Maybe you’re a little shy and an in-person book event might not be your thing. Or maybe you lead an extremely busy life and simply don’t have the time to schedule multiple book promotion events.

If you agree with either of the previous statements, you might start getting nervous that your book won’t receive the proper promotion that it deserves.

Amazon, the largest online retailer in the world, offers a free service known as Amazon Author Central. This service will give you the opportunity to promote your book on your own time.

Through this online resource, you will be able to blog, show off any recent accolades and updates, and even participate in a group discussion. Essentially, you create an author page that serves as a one-stop-shop for potential readers to learn all they can about you and your book.

Getting started is easy. The first thing that you will need to do is set up your free Amazon Author Central account. Simply follow the prompts on the site and add the information as requested.

Once you have created your own page, the following pieces of advice can help you maximize your presence on Amazon Author Central.

• Don’t stop with just the basic information. Rather, develop your page in order to increase your credibility and accessibility. This could, in turn, increase your book sales.

• As mentioned before, you have the ability to blog on this site. If you are new to blogging, take a look at our previous post Creating a Blog, Part Two: Content is King for some tips and advice on how to develop engaging blog content. Aside from that, we can offer you some simple, but crucial, advice: always use spell check before you publish your blog.Add pictures and engaging content. This will make your profile more eye-catching, and will keep visitors engaged with your author page as they’re browsing your photos. The more time they invest in your site, the more opportunity your story has to entice them to purchase your book or make contact with you.

• Amazon Author Central also allows you to upload a book trailer – a short commercial designed to pique readers’ excitement about your book. Dorrance offers two book trailer options to meet your production needs – learn more!

• Keep your readers in the loop. If you do have an upcoming event scheduled, be sure to list all of the pertinent information, such as when and where the engagement will take place. And don’t forget to post event photos!

• Tag you’re it. Tags, as they are called, are keywords or category labels that you can put on your book within the site. Tagging your book with keywords can increase your exposure. If someone searches for that keyword, your book has a better chance to appear in the search results. Additionally, once you have initiated the tag, ask others to tag it with the same keyword. The more people that tag the keyword on your book, the more likely it is that your book will appear higher in the search results.

These are just a few pieces of advice that you can turn to when launching your author page on Amazon Author Central. As always, use your creativity and explore the site to find new, imaginative ways to promote your book through this valuable tool. Have fun!