by | September 20, 2015 · 4:20 am
↓ Jump to Comments

Look who’s got a proper author page!

Actually, I now have three author pages…all part of my marketing ploy strategy. Here they are:

All complete with the new profile photo:

Ana Spoke official photo (2)

My previous profile photo took “profile” a little too literally. The new one was taken by my friend who just happens to be a brilliant professional photographer. Have a look at some other portraits taken by Rebecca Ramage.

Now, for some quick how-tos:

So, what do you do if you don’t have a photographer friend or a ton of money to spend on a pro? Try Starnow. It’s a website for all kinds of performance professionals – I’ve used it when I had aspirations of becoming an actor and have scored well over 40 film roles. I have also used it before to find a photographer – I simply posted an ad asking to collaborate with photographers and make up artists, and expressions of interest poured in. You see, photographers just starting out need to build their portfolios, so they are looking for models all the time. Spice up your ad by mentioning that you’re an author and watch your inbox explode! The cost is very reasonable, just a few bucks a month (I was on a 6-month subscription and it was $46 for the entire 6 months, the last time I checked. Don’t know how much it would be if you wanted just one month).

Creating Amazon’s page was easy, although you have to register separately with Author Central. For Amazon’s own guide, have a look at All About Author Central. Easy-peasy. There was, however just one little drama to report.

I wanted to link this blog to the page, but it turned out you can’t just use your URL – you need to use your RSS feed. Confused? I sure was. Thank God, it only took a few minutes to find this WordPress guide on RSS links. Don’t stress if the blog posts don’t appear on your page right away – once I’ve published a new post, they all came through.

Goodreads was just a bit more complicated. You can’t just sign up as an author – you have to sign up for a “regular” account first. If you are a first-time author, you will likely have a heart attack when you search for your book and find that it is not in the 300-million-plus database. Take a breath – you can add it, but ONLY AFTER waiting for about a day. You can, of course, send a crazed email to helpdesk, and they will do it for you after politely explaining the whole waiting a day thing. You will also have to apply to be upgraded to an author account and wait again for approval. Or send the crazed email, whatevs.

So there you go. I mean, go – get your Goodreads page started. Trust me, when the time comes, you won’t be willing to wait a whole day.

61 Comments

Filed under Self-publishing and marketing

Tagged as , , , , ,

61 responses to “Look who’s got a proper author page!”

  2. EttaD
    September 20, 2015 at 4:29 am

    Thanks for the tips and great ‘Author’s Photo.’

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. skyeblaine
    September 20, 2015 at 4:32 am

    Your blog has been so helpful to me, as I am following a couple of months behind you. Thank you for detailing your steps!
    Skye

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. circumspect41
    September 20, 2015 at 4:51 am

    CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎊🎊🎊🎊

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. kim881
    September 20, 2015 at 5:37 am

    Congratulations and thanks for the useful pointers.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  7. sheepcarrot
    September 20, 2015 at 6:02 am

    That’s a beautiful picture! Such a wonderfully resourceful post too. Thank you for outlining the ongoing process of publication. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Ana Spoke
      September 20, 2015 at 8:40 am

      Thank you so much! I hope it is helpful this way – the huge task of getting a book published is so much easier to digest one bite of the time…anyway, I don’t have the patience to write comprehensive guides, so maybe that’s just my excuse!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  8. xxalkos
    September 20, 2015 at 7:01 am

    I can’t wait for your book on how to successfully market one’s first book

    😉

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  9. David Odunaiya
    September 20, 2015 at 7:16 am

    Congratulations Ana. Happy for you

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  10. Kay Morris
    September 20, 2015 at 7:25 am

    Congratulations! You are such an inspiration ☺ Thank you for sharing your journey via this blog.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  11. Thane Keller
    September 20, 2015 at 8:06 am

    Great job Ana! And great picture too! You know what I think one of the hardest things about multiple “about” pages are? Updating all the information if one thing changes! So, when you get married, make sure you remember to update all three! 😉

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  12. readersandmore
    September 20, 2015 at 8:35 am

    Congrats!! You are really working hard. Beautiful pic by the way!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  13. yhealthy2000
    September 20, 2015 at 9:36 am

    Wonderful! You look amazing. All the best! Great inspiration…You are! Yaz

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  15. Kelee Morris
    September 20, 2015 at 11:35 am

    Love the photo. Yes, it does look author-y, but that’s a good thing.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  16. Unfurling
    September 20, 2015 at 11:41 am

    Ana, I can’t say how much I admire your ‘can-do’ attitude. You’re a wonderful role model for all aspiring authors. What’s more you are generous with the information you’ve discovered on the journey. Good karma.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  17. pjbyerwriter
    September 20, 2015 at 11:45 am

    Hi! Lovely photo Ana. You’re a couple of months behind me as my publication was in July, and it’s so interesting to follow your progress. Yes to all pages – I’ve found Goodreads Librarian section very helpful to stressed authors!! There are many Indie Author groups to join, it was overwhelming so much so they have bigger plans in the pipeline regarding making these easier to follow etc. And thanks for hint about RSS feed from WordPress which I’ve got to compete.
    PJ
    PS I’m reading your book, it’s very funny!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  18. Juli Hoffman
    September 20, 2015 at 1:10 pm

    Congrats! Lovely photo. Great advice. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  19. drewdog2060drewdog2060
    September 20, 2015 at 5:05 pm

    Congratulations on your author pages. One complication I came across with Amazon is that an author has to add information separately to their various author pages. I set up my author page on amazon.co.uk and asumed data entered there would automatically appear on amazon.com, however it did not and, to my shame I have not yet got round to populating the latter with the data on the former. Thanks for the tip about blog posts appearing on Amazon, I wasn’t aware this could be done (currently only my Twitter appears there). Regards. Kevin

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  20. El
    September 20, 2015 at 10:47 pm

    congratulations. 🙂
    I used to use Starnow before and it is very easy and useful.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  22. sharpwittedfl
    September 21, 2015 at 2:40 am

    Great blog! Thanks for the heads up on StarNow. I’ve got a semi-pro photographer in the house and I passed this along to him as a source to build out his portfolio.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  23. Glynis Jolly
    September 21, 2015 at 9:16 pm

    As grueling as writing a book may get, even the thought of what comes after publishing it makes me feel apprehensive.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  24. olivia barrington
    September 22, 2015 at 3:19 am

    First ,what a lovely picture of you and perfect for your author’s page. Second thank you for all the info I will have all of it to refer to when I finally write my book and it won’t be so over whelming. I saw all of the great reviews and well deserved!!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  25. Puspanjalee Das Dutta
    September 22, 2015 at 10:12 pm

    Hey Anna..congrats on your book and thanks for stopping by my blog. You have so many interesting articles and I simply do not have idea where to start!! And you have such a lovely face!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  26. Pingback: A Quick Author Page Tutorial from Ana Spoke | Words & Deeds

  27. Kate Comings
    November 9, 2015 at 11:34 am

    Thank you for spelling out how to get an author page on Goodreads and Amazon. I knew I needed to and your post gave me the kick in the pants I need!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment