Howard Brown keeps ‘Shining Brightly’ by contributing to uplifting books—like this new one on ‘Gratitude’

Over the years, many of my author friends have been asked to contribute to books that collect writings from various authors under an important and timely theme. The list of author friends who have contributed to such collected works is long, including Brenda Rosenberg, Daniel Buttry, Benjamin Pratt, David Gushee, Annie Reinking—and there are so many more that I will stop there.

You get the idea. Once authors are published and people become aware of their stories and insights, they are likely to get invitations to contribute to collaborative projects.

I’m writing this column because my own latest collaboration was just recently released worldwide: The Art Of Connection: 365 Days of Gratitude Quotes by Entrepreneurs, Business Owners, and Influencers.

If you click on that link and visit the book’s Amazon page—take a look at the “Follow the Authors” area just below the photos of the book’s cover. In that section of the page, click on the “Follow the Authors … See All” link—and that takes you to a side-scrolling view of many of the contributors, including me.

This is a valuable marketing opportunity. For example, readers who already are “following” me on Amazon  received a reminder that this new book is coming. And, I now am able to feature that book on my Howard Brown author page on Amazon.

I’m writing this column both to celebrate this book’s debut—and you can see a new podcast I produced with Robert W. Jones below—and I’m also writing to suggest that more authors “claim” other books to which they have contributed. Some of the authors who are part of our publishing community already do that—the best-selling author David Gushee, for example. But others have not even set up their author pages in Amazon, yet, or have not claimed all the titles to which they have contributed.

The process is straight-forward: But, first, you have to claim your official Amazon author page. Once you’ve done that, you can add the books that already have your author credit on those Amazon book pages. That’s relatively easy.

Here’s what takes a little bit of time: To claim a book to which you have contributed, but may not be listed already as one of the authors, click on the “add a book” link on your author page and identify the book you’re trying to add. (It’s handy to have the ISBN number to quickly identify that book.) Then, because you are not already listed by Amazon as an author on that book (your contribution is inside the book but not on the front cover)—you need to click the link to contact Amazon support. In contacting “support,” explain that you are trying to add a book to which you have contributed. You will need to provide information about your chapter or chapters. You may be asked for additional information, and this process can take a bit of time, but eventually that book shows up on your author page—and you show up on that book’s page as a co-author—and ultimately your entire body of work is enhanced.

Your search strength grows!

Then, let me introduce you to Robert W. Jones …

As I say in the introduction, “Robert W. Jones is a multi-time best-selling author, radio show host and long-time entrepreneur … he is a thought-leader behind the book series The Art of Connection … and a builder of global communities.”