Tag: #MondayBlogs

Self-Publishing: Don’t Forget to Set Up Your Amazon Author Central Page

UPDATED: The layout has changed since this post was last published in 2017. I am republishing this with instructions on using the new platform, which I have found more straightforward than the previous layout.

I read a ton of books written by Indie Authors. If I like a book, I am going to click on their name on Amazon.

What happens when I click on this name are two things:

  • It will take me to the author’s page with a listing of all their books to date, along with their bio, videos and photos, blog updates, and website link. (Update: Amazon Author Central no longer includes the blog posts.)

Or..

  • It will take me to a page on Amazon with a listing of that author’s book, along with a lot of other authors.

Authors, don’t forget to set up your Amazon Author Central Page. In this post, I show you how.

What is an Author Central Page?

Author Central is your author page on Amazon. If this is set up, readers can click on your name under your book as seen below…

Screenshot (15)

And be taken to a page that looks like this….

Page

Update: The page looks different now, but it still lists your books and other info as shown.

There’s an author photo, bio, display of all the books you have on Amazon next to your photo, and at the bottom. You can also add your blog feed to your page and videos.

Update: You can no longer add your blog feed.

Getting Started

First, go to https://authorcentral.amazon.com/ and sign in.

The layout of the page has changed. You used to see this page…

Now it looks like this…

And it is a lot easier to set up this way.

On this page, go to Edit Profile

It will take you to a page that looks like this.

Upload your photo here…

Add a bio here and media like photos and video

Now add your books…

Scroll back up and click on Books

It will take you to a page that looks like this. If you have books already added you should see them here.

If you have no books added, simply click on the Add a Book Button

And then search your book on Amazon by your Name, Title, or ISBN

  

Now go back to profile and click here to see your page on Amazon.

It should take you back to this page

Now test it. Go back to your page and click on your name.

Screenshot (15)

If set up correctly, it should take you back to the page you just left.

Another thing that makes this cool is that your bio will also show up on the book page where readers have bought it. And once again, it is the opportunity for readers to follow you! It looks like this.

I hope this has helped someone!

Check out more Indie Author Basics Here.

MailChimp Moves to Single Opt-In: What You Need to Know

If you’ve been wondering what Mailchimp’s Single Opt-In is all about and whether to go with it or keep your double opt-in, I’ve found the article for you. Kirsten Oliphant has the scoop:

Single Opt-In: Essentially when someone enters their email into your form and clicks “I Want It What Way!” (because “Subscribe” is so 2011), they are automatically subscribed. Right then and there. The end.

Double Opt-In: When someone enters their email into your form and clicks “Send Me All The Things!”, they will receive an email asking them to confirm. If they do not click, they will not get an email from you. They are not, in fact, a subscriber.

Legally Opted

Single opt-in is not legal all over the world. (True story.) The un-apt-ly named CAN-SPAM Act (which says you CANNOT, in fact, spam people) doesn’t care about opt-ins, surprisingly. You can single opt-in all day long legally in the USA and many other countries.

Just not Germany.

I’m sure there are others, but Germany has super strict laws on privacy. So if someone from Germany signs up through your single opt-in form, you’ve broken their laws.

Are you really going to be hunted down or fined? Probably not.

But do you want to be breaking international laws when you send emails? Um…probably not.

KEEP READING THROUGH TO THE ORIGINAL HERE

I Believe in Progress

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I believe in progress. In recognizing and acknowledging your growth. In appreciating not just everything that you have but also everything you’ve endured to get to where you are. In process. In stopping to consider where you are, not just where you are trying to go. In gratitude and contentment. In looking back only to be reminded of where you’ve come from. To see the lessons and to teach them and to inspire. To never forget where you came from. Your roots. Your experiences. Everything that made you who you are today. Everything that built you. You are not just the positive. You are the negative too. The struggle. The hustle. The grime. The beautiful and the broken. The good and the bad. You are balance. I regret nothing. There’s no reason to. I am not just made up of the good things. I’ve stolen. I’ve lied. I’ve been drunk. I’ve been hungry. I’ve been homeless. I’ve been hopeless. But I’ve also been happily married for seven years to a man I’ve been with ten years. I’ve also produced documentaries and taught women and children all over the world, hosted radio shows, performed poetry, taught grown women how to read, fed the homeless, helped felons to find jobs, and authored nine books and counting. I am not perfect, trust I have my days. Some are harder than others and I wonder how I’ll make it through but then, I believe in progress.

Yecheilyah (e-see-lee-yah) is an Author, Blogger, and Poet of nine published works including work in progress and short inspirational guide “Keep Yourself Full.” Learn more by exploring Yecheilyah’s writing on this blog and her website at  yecheilyahysrayl.com.

Renaissance: The Nora White Story (Book One) is her latest novel and is available now on Amazon.com.

Introduce Yourself Returns

I am just about settled in which means that I will be getting back into the swing of things with reviews and promotions real soon. I still have a few things to do before I am back full time so I am still somewhat MIA this week, but I’d still like to get some interviews scheduled in time for November if possible.

If you are not familiar with my Introduce Yourself feature, here is a short breakdown. For more information, please do check out the first post HERE:

Introduce Yourself is a free promotional opportunity for new and established authors via an author interview on this blog. Unlike the same questions over and over again, authors have the opportunity to choose from 50 questions (SEE ORIGINAL POST) they would like to answer in the interview from writing and books to relationships, religion, and politics. But that’s not all.

