Goodreads Author Account

I previously did a post about setting up your Amazon Author Central account. Well, last week I realized I qualified to switch my regular Goodreads account to an author account. It's taken a few steps, but it was pretty simple overall.

You can view my Goodreads author profile, if you want to see what they look like. Click HERE. (And, hey, add me as a friend! I've been going through and adding people, but there's a limit on how many invites you can send out each day. But there's not a limit on requests you can accept!)

Instead of reinventing the wheel and telling you how to set your account up, I figured I'd point you to Goodreads own write-up on it. The information they expected was simple, and being able to send them a link to my Amazon Author Central profile was a help, as well. I sent in the request  in the evening, and it was approved when I got up the next morning.

Once it's approved, you can search out your books and have them added to your profile. Three of my books were instantly added under my name the moment it was converted to an author account. It asked me to confirm, and I did. Easy-peasy.

Three of mine were listed under the name Shannon Kenoyer-Lawrence. One did not have me listed at all. I was able to fix this issue easily by posting to a forum they have for that purpose. THIS LINK will take you to a help page on various issues you may need to resolve with your books. After I posted each issue separately to the forum, one was fixed within minutes, the other within a day. This was another place having the Amazon Author Central account helped things: I was able to put a link proving Amazon had already vetted me on those books. I imagine it would have been more complicated than that if I didn't have this simple proof.

Once I had my books set up, I fixed up my profile by adding photos, updating my profile information, adjusting the settings, connecting my blog to the account so my posts will show up there (you can also create a new blog there,) and all those good things. I then went through and started adding some of my connections, and I joined a couple groups, though finding other groups I'd like to belong to will take some time.

There are a lot of options I'm not utilizing on there yet, such as posting upcoming events and doing giveaways of books. They have author widgets you can put on your blog and Facebook, but I don't think I'll be using those until I have novels out. Though I'm curious as to how others in collections have utilized Goodreads.

I've got a lot more exploring to do, but it's a good start. I'd love to hear how you use it as an author, and any tips you might have!

Do you have your Goodreads author account setup? Do you utilize any of the extra features? If you're in collections with other folks, do you use Goodreads for those, or do you just use it for novels? Have you had any bad experiences on there? Do you have any tips or tricks?

May you find your Muse.

Book image by OCAL, clker.com

Good News & Amazon Central Author Account

Hello, and Happy Monday! I promised some news on Friday. Last week, I got an acceptance (or re-homed, as I like to call it) for a short story, Know Thy Neighbor. It will appear in the April issue of Under the Bed Magazine. I believe it will be Vol. 3, No. 7. I'll post the cover and purchase information on Monday, April 6 (release date is April 4.)

By Prawny, clker.com

Sadly, the piece I reported as having been shortlisted was rejected, but I've turned it around and re-submitted elsewhere. Still, the more things get shortlisted or receive personal notes with rejections, the closer I feel to my goals.

Speaking of goals, I hadn't set up an Author Central account with Amazon, because I thought the fact that I wasn't "tagged" or listed as an author on the anthologies I was in meant I couldn't have them credited to my name. (By listed as an author, I mean the top of the Amazon page under the title where authors are listed.)

However, when visiting the page for Of Mist and Magic, I noticed that someone not tagged/listed at the top of the page was showing up under the "More About the Authors" section that appears under the reviews. A short investigation showed me that someone could create their Author Central account and add books they're published in as long as they can prove they're in the book. Happily, most of the books I have pieces in list the contributing authors in the book description, which made it easy. And the one that didn't, had the sample "Look Inside" availability, which included the index.

In one evening, I was able to set up my account. By the next day, the anthologies I was part of had been added to my publications. It was all quite simple! So I thought I would pass it along to those who may be like me, unaware that this is possible.

To set up your account, go to www.amazon.com/authorcentral. On the right-hand side, you will find a sign-in section, with a spot underneath that asks if you're new to Author Central. Click on that to create your account.

It appears that using your pre-existing Amazon account (as in, for me, the account I make purchases with) allows them to confirm you more quickly, as you already exist in their database. Because of this, I set it up under my personal email instead of what I consider my business email. That's okay, though. Not a big deal. But it might be for you, so head's up.

If there are names similar to yours, it may pull up accounts and confirm that you are or are not the person that account belongs to. What will happen if you are, I don't know. I wasn't, so I moved on past that point.

Once in, you will have the ability to modify your portfolio and add your books. There is a landing page that gives you tips on setting up your account, and has tabs that lead you where you need to go. You can add several photos (I just have one of my headshots there now) and a bio, plus you can link to your Twitter account and blog.

There is a "Books" tab, which is where you will select "Add Books" and begin that process. There are options that allow for sole authorship, being part of several contributing authors, and various others. The process is fairly smooth and simple. Do each book separately. You'll want to include proof that you are in the book if it isn't solely under your name. For me, that meant directing them to where they could see it on Amazon itself, but if my name hadn't been visible on Amazon, it sounded like they would have allowed for referring them to a website or the publisher for that proof.

When all this information is plugged in, you'll find you have a lovely profile page that shows your bio, photo(s), linked information (like tweets and blog posts), cover images, and links to each of the books. You can view mine HERE.

I'm looking forward to discovering how linking to a magazine I'm published in works. I'll find out in April!

I'm limiting my information about Author Central to the basics, as I'm certainly no expert. Mine was just set up in February, and other than adding in the basic information, I haven't had the opportunity to do much with it yet. Feel free to link to your Author Central account in the comments, and to offer any tips or information you know about using your page.

Do you have your Amazon Author Page set up? Any tips or tricks you want to share? Do you post yours in bios or include in submissions?

May you find your Muse.