author photo

How to Improve Your Amazon Author Page

Author-Page

I recently went through dozens of author pages of bestselling and famous writers to show one of my publishing consulting clients how a professional author page at Amazon should look like.  Boy, was I in for a surprise!
Unfortunately, many authors skip this powerful marketing tool – or don’t know about it.

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Either the author portrait was missing, or the page contained only an article “About the Author” and a listing of the book – but no book trailer, or a video from an interview, no listing of events (such as book readings or upcoming book launches), either no or only one or two photos (seven would be possible), and often no blog articles – also these writers have a blog or website. Not even Stephen King – who has a pretty good website – has a great web presence on Amazon. Just an author bio and listings of his books.
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However, most of the book covers that where shown, were amazing and the book covers showed “corporate identity” with a certain theme or an identical font on the cover. Needless to say, these bestselling authors had mostly a dozen or more books under their belts.
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So, What is Missing?
I assume, these writers earn enough to let a marvelous author page create – which can be done in an hour. Or they have enough influence on their publisher to demand a professional site at Amazon…

If you are an independent author, upload your books directly to Amazon, to avoid any discussions with distributors – who deliver only to sales pages, and are not creating yourAmazon author pages.

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You Never Get a Second Chance…
to make a first good impression!  Readers go to your author page to learn more about their favorite writer and his or her books – and to see more pictures or a book trailer – than just the book cover…
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Why not put a bit of an effort into your author presentation?  After all, Amazon gives you this website for FREE!  No other online retailer offers such a lot of space and features to their author-book-suppliers.
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Improve Your Book’s Sales Page Too!
Before you start setting up or improving your author page, check your book’s sales page and make sure to use all the space (350 characters) for that Amazon gives you for your editorial reviews and testimonials of your book in this paragraph.  Copy the most favorable parts and sentences to stay within the 350 character limit.  Important: Editorial reviews are what potential customers read first as it is “above the fault”, while all reader reviews are way down on the sales page and customers have endlessly to scroll down.

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Here is a quick checklist what should be shown on your author page at Amazon:

– an interesting authors bio
written in the 3rd person

– 7 photos
For example of your book, of your writing desk, elderly people, compassionate scenes
if you don’t have any, check out the pages for FREE photos (below)
Only JPEG (or JPG), GIF, or PNG photos, no other formats
No more than 4MB in size
Between 300 and 8000 pixels in width and height.
To see the dimensions, right-click on your image and select Properties or “View Image” Info

– reader reviews
copy / paste them
Customer reviews are in order from newest to oldest with the exception of “Spotlight Reviews” that are based on how well the review was written and how helpful it was deemed by our customers.”
(Hint: ask your friends to click on “helpful” at the best reviews of your book).

– From the Author – From the Inside Flap – and From the Back Cover—up to 8000 characters

– About the Author—up to 2000 characters

– your book trailer

– interview videos/podcasts of radio shows/videos from book signings
You can share your book trailer, video interviews, book signing videos or the new Google Search Story trailers with readers. Your video should focus on specific features of your book or your experience as an author.

– List events
such as book readings or book launches

– blog post feeds

– Twitter Feeds

A detailed list of how to best set up your author page can be found on Amazon’s Central help site:
https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/help?topicID=200649520
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You need separate accounts, for the UK, CA and US versions of Amazon; You have to do the site for each country separately – however, it is just a matter of copy and paste. Try to create your foreign country pages in their language. Either via Google translation or even better, ask a native speaker of the language for which you need the short text.

Use the Amazon Central account separately for each country. For example:

Amazon Author Central UK: http://authorcentral.amazon.co.uk
Amazon Author Central US: http://authorcentral.amazon.com
Amazon Author Central Canada: http://authorcentral.amazon.ca

For other countries, just exchange the .com with .de (for Germany) or .fr (for France) in the Amazon link.

