Geek Wire

Another way authors can use Amazon's Giveaway program, is to give away something that compliments their book. (Tweet that!)

How Amazon Giveaways Work

I ran my first Giveaway in May in the week before Mother's Day. I chose to give away two copies of my print book Deliver Me.

Here's how an Amazon Giveaway works: First you will purchase the products that you're going to give away. Amazon will charge you for the estimated taxes and shipping. Amazon will also run the entire Giveaway. And when it's over, they will ship the prizes to your winners.

Now that Amazon has added e-books to its Giveaway program, it's very easy and inexpensive for an author to run a Giveaway for his or her own e-book. We still earn the royalties on the e-book, so the cost is very low. (Tweet that!)

"Authors can reward entrants with their work in eBook form, so they pay no shipping fees." Geek Wire 

How to Set Up an Amazon Giveaway

Setting up an Amazon Giveaway is fairly simple. Click on the "Set up an Amazon Giveaway" button. You will see three choices for types of Giveaways: random, lucky number, first come first-served. I chose the random and had decided to give two copies of my book as prizes. 

When I set up my Giveaway, I kept getting an error message and it took me awhile to figure out the problem. In the second box under "select a rule for winning," it seemed to me that box was already filled in according to how many prizes I had selected. So I just let it stay as it was. But I couldn't move past this page because I kept getting an error message. I finally figured out that I had to fill in a number in that box. 

I had no idea how many participants I would have in my first Giveaway so I had no idea what number to put in that box. I finally decided on 200. That meant my participants had a one in 200 chance to win. Once I figured out to put a number in that box, I didn't get an error message and I could finish setting up my Giveaway.

I didn't know if 200 would be a low number or a high number for my first Giveaway. Now I wish I would've set a higher number because I hit more than 200 on the second day, I think. Next time I plan to choose a much higher number -- say 2,000.

Next you can choose a requirement for everyone entering your Giveaway. This is what makes sponsoring an Amazon Giveaway a real gem for authors. (Tweet that!) There are five choices that you can select from: follow you on Amazon, follow you on twitter, watch a short video, watch a YouTube video, or no additional requirements.

I selected the requirement to Follow me on Amazon. I had 267 participants before Amazon shut down my Giveaway because all the prizes had been given away. So presumably I now have 267 new Followers on Amazon.

"Authors using Amazon Giveaway can require contest entrants to follow them and their books on Amazon. The feature has resulted in 300,000 new Author Follows since it launched, Amazon said."  Geek Wire

If you want to build up your Twitter platform, you might want to choose the requirement to follow you on Twitter.

"To date, this feature has generated over 2.8 million new Twitter followers, Amazon said." Geek Wire

I haven't yet tried making a short video or YouTube video, but I can see how that would be tremendously valuable for authors. Can't you?

You will need to choose the duration of your Giveaway. You can choose from one to seven days. I read in an article that for some products you can choose up to thirty days if your Giveaway includes an e-book. I haven't yet seen that option for myself yet, but then I haven't tried a Giveaway with an e-book yet.

On the next page I was surprised to see that I needed to set up the Welcome page. You will also need to name your Giveaway. You can upload an image. I used the image of my book. Duh.

Messages to Your Amazon Giveaway Participants!

Then you have the opportunity to write a welcome message to everyone entering your Giveaway. You get from 10 to 250 characters.

After that you get to write a message for the win page and a separate message for the lose page, also 10 to 250 characters. All of these messages can be of great value for authors to market their books and to speak directly to their readers.

Finally, you have the opportunity to limit who sees your Giveaways. You can reduce the likelihood that participants will share your Giveaway with their friends. I wasn't sure what to do with that. But since I was trying to reach the widest audience to let them know about my book Deliver Me, I did not choose that limiting option.

The next page is where you check out and actually purchase the items that will be given away. Once you've created your Giveaway it cannot be changed.

Let People Know About Your Giveaway!

It takes a little time at Amazon to go live, but when your Giveaway is up and running Amazon will send you an email which will include a link to your Giveaway. You will have a Dashboard where your Giveaway is listed. When I have wanted to review my Giveaway, I've had a hard time figuring out how to find my Giveaway Dashboard. So far I have been able to find the link in my browser history. There is supposed to be an easier way but I haven't figured it out yet.