To further set this feature apart, I do not just copy and paste your answers so be sure your answers are juicy and interesting! Once you have sent me your Q&A, I go over them to see if there is anything I want to add by way of commentary and you are given the chance to respond. We email back and forth until the interview sounds more authentic and real life (as if we are two friends sitting down for coffee) because that is at the core of what Introduce Yourself is all about. We want to get to know the real you. While your books and links will be promoted freely on this site, I ask that you use this opportunity to do less selling and more connecting with potential readers. This is what social media is all about.

If you are an author (Indie / Trad / Hybrid) and you’re looking for more exposure, CLICK THROUGH TO THE ORIGINAL POST HERE, choose your questions and email them to me at yecheilyah@yecheilyahysrayl.com. I will look over them, email you back so we can chit chat and then schedule your feature. All interviews are scheduled to go live the Monday of every week @ 12:00am Eastern Standard Time.

 

The Layers of You

Your strength is in your mind(1)

Every new level of your life will require a different version of you. Not a new version, just a different version. A version that was always there but that you were not ready or mature enough to see. A part that possibly, before now, you would not have understood.

Whenever you are going through something that seems unfair and difficult to cope with remember that another, perhaps much stronger, version of yourself is being unveiled and that process is not easy. It’s not easy because growth often requires pain or at the very least a certain level of discomfort. No one wanted to have pimples all over their face or have to deal with cramps, menstrual cycles (for women) or the emotional ups and downs of puberty but these changes were necessary as we transitioned from childhood to adulthood.

We are layers of an onion shedding one version of ourselves for another as we journey through life. I cannot now drink milk from a bottle. That version of me is gone. I cannot now sit on a rug in Kindergarten or at a desk in first grade and I cannot go back to High School. It is not even appropriate for me to go back to the past year, that version of me, these versions of me, are long gone. I must seek now an understanding of what this moment requires of me. This layer of me. This version of me.

These are the layers of you.

Yecheilyah (e-see-lee-yah) is an Author, Blogger, and Poet of nine published works including her soon-to-be released short inspirational guide “Keep Yourself Full.” Learn more by exploring Yecheilyah’s writing on this blog and her website at yecheilyahysrayl.com. Renaissance: The Nora White Story (Book One) is her latest novel and is available now on Amazon.com.

Republishing Posts: Don’t Forget to Update Your Links

Some time ago I spoke about the benefits of Respinning your blog posts. By respin I mean republishing them to your blog. This means that the post will show up again in the reader and your followers will also get an email notifying them of a new blog post.

Check out the original post HERE.

This has great advantages to building up your blog, such as:

  • Older posts are seen by new readers
  • Important posts get more social media shares and reiterates key points for those who missed it
  • New Followers / Views

The list goes on with the key thing being new readers and more eyes on posts that may not have received much attention the first time around.

What I didn’t talk about is the not-so-good things about republishing content. One thing to keep in mind (especially if the post you are republishing did very well the first time and got lots of shares):

When you reschedule / republish a post to show up again and you linked it somewhere, the original link to the post will not work.

This means you would want to unlink the old and replace it with the new one. If you do not do this, when readers click on the original link they’ll get a “This post no longer exists” error message.

This post came about because I am literally in the process of doing this now with re-linking my Black History Fun Fact links. I rescheduled a few from 2015 but didn’t relink them. Yesterday, I viewed the page and noticed some links didn’t work and I am not sure how long it’s been that way. Oppsie. I searched my posts for the republished version with the new date, copied the link and linked the new one.

If you’d like to archive your posts (saving them to a page) or link a post to text:

Highlight the words you want to link.

Click on the link icon in your blog post editor…

…. in that little box, paste your link.

IF you want to have the page open in a new tab, click on the Link Options icon next to the blue button as seen above. A box will open that looks like…

….THIS

Check the Open link in new tab box. When people click on your link, it will open the page in a new tab. This is optional and up to you. Some readers prefer it and others don’t.

I would be careful republishing any post that received lots of reblogs and social media shares already. I would be careful because the links shared on social media may no longer work and you’ll have to manually announce/correct it. I would also not recommend republishing content too much (I’ve slowed down myself since the first article) Additionally, if the article lists data, statistics or in-depth research like that, I wouldn’t republish it UNLESS I also plan to update the data.

Posts I would respin:

  • Old posts that only received one, two, or three likes and no shares
  • Posts with important information but did not get many views and no shares
  • Poetry / Inspirational posts that never gets old but received not too many shares

Remember, if you republish/respin/repost an older article for more visibility and you’re linking that post, the republished post will have a new link (I also think you can change the link to keep it the same in the editor but I have not experienced this and this post is only in relation to my own experience.)

If you are republishing content and linked something to it, be sure to update the link so that when we click on it we are taken to the article, not an error message.

 

Enjoy the rest of your week!

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Time to get back to work.

Yecheilyah (e-see-lee-yah) is an Author, Blogger, and Poet of nine published works including her soon-to-be released short inspirational guide “Keep Yourself Full.” Learn more by exploring Yecheilyah’s writing on this blog and her website at yecheilyahysrayl.com. Renaissance: The Nora White Story (Book One) is her latest novel and is available now on Amazon.com.

The PBS Blog Podcast – Ep 6 Be Gentle with Yourself

Today’s episode is about being patient and gentle with yourself. We already spoke about responsibility and discipline. If you set a goal and you didn’t meet that goal, don’t beat yourself over the head. We need time to grow physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and professionally in whatever we are doing. This is a process. It even takes time to heal. Give yourself that time. Don’t verbally abuse yourself and talk down to yourself. There are plenty of people in the world who will do that for you. Spare yourself the added abuse by being gentle with yourself.

Be sure to subscribe to my Soundcloud page for notification of new episodes.

Episode 6 – Be Gentle with Yourself