Hi, everyone,
Just a quick update on my last post about author pages. I am once again blown away by how useful this blog has been to me – thanks to your comments, I’ve discovered Grammarly and a number of other online resources. This time it was Kevin of New Author Online, who casually mentioned how cumbersome it is to copy your author information to author pages on other Author Central sites.
Wait. What? What other Author Central sites??
Up until then I took Amazon’s “Author Central” to mean literally that – a central resource about the author, accessible from any Amazon store, be that in the US, or UK, or Australia.
Nope.
Turns out that each and every one of the international Amazon stores has its own Author Central. What a nightmare! Also, it turns out that the Australian and Canadian Amazon sites don’t even have one. I had to quickly remedy this by setting up my UK Author Central page. Luckily the same account info worked to sign up, although I had to go through verifying my email yet again (how does this make any sense?). Also, there is no option to link the blog to the UK site (again, why are they different!!).
I’ve decided not to bother with any non-English speaking sites for now, since the chance of any readers in those markets is slim to none. Unless, of course, you tell me otherwise. oh, and thank you in advance for that!
Ana Spoke, author 
Wow. I had no idea there were multiple author pages, either. Thanks for posting about it. 🙂
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Glad I could help! Self-publishing is truly a puzzle…
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Networking is so useful on this front, I agree.
Good luck with it.
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More than I could have ever expected!
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I have a similar problem with Amazon and it drives me absolutely crazy!
When I click a link, say for Shizzle, Inc., it takes me to the .com site. I can’t buy from .com because I’m .ca (Canada). So, I have to sign into the American site, click to go to the Canadian site, sign in AGAIN, click the one click or purchase button, sign in AGAIN, then tell the bloody thing to actually deliver the book to whichever device!
They REALLY need to streamline stuff before the mainstream public boycotts them altogether simply because it’s too much of a hassle to use them *sigh*.
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Sorry, TJ! I’ve been sending out the US links, but the book is indeed automatically available on all Amazon sites: http://www.amazon.ca/Shizzle-Inc-Maxwell-escapades-Book-ebook/dp/B014XFQPZ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442796740&sr=8-1&keywords=ana+spoke
They should, however, automatically send you to your country’s website or at least highlight that “hey, you can get this at home!”
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It’s not a problem other than all the signing in. It’s not just you either. Anyone who uses Amazon (pretty much everybody) sends the US links, lol
They don’t automatically reroute me. I wish they did.
The real problem is that some of the books that are free in the States aren’t here so I’ll get the email that such a book is free, go to get it and see that it’s $1.13 (.99 =13% tax).
Or, like today, I went to get a book at about the same time they did some server upgrades which really messed me up, lol. The purchase button wasn’t there.
They should have at least put something up that stated they were doing maintenance or something so we would know to go back later but noooooo, they decided to confused everybody instead :(. *shrug* That’s why I like Kobo…Canadian company. I own a Kobo so I don’t have the issues I do elsewhere.
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Thank you – TJ. I’m working on getting a print version set up now, but after that will look into getting the book on other platforms. Amazon may run into the same problem many large companies have experienced – so big and slow, it doesn’t survive, like dinosaurs.
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Lol, you’re welcome.
Just make sure the DRM (or whatever the digital copyright is called) is in place so those who do have a copy can’t send it through a programme like Calibre, convert it to another format and give it away, or worse.
I know there are folks who strip the DRM from ebooks but I’ve stopped reading those. It just doesn’t feel right…it amounts to stealing.
Authors put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into their work, they should get paid for it.
Same with musicians, etc.
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Hi, TJ! This is a very good point that I should perhaps put up for discussion – I have not yet put DRM in place. I’ve given it a lot of thought, and decided that I would not care so much with the first book, at least for now – I would rather take a loss and have it become viral, so that people than pay for the second and third, which I will lock up tighter than my teenage daughter (that I don’t have). Thoughts?
