September 5, 2025 • 24 mins
Navigating Amazon's constantly shifting landscape is challenging enough for authors, but now there's a new frustration to contend with. In this eye-opening episode, Penny and Amy tackle the latest Amazon Author Central crisis that's preventing authors from updating crucial marketing content on their profiles. Penny and Amy present the issue, as well as solutions!
Drawing from their direct experience helping clients navigate this issue, Amy and Penny provide a practical, step-by-step solution for getting your Author Central updates implemented despite Amazon's resistance.
The duo speculates whether these issues might signal upcoming platform changes, perhaps even a return to the more feature-rich Author Central of pre-December 2022.
Have you encountered this Amazon Author Central issue? We'd love to hear about your experience! Subscribe to our weekly episodes to stay informed about Amazon's ever-changing landscape and ensure your books maintain maximum visibility and appeal on the platform.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome back to the Book Marketing Tips
and Author Success Podcast.
This is Penny Sanseviery andAmy Cornell, and I for one am
really excited.
We haven't recorded a show in awhile.
We pre-recorded because I wentto Belgium, which was awesome,
and so we pre-recorded a wholebunch of shows, so this has been
(00:22):
the first time back in thestudio for a few weeks, right.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I know it's exciting and we just had so many great
show outlines that we were just,you know, chomping at the bit
to get them recorded.
So that was fun.
And then we're like, oh wow,the added bonus was that we got
ahead.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I know, I know, and now we have more really great
show outlines that I am veryexcited, super excited about
doing.
So we're glad to be back.
I know many of you are.
By the time this hits, we willhave passed the nice three-day
Labor Day weekend and many ofyou have.
(00:57):
You know.
Back to school, back to life.
Fall, I love fall, I love fall.
I'm so excited, I'm so oversummer and I'm working on
another book.
I'm really excited about thisbook, amy, and I think I
mentioned this to you in email.
(01:19):
I have been seeing so much microlearning on social media.
So there's a lot of microlearning, whether it's, you know
, reader's Digest versions ofbooks, like if you don't have
time to sit down with an entirebook and you want to know and
most of this applies obviouslyto nonfiction.
There's a lot of micro-learninggoing on.
So I had this really cool ideathat I was going to create a
(01:42):
series of micro-learning booksdedicated each to one topic.
So the first topic is doinglocal promotion and local events
, which I've blended into thisone book because I think a lot
of authors overlook local, andwe've done a couple of shows on
doing local, focusing on yourown backyard, as well as all the
other things that you're doing,focusing on your own backyard,
as well as all the other thingsthat you're doing.
(02:04):
So I'm really excited aboutthis because I think that our
ability to spend, you know, notthat long books are ever going
to go away, but I think that ourability to spend hours learning
about something that feels soforeign to authors is really
(02:25):
tough, mm-hmm, you know, yeah,so I'm very excited about that.
I'm also really and I postedthis, by the way, on our social
so, if you get a chance toplease report this account, that
TikTok.
So there's a TikTok accountthat's actually pretending to be
me and asking authors for moneyand now that account has gone
(02:45):
private.
So, because I went on there theother day to see if it was
still active and that accounthas now gone private, I'm like,
well, it's just like I'm stillgoing to report you because
you're fake pretending to be me,like it's just the craziest
thing you know.
Like, why are you fakepretending to be?
I don't know Taylor Swift, orsomething Like why would you
fake pretending to be?
(03:06):
We found out because we had anauthor contact us and say, hey,
is this you?
Because this person just askedme for money.
I just freaking hate that.
So anyway, yeah, be on thelookout, check my socials.
I've got something up thereabout that.
If you were on TikTok and youcan, this is you know.
This is like another reason whyI should be hating TikTok.
I'm like, oh my gosh, now thisstupid fake account.
(03:28):
So, speaking of things thatreally rattle us, we're talking
about a brand new issue withAmazon Author Central, and I got
to tell you when we were in thegreen room and we were talking
about this, I had my head in myhands a lot Because, frigging
Amazon, you know, every time weturn around, they seem like
(03:50):
they're doing somethingdastardly I guess, for lack of a
better term Making the author'slife so much harder.
And Amy discovered this issue,because Amy does a lot of our
Author Central optimizations,and she discovered this issue
trying to access an AuthorCentral account on Amazon, and
(04:15):
you got some interestingfeedback from that, did you not?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, so basically, I mean we do this a lot, so, for
what it's worth, it's like thishas become pretty second nature
now.
You know, we've got greatinstructions for our clients and
most of our clients actually doall these updates themselves,
but every once in a while I'mmore than happy to help out and
while I was in there which washelpful I got to see it with my
own eyes.
You can't access this becauseyou cannot add editorial reviews
(04:43):
.
You need to contact yourpublisher.
I'm like what is happening,like, and of course my mind just
starts racing Like what did Inot like?
Did I miss something?
What is you know what I mean?
Because it's like I'veliterally never seen that before
.
Up to that point, a clienthadn't reported that issue yet.
But then, go figure, withinthat same week we had multiple
(05:03):
clients running into the sameissue, which sent me down.
You know an odyssey path ofworking with support and all
these other things.
I will say I'm glad I ithappened to one of our clients,
so I got to see firsthand how toresolve this.
But whoa, what a mess, you know.
I mean we're talking the firstone.
We're talking at least a dozenemails, penny.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
That's unbelievable.
So, basically, what AmazonAuthor Central has done is it's
limiting.