Your Giveaway will have its own link. This is the link you need to share so people can find your Giveaway.

As always, if you don't let people know about it, no one will know it's there. Use Twitter, Facebook posts, other social media, and email to tell people about your Giveaway. (Tweet that!)

Use a hashtag like #AmazonGiveaway. And don't forget to provide the link to your Giveaway in each of your Tweets and posts! 

A Few More Details About Amazon Giveaways

Amazon takes care of everything else. They make sure that people enter only once according to their email address. They do everything to run your Giveaway, and when it's finished they ship the prizes you've already paid for to the winners.

I wish Amazon Giveaways could be set up in advance, however that option is not available. So you have to be thinking about when you want your Giveaway to run and be ready to set it up on the day that you want it to start.

Amazon Giveaways are not connected to you as an author. Anyone can run them using any product on Amazon that allows it. In the same way anyone could use your book as a Giveaway ... which is not a bad thing for an author! (Tweet that!) It might be a good practice to suggest that to people or organizations that our book compliments!

I think Amazon Giveaways can be a powerful way to gain Followers on Amazon, Twitter followers, or to speak to potential readers and book buyers. How might you use this feature to promote your books? (Tweet that!)

One of the articles I read suggested authors might run an Amazon Giveaway during an Amazon Countdown promotion. (Tweet that!) This would generate even more traffic and attention to your book. And an added benefit would be that the cost to you as the Giveaway sponsor would be less when you're buying your own book on sale.

(An Amazon countdown is a sale you can run if your book is an e-book in Kindle's "Select" program. For more information see the benefits of participating in Kindle Select.)

Related Articles on Amazon Giveaways:

Here are a couple of articles where you can learn more about Amazon Giveaways and how they can benefit authors:

• The Geek Wire article quoted above: New features added to Amazon Giveaway, tool for running online promo contests by Madeline Vuong on March 1, 2016

• The Benefits of an Amazon Giveaway for Kindle by: Chris McMullen, March 2, 2016

If you'd like to know when I'm running specials on my books and e-books, please subscribe to my newsletter. You'll get notices when I'm releasing a new book, when my books and e-books are going to go on sale, a few Freebie documents to help you, and more: bit.ly/DiannesNews

This month, why don't you have fun building up your Amazon Followers? Think about setting up a Giveaway to promote your book or e-book.

Related Articles: 

• Ways to Market Your Book - How To Get Book Reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and More

• How to Make Your Manuscript a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 1: Formatting Your Kindle Document

• How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 2 - Front Matter, Back Matter, and Images

• How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon - Part 3 - Get Your E-Book Covers Here! (Not All Free) 

• How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 4 – Uploading Your Ebook 

Ways to Market Your Book - How To Get Book Reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and More

We all need more book reviews, don't we?

In the previous four posts we've talked through how to get your book manuscript available on Amazon as a Kindle e-book. Now that you have your Kindle e-book available, or at least are on your way to that goal, you've got another challenge: There are millions of e-books on Kindle. How do you get your e-book noticed?

Last month at a writers conference I attended, a workshop speaker said the average Kindle e-book sells only seven copies. (Tweet that!) I asked her to repeat that just to make sure I heard it right. Yep, that's what she said. Seven copies.

That's pretty sad, actually. But I have a hunch I know why some Kindle e-books sell so few copies. Many authors have the mistaken idea that they can put their e-book up on Kindle and it will sell just because it's there. This is not true. Like anything else in life, nothing happens without some effort.

So the question becomes, how do you let people know about your Kindle e-book? (Tweet that!)

One way to get any book noticed is with book reviews. But that's not the only way. There are probably millions of ways you can accomplish this, but let's list just a few to get you started, and then we'll talk about how to get reviews of your book.

Ways to get your book noticed

If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know one thing I'm big on is saving time. (Tweet that!) So the first thing I like to do is figure out ways to get organized. At the top of that list is finding ways to cut down on repetitive tasks that take time. Why keep reinventing the wheel?

