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The Ericksons

12 Things about Me

WritingAugust 15, 2018
12 things about me

Life in our house is a little crazy right now. My husband is participating in a clinical trial for lung cancer at the Mayo Clinic to treat. One of our daughters has been dealing with her own medical problems, so I thought I would do something different this week by sharing 12 things about me.

  1. What does your ideal day look like?

My ideal day would begin with me waking up to a quiet clean house. I would have a strong cup of coffee and spend the day writing. At noon, I would go to lunch with my daughters and have happy hour sushi at Hajime. I would end the day as I always do, snuggling in front of Netflix with my husband.

  1. What did you want to be when you were younger?

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Always.

  1. Who would you love to meet? What would you ask?

I would love to meet my husband’s maternal grandmother. She died long before I married my husband so I never had the opportunity, but I feel as though I know her because of all the stories her children and grandchildren tell about her. She was an amazing woman. I have often been told, “It’s too bad you didn’t get a chance to meet her. You would have loved her.” I would just ask her about her life and for stories about the family.

  1. What habit would you most like to break? What habit would you most like to start?

I often feel like I talk too much and listen too little. I would like to reverse those.

  1. Think of a person you truly admire. What qualities do you like about that person?

There are so many people I admire. One of the things I admire the most in some people is the sweet, peaceful spirit. Not being cynical. I suppose you can find that in various walks of life, but especially spiritual people have this peace. When I spend time in the quiet, I feel that way. I suppose because rather than hearing the bad news of the day, I feel close to God. There is serenity in that.

  1. How do you like to relax?

I like to do some sort of hard work and expend a lot of energy to the point of sweating and feeling fatigued. Then, I take a nice hot shower and get into some comfortable clothes. Then I sit in front of a fan and write. I did this today, so it is the first thing that came to mind. I feel quite relaxed, now.

  1. When was the last time you did something you were afraid of?

This past couple of weeks, I have been walking through the valley of the shadow of death. I’m not supposed to fear evil, but I admit I do. We had to hospitalize one of our daughters. At the same time, my husband is beginning an experimental course of treatment at the Mayo Clinic. I feel overwhelmed and afraid.

  1. What qualities do you admire in others?

I admire kindness. I’ll give you an example: Today I was at Walmart in the beverage aisle. I needed to get some low-cal Gatorade, and for some reason, it is always on the highest shelf. I’m only 5’3” with the best posture I can muster, so I’m trying to give myself a post by stepping on the lowest shelf while grabbing the highest shelf with one hand so I don’t slip. With the other hand, I grab a Gatorade. I have to repeat this ridiculous display for every bottle I grab. A woman came around the corner and chuckled. “It’s a hard life for us short folk ain’t it?” she says with a smile. Just then a very tall black man with beautiful long dreadlocks came around the corner. He must have been over 7 feet tall. “Let me help you with that,” he said. Relieved, I let him fill my basket with the bottles I needed. That one little act of kindness is still making me smile. People who take the time to do something nice for a stranger are becoming harder and harder to find. I think it’s because our society is so busy.

  1. What is your favorite song? Why?

I Love Everything About You by Darlene Zschech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUDK8BRfZ_g

This was the song we had sung at our wedding. It still describes how my husband and I feel about each other.

Catch a Falling Star by Peri Como (Sung by Jane Morgan)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPebTHj98zo

It’s just fun and it always makes me feel happy

  1. What excites you?

I get excited by cultural experiences such as museums, concerts, displays, etc. I love unusual things, new things, things that open my mind to a new way of seeing the world. Any opportunity I have to learn something new, I grab it. Recently between appointments at the Mayo, my husband and I took a tour featuring the art and architecture on the medical campus. We learned a lot about works of art that people pass every day on the way to get answers about what means the most to them–their health. The Mayo recognizes the benefits of art to the healing process.

  1. What do you wish you did more of?

Exercise. I know it would be good for me and I even enjoy it. Unfortunately, there is a fine line between good exercise and a rheumatoid arthritis flare. Those flares stick in the back of my mind, so I subconsciously fear exercise. Xi gong is helpful, but I haven’t made it a habit, yet.

  1. Pretend money is no object. What would you do?

Travel. I would travel everywhere! I would take my family and see the world.

Now that you know 12 things about me…

I would love to know how you would answer some of these questions.

What are YOUR thoughts?

I’d love to hear in the comment section, below. I appreciate my readers as well as the writing community. To show that appreciation, I use Comment Luv. Just leave a comment below and your latest post will get a link next to it. Thank you!

About Heather Erickson

I am an author, writer, and speaker and homeschooling mom of 3. Since doctors diagnosed my husband, Dan with stage IV lung cancer in 2012, I’ve focused my writing and speaking on helping cancer patients and their families advocate for themselves and live life to the fullest, in spite of their illness. My goal is to help people face cancer with grace. My books are available at Amazon.com:

The Memory Maker’s Journal 

Facing Cancer as a Friend: How to Support Someone Who Has Cancer

Facing Cancer as a Parent: Helping Your Children Cope with Your Cancer

I also blog about living with cancer at Facing Cancer with Grace.

The Ericksons

Working with Beta Readers

Self-Publishing, WritingAugust 8, 2018
beta readers

Most authors use beta readers to help them prepare their book for publication. It’s extra work and takes more time, but this is a step you won’t want to skip if you want your book to be as good as possible. How do you get beta readers? What do they do for you?

Beta readers go by several different names

  • Beta readers
  • Street Team
  • Advance Readers
  • Launch Team
  • Book Crew
  • Review Crew

I call my beta readers “Advance Readers,” because they read my book in advance of it being in its final form (more about that later).

What do Beta Readers Do?

Authors not only use a variety of names for their beta readers, but they utilize their beta readers in several different ways, depending on what they need most.

Do you :

  • Need feedback to help you decide what to cut and what to keep?
  • Welcome proofreading from those who excel at spotting typos?
  • Have specific questions you need to have answered?

I personally have my team of Advance Readers read an early version of my book. I ask for feedback, both specific and general and make a lot of changes based on their responses. Then, once the book is ready to publish, I send my beta readers a final copy of the book so they can see the finished product. At that time, I ask them to post a review on Amazon and Goodreads.

There are some drawbacks to my method

The chances of my beta readers reading the book a second time (when they get the final copy) are slim, so I risk getting a review based on a less-than-the-best version. To minimize this, try to have your book in fairly good shape before you send the first copy to your beta readers. I always think mine is looking pretty good and then discover a multitude of problems after I’ve sent copies to my beta readers.

The thing I gain from this method is the insight of my readers. They often see things I missed, so I can fix those issues before the book goes to print.

There are 4 basic methods that a beta reader can use to give you feedback

  1. Call it as they see it

This method works well with Microsoft Word’s Track Changes feature as well as the equivalent in Google Docs. Your reader can make any notes they want as they read. You will get lots of detailed observations and proofreading notes with this method.

  1. Chapter by Chapter

With this method, your reader will make some observations at the end of each chapter. This is especially helpful when you have specific questions such as whether “this chapter” even belongs in the book. One of the great things about it is that it doesn’t feel overwhelming to your beta reader, yet they will be giving you useful feedback.

  1. The Big Picture

This is my personal least favorite, but it’s still better than nothing. With this method, many things bet forgotten or left out of the feedback. This is especially good if you are confident in your editor and just want to know if there are any glaring problems. It is also perfect when you are looking more for a review than for feedback. We will talk more about that in a future post on launching your book.

  1. You can answer specific questions

Often writers have certain things they want to know. Should this chapter be cut? Should I use this ending, instead? Etc. These are often very professional, seasoned writers who are checking out a few nagging issues. When you use this method, put together the questions and let them know that these are the concerns you need them to consider. Some writers prefer to ask the questions after the reader has finished the book in order to get big picture answers. This is often thought to better mimic the actual reading experience. How you approach it will depend on what you need most.