It's telling authors that theycan't.
The long and short of it isit's telling authors that they
can't update their AuthorCentral, that they need
publisher permission to updatetheir Author Central, which is a
(05:50):
lie.
It's a lie.
It's a lie.
We're calling out the lies onthe show because the author
always controls their AuthorCentral account, never the
publisher, never, ever, ever, inno circumstance.
So why is Amazon lying?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Amy, isn't that wild.
And these the things that we'retalking about updating.
It's like about the author fromthe author, from the inside
flap you can even add alternateback cover copy.
And you know some clients orsome authors excuse me, they
don't always release a printbook right away Sometimes the
Kindle edition, where you don'thave a back cover copy.
You know what I mean.
So it's so great.
(06:28):
These fields are fantasticbecause and we've done shows on
this before, so anybody that'sbeen listening for a while knows
all these author central fieldsare fantastic opportunities to
work in keywords, to connectwith your market, to talk about
your new unique selling points,your unique point of view, dig
deeper into who you are as anauthor, your story.
I mean it's amazing, but theseare quite literally only fields
that are offered through AuthorCentral.
(06:49):
They are not on the KDPpublishing side.
They don't exist anywhere else.
So just the fact that Amazon'serror is saying you don't have
access to this, you need to workwith your publisher is just
mind-numbing, right, becausethat's a contradiction in itself
.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, there's no way that that, but it will send
authors.
It will send authors down arabbit hole.
Now, I don't know why you thinkthat Author Central is doing
this, but I think that.
So Amazon gets glitchy.
Right, that's number one.
They get glitchy and then theyjust let their support people in
(07:26):
India, these poor people likejust get all these random emails
from authors like I can'tupdate my.
One thing I know has alwaysbeen true is that Amazon will
block, like if you have apublisher, amazon will block
your ability to edit youreditorial, to go into your
editorial reviews page.
That's always been a thing,because the publisher sets it up
(07:47):
that way that they own it.
But generally speaking, authorscan update anything else on
their Author Central page.
That's never been an issue.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Right, and this reminds me of when did this
happen, penny?
Where your description, wherethat got really wonky.
Remember that.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you knowwhere you're used to.
We're used to easily be able togo to Author Central and update
your book description and itwould appear the way it was
supposed to, and then it justwent haywire.
Yes, the formatting was bad andit just got so complicated and
(08:18):
we eventually started tellingpeople, like don't do that, just
don't do that, like don't evengo there, it's going to screw it
up, it's going to be hard toget it fixed, like all that, and
this has shades of that.
You know what I mean With thelike oh, you can't ask.
Like all of a sudden, nowthey're just pulling things away
that they shouldn't be pullingaway, and even according to
their own instructions and theirown support pages, these are
(08:40):
things that they say areavailable to authors through
Author Central.
Very clearly, there's nothingupdated in the instructions or
in the support pages thatindicate that this is something
that publishers have controlover, because, again, as we
already said, it's just not true.
But so, to add to the confusion, you know, amazon's not even
being consistent in what they'retelling you in one place
(09:00):
contradicts what the actualinstructions are in another
place on the site.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Well, and I think that you know, when Amazon in
December of 2022, amazon changedAuthor Central and this,
obviously this date is likeburned into my memory because I
loved the way that AuthorCentral, like you could upload
video, you could do all the funthings.
You could upload pictures,multiple pictures, not just your
author.
Your author picture right, linkyour blog.
(09:26):
You could link your blog.
Oh my gosh, I missed that somuch.
That was so fun.
Amazon pulled all of that, butbefore they did that, author
Central got really wonky, likethere was all these, there's all
this weird stuff that washappening.
I really think that Amazon isgoing through another.
I mean, maybe this, maybe it'sAuthor Central is just broken,
but there's a really good chancethat Amazon is getting ready to
(09:51):
make some changes and I hopethat they're bringing back all
the old things.
I hope that they've heard mebitch about this enough that
they're like, oh, let's justshut Penny up you know what I
mean and bring these back.
That would be a best-casescenario.
Yeah, wouldn't that be thebest-case scenario?
So what have you found?
I know you said you have thesupport tickets.
I just can't even believe.
So what's the solution then?
(10:14):
So, if you have an author andwhether or not they have a
publisher.
What do you recommend that theydo to fix this or to get their
updates, so they can updatetheir to get into their author
central page at a bare minimum?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Right.
So you have to do a supportticket.
But I strongly urge you to showup with that first support
ticket with a doc, like a worddoc.
It can just be a word doc thathas all of the content you want
added and organized by thedifferent sections you want it
added to.
You know what I mean.
You have to make this easy forthem to help you.
You know, help me, help you,help me, help you, right.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Right, right, right, like one of those situations.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
So make your word doc , put in all the content that
you want under from the inside,flap about the author, from the
author from the back, coverthings like that, cover all your
bases.
Put it all in there, doublecheck it.
Have somebody else double checkit, then double check it.
Have somebody else double checkit, then double check it again,
because they're not going toedit for you Once it's up there,
and especially until they getthis resolved.
(11:13):
What goes up there is what'sgoing to be up there.
So get it all in a Word doc,make sure it's amazing have that
ready and then start yoursupport ticket and then you need
to just very explicitly askthat they update, they add all
of that content in theattachment to each individual
section, as noted in thedocument, for what it's worth.