As you look for ways to market your new e-book, you will be needing some of the same things over and over again. So instead of looking up a link to your book on Amazon over and over again, why not just create a place to store that and other items that you create?

I use Excel spreadsheets to store my links, my Tweets, my notes, and other data that I create. You may wish to use Google docs so this information is available to you online no matter where you are. I used to use a Word document, but it got quite cumbersome to try to find what I wanted. Using an Excel spreadsheet allows me to find what I want more quickly.

So what do I store in my Excel spreadsheet? Here are some ideas. I encourage you to create your Excel spreadsheet or Google doc right now and add information to it as we go down the list:

• The link for your book on Amazon.

Go to Amazon.com, find your book, copy the URL at the top of the page, and paste that into your Excel spreadsheet. Now you never have to go find that link on Amazon again. (Tweet that!)

• Create a short link to your book.

I like to use bit.ly.com. You can use their free program to create a short link to your book. Simply enter that long URL, and let bit.ly shorten it for you. Then you can also customize your short link to put your book's title as the short link. Keep it short. Keep it easy to remember. (Tweet that!) Then take your new short link, copy it, and paste it into your Excel document. Bit.ly will keep statistics of how many people click your link which is fun to know.

• Create Tweets that lead to your book.

You can take the time right now to create half a dozen Twitter messages that you can use over and over. Review my blog article from July 1, 2012, "Making the Most of Using Twitter," and be sure to use the three parts of an effective Tweet.

I like to use HootSuite.com to create my Tweets. This helps me get the lengths right. HootSuite will change your links to an owl.ly.com link, which is fine because HootSuite will also keep statistics on how many clicks that link receives. However if you don't want your bit.ly link changed to an owl.ly link, simply change that part when you store it in your Excel sheet.

As you might have guessed, I suggest you save all the tweets you create in your Excel sheet.

• Send your Tweets out periodically.

If you want to let people know you have an e-book on Kindle, and how to find it, you have to tell them. Duh. So send these tweets out periodically. Obviously you don't want to send out self-promotional tweets so often you drive people crazy, but in my opinion sending them out once or twice a day is not too often. Your Tweet is one drop in the fire hose that is Twitter, so to get them seen they need to be sent out repeatedly. (Tweet that!) Just don't send them out every five minutes.

If you want help keeping your Tweets rolling, you can get my free document "3 Free Low-Maintenance Ways to Keep Your Tweets Rolling!" by subscribing to my newsletter here: bit.ly/DiannesNews

• Use your link on Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, etc.

You can also use the same messages as a starting point for messages on Facebook, LinkedIn, in your blog post or guest blog posts, etc. Be sure to always use a link back to your book. One of the keys to marketing a book is to make it as easy as possible for a potential buyer to complete a transaction. So make sure your links take them directly to your book on Amazon where they may purchase it.

Also, if you have a Page on Facebook, as opposed to a profile, you can schedule posts to go live in the future. You can use the link you stored in your messages to create Facebook posts to run periodically in the future, such as once or twice a week or twice a month.

• Include your short link in your email signature line.

Use this simple step to let people know about your e-book every time you send out an email. People who receive emails from you will be interested in the Kindle e-book you have to offer, so let them know about it.

• Include your short link in your online bios.

Anywhere you have a bio online, for example on your blogs, on your website, on Facebook, on Twitter, include your short link to your book.


I'm sure you can think of many more ways to let people know about your book. Any time you create something new, be sure to store it in your Excel spreadsheet. That way you don't have to create it again the next time you want to use it. (Tweet that!)

Ways to get book reviews on Amazon… And more

Another way to let people know about your book is to get reviews on Amazon. These same reviews can also be posted on Goodreads and other sites, blogs, Facebook… The list is endless. But it can be a real challenge to get those Amazon reviews.

Seen on Facebook, shared from TallPoppies.org/.

I saw this graphic on Facebook a while back and kept it to share with you because I feel like it has such great information. As you can see getting Amazon reviews is pretty vital to your Kindle sales. (Tweet that!)

Because getting Amazon reviews is a dilemma for me too, I recently went looking for help. I found the following article helpful, and I'm working to put it into practice.