A note about working with family members

It’s fine to have family members be part of your beta reader team. Be aware of how honest they are being with you, though. Sometimes when we are close to someone, they hesitate to give us the brutal honesty we need at this point on the process. If they understand that their honesty is crucial, you will probably be fine.  This is like my favorite example of letting someone walk around with spinach in their teeth. You aren’t being nice if you don’t say anything.

Create a tracking sheet

This will help you keep all of your beta readers on track. Some things to record on this tracking sheet are:

  • Who did you send a copy to?
  • Have you sent a reminder email after 2 weeks?
  • Have you received their feedback, yet?

I also like to create a folder in my email in which to keep any correspondence with my beta readers. If someone doesn’t follow through, you will want to remember if you use them as a beta reader on another book that you might not be able to count on getting a response from them. Some writers choose to draw a line in the sand after 1 or 2 experiences like this. I tend to be a bit more lenient. Sometimes, life happens.

I love my Advance Readers! They make such a difference in the quality of my books. Do you use beta readers? Have you ever been a beta reader? I’d love to hear about your experiences!

What are YOUR thoughts?

I’d love to hear in the comment section, below. I appreciate my readers as well as the writing community. To show that appreciation, I use Comment Luv. Just leave a comment below and your latest post will get a link next to it. Thank you!

About Heather Erickson

I am an author, writer, and speaker and homeschooling mom of 3. Since doctors diagnosed my husband, Dan with stage IV lung cancer in 2012, I’ve focused my writing and speaking on helping cancer patients and their families advocate for themselves and live life to the fullest, in spite of their illness. My goal is to help people face cancer with grace. My books are available at Amazon.com:

The Memory Maker’s Journal 

Facing Cancer as a Friend: How to Support Someone Who Has Cancer

Facing Cancer as a Parent: Helping Your Children Cope with Your Cancer

I also blog about living with cancer at Facing Cancer with Grace.

Write like an Olympian in training, #IWSG

Reach Your Goals, WritingAugust 1, 2018

It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I encourage you to check out their website and even sign up for the IWSG Newsletter. Today I’m going to explore how to approach your writing like an Olympian in training, as I answer the #IWSG question for August.

What pitfalls would you warn other writers to avoid on their publication journey?

I am not athletic by any stretch of the imagination. Believe it or not, I’ve never even watched the Olympic Games. But I do find the accomplishments of Olympians inspiring. We can certainly learn from them, what it means to try to be the best in their field. Since I’m not well-versed in Olympic culture, I did a lot of reading about how an Olympian trains. The advice can help us as writers.[1] I will take the highlights of how to train like an Olympian and share how to apply them to your writing.

The first thing we need to establish is that this is a hard journey. Just as an athlete doesn’t decide a month before the games that they are going to compete as an Olympian, a writer can’t say “I’m going to sit down and write a book to be published next month.” I know that there are plenty of books and blog posts promising you 30-day publication. I have also read plenty of books that I would guess took that route. They are fluff. Do you want to write fluff? I bet you would rather make an impact with your book. So, get the idea of quick publication out of your mind, right now. Anything worth doing is worth doing well—especially writing a book.

Set Goals

The first thing you need to do is decide what you want. What’s your ultimate goal, and how will you get there? You would never set out on a journey without a road map or a GPS with the proper addresses plugged into it. In the same way, it is essential that you establish where you want to go with your writing. Once you have your specific goal in place, you can put together a plan to make those goals a reality. There is a proven way of doing this. It is an acronym used in by goal setters: SMART Goals. I won’t go into the details of implementing SMART Goals, but you can get those in this post.