(11:35):
I mean, it's kind of awful thata lot of people are dealing
with this, but the benefit ofthat is that Author Central is
used to getting these tickets.
So I will say this processalready from our first client
that I helped to our second wasso much simpler because I knew
exactly what to say, what torequest.
(11:56):
I had confirmed that this is aknown problem.
You know what I mean.
So when you show up reallyconfident in what you're asking
for and demanding, you get aresolution a lot quicker.
So show up prepared, open thatticket, say you need them, that
you know you can say resolutiona lot quicker.
So show up prepared, open thatticket, say you need them, that
you know you can say I don'thave access to these sections on
the backend, I'm getting anerror.
I need you to add this contentto my author central.
(12:18):
Okay, you know, and keep itvery straightforward.
I say nothing, no unnecessary.
You know information requiredbecause, again, like you already
mentioned, penny, you neverknow what kind of support person
you're getting.
And so, even if they're very,very basic level this is a known
issue on the author centralside.
So, even if it's a very basicsupport person, the simpler you
(12:41):
keep it with just demanding whatyou need done.
This is where it doesn't pay tobe nice or to say can you
please, is it possible?
None of that?
Say I need you to Pleaseconfirm when it's been completed
.
You know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Yeah, so starting the email off saying that they know
that this is a known issuemakes a difference.
They know that this is a knownissue.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
It makes a huge difference, absolutely Okay.
Yep, this is a known issue.
I'm getting an error.
I am unable to access all of myAuthor Central fields.
I have included an attachmentthat has everything I need you
to add for me, for my retailpage, you know, and essentially,
tell them you want aconfirmation when it's been
added.
Okay, ashley, just tell themyou want a confirmation when
(13:25):
it's been added, okay.
And then definitely for whatit's worth.
I mean and Amazon says this toothat updates to Author Central
happen within one to twobusiness days.
So really stick to that.
Put a reminder on your phone,on your calendar, whatever it is
.
Check your Amazon retail page,do a refresh, do a hard refresh
(13:52):
you know what I mean To reallymake sure.
Or use a browser you don't useall the time.
Try it on your phone, maybeeven and see if it's there.
If it's not go back to thatticket and ask them for a status
update.
You know, because this reallyis within one to two business
days turnaround time, you shouldhave this completed within a
week.
I know that maybe soundsterrible, but it may take a
couple emails, but just stay onthem.
Because for one of our clients,for example, they made the
updates to the paperback butthey didn't do it on the Kindle.
So we went back and said weneed you to make these updates
(14:16):
and this is where getting theright person.
We need you to do the exactsame thing you did for the print
book that you did for theKindle edition.
And we got a different supportperson and they said well, it
looks like you have to work withyour publisher.
And by then, even our clientwas like no, no, no, and he was
on top of it already.
He said so-and-so.
He named the previous supportperson, who was a manager
(14:38):
actually, he said so-and-so, wasable to do this and said it
would be done.
I need this done.
And they came back within a dayand said we've now updated your
Kindle edition as well.
So really stick to your guns.
Everybody listening to this.
It is a thing, it is a problem.
Amazon, absolutely right now,is embracing fixing it because
they know it's a known problem.
They really can't blameanything else right now.
(15:01):
I mean they may try initiallywith the publisher nonsense,
ignore that.
But just stick to your guns andjust say like, like, I need
this, I need this, I need this,you know.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
So one of the things that you and I talked about in
the green room was potentiallyself-publishing, like even if
you have a publisherself-publishing the Kindle
edition and letting thepublisher handle the print.
But that doesn't really make adifference.
I mean, I'm a huge fan of thatbecause for all the reasons that
we talked about on this show,so you know, you have access to
(15:33):
A-plus content, you have morecontrol, all the other things
but it's not a publisher issue.
This is not a publisher.
This is Amazon being weird.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yes, this is Amazon being weird.
It's not technically apublisher issue, but I, you know
, my suspicion is that because,in order to access all these
fields that we've been talkingabout and I'm just going to
repeat them because then,because those of you listening
that may have to deal with thisit's worth having them top of
mind.
You know, from the inside flap,from the back cover, about the
author all those things, those,those things, those all exist on
(16:10):
the same page that youreditorial reviews field exists
on.
And so what I'm seeing is that,if you have a publisher,
because you don't have theoption to update your editorial
reviews, that entire page thatwould give you access to
everything else that you shouldhave access to, you're being
(16:31):
blocked from.
So that's where the publisheraspect comes in.
It's not the publisher's fault,but unfortunately, for whatever
reason, amazon is now stoppingeverybody at the entrance point
to access all of those fields,whereas before you just couldn't
add editorial reviews, thatfield, that option, just wasn't
(16:53):
available to you to click on,but you could do everything else
.
But now what's happening isthat you're not even able to
access that next page where youcan get to all of those things,
and the default error message isthat you don't have access.
You are not able to edit youreditorial reviews.
You need to contact yourpublisher to do this for you,
(17:13):
and it very specifically in bothof the error messages I have
seen called out the editorialreviews as being the problem.
So I thought, yeah, so that wasreally interesting.
I thought so very much.
Amazon is flagging for that and, for whatever reason, their
system is now just stopping youa step too soon, so you still
(17:34):
don't have access to all theother things you should have
access to, whether you have apublisher or not.
So that's where the weirdglitch is happening.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, that's super weird.
Have you seen this issue pop upwith— have you seen Amazon say
to authors you have to gothrough your publisher, even if
they've self-published?