• "How to Launch Your Book with at Least 25+ Amazon Reviews" by Tim Grahl

I'm creating a list of people willing to review my e-books. I'm storing that list in the same Excel document. Simply use another sheet in the same Excel workbook and rename it Amazon Reviewers. (Tweet that!)

Here is another article I found very helpful"

• "How to Get Book Reviews -- The 5 Myths" by Shelley Hitz

If you want more, here are some other articles I found in my search: 

• "How To Get Endless Amazon Reviews for Your Book or Product"

• "How to Get Countless Amazon Verified Reviews (and Rabid Fans!)"

• This one has no date (which I despise) so I have no idea how old it is, but for what it's worth: "How to Get Reviews by the Truckload on Amazon"

Finally, be sure to review these guidelines from Amazon. You might want to also share them with the reviewers you recruit.

• Customer Review Creation Guidelines

I hope this gives you plenty of information to get started on your journey of letting people know about your fantastic Kindle e-book, or any other book you have out. (Tweet that!)

Please come back next month when we're going to talk about two exciting new programs Amazon offers: Followers and Giveaways.

Related Articles: 

• How to Make Your Manuscript a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 1: Formatting Your Kindle Document

• How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 2 - Front Matter, Back Matter, and Images

• How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon - Part 3 - Get Your E-Book Covers Here! (Not All Free) 

• How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 4 – Uploading Your Ebook

Writer's Conferences: What Should I Prepare to Take? What Should I Expect? What Should I Do There?

Colorado Christian Writers Conference
Estes Park, Colorado

A few weeks ago on my Facebook Author Page, we were talking about preparing for a writer's conference. If you've never been to one before, I bet you have a ton of questions. I know I did when I first started going to these, which was more than 25 years ago. I've been to at least one each year since then, so I've accumulated a lot of experience I can share from.

As "conference season" begins (if there is such a thing), I thought it might be helpful to give you some ideas of what to expect, how to prepare, what to take with you, and what to do while there. (Tweet that!)

What to Expect

You can expect to find a lot of like-minded people, writers who think they are the only ones with a passion to write. Writers who think they are not "really" writers, but everyone else in the room is. (Is that you too?) (Tweet that!)

You can expect to meet published authors and unpublished authors. There will be freelance writers (freelancers aren't on staff at any publication but write for a variety of them).

There will often be representatives of book publishing companies, editors from periodical publications such as magazines and web sites that take material from freelancers, and often literary agents will be there. Some or all of these may be on faculty teaching workshops or speaking at sessions for all the conferees.

You may be able to schedule meetings with these publishers, editors, and/or agents. (Tweet that!) If that's the case, you may want to pitch them a writing project you're working on or wish to write. We'll talk about how you might do that below when we talk about One-Pages. I'll also give some tips for these meetings below.

You should expect to have fun! So try to relax about it! Go expecting to make friends and to meet other writers with whom you can network and stay in touch after the conference.

How to prepare

Review all the material you find on the conference. The conferences I attend have a ton of information online and in their brochure and it's fun to go through it all.

Find out who is going to be on faculty. Read their bios and/or visit their web sites or the sites of their companies. Find out what they are looking for that they want to publish. Here's a HINT: Find web sites to other writers conferences where they were also on faculty and see what additional information you can find out about what they publish and what they are looking to publish.

You're looking for publishers who publish or are looking for (acquiring) the same sorts of material you are writing or want to write. Are you writing fiction? Romance? Sci-Fi or fantasy? Do you want to write nonfiction? What kind? Memoir? Self-help? Christian living? Who is acquiring that type of material?

Also check out the workshops. Circle on the brochure or make a note of all the workshops you'd like to attend. Chances are there will be more than one in a time slot and because even super-hero writers can't be in two places at the same time, you'll have to choose. (Tweet that!) But find out if workshops are recorded because at many conferences they are and you can purchase a DVD of the workshops you can't attend. This is a great way to take the conference home with you and keep the excitement and encouragement flowing long after the conference ends. Don't know which to attend and which to buy the recording of? Which workshop do you think will have the most value for you if you could listen to it more than once? Get the DVD of that one and attend the other in person. Or, is one of them taught by someone you want to meet? Or someone you want to see your face in their workshop so they'll know you're a serious writer? Attend that one and take the DVD of the other workshop home.

