Vegan Survival Tips for Menorca, Spain

Posted on 02/27/2021 by Ingrid Haunold

Please note: This article was first published on The Vegan Tourist and last updated May 12, 2013.

Even though this blog is called The Vegan Tourist, I haven’t done much travelling lately. I finally did manage to take a vacation in April, and spent 11 days on the island of Menorca, Spain.

Menorca is the second largest island of the Balearic Islands, but nevertheless quite small. It’s approximately 50 km east to west, and about 25 km north to south. About 40 % of the island is classified as a Biosphere Reserve.

For vegan travellers, a trip to Menorca requires a bit of forward planning. The Spanish aren’t known for their vegan cuisine. In Spain, it’s all about meat and fish.

So here are 10 vegan survival tips for Menorca:

1) Visit after May 1st – this is when the tourist season starts on the island. We arrived on April 21st and left on May 1st, and during our stay, many restaurants were still closed. Menorca pretty much closes down during the off-season, we even saw a supermarket that was still closed in April and set to open May 2nd (May 1st is a holiday in Spain). As a vegan, your choices in restaurants are limited anyway, and before May you’ll have even fewer choices.

© Ingrid Haunold

2) Stay in Maó (also called Mahon), Menorca’s capital. It’s the island’s largest city (29.000 inhabitants), and its port – which is approximately 5 km long and one of the largest natural deep-water ports in the world – is lovely. There are many restaurants, and even as a vegan you’ll have several choices. Menorca’s second largest city, Ciutadella, offers far fewer dining options for vegans, and you can just about forget about most of the other cities and villages.

3) Rent an apartment, don’t stay at a hotel. Menorcans have only a very vague idea of what it means to be a vegetarian – I’ve seen many dishes advertised as vegetarian which contained fish -, and they don’t seem to know the meaning of the word “vegan.” There are many restaurants, which offer no vegan dishes at all. Breakfast at many hotels usually includes meat, fish, cheese, butter, milk, yoghurt, etc. As a vegan, you’ll be stuck with bread and fruit, and there’ll be no soy/rice/almond/oat milk for your coffee – it’s depressing. You’ll have to pay for a full breakfast, even though there’s nothing for you to eat. So rent an apartment, and you’ll be able to prepare yourself a proper vegan breakfast as well as sandwiches for lunch (you’ll need them, trust me).

4) The Spanish lead a very strange life. Lunch starts at around 1:30 PM and lasts until late afternoon. All the shops close for an extended siesta, which lasts from around 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Restaurants open relatively late in the evening for dinner (earlier in Maó). My daily rhythm is completely different, and I’m ready to eat lunch sometime between noon and 1:00 PM, and dinner way before 8:00 PM; hence the sandwiches.

5) Rent a car. We used buses during the first few days of our stay, but rented a car for the remaining five days, as many of the major sights can’t be reached by public transportation. You’ll also be able to dine at more restaurants, if you have a car. As the island is so small, we drove to Es Mercadal to eat lunch at the Molí d’es Racó and to Alaior for a “Sunday Roast” at The Cobblers Garden Restaurant (reviews to follow). Both Alaior and Es Mercadal can be reached by bus, of course, but it takes considerably longer to get there by bus than by car.

6) Do you like some soy/rice/almond/oat milk with your coffee or tea? Too bad. You’ll have to make do without or take some vegan milk with you wherever you go – which is what I did. Just pour some vegan milk into a small plastic bottle and bring it along. None of the restaurants or cafes that I visited had vegan milk. You can buy soy or rice milk at most supermarkets and health food stores in various cities and villages in Menorca (reviews to follow) .

7) At restaurants, be specific when you order your food. Don’t just tell them you are a vegan. Make sure to ask if your food contains meat, fish, milk, butter, cheese, or yoghurt. Ask if they use chicken or beef broth to prepare your vegetables, and ask about the oils they use. There’s a good chance they’ll use lard instead of vegetable oils, so watch out for that. I told a waiter at a restaurant that I was a vegan and inquired in detail about my toasted bread with eggplant (the only option available to me). I then ordered and was served a “mixed salad” in addition to my bread: lots of fresh veggies – with an egg on top.

