While self-published authors in the USA have been enjoying the benefits of having a free dedicated Author Page of their own for the past few months, Amazon UK have only just launched the feature this side of the big pond over the past weekend.
While Amazon have been busy loading thousands of pages for illustrious authors like Stephanie Meyers, Dan Brown, Ian McEwan and Neil Gaiman; self-published authors in the UK and Ireland can now easily go about creating their own pages.
Author Pages is a new feature of Amazon’s Author Central Program (currently in beta), a free service for authors and publishers allowing them reach more readers, promote books, and help build a better Amazon bookstore for their catalog.
The Author Pages provide the facility to upload author biographies, an author photograph, select and list an author’s books as well as a discussion forum. [From Amazon:]
Amazon Author Central
Welcome to Author Central (beta), a free service provided by Amazon to allow authors to reach more readers, promote books, and help build a better Amazon bookstore.
We love books, and books begin with authors. As an author, you are part of a special community at Amazon. At Author Central, you have the opportunity to share the most up-to-date information about yourself and your work with your readers — you can view and edit your bibliography, add a photo and biography to a personal profile and upload missing book cover images.
One example of how we share this information with customers can be seen in Author Pages. We created Author Pages as a simple way for customers to more easily find their favourite authors and discover new ones. (Take a look at Author Pages forNeil Gaiman and Ian McEwan.)
Author Central also helps you to enroll your books in programs like Associates and Search Inside the Book so that they are readily available for any customer to browse and buy.
If you’re an author with a book listed in our catalogue, you are eligible to join Author Central. You can use your Amazon.co.uk customer account to get started (or create a new one if needed).
As you begin to use Author Central, please don’t hesitate to give us your feedback along the way. Our author service team is available to answer questions, accept suggestions and feedback, and provide any guidance you need.
This is a cross-posting from Mick Rooney’s POD, Self-Publishing and Independent Publishing blog.