Cross Train

It’s well known that an Olympian must pour everything they have into their training

“Stars such as Jessica Ennis will have put in an unbelievable 10,000 hours of blood, sweat, and tears in the four years leading up to the Games, it is claimed. The average elite British athlete will have been training six hours a day, six days a week, 12 months a year.”[2]

Write like an Olympian

How other Writers Write like an Olympian

Stephen King tried to write 6 pages a day. He tells George RR Martin, “Here’s the thing, okay? There are books, and there are books. The way that I work, I try to get out there and I try to get six pages a day. So, with a book like End of Watch, and … when I’m working I work every day — three, four hours, and I try to get those six pages, and I try to get them fairly clean. So if the manuscript is, let’s say, 360 pages long, that’s basically 2 months’ work. … But that’s assuming it goes well.”

E.B. White says, “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.”

Nobel Prize winner and novelist, Ernest Hemingway, say that he writes first thing in the morning before anyone else comes along and bothers him. Maya Angelou also writes first thing in the morning, from 6 am until about 2 pm in the afternoon.

In Victor Hugo Recounted by a Witness of His Life, Hugo’s wife, Adèle Foucher, recounts that when her husband encountered writer’s block, he would lock himself in a room wearing only a large shawl. He had nothing other than a pen and paper.

How are you doing with your writing schedule?

There are countless stories of how writers prod themselves to achieve their writing goals. How you do it will be up to you. Think about what distracts you and eliminate it. What time of day do you write the best (and most prolifically)? Do you work best when this is contained in blocks of time, or do you feel more inspired to achieve a certain number of pages or words? NaNoWriMo participants commit to writing 50,000 words in 30 days. When I participated in NaNoWriMo, I wrote 2,000 words a day, every day except Sundays.

Practicing good injury prevention like an Olympian

Physical problems such as carpal tunnel can interfere with your writing process. There are some simple ways to prevent this and other physical injuries that can happen to writers. This is especially important if you are suddenly increasing your output.

Take frequent breaks. They don’t need to be long, but you should get up at least once an hour. Rotate your wrists. Gently stretch your neck and your back. Get up and walk around for a few minutes. This can be difficult when you are immersed in your writing, but it is important. It’s better than being sidelined due to repetitive motion injuries.

Watch your form and posture, and do these simple exercises to prevent, or ease carpal tunnel syndrome.  If need be, purchase wrist braces/splints to stabilize your wrists. Certainly, if the pain is impeding your life, see a doctor for a medical recommendation. You may be able to solve the problem with physical therapy and temporary use of NSAIDS and a brace. Or, you may need to have surgery. Early intervention is the best way to deal with repetitive motion injuries with the least invasive method.

Pay attention to other lifestyle habits

Are you getting enough sleep? Are you eating right? Are you getting enough exercise? Avoid unhealthy habits that lead to addictions and poor overall health. It is important to take care of your body so that you can focus on your writing. Health crises will distract you from your goals. Right now, I have 2 members of my family who are having major health crises. My writing has taken a total nosedive. So, there are things that we can’t control. Pay attention to those things that we can!

Challenge yourself when your work is done

Dickens wrote from 9 am until 2 pm. After that, he would take a 3-hour walk to refill his creative reservoirs. What is your well? How do you replenish yourself? It may be taking a walk like Dickens or it may be visiting with friends. Whatever it is, it may not sound as inviting as curling up to Netflix. But Netflix won’t cut it. Don’t get me wrong—I love Netflix. Give me an episode of NCIS any day, but it doesn’t stretch me as a writer. We need to be able to have all of the things we think about when we write, stirred up by doing something somewhat active. This helps our mental clarity and shifts our perspectives. Experiment with this. You will find the right way to end a writing session. This can make what you’ve written better than it is right now.

Harness Mind over Matter: Mental Conditioning

This is a biggie! It’s why we are part of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. We are insecure and wonder if we should just throw in the towel. For me, this happens whenever I am mere feet from the finish line. Any problem I encounter makes me want to quit. “It must be a sign!” I declare. What nonsense. But it feels so real. Don’t allow self-doubt to sabotage your efforts. Write positive affirmations to remind yourself that you can and will succeed unless you quit and guarantee you won’t.  Have a friend who will encourage you, boost your spirits and hold you accountable. Reject any whispers of failure in the back of your mind.

What are YOUR thoughts?