Many Menorcans don’t speak English very well, which made it difficult to explain what it means to be a vegan. I often felt anxious when I ordered food – unsure, if the waiter really understood what I meant (see above – egg salad…). My best dining experiences were at The Cobblers Garden Restaurant in Alaior, which is owned by an Englishman, and at the Restaurante Pizzeria Roma in Maó, where the waiter spoke German (my native language).

© Ingrid Haunold

8) Learn these words: Pa amb oli. This is practically a “national dish” on Menorca, a snack – which luckily happens to be vegan. Pa amb oli is toasted white bread, topped with garlic and olive oil. A variation of this dish – pa amb tomàquet, topped with garlic, olive oil, and crushed tomatoes – is almost always available, too. I’ve also had toasted bread with garlic, olive oil, and eggplant at another restaurant, so there are several variations available. However, this dish will often be your only choice (plus a salad), and after ten days of eating mostly pa amb oli, I was quite sick of it.

9) If you rent an apartment and prepare (some) of your own food, you’ll find that most supermarkets will offer a variety of vegan foods. Menorcans are quite fond of beans, for example, which are sold pre-cooked in glass jars. Most supermarkets offer at least half a dozen different varieties. There are also small organic shops in some of the bigger cities, which sell tofu, seitan, textured soy meat, vegan bread spreads, etc. Almost all supermarkets sell vegan milk, although most don’t sell vegan yoghurts. (And good luck finding hummus, a vegan staple; I tried in vain for eleven days.) I’ll publish addresses of supermarkets and organic shops in a later post, so you’ll be able to plan ahead.

© Ingrid Haunold

10) Relax. Menorca is an amazing island – almost half the island is a Biosphere Reserve, there are great beaches, and numerous historic sights. You’ll have a great time – as long as you don’t come to Menorca for the food. But if you’re willing to compromise for a few days (and eat a lot of toasted white bread), you’ll enjoy your stay.

Posted in Vegan Living | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Vegan Survival Tips for Menorca, Spain

Book Review: Becoming Vegan

Posted on 02/27/2021 by Ingrid Haunold

Please note: This article was first published on The Vegan Tourist and last updated January 20 2013.

I want to follow up Wednesday’s book review with the review of another book, Becoming Vegan: The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Plant-Based Diet by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina. I consider this book essential reading for all vegans who want to stay healthy.

I became a vegetarian in 1982, and tried to go vegan twice in the following years, once in the late 1990s, and again in the early noughties, both times failing miserably. The reason for my failure was a lack of knowledge about vegan nutrition. I ended up eating mostly simple carbs, as I didn’t know any better, and as a result constantly craved dairy products. I didn’t know much about protein at the time, and that my body was really just craving protein – any kind – and not necessarily dairy. I also didn’t know how important B12 supplements were for vegans, or anything else about vegan nutrition. I just ate what I liked, and as a result didn’t feel well. Both times, I quit the vegan diet and returned to a lacto-vegetarian life-style.

Then I read Becoming Vegan, and subsequently made smarter food choices. It took a few more years before I felt confident enough to commit to a vegan diet – this time for good – as I was scared of failing once again. So I took the time and effort to learn as much about nutrition as I could. When I switched from a lacto-vegetarian diet to a vegan diet about two years ago, it was no big deal. By that time, I’d already gradually changed my diet, and I knew that any food cravings could be satisfied with plant-based foods.

Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina are both registered dieticians, and the wealth of information you’ll find in this book is staggering. The authors address health and environmental aspects of various diets, but the book focuses on nutrition: how to give your body what it needs, and what happens to it if you don’t feed yourself properly.