What to take with you

After you have an idea of who is going to be there, and you've matched that up with the projects you have written or want to write, you might want to prepare to talk to a publisher, editor, and/or agent about your project(s). So what do you prepare to take with you?

Project One-Pages

In the last decade or so, "One-Pages" have become popular and I believe they are awesome. Whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction, books or short works like articles or short stories, it's a great idea to create a one-page to present that idea.

At most conferences you will have a limited time to meet with a publisher, editor, or agent. Most of these meetings are only 10 to 15 minutes. That's not a lot of time for chit-chat. So you want to have your idea organized so you can express it succinctly. That's where a one-page comes in. You have to be succinct to get all the important information about your project down on one page. It's a terrific exercise, even if you don't get to present it to anyone in person.

A One-Page is similar to a Query Letter and has the same information, just in a different format such with headings or bulleted items.

On your one-page, include the following:

• Your contact information. You can create your own letterhead for your one-page.

• Your project's proposed title.

• A brief summary of your book, article, or story. Make it snappy and attention grabbing. This needs to be your best writing.

• The audience for your project. Who will it appeal to? Who will buy it? How big is that group of potential readers? Use statistics or something to back up your numbers.

• The length of your proposed project in word-count. For example, a feature article may be 1,500 words, a nonfiction book may be 50-60,000, and a novel may be 80,000. Make sure this is withing the numbers the publisher accepts.

• Give an idea of when you could deliver the completed manuscript, if it's requested. An article which will require interviews and research may take you two weeks or a month. A book might take you six months. Or you may have a manuscript completed which you can submit "upon request."

• Finally, give a short bio of who you are and what you have accomplished as a writer. Include what qualifies you to write this project. Do you have life experience? Education? Research?

Once you have your one-page put together, here are some more tips:

• Keep your one-page brief and to one page. 

• Make sure it's well edited and free of typos.

• You may get to show it to a representative of a publishing house. They may not take it with them because taking materials from all the authors they meet with is just too much, especially if they are traveling by plane, so don't be disappointed. They may ask you to email your one-page to them, or to send a book proposal or your manuscript after the conference.

I suggest you make a template for your one-pages if you have more than one project in you. Set up all your headings on your letterhead. Then for your next project all you'll need to do is fill in the information for your next project.

First Pages

You may want to take the first pages of your manuscript. If it's an article, you can print the entire article and take it with you, but an editor may only read the first paragraphs or skim it. If they want to see more, they'll ask you to email the manuscript to them.

If it's a book, you probably won't want to take more than the first ten pages. There's no need to take your entire book manuscript. No one will have the time to look at that much while there at the conference. And don't expect an editor or agent to carry your manuscript home with them on the plane. If they want it, they'll request it be sent via email.

One-Page Resume

Similar to your one-page for your writing projects, you might create a one-page resume. This would showcase your writing accomplishments (if you have any). For example on my writing resume I have sections for a brief telling of my:

• article writing, 
• books, 
• online writing, and 
• screenwriting. 

Then I also share my "platform" which showcases my "reach" as an author. I include my:

• social media platform, which means how many people I can reach through social media, such as the number of Twitter followers and Facebook author page Likes. 
• How many subscribers do you have on your email newsletter list? 
• I also describe each of my blogs and how many page views I get per month.

All this information gives potential publishers an idea of the size of your platform, which means how many people you can reach if they publish your book.

Bookmarks or Flyers

If you have projects for sale, especially for writers, you might want to make up a flyer to put on the table where conference offer free giveaways such as writers guidelines from publishers. You might make a flyer if you have books or pamphlets for writers, or offer professional services such as editing or web site building.

I've written several #Kindle e-books for writers and am writing several more, so this year I’m hoping to get a flyer done to let others know about those.