I mean, has Amazon just gottenthat far gone?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I have not seen, I have not personally experienced
that with a client that is fullyself-published across the board
.
No, okay, okay, this has onlybeen for clients that have a
publisher or that at least useda publishing service which I
won't name.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
But still Right, right, right, right.
Yeah, it's a little, which Iwon't name, but still Right,
right, right, right.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yeah, it's a little, it's, it's, it's, it's really
huh, no, I was going to saysorry, that's just.
The extra frustrating part toois that you know whether you use
a publisher or publishingservice.
Even this is happening and it'slike when you have a publishing
service.
I think those authorseventually figure out that you
know getting things changed andaltered and stuff is a little
(18:42):
more challenging because it'sjust a different relationship.
But what's really a bummer isthat these people that have
publishers, that have a goodrelationship with their
publishers, have a great contact.
That's super helpful and that'sthe case with one of our
clients.
But I felt bad too because thepublisher is coming back saying
I swear I can't access thosefields.
Nothing that we have gives usthose options and I was able to
(19:03):
at least tell the client like,yeah, that is the case.
You know what I mean?
They are not.
But think of all the authorsout there, penny, that are
hearing contradicting statementsfrom Amazon and their publisher
.
And who do they trust at thatpoint?
You know they're being shutdown on both sides, yeah, and
who do they trust at that point?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
You know they're being shut down on both sides.
Yeah, yeah, and it'sinteresting because you know
we've talked about this a fewtimes Like I love me some Reddit
man.
I love like going on Reddit andresearching and whatnot.
And there's a couple of groupsthat I belong to and there have
been a couple of conversationsaround this in terms of I can't
access my other central Amazon'sgiving me a hard time, that
(19:38):
kind of thing.
So once the show drops, I'mdefinitely going to mention the
show.
And because this is, I mean, Ithink, a lot of authors, I'm
discouraged that not enoughauthors really spend a lot of
time updating their authorcentral pages.
I think that's alwaysdiscouraging to me.
(19:59):
When they don't like I'vetalked to authors before like oh
, I have an author central pageon Amazon.
I'm like, yeah, you do.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
So it's still an amazing free resource where you
have all this extra content toconvince people to read and buy
your book.
It's like what it's free fornow, right.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah, exactly, amazon decides to charge for it.
Get your account now Getgrandfathered in?
Yeah, exactly, Exactly.
But I have seen someconversation on Reddit already
from authors who were just likeyou know, I'm trying to go in
there and make changes and Idon't really know what's going
on.
So it looks to me.
It appears to me that, likeeverybody is dealing with this,
(20:38):
which is just everybody who'strying to get into Amazon and
make changes is dealing withthis, which is just crazy to me.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Right it is.
It is very frustrating andagain, I feel fortunate that I
got to see it with my own eyes,because there's nothing more
frustrating than when ourclients run into challenges, and
I you know what I mean tochallenges and I you know what I
mean.
When you, when you don'texperience something firsthand,
it's so hard to help sometimes,especially when it comes to the
Amazon beast, because how oftendo we deal with people saying
like Amazon's telling me thisand it's like, oh no, you know,
(21:08):
but it's like okay, I saw itwith my own eyes.
I went through the process withsome clients.
Now I feel pretty confidentthat this is something that is
fixable.
But I would definitely sayanybody listening that either
hasn't done this or hasn'tstepped into this area double
check what you're, you know.
Check your account, see whatyou have access to now and if
(21:31):
this wasn't a you know, if youdidn't have a reason to get
moving on this stuff previously,this should be the kick in the
butt.
You know what I mean Like getmoving on this stuff previously.
This should be the kick in thebutt.
You know what I mean Like getmoving on utilizing your account
in all of those fields, youknow.
Get that content written andcapitalize on the fact that
Amazon is being helpful andknows how to deal with this
right now.
You know because, like Pennysaid, who knows how this could
(21:54):
shift in a couple months?
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yeah, for sure, Exactly.
And then I think you know.
The other thing is, I wouldlove to know if you have
experienced this, like if any ofour listeners experience this,
let us know.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Oh yeah, especially if you're fully self-published.
I would like to know, like yousaid, penny, if anybody's
dealing with that that hasn'tused a publisher or publishing
service and you're still stillhaving issues accessing, because
that would be another layer tothis and I'd love to know the
error they're giving you withthe excuse.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Right, right, right.
My hope is, like I said, awhole, not hope.
I want Amazon to bring back theold Author Central.
That would make me really happy.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
No, bring back a Goodreads integration on the
Amazon side.
I would love that.
If they need ideas, I haveideas.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Amazon ask us what we want.
We have, as usual, check withAmy and Penny.
First Check with Amy and Pennybefore you make changes.
Thank you very much, amazon.
We appreciate that.
Yeah, I am.
I'm really glad that we did ashow on this.
Again, we've done, you know, wehave done so many Amazon alert
shows this year it's I waslooking back through the arc.
(23:00):
It's kind of crazy how manyalert shows that we've done.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
So I know, I know, but here's another one.
If anything, stay tuned to makesure you're always on top of
the Amazon changes so your bookdoesn't get lost.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Subscribe to the show so youget updates every time.
We release a show every Fridayso you can listen to us.
You know, when somebody uh,write us the other day and he's
like I listened to you on mybike rides, now I'm like dude,
that's amazing.
Um, just be, just be careful,look out for traffic, all the
things, um, but subscribe to theshow.
