How to Create your Amazon Author Page

Nov 5, 2012 by admin

This is an extract from ‘Publish your book on Amazon: the easy way to get in print‘

Amazon doesn’t share the author information between its sites so you will need to set up an author account for both .co.uk and .com markets.  You cannot do this until you have a book published on Amazon.

To do this you will need:

• Author biography
• Author photograph
• Blog links
• Video (optional)
• Tour Dates for physical events (optional)

Amazon.com Author Central

Go to https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/join to sign up. This is the American site.

Sign in with your existing Amazon ID or create one.

In order to confirm your identity you need to select one of the books that you have had published on Amazon.  Once you have found your book select ‘This is my book’

You can now visit your author profile page and complete the following information:

• Your Amazon author biography which we wrote earlier in the challenge
• Your blog RSS Feeds – you can add more than one blog
• Photo – add your photo
•  Video – book trailers, interviews or book signing videos if required
• Twitter id – if you wish your last few tweets to be added to your profile
• Events – add any events that you will be appearing at, this only applies to physical venues

Amazon.com Author Central also allows you to create a url for your author page should you wish, which you can then share via Twitter or Facebook, or receive instruction on how to incorporate it into your email signature.

All the information you enter should update within 24 hours.

When you come back to your Amazon.com author page later you will be able to see customer reviews without having to search Amazon.com for your individual books.

Amazon.co.uk Author Central

The information you entered on Amazon.com Author Central is not shared with Amazon.co.uk so you need to set up a separate author page there.

http://authorcentral.amazon.co.uk/ 

You can sign in with your Amazon.co.uk id or create a new one.

As with the Amazon.com Author Central you select the books that you are the author of, then you enter the same information here that you entered on the .com site with the exception of the blog feeds.

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Want to publish your book in print yourself? Now you can

Sep 22, 2012 by admin

Always wanted to see your own book in print? Perhaps you’ve already published your book on Kindle but just aren’t sure how to make the move to print? Well now the answer is here in Helen Stothard’s new book – ‘Publish your book on Amazon – the easy way to get in print’.

 “I found this a very easy read, free of the unnecessary proliferation often found in self help and guidance books. I thought the layout was spot on, again making the book easy to follow and it scanned well.

 

The introduction was brief, to the point and delivered on what to expect from the book. I think in general for people like myself looking to self publish it will work well as support literature when working my way through the Createspace experience which at first glance appears quite daunting!”

Richard Ogando

This book will show you:

• How to set up your Createspace account

• Tips and tricks on how to format your book so that it looks right in print

• How to price and market your book

• How to set up your Amazon Author page

• What you should include in your book

• How to ensure your book is found on Amazon and more!

Helen Stothard has helped her authors get their books published in print and on Kindle.   She, herself, is the author of several books.

She and her team, use their experience as authors and publishers to make your journey to published author as easy and stress-free as possible.

Available now in print or Kindle on Amazon.

Of course this doesn’t mean that you can’t still outsource the work to us!  If you don’t have the time or perhaps the inclination then give us a call on 01904 890212 and we’ll be happy to discuss your project with you.

 

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Why are you ordering 1000 books as an author? Have you heard of print on demand?

Jul 17, 2012 by admin

I’ve spoken to several authors recently who still seem to think they need to order a 1000 copies of their new book to get a good deal on print costs.  Did you realise that as an author utilising Createspace you can order as little as one book at a time if that’s all you need!

Createspace operates on a print on demand service.  What this means is that your book is only printed when someone actually orders it.  If your reader has purchased your book via Amazon they’ll never notice.  The book shows as in stock because it’s printed as soon as its ordered and can even be delivered next day depending on the delivery option your reader has opted for.

So what does this mean to you?

• It means that your book will never go out of print.
• It means that you don’t have to order a box of 500 or 1000 copies of your book and find somewhere to store them
• It means your book will never end up for sale at the discount book store in the shopping centre
• It means you can order just as many copies as you need be that 1 or 50

When I talk about this print on demand option a lot of authors think it must be an expensive option.  I have to say having received quotes from a local printer,  that even including shipping from the USA, it is often cheaper for me to order books from Createspace than my local printer.

I’ll give you a rough example of a project we were talking about today.

A 5×8 book with a black and white interior and 126 pages will cost you approximately $2.36 a copy so if you order 50 copies thats $118.00

There are three speeds of postage on offer from Createspace: Standard $57.99 for 31 businessd days, Expedited $68.49 for 8 business days and Priority $78.49 for 2 business days.  These postage costs are for a quantity of 50 of the book we’ve just discussed shipped to the UK.  (I suspect the business days quoted are the time it takes for the book to be printed and leave the USA as I have always found the delivery to be slower than quoted).

So even if we order 50 books at priority delivery then we’ve only spent $196.49 which at todays XE.com rate comes out at £125.74 and is therefore approximately £2.52 per copy of your book.

The print costs do vary according to the number of pages in your book and the figures quoted above are just an example.  It’s also worth bearing in mind that adding colour to the interior of your book will increase your print costs.  In the example shown the new print cost would be $9.67 per book so do ask yourself if you really need that colour interior.

So whatever the reason you’re looking to order copies of your own book, and whatever the quantity you’re thinking of, it’s probably no where near as expensive as you thought!

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Media: All about eBooks

Jun 25, 2012 by admin

I was recently invited to take part in a podcast by the master of podcasts, Dave Thackeray.  He wanted to talk to me about eBooks and digital publishing.  At the time the recording was made Dave was in the process of writing his own book ‘Sharing Superheroes‘ which he has since released on Kindle, I’d like to think that our conversation persuaded him that this was the way to go with his book.  In fact Dave is such a convert now he’s just launched his second Kindle book as well.

