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.
Save 83% Amazon Author Central: Market Books Like a Pro
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 until creating an Amazon account like before–shout out to Hedonist Six for teaching that one:)–also using Google Translate was needed more for the Japan site)
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, France and Japan 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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How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks 
July 9, 2013 at 5:23 am
The other strange thing is that you must buy Amazon’s extended distribution for your Createspace books to show in those same countries stores. You’d think anything published via Createsspace would be available in all countries Amazon services – but that’s not the case.
July 9, 2013 at 7:51 am
Hi Yvonne. Thank you for that addition. I did go with extended distribution so that explains the link and overseas sales.
July 9, 2013 at 5:25 am
[…] Amazon Author Central to More Foreign Countries? | How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks. […]
July 9, 2013 at 3:22 pm
THis is great. I have been thinking about this. Can you link me directly to you services page with prices? Jo
July 9, 2013 at 5:11 pm
Hi, Jo. Thank you for the kind note. There is no service page but I’m happy to discuss any topic with you.
July 9, 2013 at 6:53 pm
OK I thought you were offering a service to translate on to these pages. I am working with an Indian woman and a few others. I think I best go back and read through your blog more thoroughly. I’ll check back soon, Jo
July 10, 2013 at 11:21 am
Thanks for the tips, Jim. Neither could I log in on Japanese site. Glad I found your site.
July 10, 2013 at 11:24 am
You’re welcome, Deborah. Thank you for coming by 🙂
July 11, 2013 at 3:42 am
Thanks for the post, I’ve managed to set up my profiles everywhere. The Japanese Author Central does not recognise existing Amazon.com accounts, unlike the others, so you have to sign up on amazon.co.jp with the same email address and then it works. After that though I found that Author Central Japan does not support English language books, so I wasn’t able to add them to my profile. I set everything else up though so it’s all sorted until they add the necessary support for foreign books.
Hope this helps.
July 11, 2013 at 7:37 am
Helps very much 🙂 Thank you as always, Hedonist6. That’s too bad, I think our books could find a market in Japan. Hopefully they will support English books soon as the German and French ones do.
July 11, 2013 at 8:26 am
Got it done, thank you again H6 🙂 I was able to add my books for Japan although they don’t show under my profile page, not sure why. An update to the blog was made above with a link to your books, cheers. Let’s see if sales in the Orient pick up now. http://www.amazon.co.jp/Jason-Matthews/e/B004A8W4BG/ – http://www.amazon.co.jp/Hedonist-Six/e/B009Q11IHI/
July 13, 2013 at 9:08 am
I tried the German link. It was in German. Can’t read German so couldn’t access the site. Any suggestions?
July 13, 2013 at 9:25 am
All of the Author Central pages are exactly the same in format, just in different languages. Simply open two windows: one with the US version and the other with the German or French version. Then select the Amazon buttons in the same fashion. The video tutorial explains that well. You could also copy and paste German text into a program like Google Translate – http://translate.google.com/, but I only found that needed for the Japanese version.
July 13, 2013 at 9:10 am
P.S. from Jo Ann . . . about using German Amazon Center.
Lebensborn is Himmler’s program for creation of a Master Race.
It is historically accurate. I’ve always wondered IF it would be of interest to German readers.
July 13, 2013 at 9:26 am
I would guess some people would find that interesting reading while others would probably pass, but that’s true with most any subject.
July 5, 2022 at 7:50 am
Is there any way editorial reviews can appear on Amazon India right now?