Email Us: aspiringauthors@alphapublisher.com.
Call Us: 650 - 887 - 3062.
Welcome to the
Author Community !
The Alpha Book Publisher-sponsored Author Community is a writing community whose members have published at least 1 or more books with Alpha Book Publisher with the primary goal of providing support, encouragement, helping one another to improve character and writing style through a reciprocal feedback loop and a dedicated space to help authors promote their books without the need for the author to spend money out-of-pocket to achieve the same objectives.
What the Author Community is NOT:
1. The Author Community is currently not a forum or a platform where you can sign up and login into a platform and interact with other authors.
2. The Author Community is currently not hosting writing contests and offering prizes related to these writing contests.
3. The Author Community is currently not a space for getting real-time assistance in writing or ghostwriting an author's book.
The Alpha Book Publisher-sponsored Author Community is a fairly new project, free to join by all published authors, and is a work-in-progress as the platform will work on gradually introducing all the aforementioned aspects above which is currently not part of the Author Community.
Getting Started:
In order to kickstart the Marketing Initiatives available to you within the scope of the Author Community, here are the next steps we need you to do:
NEXT STEPS:
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Activate Your ‘Amazon Author Central Page’: https://author.amazon.com/home.
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Create Your Google Business Profile Page. https://www.google.com/business/
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Complete the Sign up for the Publisher-Sponsored Periodic Purchase of Books & Editorial Feedback, and Accept the Terms and Conditions.
The first two (2) steps can be done with the assistance of a professional from Alpha Book Publisher.
The remaining (2) steps must be completed by the author without the presence of a professional from
Alpha Book Publisher.
1. Activate your 'AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL' Page.
According to Amazon: Joining Amazon Author Central lets you take control of your Author Profile on Amazon, Audible, and in Kindle books. Claim your Author Page to get started.
How To Setup Your Author Central Account
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Go to https://authorcentral.amazon.com/ and click “Join for free.”
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Sign in with your regular Amazon username and password. If you don’t have an account, select “I am a new customer.” You’ll need to give a little more information.
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Read the Terms and Conditions, then click “Accept.”
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Enter your author name, pen name, or book title into the search field. A list of possible books appears. (Once your account gets set up, you can add more titles by clicking on the “Books” tab in the navigation menu and select the blue button labeled “Add a Book.”)
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Select any one of your books to create the account. If your book is not on the list, you can search for it by title or ISBN. (Note: Your book must be available for purchase on Amazon to set up an Author Central Amazon Account.)
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Amazon will send you a confirmation email to finish creating the account. (Amazon may contact your publisher(s) as an additional measure to verify your identity, which may take three to seven days.)
While you’re waiting for verification, you can start adding information to your Author Page. You cannot add or make changes to your books or blog until your identity is confirmed, but don’t let that stop you from getting started. You can start adding things like pictures and a bio right away.
2. Create your Google Business Profile Page.
According to Loqalik:
Google My Business is like a virtual phonebook. Not only does Google My Business make your business easier to find on Google, but online directories such as Google My Business help you to reach potential customers that would otherwise not know how to find you.
Google My Business is a free tool that allows your business listing to show up alongside other related local businesses whenever someone looks up your business name or a related term. Your business information like your phone number, website, address, review ratings, hours, and more will all be available on one easy screen for potential customers.
As an author, your business is your book. Your business name will be your book title. To create your Google Business Profile today, click this link:
https://www.google.com/business/.
What You Need to Get Started:
1. A Gmail account, or be willing to create one.
2. A U.S mailbox, as long as you're a US resident.
Step 1: Start by going to google.com/business
Be sure to bookmark this address, as you’ll need it to access your Google Business Profile listing in the future.
Step 2: Log in with your Google account
If you don’t have a Google account, visit google.com/accounts. You’ll be able to create a free account with any email address.
Step 3: Enter your business name
Be sure you spell your name correctly and use Title Case (where you capitalize the first letter of each word.) This is the first impression for a customer, and you want to make sure it’s a positive experience.
Step 4: Choose your Primary business category
Choosing your primary category is very important because it dictates where and when you will show up on Google searches. Google is all about relevance, so if a potential customer searches for “Italian Restaurant” but you’re a pizza place, then you may not show up. If the customer searches for “Best pizza near me,” then you’d have a much better chance of your business profile showing up in the search results.
As an author, your business category is: book store.
Currently, Google does not have a specific setting for authors.
Step 5: Do you want to add a location customers can visit, like a store or office?