I thought I’d share the recording with you here.  Dave’s original post which also has the recording shares his reasons why you should listen, as well as his experience of his own publishing journey.

So if you’re contemplating publishing your own works do have a listen, and then give me a call so we can discuss how I can help you.

Just call 01904 890212 or email helen@hlsbs.co.uk for more information.

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An easier way for UK authors to get a US tax identification

Jun 23, 2012 by admin

If you’re a UK author and you’ve started selling your books via Createspace, Kindle or Smashwords the chances are you’ve started selling copies in the American market.  Whilst this is great news for you, it also presents a problem in terms of being taxed on your royalties. Now I am no tax expert, and would always recommend that you talk to your own tax adviser or accountant when it comes to anything to do with the finances, however, thanks to one of my authors I have been saved an expensive trip down to London to the US Embassy in order to obtain my US Tax Identification number.

I thought I had done all the research and had just about decided the least costly approach would have been a special trip to London, as the only alternatives I had found either cost in excess of £400 for a dedicated agent to handle the matter for me, or would have required me paying both a notary and then paying for an Apostile (its a legal document that fastens to the notarised copy of your passport).

I’ve been selling on Kindle for over a year and have regularly received my UK royalties in full, but haven’t quite got to the $200 threshold for .com sales.  If I didn’t do something about it soon I was going to have a 30% tax withholding deduction made before I received the payment, coupled with the conversion fees from my bank on converting a cheque from US$ into sterling.  That soon takes a chunk out of your hard earned royalties!

I have also sold print books in the USA via Amazon.com thanks to Createspace and as they only have a $10 threshold before they pay into your UK bank account again needed to get it sorted.

One of my authors pointed me in the direction of this excellent blog post by Catherine Ryan Howard which advised that I could obtain an EIN number over the phone.  This is an employer identification number as opposed to the reams of paperwork and red tape required for an individual tax number.

I am assuming that if you’re selling books you have registered as self employed with the HMRC.   Even though you won’t be paying the 30% withholding tax in the USA you will be taxed on the income as part of your UK tax return.

I followed the advice in the blog post step by step and within less than ten minutes had an EIN number, which I then added to the individial W8-BEN forms for Kindle, Smashwords and Createspace and duly posted off. (Note: Express Air Mail takes four days but costs around £5 more per envelope than standard Air Mail which takes five days – guess which one I went for!)

Now I have yet to receive confirmation from the various companies that the paperwork has gone through, and will update the comments/blog accordingly, but what I can tell you is that the process to date has certainly been a lot smoother than the one I had anticipated I would have had to go through!  In the meantime huge thanks to Catherine for compiling her blog post and saving me so much time, money and energy!

(PS I checked the call tariff for my phone provider and found that even the call to the USA was free as it was inclusive on my package!)

 December 2012

I thought it was worth putting an update on here as to how the process has worked.

Createspace worked first time, Smashwords seem to have a problem finding the form to process it, yes we are now in December, six months after it was sent off, and their accounts department are unbelievably slow at responding to queries.

Kindle, despite being part of Amazon operate a totally different system to Createspace and have just sent me my first royalty cheque in US$ less the 30% withheld tax, they had a query on the first form as I put my name and trading as then my business name so I had to send one back showing just my name, which they now appear to have lost.

Lulu despite me thinking they were a UK based company and me being a UK based author also withheld tax on one of my royalty payments so don’t forget to send them the form as well.  They’ve sent through a US address for the form.  I’ve since deleted all my books from Lulu as the royalties were so poor and the print costs too high compared to Createspace.

Fotolia is a stock photography site and actually allowed me to enter all my information online and verified it within minutes.

At the time of writing I’ve just come a cross a way of getting around the Kindle requirement for a US bank account in order to avoid receiving cheques when I finally hit the $100 threshold (they obviously mean $100 after tax has been deducted by the way) and I’ll blog about it as soon as I know that works.

The system above does work, you just have to keep chasing and following through to ensure the W8-BEN has actually been received and processed at the other end.

How have the rest of you got on with this?

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Createspace now allow European publishing!

May 17, 2012 by admin

For any european authors wanting to self publish their own work Amazon Createspace have just released a new option.

You can now distribute your books directly through Amazon’s European websites including Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, and Amazon.it

They’ve now also offered European members more flexible payment options for their royalties. You can now select direct deposit in Europe and get paid in British pounds or Euro, it’s your choice.

From what I can see it takes around 5 to 7 working days for your book to appear on the European sites.  You also get to specify the price in the different markets, or you can allow it to automatically calculate the price based on the US$ price.  When you set the price you will see the different royalties payable in $, £ and euro.

CreateSpace books are now being printed in Great Britain and continental Europe to fulfill retail orders placed on Amazon’s European websites. Therefore, shipping costs and time lines may be more favorable to retail customers shipping products within Europe. For now, all proof and member orders will continue to be printed and shipped from the U.S.

If you are having royalties paid direct in to your bank then the minimum payment threshold has been reduced to $10, £10 or €10.  You simply need to change the payment settings on your account and let them have your banks IBAN and SWIFT code.

So what does this mean?

It means that you no longer have to set your book up twice with two different publishers in order to get your book on Amazon’s european sites.  This is a considerable time saving and means now you only need one lot of formatting.

If you’d like to know more then give Helen a call on 01904 890212

 

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