I’d love to hear in the comment section, below. I appreciate my readers as well as the writing community. To show that appreciation, I use Comment Luv. Just leave a comment below and your latest post will get a link next to it. Thank you!

About Heather Erickson

I am an author, writer, and speaker and homeschooling mom of 3. Since doctors diagnosed my husband, Dan with stage IV lung cancer in 2012, I’ve focused my writing and speaking on helping cancer patients and their families advocate for themselves and live life to the fullest, in spite of their illness. My goal is to help people face cancer with grace. My books are available at Amazon.com:

The Memory Maker’s Journal 

Facing Cancer as a Friend: How to Support Someone Who Has Cancer

Facing Cancer as a Parent: Helping Your Children Cope with Your Cancer

I also blog about living with cancer at Facing Cancer with Grace.

My Family
The Erickson Family, Photo by Everbranch Photography

Footnotes:

[1] Insider tips to help you train like an Olympian: CBS News, ASHLEY WELCH CBS NEWS February 14, 2018

[2] Inside the Games. Elite athletes spend 10,000 hours training for London 2012, Thursday, 18 November 2010

 

I’m in Australia this week!

Blogging, Guest Posts, Reach Your GoalsJuly 26, 2018

You may be wondering why I am posting on Thursday, this week, rather than Wednesday, as I usually do. It’s because this week I am in Australia (okay, not physically, but my heart is there)!

Sue Sizzling Towards 60 & BeyondMeet Sue Loncaric

Sue lives in Brisbane, Austrailia where she is a midlife blogger at Sizzling Toward 60 & Beyond. Sue has invited me to be a guest on her Over 50 & Thriving Series. Sue helps women over 50 embrace life with an ageless attitude. I met Sue this past April when I participated in the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Her blog quickly became one of my favorites. She shares a positive outlook on aging that is refreshing in a culture that fears 50.

I was so honored when Sue asked me to share my thoughts on what is vital to thriving beyond 50. So head on over to Sue’s blog to read my post on why it’s essential to keep dreams alive in order to thrive. What does that mean? How do you do this when life throws you a curve-ball?

I’ll see you in Australia today!

Formatting Your Ebook (Including Clickable Table of Contents)

Self-PublishingJuly 18, 2018
Formatting your Ebook

There are several things to keep in mind as you approach formatting your ebook. An ebook isn’t just a paperback that you can read on your e-reader. It has distinct properties that make it not only different but in some cases, better than a print book. After all, a paperback can’t transport you to a linked website. You also can’t change the font style and size nor have a linked table of contents in a paperback. These unique aspects of an ebook bring with them some, “side effects” if you don’t format your ebook properly.

For example, because the reader can change the font style and size, your book won’t look the same on the reader’s device as it does in the paperback. Bullets and lists could end up out of whack. Page numbers are irrelevant. So is anything else you have in your headers and footers.

Take Out

To start out on the right foot, when formatting your ebook, begin with a “stripped” copy of your print book. Hopefully, you have formatted your print book properly from the start, using the preset “Styles” from the “Home” tab in Microsoft Word. It will be very important when it’s time to create your Table of Contents. Make sure you remove:

  • Unique page margins
  • Hyphenation when words are cut in half from one line to the next
  • Bullets and numbered lists
  • Headers and footers, including page numbers
  • Page numbers from your Table of Contents
  • Hyperlinks that interfere with the print book’s publishing software.
  • Blank pages that you used as placeholders in your print book.

Put In

Now that you’ve gotten that out of the way, you can add any links that will enhance your book. When formatting your ebook, include links to:

  • Your social media sites, websites, and email addresses
  • Where they can sign up for your mailing list/newsletter
  • Sites where the reader can leave a good review for your book
  • Sales pages for your other books
  • Any sites you referenced in your non-fiction book
  • If you didn’t use the “Styles” presets to format your book’s sections and chapter headings, do that now (using H1 and H2 presets).