(23:36):
When you subscribe to the show,you'll be able to post a review
.
Um, for whatever reason, appledoesn't let you post a review
unless you're subscribed to theshow.
And then, like I said, you'llget alerts every time that we
drop a show.
Thank you so much for listening.
We will see you next week.
We are knee deep into September.
I love it and, um, thank you somuch for tuning in.
(24:01):
We'll see you next time.
Bye-bye.
Hello and welcome back to the Book Marketing Tips
and Author Success Podcast.
This is Penny Sanseviery andAmy Cornell, and I for one am
really excited.
We haven't recorded a show in awhile.
We pre-recorded because I wentto Belgium, which was awesome,
and so we pre-recorded a wholebunch of shows, so this has been
(00:22):
the first time back in thestudio for a few weeks, right.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I know it's exciting and we just had so many great
show outlines that we were just,you know, chomping at the bit
to get them recorded.
So that was fun.
And then we're like, oh wow,the added bonus was that we got
ahead.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I know, I know, and now we have more really great
show outlines that I am veryexcited, super excited about
doing.
So we're glad to be back.
I know many of you are.
By the time this hits, we willhave passed the nice three-day
Labor Day weekend and many ofyou have.
(00:57):
You know.
Back to school, back to life.
Fall, I love fall, I love fall.
I'm so excited, I'm so oversummer and I'm working on
another book.
I'm really excited about thisbook, amy, and I think I
mentioned this to you in email.
(01:19):
I have been seeing so much microlearning on social media.
So there's a lot of microlearning, whether it's, you know
, reader's Digest versions ofbooks, like if you don't have
time to sit down with an entirebook and you want to know and
most of this applies obviouslyto nonfiction.
There's a lot of micro-learninggoing on.
So I had this really cool ideathat I was going to create a
(01:42):
series of micro-learning booksdedicated each to one topic.
So the first topic is doinglocal promotion and local events
, which I've blended into thisone book because I think a lot
of authors overlook local, andwe've done a couple of shows on
doing local, focusing on yourown backyard, as well as all the
other things that you're doing,focusing on your own backyard,
as well as all the other thingsthat you're doing.
(02:04):
So I'm really excited aboutthis because I think that our
ability to spend, you know, notthat long books are ever going
to go away, but I think that ourability to spend hours learning
about something that feels soforeign to authors is really
(02:25):
tough, mm-hmm, you know, yeah,so I'm very excited about that.
I'm also really and I postedthis, by the way, on our social
so, if you get a chance toplease report this account, that
TikTok.
So there's a TikTok accountthat's actually pretending to be
me and asking authors for moneyand now that account has gone
(02:45):
private.
So, because I went on there theother day to see if it was
still active and that accounthas now gone private, I'm like,
well, it's just like I'm stillgoing to report you because
you're fake pretending to be me,like it's just the craziest
thing you know.
Like, why are you fakepretending to be?
I don't know Taylor Swift, orsomething Like why would you
fake pretending to be?
(03:06):
We found out because we had anauthor contact us and say, hey,
is this you?
Because this person just askedme for money.
I just freaking hate that.
So anyway, yeah, be on thelookout, check my socials.
I've got something up thereabout that.
If you were on TikTok and youcan, this is you know.
This is like another reason whyI should be hating TikTok.
I'm like, oh my gosh, now thisstupid fake account.
(03:28):
So, speaking of things thatreally rattle us, we're talking
about a brand new issue withAmazon Author Central, and I got
to tell you when we were in thegreen room and we were talking
about this, I had my head in myhands a lot Because, frigging
Amazon, you know, every time weturn around, they seem like
(03:50):
they're doing somethingdastardly I guess, for lack of a
better term Making the author'slife so much harder.
And Amy discovered this issue,because Amy does a lot of our
Author Central optimizations,and she discovered this issue
trying to access an AuthorCentral account on Amazon, and
(04:15):
you got some interestingfeedback from that, did you not?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, so basically, I mean we do this a lot, so, for
what it's worth, it's like thishas become pretty second nature
now.
You know, we've got greatinstructions for our clients and
most of our clients actually doall these updates themselves,
but every once in a while I'mmore than happy to help out and
while I was in there which washelpful I got to see it with my
own eyes.
You can't access this becauseyou cannot add editorial reviews
(04:43):
.
You need to contact yourpublisher.
I'm like what is happening,like, and of course my mind just
starts racing Like what did Inot like?
Did I miss something?
What is you know what I mean?
Because it's like I'veliterally never seen that before
.
Up to that point, a clienthadn't reported that issue yet.
But then, go figure, withinthat same week we had multiple
(05:03):
clients running into the sameissue, which sent me down.
You know an odyssey path ofworking with support and all
these other things.
I will say I'm glad I ithappened to one of our clients,
so I got to see firsthand how toresolve this.
But whoa, what a mess, you know.
I mean we're talking the firstone.
We're talking at least a dozenemails, penny.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
That's unbelievable.
So, basically, what AmazonAuthor Central has done is it's
limiting.
It's telling authors that theycan't.
The long and short of it isit's telling authors that they
can't update their AuthorCentral, that they need
publisher permission to updatetheir Author Central, which is a
(05:50):
lie.
It's a lie.
It's a lie.
We're calling out the lies onthe show because the author
always controls their AuthorCentral account, never the
publisher, never, ever, ever, inno circumstance.
So why is Amazon lying?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Amy, isn't that wild.
