Authors – make sure people can find you!

76% of Potential Clients Can’t Find You!

I posted this several years ago, and while more people now have websites then they did then, I thought it was worth re-posting… just in case…

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After reading a particular book I wanted to contact the author and couldn’t find their contact info anywhere.  Not at the front of the book, nor at the end.  I Googled them and their book to no avail.  All I could find was that it was listed on Amazon, from where I purchased it in the first place.

That started me thinking…  I know, that’s dangerous at the best of times…  🙂

So, I asked my Team of Elves to randomly select 100 books on Amazon that fit the following criteria:

  • Subject matter must be entrepreneurial in nature
  • Self-Published

That’s it.  I figured if someone has written and self-published an entrepreneurial-based book, then they most likely are wanting to use it to generate additional business.

My Elves were then asked to locate the author’s contact information using the following:

  • Amazon’s “look inside” feature and/or
  • Googling the author name and book title and using only the first page of results

My guess was that about 75% of those authors would be found fairly easily – I was totally wrong.

Of the 100 books they found:

  • 23 authors were readily located with contact information ranging from websites, email to full address and phone number
  • 1 author listed a website, however that website had no way of contacting the author!  No ‘contact us’ or even a link to an email
  • 76 authors could not be found!

Why am I telling you this?

If you are a self-published author, I strongly suggest you take a look at your own book and make sure you are not among the 76%!

…and if you now have a sinking feeling in your stomach that your contact details are not easily found at the beginning of your book or through a basic Google search, fear not!

Simply the fact that you have self-published means that you have the availability of modifying your source manuscript document to include your contact information and re-uploading it.  

All that will happen is Amazon will list your book as ‘currently unavailable’ while it is approved – then you’re ready to go!

…and remember the author in question I mentioned at the beginning of this article who started this quest?  The reason I wanted to contact them was to discuss a potential client I was wanting to refer to them…  Needless to say, that referral will go elsewhere.

Don’t miss out on business!  

Do what it takes to make sure you are easy to find!

If you would like additional support re your book, or a book you would like to write, please feel free to reach out.  I look forward to hearing from you!

~ Bella

Ms Bella St John – Founder, The Write Success