Paragraphs

Some people don’t believe in indenting paragraphs in an ebook—especially in a non-fiction book. My personal preference is to indent a couple of spaces at the beginning of each paragraph (Using presets—not the spacebar or the tab key) as well as putting a space between each paragraph. This is all a matter of personal preference and a lot of thought. Part of the reason I used both elements is that I include both information as well as narrative elements in my book.

Formatting Your Ebook with a Clickable Table of Contents

Now it’s time to tackle the Table of Contents. In case you forgot to delete any page numbers that were in your print copy’s Table of Contents, do that now.

  1. Click on the “Insert” tab in your Word document.
  2. Choose the item in your Table of Contents and highlight what you would like to hyperlink.
  3. In the toolbar above, in the “Links” section, you will see an icon of a globe with 3 tiny chain links, labeled “Hyperlink.” Click that.
  4. Now, you can choose to link the highlighted item in your document to an existing file or webpage, a place in the document, an email address, or you can create a new document. You are going to opt for the second choice and link to a place in the document.
  5. So long as you have formatted your section and chapter headings with H1 and H2 labels, you should see a list containing the items in your Table of Contents. Look for the item you are linking and click on it.
  6. You will see the text in the box at the top of the list. This is what will be displayed in the Table of Contents.
  7. Click OK.

Work your way through the Table of Contents until everything is linked the way you would like it to be. After the first hyperlinked item, you’ve basically set everything up and will only need to repeat steps 2, 5, 6, and 7 for each subsequent table of contents item you will be linking to.

Footnotes and Citations

You can use this same method to hyperlink anything else in the book such as footnotes. Although those can be done more easily by following these steps:

  1. Place the cursor wherever you would like the tiny citation/footnote number to be placed.
  2. Click Alt+Ctrl+F.
  3. A tiny number will appear where your cursor was and another corresponding number will appear at the bottom of the document. Next to that one you can type your footnote or citation. These will appear at the end of your book when it is published.

This is by no means a comprehensive guide to formatting your ebook, but it will get you going. When you are done formatting your ebook, it is a good idea to read through it on your phone and your e-reader to see if there are any issues.

What are YOUR thoughts?

I’d love to hear in the comment section, below. I appreciate my readers as well as the writing community. To show that appreciation, I use Comment Luv. Just leave a comment below and your latest post will get a link next to it. Thank you!

About Heather Erickson

I am an author, writer, and speaker and homeschooling mom of 3. Since doctors diagnosed my husband, Dan with stage IV lung cancer in 2012, I’ve focused my writing and speaking on helping cancer patients and their families advocate for themselves and live life to the fullest, in spite of their illness. My goal is to help people face cancer with grace. My books are available at Amazon.com:

The Memory Maker’s Journal 

Facing Cancer as a Friend: How to Support Someone Who Has Cancer

Facing Cancer as a Parent: Helping Your Children Cope with Your Cancer

I also blog about living with cancer at Facing Cancer with Grace.

 

 

 

How to Set Up an Amazon Author Page

Self-Publishing, WritingJuly 11, 2018
Amazon Author Page

Today I will be exploring Amazon Author Central. What is it? How do you set up an Amazon Author Page? What can it do for you and your audience?

Let’s start with Amazon Author Central. What is it?

Amazon Author Central is your go-to place as an author who is selling books on the world’s largest online bookstore. There, you can find links to tools you can use as an author to write your books and sell them on Amazon. You can find the reviews people have left for your books as well as your sales statistics. I think the most interesting and useful thing on Amazon Author Central is your Amazon Author page. Here is an overview of what you and your readers can find on your Amazon Author Page.

Readers will find:

  • Your profile, including your profile picture and your website address(es). You can also include video, such as a book trailer if you choose. There is also a follow button so that your readers can get your latest posts and be notified when you publish a new book.
  • Your books and their prices. These are found at the top for quick reference.
  • Your Blog Feed. Yes! Your posts (or at least the first couple of sentences and a link to the post on your site) will automatically appear on your Amazon Author Page, within 24 hours of posting on your site. It’s a great way to connect readers to your website(s).
  • Your book details. These include the formats your book is available in, their prices, and how many stars reviewers are giving each book (on average).

