Last reviewed February 23, 2026 against Amazon’s current KDP help page for Author Central.

Next time you’re browsing Amazon, tap the name under a book title and look at where you end up. Some authors have a proper page with a photo, a bio that actually says something, and a full shelf of titles. Others have a name and a single book, as if they never got round to it. Readers notice, even if they couldn’t tell you why a page feels more trustworthy. Nine times out of ten, the explanation is just Amazon Author Central: somebody set it up and looked after it, or somebody didn’t.

It’s a free tool, and it’s the only way to control how that page looks. You connect your books to your name, write the bio, add a photo, and check reviews, rank and your follower count. Below we go through what you can do with it, how it’s different from KDP, how to register, and how to keep each part of your profile in decent shape. Not everything works in every country, so we say so whenever that matters.

Author Central and KDP are Not the Same Thing

The two get lumped together because they share a login and live under the Amazon roof, but each has its own purpose.

If that’s still fuzzy, think of KDP as the book side and Author Central as the author side. We also cover how the two fit together in our guide on how Amazon KDP and Author Central work together.

What you Get

Amazon’s KDP help page lists what authors can do there: add books to the Author Page, write a biography in different languages, check the Best Sellers Rank, read customer reviews, and see the number of Amazon followers. Add editorial reviews and see BookScan sales information too, though both of those are marked as US only.

That “US only” tag is worth pausing on, because it tells you Author Central isn’t one product that looks the same everywhere.

Which Marketplaces Count

Amazon puts its stores in two buckets. In the first, you can set up and manage your own account. In the second, Amazon makes an Author Page for you if your books are sold there, copying the information from the US store, and you can’t change it right now.

So if you sell beyond the US, go and look at each store that matters to you rather than assuming your US page tags along. The fact that Amazon asks which marketplace you want while you create the account is a pretty good sign that each one is handled on its own.

Registering

What follows is taken from Amazon’s current KDP help page. Amazon likes to rename buttons, so if your screen differs from what we describe, believe your screen.

• Sign in to KDP and open the Marketing page.
• In the Author Central section, use the drop-down to choose the marketplace for your Author Page.
• Click Manage author page.
• You’ll be taken to Author Central. Click Join for free and sign up with your KDP account information.
• Search for one of your books by ISBN, ASIN or author name.
• Click it, then click Yes, join as “your author name.”

If you don’t have a KDP account, go directly to author.amazon.com and choose Join for free. You’ll still need a book that’s already listed on Amazon, because that’s what the whole sign-up is built around.

Most authors should start in the store where the bulk of their readers are, which for many of you is Amazon.com. Got a real audience in the UK, Germany, France, Japan or Brazil as well? Run through the same steps there too, since those are the other stores where you get to manage the page yourself.

As for proving you’re the author, there isn’t much more to it than the book you select. You search, pick the title, and confirm you’re joining under that name. Which is exactly why you shouldn’t claim anything that isn’t yours, even if another writer’s name is close to your own. A wrong claim leaves readers confused and can cause trouble for your account later. And if you can’t find your book, or the name that shows up is wrong, contact Author Central support through Amazon’s contact page. We can’t tell you how long they take, because Amazon doesn’t publish that, and we’d rather say so than guess.

Pulling your Whole Catalog Together

Joining with one book is really only the start. What helps readers is seeing everything you’ve written in one place, so that someone who finished your first novel on Sunday can find your second by Monday.

Add every book, old ones included. When the ebook, paperback and hardcover appear as separate listings, add each of them. After a new release, open Author Central and make sure the title made it onto your page; if it didn’t, search by ISBN, ASIN or title and add it yourself.

One thing to keep straight: with books published through KDP, you change the description in KDP and not in Author Central. If you want editions or volumes that Amazon hasn’t connected to be linked, KDP help has a section about that as well.

Now and then a book simply refuses to appear. Maybe it won’t turn up in search, maybe the whole Author Page is missing, maybe editions won’t link. We wrote a separate walkthrough for those cases, Missing Amazon Author Page? How to Claim Your Profile, so start there, and get in touch with Author Central support if you’re still stuck afterwards.

The Bio

Of everything on the page, the bio is probably where readers make up their minds about you. You can add it in different languages, which is useful if you sell in more than one market.

Write it in the third person, the way you’d see it printed inside a book. Begin with your name and what you write, then give the reader something real about why you write it. Leave out the résumé voice. Someone thinking about buying your book isn’t interested in every job you’ve held, only in who you are.

