You need a place to link all of your books, your blog, and your trailers together. You might just use social media, but that will not help the people who rely on recommendations by Amazon. Author Central is the place for you to tie all of your stuff together, which will allow your buyers to find all of your books without a hassle.
So, let's get started!
-Photo's and Videos
The first thing you will have to do, is get your profile picture, which you will upload under the Photo's and Videos section. I personally use my author photo (which I use on anything related to my writing) so that it is easy for people to recognize me. Along with your profile picture, you can also add several other images that can be used to personalize your area. Along with my profile image, I also have an image of me shooting my bow, which, while not meaningful to my writing, allows people to see a bit more about me.
Along with the photo's, you can also add some videos in this section! Book trailers, Q and A's, music videos, and anything else is perfect. Using this can also give people a sample of your content if you happen to have a YouTube channel.
-Biography
Now that you have your photo's done, you can start working on your biography. Now, I personally am not great at writing summary's about my life, so I would suggest looking at other blog's if you need a guide.
Some overall rules that I have noticed during my own research are:
1) Write in 3rd person
This rules I will admit to ignoring quite a bit. Yes it will make your bio sound more professional, but it was never something I enjoyed writing. If you write your bio in 1st person, I believe it is more personal and much more engaging. The only place I have written my bio in 3rd person is on my actual book.
2) Start with an Opening Byline
Simply put, a single sentence stating who you are, what you do, and your most recent publication.
(Example: Hannah Schepemaker is the self-published author of the medieval fiction book, "Heirs of a Dragon".)
3) Mention any Credentials
Any college courses pertaining to what you are writing (Example: Certificate of Creative Writing from Tri-County Technical College, online courses), awards, and best-seller lists.
Only mention things that are directly pertaining to your book and writing.
4) Have some Personality
Add in something that tells people what you are like as a person. A funny quip, crazy saying, pets, family, something that humanizes you.
5) Keep the Same Theme
When writing your bio, try to keep the same theme as your actual book. If your book is horror, try not to go too fluffy in your bio, if your book is romance, don't go mysterious in your bio. Pretty simple honestly!
Check out these blogs for more in-depth help:
To view my biography on Author Central, just click Here. It may not be the most professional, but I am happy with it and you might like it as well!
-Blog
So, this one is only useful if you actually have a blog! Your blog can be on many sites, such as Bluehost, Wordpress, Wix, or some of the many others out there.
All you need to do is select Add Blog, Add New Feed, and then type your RSS feed into the slot provided. It will only display new posts from your blog and can't show the ones that have already been published.
To find the URL to your RSS feed, check out these sites. They explain the process much better than I ever could.
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So, now you have the basic setup done. Let's continue on with how to use your Author Central account for things other than promotions.
First, you will notice a Books tab at the top of the page. This will not only show all of your published books, but when you select a certain one, it will show you details about it (publication date, number of pages, ISBN, etc.).
Beside the Books tab, you will then notice the Reports and Marketing tab. There are three sections in this tab; Sales Rank, Customer Reviews, and Bookscan. for now, we will ignore the Bookscan, since I have never personally used it.
Sales Rank
The Sales Rank is probably the most useful tool for first-time authors, since it reports sales on the exact day they sell. On the KDP reports, paperbacks are not counted until the day they ship, Author Central reports them the day they sell. This also allows you to see a graph of sales as well as your rank among all of the other books.
Customer Reviews
This one is also really special to authors, especially first time ones, since we get to see every review that has been posted for your book. It also links you to your book itself so you can view the reviews there.
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Well, this is all I have about Author Central!
I hope it is helpful to some of you!
Let me know if there are any questions and I will get back to you as soon as possible.