You will note that I used the word “need” in connection with Amazon Author Central. Author Central is where you set up your author page. Last week I mentioned how the author page gives you one location where you can list all your books. Amazon makes it very easy for readers to find you—IF you have the author page all set up.
Find a book. Any book. (I’ll use one of my own for an example.) The author name will look like a hot link whether there is an author page or not. If they have an author page, when you put your mouse over their name, a box will pop up that gives you the option of going to that page. And all their books will be listed for your reading pleasure.
Now, if you don’t have an author page, your author name will still look click-able. Only if you click on it, and there is NO author page, you will be routed into an endless loop: the book listing in a regular Amazon search page, click on the book, off you go to the sale page where the author name looks click-able, but if you click on it, you go right back to the Amazon search page.
I was doing some research to see if I could find an example of why it is so important to identify your books and have them grouped, and I found three books close together in a list, all with the same author name. You can see two of the books here.
The Kathryn Sullivan of Agents, Adepts & Apprentices has an author page, and you can track down all her books. We can thus rule her out as part of this mystery. The other Kathryn Sullivan has no author page. Does she have more books? I did a search with her name and, yes, both Katherine Sullivans came up, along with a Kathryn D. Sullivan, a Kathy Sullivan, and nine other authors with no relation to the name I searched.
Help your readers find you. Make your author page and claim your books! If you are traditionally published, make sure your publisher sets up your page, or permits you to do it yourself. Each time you release a new book, novel, or novella, get it on your author page ASAP. Find your fans and keep them. Don’t make them have to scrounge all over Amazon or anywhere else to find you.