And these the things that we'retalking about updating.
It's like about the author fromthe author, from the inside
flap you can even add alternateback cover copy.
And you know some clients orsome authors excuse me, they
don't always release a printbook right away Sometimes the
Kindle edition, where you don'thave a back cover copy.
You know what I mean.
So it's so great.
(06:28):
These fields are fantasticbecause and we've done shows on
this before, so anybody that'sbeen listening for a while knows
all these author central fieldsare fantastic opportunities to
work in keywords, to connectwith your market, to talk about
your new unique selling points,your unique point of view, dig
deeper into who you are as anauthor, your story.
I mean it's amazing, but theseare quite literally only fields
that are offered through AuthorCentral.
(06:49):
They are not on the KDPpublishing side.
They don't exist anywhere else.
So just the fact that Amazon'serror is saying you don't have
access to this, you need to workwith your publisher is just
mind-numbing, right, becausethat's a contradiction in itself
.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, there's no way that that, but it will send
authors.
It will send authors down arabbit hole.
Now, I don't know why you thinkthat Author Central is doing
this, but I think that.
So Amazon gets glitchy.
Right, that's number one.
They get glitchy and then theyjust let their support people in
(07:26):
India, these poor people likejust get all these random emails
from authors like I can'tupdate my.
One thing I know has alwaysbeen true is that Amazon will
block, like if you have apublisher, amazon will block
your ability to edit youreditorial, to go into your
editorial reviews page.
That's always been a thing,because the publisher sets it up
(07:47):
that way that they own it.
But generally speaking, authorscan update anything else on
their Author Central page.
That's never been an issue.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Right, and this reminds me of when did this
happen, penny?
Where your description, wherethat got really wonky.
Remember that.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you knowwhere you're used to.
We're used to easily be able togo to Author Central and update
your book description and itwould appear the way it was
supposed to, and then it justwent haywire.
Yes, the formatting was bad andit just got so complicated and
(08:18):
we eventually started tellingpeople, like don't do that, just
don't do that, like don't evengo there, it's going to screw it
up, it's going to be hard toget it fixed, like all that, and
this has shades of that.
You know what I mean With thelike oh, you can't ask.
Like all of a sudden, nowthey're just pulling things away
that they shouldn't be pullingaway, and even according to
their own instructions and theirown support pages, these are
(08:40):
things that they say areavailable to authors through
Author Central.
Very clearly, there's nothingupdated in the instructions or
in the support pages thatindicate that this is something
that publishers have controlover, because, again, as we
already said, it's just not true.
But so, to add to the confusion, you know, amazon's not even
being consistent in what they'retelling you in one place
(09:00):
contradicts what the actualinstructions are in another
place on the site.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Well, and I think that you know, when Amazon in
December of 2022, amazon changedAuthor Central and this,
obviously this date is likeburned into my memory because I
loved the way that AuthorCentral, like you could upload
video, you could do all the funthings.
You could upload pictures,multiple pictures, not just your
author.
Your author picture right, linkyour blog.
(09:26):
You could link your blog.
Oh my gosh, I missed that somuch.
That was so fun.
Amazon pulled all of that, butbefore they did that, author
Central got really wonky, likethere was all these, there's all
this weird stuff that washappening.
I really think that Amazon isgoing through another.
I mean, maybe this, maybe it'sAuthor Central is just broken,
but there's a really good chancethat Amazon is getting ready to
(09:51):
make some changes and I hopethat they're bringing back all
the old things.
I hope that they've heard mebitch about this enough that
they're like, oh, let's justshut Penny up you know what I
mean and bring these back.
That would be a best-casescenario.
Yeah, wouldn't that be thebest-case scenario?
So what have you found?
I know you said you have thesupport tickets.
I just can't even believe.
So what's the solution then?
(10:14):
So, if you have an author andwhether or not they have a
publisher.
What do you recommend that theydo to fix this or to get their
updates, so they can updatetheir to get into their author
central page at a bare minimum?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Right.
So you have to do a supportticket.
But I strongly urge you to showup with that first support
ticket with a doc, like a worddoc.
It can just be a word doc thathas all of the content you want
added and organized by thedifferent sections you want it
added to.
You know what I mean.
You have to make this easy forthem to help you.
You know, help me, help you,help me, help you, right.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Right, right, right, like one of those situations.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
So make your word doc , put in all the content that
you want under from the inside,flap about the author, from the
author from the back, coverthings like that, cover all your
bases.
Put it all in there, doublecheck it.
Have somebody else double checkit, then double check it.
Have somebody else double checkit, then double check it again,
because they're not going toedit for you Once it's up there,
and especially until they getthis resolved.
(11:13):
What goes up there is what'sgoing to be up there.
So get it all in a Word doc,make sure it's amazing have that
ready and then start yoursupport ticket and then you need
to just very explicitly askthat they update, they add all
of that content in theattachment to each individual
section, as noted in thedocument, for what it's worth.
(11:35):
I mean, it's kind of awful thata lot of people are dealing
with this, but the benefit ofthat is that Author Central is
used to getting these tickets.
So I will say this processalready from our first client
that I helped to our second wasso much simpler because I knew
exactly what to say, what torequest.
(11:56):
I had confirmed that this is aknown problem.
You know what I mean.
So when you show up reallyconfident in what you're asking
for and demanding, you get aresolution a lot quicker.
So show up prepared, open thatticket, say you need them, that
you know you can say resolutiona lot quicker.