On the selection, click NO.
This way, customers will not be able to visit your home address in order to buy a book. They can continue to purchase the book(s) from any of the distribution channel it is available in, in whatever format (eBook or paperback/physical) they choose.
Step 6: Where do you serve your customers?
Here’s where you choose whether you want customers to visit your storefront or if you work from home or would prefer your customers don’t visit your office, you can choose a mile radius around your business, a specific city or state, or a group of zip codes.
Enter the next 3 geographical locations.
The Country You Live In: (United States) for example
The City You Live In: (Los Angeles) for example
The State You Live In: (New York) for example
According to Google, this will help bring relevant customers.
Step 7: Add your phone number and website
Both phone calls and website clicks are tracked by Google Business Profile, so make sure your information is correct here.
It's ok to add your phone number. You may change it later.
The website would be the link to your Author/Book Page.
Step 8: Add your mailing address
The address you provide here will be hidden from the public. Post office boxes are not eligible. After adding your home address, Google will send you a postcard within 14 days or earlier.
According to Google, to manage your business information in Search, Maps, and other Google properties, you must verify your business listing. The verification process helps Google make sure your business information is accurate and that only you, the business owner or manager, has access to it.
Step 9: Add Business Hours
Click on each day, and type in 24 hours.
The end result should look like this:
Sunday - 24 hours
Monday - 24 hours
Tuesday - 24 hours
Wednesday - 24 hours
Thursday - 24 hours
Friday - 24 hours
Saturday - 24 hours
Step 10: Add Business Description
The Business Description in this case, is your Book Description, or 'About the Book.'
You may skip this step and go back to it later if you're not able to locate your book description right now.
Step 11: Add Photos
This is your chance to add any of the following images and pictures that describe your book, and they are:
1. Front cover
2. Back Cover
3. Author Photo
You may skip this step and go back to it later if you're not able to locate your book description right now.
Step 12: Postcard Mailing within 14 Days
After completing step 11, Google may or may not ask you for additional information. After you complete the information, Google will send you a postcard within 14 days to the mailing address you entered.
Here is what the Google Postcard looks like:
Once you receive the postcard in your mailbox within 14 days from now, send an email to the Alpha Publishing Team to: team@alphapublisher.com , titled: Postcard Arrived.
The Alpha Publishing Team will assist you in verifying your Google Business Profile using the verification code from the postcard that was mailed to you from Google.
3. Complete the Sign-Up:
A: If you haven't already, fill out the Marketing Initiative Enrollment Forn by clicking this link here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfUPb0lhv_uqh_3CU7pqO03CSz3q8HbK5Ltk5UHyZx_baZ3_Q/viewform
After completing all the steps above, and while you're in the 14-day waiting period for the postcard to arrive from Google to your mailbox, the following actions will occur:
1. Your book will be purchased by a member of our Sales Team within 14 days from now, Initiating the Publisher-Sponsored Periodic Purchase of Books.
2. You will receive a confirmation email from the Alpha Sales Team, of the number of books purchased, the frequency of the number of books that will be purchased, royalties payout info, and payout dates -which are slightly different from the existing Royalties Information.
3. Once the book is purchased, it is donated to any of our volunteer readers. You will be notified through an automated email that a volunteer reader has been assigned to read portions or the entirety of your book.
4. After reading portions or all of your book, the volunteer reader gives feedback of your book.
5. An automated email will be sent to you, which will include the feedback given by the volunteer reader.
6. If you accept the feedback, it will be added to your Amazon or Google Business Profile page. The feedback from the volunteer reader effectively becomes a book review.
Below we talk about the two most important benefits:
Greater Visibility, Greater Chance of Getting Found
Book reviews give books greater visibility and a greater chance of getting found by more readers.
On some websites, books that have more book reviews are more likely to be shown to prospective readers and buyers as compared to books with few or no book reviews.
Book reviews also help amplify your book’s reach among book clubs, bookstores, blogging communities and other opportunities to gain attention from new readers.
For an author, book reviews can open doors to new and bigger audiences.
More Sales
Have you ever heard the phrase “Success begets success?” Or the term “social proof?” Books that have a lot of book reviews appear to be popular books. It’s human nature for people to be curious about what looks popular and want to check it out for themselves. As a result, a good number of book reviews can help lead to a snowball effect of book sales.
In other words, the presence of book reviews can help validate the worthiness of a book and establish who the book’s audience is. Then once validated, other similar people are much more likely to want to join their peers and buy that same book.