Goods for Sale

If you have published books, you may be allowed to put them on the sales consignment table. These don't have to be for writers, they can be you anything you have written. People who are at the conference will be interested in your books and will be excited to buy from an author they meet, so be sure to bring some. But don't expect a lot of sales (at least from my experience). Money can be tight. There are a ton of other books competing for conferee's dollars there also. Plus many are traveling by plane and books can be heavy to transport in luggage.

A Sign Up List

Do you have an e-mail newsletter for your writing business? Do you have a blog people can sign up to receive via email? Why not take a sign up form?

When you meet and talk with new writer-friends on the way to workshops or at meals, the topic of your newsletter or blog may come up. Or you may simply ask them, would you like to receive my newsletter / blog in your inbox? You, or they, can record their email address. Tell them when you get home you'll sign them up, but they will receive a confirmation email that will require their response to complete their subscription.

When you get home, you can enter their email address in your email sign up form (like the one in the upper right corner of this blog) and they will receive the confirmation email.

Be careful you're not overbearing when asking for subscribers. Your conversation will let you know if they will benefit from being on your email list. This is not the place to ask everyone at the conference to sign up for your list. Workshop leaders might ask participants to sign up for their lists, but as a conferee you might be seen as irritating if you try to snare everyone in attendance.  And never sign someone up for your list without getting their permission in advance. (Don't use the business cards you take home for this purpose.)

Business Cards

If I could give only one piece of advice it would be this: BRING BUSINESS CARDS! (Tweet that!)

I'm amazed at how many people show up every year at the Colorado Christian Writers Conference and don't bring business cards. Most are simply new writers and say they didn't even think of it.

I don't care if you're just getting started as a writer and don't feel like you're in "business" as a write yet. You're there. Make some business cards. You still have time but you need to act soon. You'll want to trade business cards with people you meet.

If you'd like something unusual, I love the specialty cards made by: Shop MOO Mini Cards. I have my book covers on my Moo cards!

Now days most cards I get don't have street/mailing addresses on them, which might be smart for your safety. Still, put on them how people can contact you. Definitely an email address. Some put their cell phone. Put your web site.

Business cards are also a great way to share your blog, Facebook page, Twitter handle, Instagram, Amazon Author page, YouTube channel, etc. Use a URL-shortener like Bitly.com to create easy-to-remember and type links.

If you want to pay more and print the back, you can list your books titles or speaking topics.

A lot of people find it helpful if you'll put your (nice, professional) photo on your card so later we can match your face with your name.

When you get home, search out your new friends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or whatever social media you are on and send them a friend request, follow them, or invite them to Like your author page.

Snack, water, self-care.

Some conferences offer snacks and coffee and/or water but others don't. If you need these to get you through the day, you may want to pack some.

Casual or dress.

Find out whether your conference is casual or dress up. Even when the conference is casual, I try to look "business casual." You are, after all, making a first impression on publishers, agents, and editors. So dress for success. This is your business, not your vacation.

What to do while there

Here are some tips to help you with those scary meetings with publishers, editors, and agents:

• Be on time.

• Introduce yourself. 

• Prepare a spiel – your introduction of yourself and another one about your project. 

• Talk little, listen more. 

• React nicely – even if they're not interested in your project and that's a huge disappointment to you. Remember this is business, not personal.

• Don't take a book manuscript to leave with them. Take a one-page and the first ten pages at most. 

• Ask, "Would you like my business card?" before leaving one.

Here are some more general tips for things to do while there:

• Relax and have fun!

• Sit by someone you don't know.

• Respect faculty.

• Sit at an editor's table at a meal, but respect if they're sitting with someone else. They may have planned a breakfast/lunch/dinner meeting with that person.

• Befriend another lonely writer.

• First thing in the morning, say a prayer. Ask God to direct who you meet that day, who you walk beside on the trail or in the hallway, and who you sit beside in workshops and at meals. (Tweet that!) This makes the whole conference an exciting adventure of supernaturally orchestrated divine appointments.

More than anything go to have fun. I know it's hard for some people, but you really don't need to be nervous. You're here to learn. You're here to enjoy. You don't have to speak up in class if you don't want to. You're not in the spotlight. Take advantage of every opportunity you possibly can. And know that this experience is going to be great for your writing career.

SPECIAL NOTES:

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