There are risks involved, if you don’t plan your vegan diet properly. You need to make sure that your plant-based foods contain all the essential amino acids – easily done, if you know how to do it; you need to learn about bioavailability (the proportion of nutrients in certain foods that the body can utilize), the digestibility of plant protein, the difference between heme and nonheme iron, and you’ll need to study up on essential fatty acids (omega-3 is vital for vegans). There’s important information about B12 vitamins, calcium (absorption and retention), and other vital minerals and vitamins.

These are just some of the subjects covered in Becoming Vegan – you’ll find a lot more nutritional information in the book. Everything’s covered, really.

In addition, there are separate chapters in the book about the nutritional needs of pregnant women, babies and children, seniors and athletes, as well as tips for over- and underweight people. A basic vegan shopping list is also provided, as are several meal plans.

If you want to go vegan and stay healthy, you really should read this book.

Posted in Book Reviews, Vegan Living | Tagged , | Comments Off on Book Review: Becoming Vegan

Book Review: The Kind Diet

Posted on 02/27/2021 by Ingrid Haunold

Please note: This article was first published on The Vegan Tourist and last updated January 16, 2013.

I stumbled across The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet while browsing at the Strand in New York City, my favourite bookstore and (temporary) home to “18 miles of new, used and rare books”.

The book was written by vegan actress Alicia Silverstone and is a guidebook of sorts for all those who want to live ethically – a kind life – and make the transition to a vegan lifestyle.

In the first part of the book, Alicia introduces the reader to a number of issues: the effects of meat and dairy farming on the environment and its negative impact on people’s health; the effects of sugar and processed foods on our bodies; and the importance of natural, organic, and GMO-free foods as part of a healthy, kind diet. She also addresses a number of general nutritional questions – what to eat and why – as well as nutritional issues especially important to vegans (iron, calcium, B12, omega3 fatty acids, etc.).

In the second part of the book, Alicia helps readers make the transition to a vegan diet by giving them three options: flirting, going vegan, and superhero.

“Flirting” involves a slow transition from a meat and dairy-based diet to a vegan diet. Vegan foods are added one by one, but meat and dairy aren’t eliminated from one’s diet completely. It’s a slow and painless process, and ideal for all those who are not yet sure if they really want to commit to a vegan life-style.

“Going vegan” is for all those who are ready and willing to commit. Only vegan foods are eaten, but this stage of The Kind Diet still makes use of a lot of processed foods, especially meat substitutes.

The “superhero” stage basically consists of a vegan macrobiotic diet. It centres on whole grains, beans, fruits and vegetables.

I am currently somewhere between “vegan” and “superhero”. I’m eating considerably fewer processed vegan foods than I used to, less bread and more grains, rely less on take-out food, and am generally cooking more dishes from scratch. I never really considered a macrobiotic diet before, but this book has inspired me to give it a try. So far, so good.

In the third part of the book, Alicia provides recipes for all three stages.

The Kind Diet also provides meal plans, cooking tips, and tips for entertaining and eating out. There’s a short section about weight loss and exercise, but this isn’t the main focus of the book.

The book is well written, and contains gorgeous photographs. I’ve tried some of the recipes – crispy tofu slices with orange dipping sauce is a favourite, and I also like the sweet potato-lentil stew.

The instructions are easy to follow, and you don’t have to be a master chef to get them right.

Alicia has also created a website, The Kind Life, which builds on the issues explored in the book, and where she provides more recipes and information for living ethically.

Posted in Book Reviews, Vegan Living | Tagged , | Comments Off on Book Review: The Kind Diet

Vegan Shoes (Part II – Retail)

Posted on 02/27/2021 by Ingrid Haunold

Please note: This article was first published on The Vegan Tourist and last updated December 23, 2012.

Fancy shoes are a woman’s birthright, and shoe shopping should be fun. Unfortunately, for vegans it is anything but fun.

Each year, I give it a try. I spend an afternoon on Mariahilfer Straße, Vienna’s ultimate High Street. More than 400 businesses, restaurants, banks, supermarkets, and movie theatres are located there.

