- How do you add this
to your ebook or print book page over on Amazon?
You can access this feature through
Amazon Author Central Editorial Reviews section,
but first, what's Amazon Author Central?
Actually, it's a one-stop shop for author brands.
It's 100% free to anybody that publishes on Amazon,
regardless if you've used KDP, IngramSpark, or whatnot.
I've got a link in the description
of a complete, comprehensive overview
of Amazon Author Central, and all the pros and cons.
So take a look at that video,
Otherwise, we're just going to kind of power through here.
So, what is the editorial section for
on Amazon Author Central?
This essentially showcases reviews
that you get off of Amazon.
So, if you've gotten reviews on Amazon,
don't just copy and paste those reviews
and throw it into the editorial reviews section.
It's just gonna junk up your profile,
because it's redundant.
But let's say that you get a review done,
say by Union Square Review or Kirkus,
or maybe even a blogger of some sort,
this is a great place to put it.
But something not many people realize is,
it's not just for reviews.
You can get the editorial reviews, sure.
But you can also get the product description,
from the author, from inside the flap.
So if you've got a jacket on a hardback book,
then that's what you'll put in there,
from the back cover and about the author.
Now, bear in mind,
you probably already have an "About the Author,"
so here's another way to kind of, maybe do a deeper dive,
or a remix of your author bio.
Why is the editorial reviews section so important?
Well, hear me out.
There's a few reasons that I think about this,
and the first thing is gonna be third-party credibility.
So you've got somebody else saying,
"Hey, this person's awesome."
So, if you get a good reputable source,
like Kirkus, giving you a five star review,
and you've got like, say one or two good sentences
from that review, you can always cite that source,
put it on into that editorial review.
And boom, people are like,
"Oh my gosh, this person is who they say they are."
You know, the second reason, and gosh,
I would say it's more of a theory,
and one could theorize that further indexing happens
when you have additional metadata
put onto your product page.
So, if you're like,
what the heck, indexing, further? What?
Okay, all that to say this, is that
we've put additional information onto your product page,
which therefore makes it more discoverable.
So, pretty cool, right?
How do you access these features?
So, heads up. This is a US feature only, all right?
So, any of the other regions it's not available just yet.
I imagine it's gonna roll out in due time
to each one of the other regions.
So, first of all, you gotta sign into
author.amazon.com to get inside
your Amazon Author Central profile.
Select the books tab at the top of the dashboard.
Select the title that you're gonna use.
Now you're going to select either Kindle
or the paperback or print version.
There is no audiobook support yet.
Then click edit.
Stop.
Okay, so this is the point you gotta really pay attention.
Wonky formatting ahead.
Now, Amazon Author Central just recently
moved over to this new dashboard,
and it's rife with issues and some glitches.
And this is one of the areas that it gets really like, ew.
So, you're gonna want to make sure you pay attention here.
Here's what Author Central recommends.
Reviews should consist of transcribed text
from reputable sources.
The name of the source should be credited
after the quotation.
For example, "A fantastic read." -The New York Times
Okay. They say, keep it simple.
Cite the source.
Quotes from outside reviews should follow
"fair use" copyright guidelines
and be limited to one to two sentences.
Okay, I already told you that.
Three, we recommend you limit your reviews
to 3000 characters.
Customers may miss out critical information
if your reviews are too long.
Okay, yeah. Just don't get long-winded.
And four, if you're copying and pasting text
from another text editing program,
we recommend you use only a plain text editor like Notepad.
Rich text editors like Microsoft Word
often cause formatting issues which delay
or prevent your request from processing.
More details on review guidelines here.
Okay, that last part,
I'm just gonna kind of have to chuckle,
because it's not as easy as what they say it is.
This is just where it gets hairy,
because you can use Notepad,
you can use Microsoft Word,
and just it still ends up wonky in some capacity.
Plain is just fine, but herein lies the problem.
If you just go in and you type in everything,
and you're like, "Hey, I'm gonna go ahead and post this."
The problem is, sometimes what it does is
it clumps everything together
and puts it all into one big wall of text.
It's just a mess.
So, what's the solution?
HTML. I think it stands for HyperText Markup Lan...
Whatever, it's HTML, nonetheless, it's coding.
And that's nothing that I know really well,
and you don't need to know too well either.
In fact, I'm gonna save you all of the hassle
by using one of my resources, my go-tos.
And that would be Dave Chesson, the Kindlepreneuer.
Go on over to dalelinks.com/html.
You're gonna use the Kindlepreneur
book description generator.
Select Amazon Editorial Review in the tab there,
type out your text here.
Now, you can slowly but surely format it however you wish.
What you see is what you get.
So, if you want to go ahead and put some type of
a text in there, or some type of bolding, you can do so.
Just remember if the feature is not available here
on this site, then chances are,
it's not available over on Author Central.
Once you're set, click generate my code,
then click copy code,
go back over to Author Central.
Then, in the editorial review,
press your control key and the letter V
to paste the code into the box.
Click preview and make sure it looks right before moving on.
It's not good, hit back and fix it.
Now this is gonna come just with
a little bit of trial and error.
You might have to go back to Dave's tool
and play around with some of the HTML,
and see what might be going wrong.
I wouldn't recommend messing with the coding.
I typically just go in,
and maybe remove a line or add a line.
Things like that.
If it's good though, you're just gonna hit save changes.
Now, remember to fill out all of your other boxes,
if they're necessary.
So if you've got an inside flap, you've got a back cover,
you want to add an author bio there
that's a little bit different from your other one,
then do so here.
And again, use the HTML formatting,
so that way it looks nice.
Oh yeah, and you don't get headaches,
and feel like putting your fist through a wall.
Also, remember to update all versions of your publication.
So if you did it on Kindle,
now you gotta go over and do it on print, and vice versa.
So all you gotta do is back out twice,
you'll find the print version, you'll select it,
and just go through the same process you did
over in the Kindle version.
This takes about three to five business days
before it actually appears on your author profile,
so be patient in the event that you're freaking out,
and like, "Oh my gosh,
I don't know what the heck's going on."
Scroll down to the bottom of the page,
select contact us.
They are very responsive.
They typically will get back to you within 24 to 72 hours.
Hey, speaking of Amazon Author Central,
I do a full deep dive right over inside this video.
You're gonna find out some hidden features
you didn't otherwise see before.
And, by the way, YouTube recommends
you should go check out this other video.
I'll see you in either one.