Amazon Author Central to More Foreign Countries?
It’s a global company selling books to worldwide readers. If you’re an author, you probably do it for the USA branch and maybe the UK’s but not at other foreign sellers. Oversight? Could be a missed opportunity; an Amazon Author Central profile helps sell books anywhere. English is the most common 2nd language in the world, and that profile page is the platform to link readers to your books, bio, photos, video, tweets and more. Don’t believe it helps? My books sell better in France and Germany, which have author profiles enabled, than they do in Spain and Italy, which do not (yet). Perhaps there’s another reason, peut-être pas.
Besides the potential for a direct sale, it can assist with social media connections, website visits, Twitter followers and more from citizens around the world. Since networking is vital to an author’s platform, this is untapped potential on a global scale. Imagine your books taking off someday soon in India for example. What a nice thought.
The list of countries/regions currently available is:
USA – https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/landing?
UK – https://authorcentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/landing?
Germany – https://authorcentral.amazon.de/gp/landing?
France – https://authorcentral.amazon.fr/gp/landing?
Japan – https://authorcentral.amazon.co.jp/gp/landing? (couldn’t log in there, maybe you can)
What about Italy, Spain, India, Canada, Brazil and China? Those presently do not exist but should soon. India could be huge–over 125 million Indians speak English and a fair percentage must read it. Even Amazon China should be on the radar for author central profiles.
Does it really matter in countries where people speak other languages? Because English is the most common non-native language in the world gaining more readers every year–you will sell more ebooks with an author profile filled out. Yes, it matters.
All of the locations allow links to your books and biography to the author page. For the USA profile, you can add photos, videos, Twitter updates, Blog feed and Events.
The UK, Germany and France profiles do not support Blog feed but do support photos, videos, Twitter updates and Events.
I asked Amazon when more foreign countries will enable Author Centrals (Italy, Spain, India, Canada, Brazil, China). Their response was, “Although many of our international sites have Author Pages, we look forward to adding more in the future.” Vague? Sure, but bet on it happening sooner rather than later.
Your thoughts? Have you sold books in foreign countries? If Amazon is a global monopoly, does that cause concern or appreciation for methods to enable more sales? Let us know in the comments section.
The video tutorial shows how to build your profile page at current locations. Share this post with an author you love.
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Great questions. My approach is to experiment without spending when possible or spending as little as it takes. You should be able to find cheap translators for a children's book at Fiverr, which could help a lot in foreign Amazons.
Hi Jason,The information which you have provided is really helpful, I couldn't help notice that you couldn't Log in at https://authorcentral.amazon.co.jp/gp...?
The possible reason could be that Amazon Japan does not have your email in their database or the data from other Amazon websites has not been shared or could be any which I may not be aware of.
But the solution is to select the second option on the page where you are asked 'Do you have an Amazon password?'
Select the second option 'I am a returning customer and my password is:
You can use the same password which you have used for similar KDP accounts.
Rest, is the same, you have to click the same boxes which you did for others.
If you find it puzzling just select the text, copy it and paste it into translate.google.com
Similarly, you can translate your english bio to Japanese language using translate.google.com
I hope you find my suggestions helpful, just as I found the Japanese link useful while searching for it.
Thanks and Regards.
Jai Singh
Thank you, Jai. You are correct and fortunately the problem has been sorted out :)
Is there an easy way to import one's profile from the US author central to the others? Or is it a case of replicating it by hand each time?
I wish there was, Cat. At present time, each has to be done individually. At least you can copy and paste the lengthy bio. Also it's a good thing that Amazon makes each nations' author central pages exactly the same, so you don't need to translate the wording for their prompts if you have the English version open in another window.
1)- How do I sell more in foreign countries?
2)- Is it worth translating a children's Kindle book to reach a foreign language market that amazon has a website for?