Here is a screenshot of my Amazon Author Page to give you an idea of what it looks like, overall. You can also go there to see it for yourself.

Amazon Author Page

How do you set up your Amazon Author Page?

It’s actually quite simple. Amazon does a great job of walking you through the process. And, if you have any problems, they respond to email questions within 24 hours. I am going to give you a super simple overview of where things are on your Amazon Author Page dashboard, to make the process even easier.

Here is a screenshot of my Amazon Author Page dashboard. I’ve circled some things to pay extra-special attention to.

Your Amazon Author Page dashboard

Starting at the very top of the dashboard is a link to your actual page (sorry, I didn’t circle that). This is handy because your page will look different from your dashboard.

Under that is your Biography. This will show up under your profile picture on your Author Page. I’ve circled the link you can click to either edit your bio or delete it completely.

Directly under your Biography is where you can list your blog(s). This allows your feed to show up on your Amazon Author Page within 24 hours of it being posted.

To the right of your Biography, is your Amazon Author Page URL. You can share the URL with your readers by using the social sharing links or copy/pasting the link wherever you like.

Under the URL is your Profile Photo. This is what readers will see when they come to your Amazon Author Page. It will also show up directly on your book’s sales page (which incidentally includes a link to your Author Page).

Finally, In the bottom right of your dashboard is where you can upload video.

Adding Books to your Amazon Author Page

Now that your page is set up, You will want to add your book(s) to your page. Doing this is usually straightforward. Go back to your Amazon Author Central Dashboard. Not your Page dashboard. If you can’t recall how to get there, just click this link, and log in.

Next, click on the tab at the top that says “Books.” You can see in the screenshot below that “Books” is underlined in orange.

Add Books to your Amazon Author Page

Once you’ve gotten to the page where your books will be, you will see a message asking if there are books missing from your page. Click the orange button that says, “Add more books.”

Next, type the title, author name, or ISBN into the search box to automatically find the listing on Amazon.com.

It will pop up like my book did, here.

Adding books to your Amazon Author Page

When you see your correct book, click the orange button beneath it that says, “This is my book.” You will immediately see the following:

“Your book was successfully added. Please note that it may take up to 24 hours for the book to appear in your bibliography.”

Some important things to note

Once you add a book to your page, it can’t be removed without an act of Congress. So, if you aren’t sure you want your book on your page, wait to add it. This policy is in place in case someone want’s to get an old/used copy. That being said, you can make an appeal to Amazon, and if you have a good reason, they will remove it.

I hope you’ve found this informative. Amazon has fantastic tools available to authors. The Author Page is one of my favorites. Yet, many authors don’t set theirs up. It takes very little time and can lead readers to find other books you’ve written or will write in the future.

  • Do you have an Amazon Author Page? Feel free to add it in the comments (I will check my spam folder to make sure none get lost).
  • If you don’t have one set up, what’s stopped you from doing so?
  • If you aren’t an author, have you ever looked at an author’s page on Amazon.com?

What are YOUR thoughts?

I’d love to hear in the comment section, below. I appreciate my readers as well as the writing community. To show that appreciation, I use Comment Luv. Just leave a comment below and your latest post will get a link next to it. Thank you!

About Heather Erickson

I am an author, writer, and speaker and homeschooling mom of 3. Since doctors diagnosed my husband, Dan with stage IV lung cancer in 2012, I’ve focused my writing and speaking on helping cancer patients and their families advocate for themselves and live life to the fullest, in spite of their illness. My goal is to help people face cancer with grace. My books are available at Amazon.com:

The Memory Maker’s Journal 

Facing Cancer as a Friend: How to Support Someone Who Has Cancer

Facing Cancer as a Parent: Helping Your Children Cope with Your Cancer

I also blog about living with cancer at Facing Cancer with Grace.

Buy Facing Cancer as a Friend Today!

 

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