A few things tend to work. Say your genre or subject early, so a reader knows straight away whether you’re for them. If your background relates to your books, mention it: nonfiction readers like a reason to trust you, and with fiction it shows your voice. Name your other books or series so people have somewhere to go next. And include one personal detail, however small, because that’s what makes a name read like a human being.

Keep it fairly short. Author Central displays the current length limit while you edit, and most visitors won’t read a long bio anyway. Preview before saving, and come back to it when something actually changes, like a new release or a prize. There’s nothing worse than a bio that still describes your debut when you’ve got five books out; it looks like you stopped caring.

The Photo

The photo sits next to your name, so people take it in before they’ve read a word of the bio.

Amazon sets the technical requirements for uploads and changes them occasionally, so follow whatever Author Central tells you at upload time. Past that, it’s common sense: natural light, a plain background, a picture that looks like you right now. A phone is perfectly good for this. A fuzzy crop from a group photo is not. If you write under a pen name and would rather keep your face off the page, choose an image that still looks like you picked it on purpose.

Swap it out when your appearance changes noticeably. It’s one of the easiest ways to make the page look alive.

Customer Reviews and Editorial Reviews

Author Central handles reviews in two separate ways, and people often blur them together.

Customer reviews are what readers write on Amazon. You can read them through Author Central but you can’t edit or remove them, so treat them as feedback instead of something to manage. When several readers praise or complain about the same thing, pay attention, because it can shape your next book or the next rewrite of your description.

Editorial reviews are something else: quotes from outside people, such as other authors, reviewers, publications or experts in your subject, that you add yourself. Amazon lists this as a US only feature, so don’t expect it in every marketplace.

The thing to take seriously is that these have to be genuine. Don’t invent them, don’t publish them under a made-up name, and please don’t have a relative pose as a critic. Honest praise from someone else builds trust, while fake praise risks your reputation and your account. If this is your first book and you don’t know anyone well known, don’t worry about it. A fellow author in your genre, or someone working in your field, will often persuade an undecided reader more than a famous name who never opened the book. Ask early, send advance copies, and allow time for people to read.

Followers

Readers can press the Follow button on your Author Page or on your book’s detail page, and Author Central shows you how many Amazon customers follow you.

Amazon describes when notifications go out on its KDP help page. A follower can be told about a release or a pre-order, but only when the book qualifies, the follower allows marketing emails from Amazon, and they haven’t already ordered the new book. Amazon may also consider sending email notifications when you submit at least three new book recommendations, whether those are your own books or someone else’s. Followers are a genuine plus, then, but the decision about whether a notification gets sent belongs to Amazon.

Rank and sales numbers

Beyond the public profile, you can look at your Amazon Best Sellers Rank here and, in the US, BookScan sales information. They’re handy when you want to see if something you did, like a promotion or a podcast interview, moved the needle. They won’t replace your KDP reports, though, which is still where royalty and order details live.

The Blog Feature You May Read About

Older Author Central tutorials often describe connecting a blog through an RSS feed. That isn’t on the list of features Amazon publishes on its current KDP help page, and a number of recent guides say it was taken away. Don’t plan around it. If your own dashboard still shows a blog option, think of it as a bonus. The bio and the books should be what holds the page up.

A Note on Availability

Amazon labels editorial reviews and BookScan as US only, and Author Pages in India, Italy, Spain, Australia, Canada and Mexico are built from US information and can’t currently be edited. For anything without a US only label, look at your own dashboard in each marketplace before you count on it. Amazon can change what it offers, and its help page is the best place to confirm.

Author SEO, Briefly

When the profile is set up, a handful of habits help it perform. Claim every book, keep the bio current, use a clear photo, and give the page some reason to exist besides a list of titles.

Optimization and author SEO are big topics and we’d rather not squeeze them in here. Our guides on how to optimize your Amazon Author Central page and Amazon author SEO tips most authors ignore cover them properly.

Common Mistakes

• Claiming a book that isn’t yours.
• Stopping at one title, which wastes the chance to show your full catalog.
• Not checking your books list after a new release.
• Leaving an old bio and photo in place.
• Assuming a single profile covers every marketplace.
• Following an old tutorial that describes a feature you can’t find, which may simply have been retired.

Need a Hand With Your Author Profile?

If you’d rather be writing than clicking through platform settings, our team can help with your Amazon page optimization, from the bio to the way your books are presented. Whichever way you go, a complete and honest Author Page is one of the simplest things you can do for readers who have already found your book.