See some examples of author pages (also they are not all perfect):
https://www.amazon.com/Lisa-Wingate/e/B001HCX5WK/
https://www.amazon.com/Jennifer-Niven/e/B001KHAA4S/
https://www.amazon.com/Leigh-Bardugo/e/B005ZZ8XQS/
https://www.amazon.com/Maggie-Stiefvater/e/B001JSBZZ6/

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You might ask why I write here only about Amazon’s author page: But Barnes & Noble and Kobo don’t offer author pages which you can create yourself!
One of the biggest advantages of an Amazon Kindle published Author: it is your own web page, complete with a URL, on a powerful Amazon website just for you!  Use these links for advertising your books or for blog articles.  If you shorten them, using bit.ly for example, you can double the number of links to your posts.

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How Important is a Great Author Photo?

Look Great in Your Author Photo: Key element to design your author photo: Quality
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Rolleiflex-Kamera
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If you’re not seen as a professional,  you will be seen as an amateur.  Professional authors have professionally taken profile photos. This is immensely important for any author – no matter what genre you write. You can’t use a Facebook photo, not even a high quality wedding image that you might have cropped to show only your head.  Or a snapshot with a cluttered background, out of focus image, and an unflattering and uninteresting picture.  Even worse:  Party or holiday photos with several persons, or with your dog or toddler. To top it: some authors show instead of a portrait or head shot an image of their dog, cat or their car.  I cringe every time I see these images
used on Twitter or Google+.  Don’t forget:  Literary Agents and Publishers are on these Social Media sites too.  And you never get a second chance for a first good impression!
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Every Author Needs a Professional Head Shot.
If you promote yourself and your book, you will need one and a photo can do wonders in terms of giving you credibility or establishing trust. The prices for these photos are varying a lot, it depends on the location, on the experience of the photographer, on his or her popularity etc.  The honorary can vary from less than $100 to thousands.
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An Author Photo is an Important Piece of Your Brand.
If you have a photo you like, you can use it for years – and use it everywhere, not only on your books, but also in articles, promo material or your avatar for Social Media. When people see it, they will think of you and of your writing.  Have a look at the famous photos of people like JK Rowling or Stephen King and how they convey so much at a glance. Pick your photographer by looking at the photographer’s web site and if possible meeting him or her before you decide having him/her as your portraitist.
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A Book’s Back Cover Will Often Include the Author’s Photo.
On a hard cover, the photo and bio are often placed on the back flap, while the books back cover is used for blurbs and reviewer comments. Paperbacks typically have the sales copy, an author photo and brief bio all on the back cover.  Get both: a black and white glossy print and a full color cover. It’s important to realize that your author picture is for a different purpose than any photo you have ever had taken.  Its main objective is to sell you as the expert.
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Have it Done by a Professional!
This part of your “brand” will present you to the world via social media, book jackets, etc. If you have a photographer friend who will do it for free or at a discount, all the better.  Ask the photographer to give you both versions digitally: in TIFF for print and in jpeg for the web, and also preferably in several sizes, if you are not an expert in Photoshop or other image programs.
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Make Sure the Photo Reflects YOUR Personality.
Have your expression match your personality. For instance, if you are considered a pretty upbeat person and you are usually smiling, a pout would look ridiculous. The author photo needs to give the viewer a good sense of the persona of the author and, most of all, be close up enough that the face is almost format-filling. It should also be a well-composed and an effective photograph of high-resolution quality.
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In this cyber-over-exposed world, your photo may stay with you for a very, very long time.  Ask yourself how you want to be seen by the world…

Get More Tips from a Photographer

http://www.fromthewriteangle.com/2013/02/author-photos-step-by-stepthe.html

http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/02/how-to-take-good-author-photo/

http://indiereader.com/2013/02/tips-for-avoiding-awkward-publicity-photos/

http://www.ebookpublishinghq.com/5-tips-for-taking-a-good-author-photo/

http://www.authormedia.com/how-to-take-portraits-for-an-author-website/

http://authorculture.blogspot.ca/2012/02/is-your-author-photo-sending-right.html

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Tagged: author bio, author photo, author portrait, Author portrait is part of the author brand, avatar, Google Image Search, how to organize photo archives, image caption, photographer, professional head shot