Hatrack River Writers Workshop   
my profile login | search | faq | forum home

  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Hatrack River Writers Workshop » Forums » Open Discussions About Writing » Dual Author Profiles on Amazon Kindle

   
Author Topic: Dual Author Profiles on Amazon Kindle
Natej11
Member
Member # 8547

 - posted      Profile for Natej11   Email Natej11         Edit/Delete Post 
So this is a question for all you Amazon Kindle savvy folks out there. I was reading on AgentQuery their guide for publishing on Amazon, and they recommended having two different profiles if you planned to have some books that were family friendly, and others that were more adult oriented.

The thing is I was reading through the Amazon Kindle boilerplate (yes, some people actually do slog through that wall of text) and I interpreted one section to mean that you can only have one profile up.

Is there anyone out there who's put up two profiles who could shed some light on this, or anyone who's researched it and gotten a definitive answer? My second book is targeted to a Young Adult audience, and I definitely don't want it on the same profile as my first one.

Posts: 620 | Registered: Mar 2009  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
jerich100
Member
Member # 10202

 - posted      Profile for jerich100   Email jerich100         Edit/Delete Post 
Having no experience in this matter but being highly opinionated, isn't this a common problem for all authors? Even Stephen King had a Pseudonym (Richard somebody...) because he wanted to write in a different style for a time. He eventually was "found out" after a sizable number of novels. If he can do it, then so can everyone else.

Isn't there a contact at Amazon you could query about this to get better advice?

Posts: 92 | Registered: Dec 2013  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
jerich100
Member
Member # 10202

 - posted      Profile for jerich100   Email jerich100         Edit/Delete Post 
Richard Bachman was Stephen King's pseudonym.

Check it out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bachman

King even had a fake picture taken of him. [Smile]

Posts: 92 | Registered: Dec 2013  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Grumpy old guy
Member
Member # 9922

 - posted      Profile for Grumpy old guy   Email Grumpy old guy         Edit/Delete Post 
Who says I'm who I say I am.

Phil.
Or maybe not

Posts: 1937 | Registered: Sep 2012  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Natej11
Member
Member # 8547

 - posted      Profile for Natej11   Email Natej11         Edit/Delete Post 
So I just put up my second book on Kindle, the Young Adult novel Corsairs by Nate Jones. During the process I had a chance to answer my initial question and then some, so let me tell you what I've learned.

First off no, it's not permissible to have multiple publishing accounts on Kindle. The idea is that as an account you're acting as an independent publisher, not just an author. So if you want to put up books with different pen names under your publishing account you can do that, but 2 accounts is a big no-no.

With Kindle's Author Central they allow you to make author pages where you can put up your profile, blog, etc, and link those pages to specific pen names and their books on Amazon. This means that after you set up the initial author page with whatever pen name you have on your books, if you create a new pen name you can create a new author page on your Author Central account. You can have up to 4, and the pages are easy to swap between.

The process is as follows. First you add a book to your initial author page's bibliography. A prompt will come up stating that the author for the page your using is not credited for that book, and it will ask if you're using a pen name. If you say yes then it will offer to create a new author page for that pen name, which you can then link the book to. From what I've researched this is the only way to create a new author page for a new pen name.

WARNING. I found this out in an uncomfortable way, since my two books, Corsairs and Salzan, and two pen names, Nate Jones and Nathan Jones, are for vastly different target audiences. One is for Young Adults, the other is for decidedly adult content. I don't know if my pen names were too similar, or if there was a glitch, but when I selected the book to add it put it on my initial author page without giving me the pen name/create new author page prompt. There is no way to remove linked books without contacting Amazon Support and asking them to do it. Amazon Support was very quick and reliable for this, but it was still a hassle and a concern that some readers looking at my YA novel would run across my adult novel by accident.

To reiterate, creating a new author page for a different pen name is gated behind adding a book to your current author page. Which means it either works like it should or the book is added to your current page and can only be removed with the help of Support. You won't know until you click to add it and it doesn't work like it should. IMO a horrible design flaw and needlessly irksome, but there it is.

So that was my experience with posting a new book under a new pen name and then creating a separate author page for it. All in all it worked out well, but not without a few bumps along the road. In many ways, though, it's very easy to do, as is the entire process of publishing on Amazon, and I've been pretty satisfied with it.

Although you probably want to make your pen names more dissimilar just to be on the safe side, which was a mistake I'm kind of beating myself upside the head for.

Posts: 620 | Registered: Mar 2009  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Kathleen Dalton Woodbury
Administrator
Member # 59

 - posted      Profile for Kathleen Dalton Woodbury   Email Kathleen Dalton Woodbury         Edit/Delete Post 
Thank you, Natej11. That should be very helpful.
Posts: 8826 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Natej11
Member
Member # 8547

 - posted      Profile for Natej11   Email Natej11         Edit/Delete Post 
I should also add that from your Amazon Kindle Publishing page you can get to a community forum that's surprisingly active, with a lot of knowledgeable posters. That's where I found the answer to many of my questions, and I'd recommend it if you're having trouble with something for Amazon Kindle.
Posts: 620 | Registered: Mar 2009  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
   

   Close Topic   Feature Topic   Move Topic   Delete Topic next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:


Contact Us | Hatrack River Home Page

Copyright © 2008 Hatrack River Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.


Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classic™ 6.7.2