The Free Amazon Tools Most Indie Authors Are Botching

If you’ve published a book on Amazon, you already have an author page. It’s there whether you’ve touched it or not, and most of the time it’s a blob doing absolutely nothing for you. This week on You Should Totally Write That, LL Kirchner and I go deep on two free Amazon tools almost every indie author underuses: Author Central and A+ Content.Sounds boring, but it’s not. In fact, we use the word “pizzazz” more than once.Author Central is your friend. This is the back end of your Amazon presence, separate from KDP. Inside, you can update your bio and photo, add editorial reviews, upload book trailers, see your follower count, and track your sales rank across every title. There’s also a Q and A feature where Amazon prompts you with questions like “what book do you recommend.” That’s a sneaky way to associate yourself with a comp author. I list Ellie Alexander on mine because Ellie is a top cozy author, her voice matches mine, and she’s an all around awesome person.Your bio should serve you, not summarize you. Don’t list every job you’ve ever had. If you write psychological suspense set in 1995 Pittsburgh, say that. The detail is searchable. Generic is invisible. And put a real photo up, if at all possible. AI scrapers and readers both clock the difference between a human face and a logo.The Amazon follow button is free marketing. Use it. When a reader follows you on Amazon and you release a new book, Amazon emails them. Promote that follow button in your newsletter, in your social bios, anywhere readers ask for links.A+ Content lives on KDP, not Author Central. This is where you build the visual blocks on your book page: banner graphics, tropes lists, character profiles, comparison images, pull quotes from reviews. I make mine in Canva and use the same template sizes across every book. Since I started populating A+ Content on all my titles, my product pages feel optimized in a way they didn’t before. Whether it’s juicing the algorithm or just stopping the scroll, it’s working.If you only do one thing this week, refresh your author photo and add a follow call to action to your bio. Then go look at A+ Content. It’s free. It’s there. Use it.Tools referenced* Amazon Author Central* Amazon KDP dashboard* Amazon A+ Content (under Marketing in KDP)* Amazon Follow button* Canva (for A+ Content templates)* Amazon BookScan (for trad-pubbed authors)* Draft2Digital (mentioned as an aggregator option)* Barnes & Noble author profile* Google Play Books and Apple Books author profiles* Goodreads (as a source for editorial review pull quotes)What we’re reading* Tara: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, an amazing audiobook narrated by Ruby Dee. Part of an all-Florida reading list she’s attempting for the rest of the year.* LL: We Burned So Bright by TJ Klune, audiobook. A standalone end-of-the-world road trip novel following an elder gay couple, Don and Rodney, with a rogue black hole closing in on Earth. Recommended by a street team member on TikTok. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit youshouldtotallywritethat.substack.com