So show up prepared, open thatticket, say you need them, that
you know you can say I don'thave access to these sections on
the backend, I'm getting anerror.
I need you to add this contentto my author central.
(12:18):
Okay, you know, and keep itvery straightforward.
I say nothing, no unnecessary.
You know information requiredbecause, again, like you already
mentioned, penny, you neverknow what kind of support person
you're getting.
And so, even if they're very,very basic level this is a known
issue on the author centralside.
So, even if it's a very basicsupport person, the simpler you
(12:41):
keep it with just demanding whatyou need done.
This is where it doesn't pay tobe nice or to say can you
please, is it possible?
None of that?
Say I need you to Pleaseconfirm when it's been completed
.
You know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Yeah, so starting the email off saying that they know
that this is a known issuemakes a difference.
They know that this is a knownissue.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
It makes a huge difference, absolutely Okay.
Yep, this is a known issue.
I'm getting an error.
I am unable to access all of myAuthor Central fields.
I have included an attachmentthat has everything I need you
to add for me, for my retailpage, you know, and essentially,
tell them you want aconfirmation when it's been
added.
Okay, ashley, just tell themyou want a confirmation when
(13:25):
it's been added, okay.
And then definitely for whatit's worth.
I mean and Amazon says this toothat updates to Author Central
happen within one to twobusiness days.
So really stick to that.
Put a reminder on your phone,on your calendar, whatever it is
.
Check your Amazon retail page,do a refresh, do a hard refresh
(13:52):
you know what I mean To reallymake sure.
Or use a browser you don't useall the time.
Try it on your phone, maybeeven and see if it's there.
If it's not go back to thatticket and ask them for a status
update.
You know, because this reallyis within one to two business
days turnaround time, you shouldhave this completed within a
week.
I know that maybe soundsterrible, but it may take a
couple emails, but just stay onthem.
Because for one of our clients,for example, they made the
updates to the paperback butthey didn't do it on the Kindle.
So we went back and said weneed you to make these updates
(14:16):
and this is where getting theright person.
We need you to do the exactsame thing you did for the print
book that you did for theKindle edition.
And we got a different supportperson and they said well, it
looks like you have to work withyour publisher.
And by then, even our clientwas like no, no, no, and he was
on top of it already.
He said so-and-so.
He named the previous supportperson, who was a manager
(14:38):
actually, he said so-and-so, wasable to do this and said it
would be done.
I need this done.
And they came back within a dayand said we've now updated your
Kindle edition as well.
So really stick to your guns.
Everybody listening to this.
It is a thing, it is a problem.
Amazon, absolutely right now,is embracing fixing it because
they know it's a known problem.
They really can't blameanything else right now.
(15:01):
I mean they may try initiallywith the publisher nonsense,
ignore that.
But just stick to your guns andjust say like, like, I need
this, I need this, I need this,you know.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
So one of the things that you and I talked about in
the green room was potentiallyself-publishing, like even if
you have a publisherself-publishing the Kindle
edition and letting thepublisher handle the print.
But that doesn't really make adifference.
I mean, I'm a huge fan of thatbecause for all the reasons that
we talked about on this show,so you know, you have access to
(15:33):
A-plus content, you have morecontrol, all the other things
but it's not a publisher issue.
This is not a publisher.
This is Amazon being weird.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yes, this is Amazon being weird.
It's not technically apublisher issue, but I, you know
, my suspicion is that because,in order to access all these
fields that we've been talkingabout and I'm just going to
repeat them because then,because those of you listening
that may have to deal with thisit's worth having them top of
mind.
You know, from the inside flap,from the back cover, about the
author all those things, those,those things, those all exist on
(16:10):
the same page that youreditorial reviews field exists
on.
And so what I'm seeing is that,if you have a publisher,
because you don't have theoption to update your editorial
reviews, that entire page thatwould give you access to
everything else that you shouldhave access to, you're being
(16:31):
blocked from.
So that's where the publisheraspect comes in.
It's not the publisher's fault,but unfortunately, for whatever
reason, amazon is now stoppingeverybody at the entrance point
to access all of those fields,whereas before you just couldn't
add editorial reviews, thatfield, that option, just wasn't
(16:53):
available to you to click on,but you could do everything else
.
But now what's happening isthat you're not even able to
access that next page where youcan get to all of those things,
and the default error message isthat you don't have access.
You are not able to edit youreditorial reviews.
You need to contact yourpublisher to do this for you,
(17:13):
and it very specifically in bothof the error messages I have
seen called out the editorialreviews as being the problem.
So I thought, yeah, so that wasreally interesting.
I thought so very much.
Amazon is flagging for that and, for whatever reason, their
system is now just stopping youa step too soon, so you still
(17:34):
don't have access to all theother things you should have
access to, whether you have apublisher or not.
So that's where the weirdglitch is happening.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, that's super weird.
Have you seen this issue pop upwith— have you seen Amazon say
to authors you have to gothrough your publisher, even if
they've self-published?
I mean, has Amazon just gottenthat far gone?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I have not seen, I have not personally experienced
that with a client that is fullyself-published across the board
.
No, okay, okay, this has onlybeen for clients that have a
publisher or that at least useda publishing service which I
won't name.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
But still Right, right, right, right.
Yeah, it's a little, which Iwon't name, but still Right,
right, right, right.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yeah, it's a little, it's, it's, it's, it's really
huh, no, I was going to saysorry, that's just.