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Lmao. If that’s the case why not put the DRM on it, or not, and leave it as free. Perhaps when you have time, or a friend with a voice like what you’re imagined her to sound like, do an audio book as well to get it across ALL platforms. Well, it wouldn’t be in braille but I think they go with audio now any way, unless they’re hearing impaired as well.
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Hi, TJ 🙂 I do wanna get paid! I’m going to do occasional giveaways and sales, and I have just lowered the price to $2.99. When I get the second book published, I will make this one free, since everyone who’s read it seems to want to read the next one. Audio is not on my horizon just yet…is it very expensive?
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couldn’t tell you since I don’t listen to them. IMO they’re for long drives and the longest I generally drive is 10-20 minutes, not several hours.
I think that’s what a lot of authors are doing now, charging for the first book until the next one is published then making the first one free. That’s how I get a lot of my books. FREE 🙂
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When I do product reviews for a certain company, they have me post my reviews on Amazon UK, Amazon CA, and Amazon US. I’ve forgotten that some of the books are read are from those regions. Thanks for this post to remind me to post my reviews on those Amazon sites!
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Great, so happy I could help 🙂
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Congratulations Ana on how you have run with this thing….all the technology that we oldies are so afraid of! The ability to interact with other writers in such a site as this is obviously of great benefit, and it’s wonderful that you are letting people follow you through the process.
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Thank you so much, Felicity! It has been an enormous help for me, too – gone are the days of writing being famous as a lonely profession 🙂
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I’m happy that I’m subscribed to you because I would have never known about the multiple Author Central thing. Thanks and Best Wishes. 🙂
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You are so welcome! Hope I can continue to help you 🙂
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I knew I was forgetting to do something- thanks for the reminder. You never know about non-English speaking countries- I was surprised to be selling in France and Japan. I really wish amazon central was internationally applied!!
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Wow, congratulations! I guess there could always be expats. Or really well-educated people 🙂
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“I’ve decided not to bother with any non-English speaking sites for now, since the chance of any readers in those markets is slim to none. Unless, of course, you tell me otherwise.”
I don’t know what the “non-English” speaking sites are, much less what the other sites are, but don’t discount EU, Japan, China, other Asia, Russia and former SU, India, Pakistan, any country where English is the second language. After all English is the Lingua Franca of the world.
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That’s true – so far I have not had any sales from those, but perhaps I will put it on to do list. Thank you, CB!
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PS http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B014XFQPZ6/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewopt_srt?sortBy=recent&reviewerType=all_reviews&formatType=all_formats&filterByStar=all_stars&pageNumber=1
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Are you Chris in TX??? If so, THANK YOU!!!
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Wow. That sounds horrifyingly complicated. Glad you figured it out. Not sure if I would’ve had the fortitude.
Benjamin
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Glad I could help, Benjamin!
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Thanks for the mention. So far as I am aware all of my sales have been in either the US or UK. Good luck with everything. Kevin
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Hi Ana! I was curious why you chose to go through Kindle as opposed to Smashwords – it seems both have the capability to reach about 50% of the market, but neither are terribly compatible (Amazon wants you to only use them).
What were your thoughts?
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You can do both. I’m currently enrolled KDP select, which does stipulate no other platforms. I won’t renew it after 90 days and will publish with Smashwords too.
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Thanks!
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🙂
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Thank you again 🙂
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Wow! I had no idea that author sites were so complicated! I agree that it wouldn’t make sense to make a site for a Non-English speaking place but when your book continues to grow, you should expand to other places so your readers can be expanded.
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I have put it on the to-do lost, but down below, in “will get to it when I can” category. Would be amazing 🙂
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You must have a lot on your plate now since you’ve published that book!
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I just found Grammarly myself. It’s been deadly useful these past two days since I’ve found it. I’m not contemplating buying a yearly subscription.
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Me neither – Once per manuscript, before and after the copyeditor, is my plan.
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Thank you for sharing 🙂 Glad I could help!
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