What Is Amazon Author Central?

Author Central is where you run your Amazon Author Page. That is the page that gathers all your books under your name, carries your bio, and lets readers follow you. Claiming one is free: you join Author Central with your KDP account details and claim the page from one of your books. Publishing on KDP does not set it up for you, so a new author has to claim it. Once it's live, Author Central lets you add your books and a biography in several languages, and see Best Sellers Rank, customer reviews and your follower count.

---

The longer version

Why it is worth ten minutes

Without a claimed page, your name on a product page leads nowhere useful. With one, readers who finish a book can see everything else you've written, and they can follow you. That Follow button is the part that pays off over time. Followers may be emailed about your new releases and pre-orders, if they accept marketing emails and have not already ordered the book. It is the closest thing Amazon offers to a mailing list you don't have to build yourself, though you see only a count, never the readers.

How to claim your page

1. Sign in to KDP and open the Marketing page.
2. In the Author Central section, choose a marketplace and select Manage author page.
3. Join Author Central using your KDP account details.
4. Find one of your books by ISBN, ASIN or author name, then confirm you are that author.
5. Fill in the page: add your bio and check that every book under your name is listed.

The claim starts from a book, so you need one listed on Amazon before you can do it.

Which Amazon stores it covers

You can edit a page on Amazon.com, .co.uk, .de, .fr, .co.jp and .com.br. You choose the marketplace when you open Author Central from KDP, so go back and do the same for each of those stores you sell in.

Amazon also shows Author Pages in India, Italy, Spain, Australia, Canada and Mexico when your books are on sale there. Those pages copy what is on your US page, and you can't edit them yet. Get the US page right first.

Two features work on Amazon.com only: adding editorial reviews and viewing BookScan sales data.

Pen names

Amazon builds an Author Page around the name on the book, so each pen name gets its own page, with its own bio and its own followers. That is what you want if you keep identities apart. It is also why changing your author name later means starting a new page.

Your KDP account is a separate matter: every pen name lives inside one account. You may hold one account at a time, and may not open another after Amazon terminates yours.

Amazon's public help doesn't say how many pen names one Author Central login can manage. If your dashboard doesn't offer a way to add another name, contact Author Central support rather than opening a second KDP account.

---

Common exceptions

• Other stores have their own versions. Apple Books, Kobo and Google Play don't read your Amazon page. A wide author keeps a profile on each store.
• Your bio is reader-facing copy. Write it for the reader of your genre, not as a CV. The author media kit answer has bio lengths worth keeping on file.
• BookScan figures are not your royalty report. They are a separate sales measure, available on Amazon.com only. Your payments still come from KDP's reports.

---

Related questions

• How do I self-publish a book on Amazon KDP?
• Can I publish under a pen name?
• Can I change my author name after publishing?
• What should be in an author media kit?

Sources

• Amazon KDP Help: Author Central (sign-up route, marketplaces, features and US-only features).
• KDP Terms and Conditions (last updated 27 September 2024): the one-account rule.

Platform facts are quoted from the AuthorAZ record for Amazon KDP. Verified 15 October 2026.