Remembering not to Forget: My Big Gaffe on KDP

Sometimes, I’m just an idiot.

It’s always embarrassing when you discover you’ve forgotten something. It’s worse when it is something really important.

I published State of Grace through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing on 22 November 2011. On 22 May 2012, I discovered I had done nothing with my Amazon author profile.

KDP sent out its regular newsletter, and, of course, it encouraged readers to develop their author pages on Amazon. There was a link. I clicked on it and realized mine was so undeveloped it was like coming upon a previously undiscovered planet in deep space. There was no bio, no photo, no anything.

Somehow, I thought I’d done this. I knew in the back of my mind (because I’d read it on several self-publishing blogs) that you have to develop this page yourself. Yet, for some reason, I thought I’d done some of it when I set up my KDP account.

As my father says, “That’s what you get for thinking when you’re not used to it.”

I feel stupid, but the truth is there is so much for an indie author to know. You have to be on Goodreads, tweet regularly, follow blogs, set up a blog tour, solicit reviews, and someone where in there you should write another book too. I feel dumb for having let this slip through the cracks, but is it really that surprising?

This morning I uploaded my bio and photo to my Amazon author page. I linked my Twitter feed and my blog. I need to spend some more time with it seeing what else I can do and then do those things too.

If you’re an author, indie or otherwise, make sure you’ve got your Amazon author page developed. They claim it helps with sales. I couldn’t say one way or the other yet, but how can it possibly hurt?

There’s a lot to remember if you’re an indie author. Try to be better than me and remember them all.