The extra frustrating part toois that you know whether you use
a publisher or publishingservice.
Even this is happening and it'slike when you have a publishing
service.
I think those authorseventually figure out that you
know getting things changed andaltered and stuff is a little
(18:42):
more challenging because it'sjust a different relationship.
But what's really a bummer isthat these people that have
publishers, that have a goodrelationship with their
publishers, have a great contact.
That's super helpful and that'sthe case with one of our
clients.
But I felt bad too because thepublisher is coming back saying
I swear I can't access thosefields.
Nothing that we have gives usthose options and I was able to
(19:03):
at least tell the client like,yeah, that is the case.
You know what I mean?
They are not.
But think of all the authorsout there, penny, that are
hearing contradicting statementsfrom Amazon and their publisher
.
And who do they trust at thatpoint?
You know they're being shutdown on both sides, yeah, and
who do they trust at that point?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
You know they're being shut down on both sides.
Yeah, yeah, and it'sinteresting because you know
we've talked about this a fewtimes Like I love me some Reddit
man.
I love like going on Reddit andresearching and whatnot.
And there's a couple of groupsthat I belong to and there have
been a couple of conversationsaround this in terms of I can't
access my other central Amazon'sgiving me a hard time, that
(19:38):
kind of thing.
So once the show drops, I'mdefinitely going to mention the
show.
And because this is, I mean, Ithink, a lot of authors, I'm
discouraged that not enoughauthors really spend a lot of
time updating their authorcentral pages.
I think that's alwaysdiscouraging to me.
(19:59):
When they don't like I'vetalked to authors before like oh
, I have an author central pageon Amazon.
I'm like, yeah, you do.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
So it's still an amazing free resource where you
have all this extra content toconvince people to read and buy
your book.
It's like what it's free fornow, right.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah, exactly, amazon decides to charge for it.
Get your account now Getgrandfathered in?
Yeah, exactly, Exactly.
But I have seen someconversation on Reddit already
from authors who were just likeyou know, I'm trying to go in
there and make changes and Idon't really know what's going
on.
So it looks to me.
It appears to me that, likeeverybody is dealing with this,
(20:38):
which is just everybody who'strying to get into Amazon and
make changes is dealing withthis, which is just crazy to me.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Right it is.
It is very frustrating andagain, I feel fortunate that I
got to see it with my own eyes,because there's nothing more
frustrating than when ourclients run into challenges, and
I you know what I mean tochallenges and I you know what I
mean.
When you, when you don'texperience something firsthand,
it's so hard to help sometimes,especially when it comes to the
Amazon beast, because how oftendo we deal with people saying
like Amazon's telling me thisand it's like, oh no, you know,
(21:08):
but it's like okay, I saw itwith my own eyes.
I went through the process withsome clients.
Now I feel pretty confidentthat this is something that is
fixable.
But I would definitely sayanybody listening that either
hasn't done this or hasn'tstepped into this area double
check what you're, you know.
Check your account, see whatyou have access to now and if
(21:31):
this wasn't a you know, if youdidn't have a reason to get
moving on this stuff previously,this should be the kick in the
butt.
You know what I mean Like getmoving on this stuff previously.
This should be the kick in thebutt.
You know what I mean Like getmoving on utilizing your account
in all of those fields, youknow.
Get that content written andcapitalize on the fact that
Amazon is being helpful andknows how to deal with this
right now.
You know because, like Pennysaid, who knows how this could
(21:54):
shift in a couple months?
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yeah, for sure, Exactly.
And then I think you know.
The other thing is, I wouldlove to know if you have
experienced this, like if any ofour listeners experience this,
let us know.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Oh yeah, especially if you're fully self-published.
I would like to know, like yousaid, penny, if anybody's
dealing with that that hasn'tused a publisher or publishing
service and you're still stillhaving issues accessing, because
that would be another layer tothis and I'd love to know the
error they're giving you withthe excuse.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Right, right, right.
My hope is, like I said, awhole, not hope.
I want Amazon to bring back theold Author Central.
That would make me really happy.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
No, bring back a Goodreads integration on the
Amazon side.
I would love that.
If they need ideas, I haveideas.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Amazon ask us what we want.
We have, as usual, check withAmy and Penny.
First Check with Amy and Pennybefore you make changes.
Thank you very much, amazon.
We appreciate that.
Yeah, I am.
I'm really glad that we did ashow on this.
Again, we've done, you know, wehave done so many Amazon alert
shows this year it's I waslooking back through the arc.
(23:00):
It's kind of crazy how manyalert shows that we've done.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
So I know, I know, but here's another one.
If anything, stay tuned to makesure you're always on top of
the Amazon changes so your bookdoesn't get lost.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Subscribe to the show so youget updates every time.
We release a show every Fridayso you can listen to us.
You know, when somebody uh,write us the other day and he's
like I listened to you on mybike rides, now I'm like dude,
that's amazing.
Um, just be, just be careful,look out for traffic, all the
things, um, but subscribe to theshow.
(23:36):
When you subscribe to the show,you'll be able to post a review
.
Um, for whatever reason, appledoesn't let you post a review
unless you're subscribed to theshow.
And then, like I said, you'llget alerts every time that we
drop a show.
Thank you so much for listening.
We will see you next week.
We are knee deep into September.
I love it and, um, thank you somuch for tuning in.
(24:01):
We'll see you next time.
Bye-bye.
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