A few weeks ago I gave it another try. I visited every single shoe shop on Mariahilfer Straße except three stores which sell almost exclusively sneakers and a few stores which sell primarily clothes (in addition to a handful of shoes). I visited 20 different stores and asked for vegan shoes.

Not one of the stores sold a single pair of vegan shoes.

Twenty stores with several thousand different kinds of shoes, and not a single pair of vegan shoes.

None of the sales clerks even knew what the word “vegan” meant. They all tried to sell me shoes that weren’t made from leather. When I asked if these non-leather shoes were produced with vegan glue, the clerks all looked very confused. None of them had ever heard of such a thing as vegan glue or knew that regular glue, which is generally used for the manufacturing of shoes, contains animal ingredients.

I’ll give a full list of all the shops I visited at the end of this article, but let’s take a closer look at three different companies first, which all have multiple branches on Mariahilfer Straße.

The biggest shoe retailer in Austria is a company called “Leder und Schuh International AG,” which owns and operates about 420 stores (under different brand names) in eleven different countries. Their biggest store brand (in Austria) is Humanic, and there are three Humanic stores on Mariahilfer Straße alone. In addition, the company also owns the Stiefelkönig store brand, and there are two additional shoe stores under that name on Mariahilfer Straße.

Humanic sells approximately 2.500 different shoe models, but only two of those are currently (December 2012) listed as “vegan.” They are sneakers produced by one company, “Vans.” Upon closer inspection, both of these models are made from leather. Not vegan at all. Does Humanic think that leather grows on trees?

When I asked a sales clerk at one of the Humanic branches on Mariahilfer Straße about vegan glue, I was told that all shoes sold at Humanic were made with vegan glue. When I told him that almost no shoes are, in fact, manufactured with vegan glue, he insisted that at least all non-leather shoes are manufactured with vegan glue. That is absolute nonsense, of course, but no matter what I said, he insisted that he was right. This clerk – and by extension Humanic – gets extra points for ignorance. Idiocy knows no bounds.

Stiefelkönig, the other shoe store chain owned by “Leder und Schuh International AG,” has two branches on Mariahilfer Straße. A preliminary research on their website back in July (2012) listed 75 different models as “vegan.” I could not verify a single model as such. There is no product information given on their website besides available sizes and colours. No information about materials or the production process. As a vegan, I only buy shoes if I know everything about them.

I wrote to one of the companies whose shoes were listed as “vegan” on the Stiefelkönig website back in July, Tamaris. A representative for Tamaris told me that their company did not manufacture any vegan shoes and that they would let Stiefelkönig know and ask them to correct the false information on their website.

I also wrote an Email to Stiefelkönig’s Public Relations company, Baar-Baarenfels PR, and asked for more information about the 75 listed vegan shoe models. My Email was ignored – I’m still waiting to hear back from them. However, Stiefelkönig subsequently updated the product information on their website. Currently, there are no vegan shoes listed on their Website. From 75 to Zero, I can’t say I was surprised.

There’s another fairly large shoe retailer in Austria, Salamander. The company is owned by “ara AG.” Salamander owns and operates about 30 stores in Austria, and another 170 or so in six other European countries. There are three Salamander stores on Mariahilfer Straße. Not a single one of their shoe models is listed as “vegan” on their website. When I visited their stores, this was confirmed. The company does not sell vegan shoes.

All this takes the fun out of shoe-shopping in Vienna. As a result, I buy most of my shoes over the Internet, from small companies that I know and trust. For example, I’ve bought several pairs of vegan shoes in the past from Vegetarian Shoes in Brighton, UK. (Review to follow.)

This means that Austrian retailers are missing out. They’re probably not even aware that there’s a customer segment that’s not being served. Vegan customers are so used to being ignored by all the major shoe manufacturers and retailers that many of us don’t even try any more. I know that this was my very last attempt at buying shoes on Mariahilfer Straße. Clearly, it’s a total waste of time, so why bother? I’ll be spending my money elsewhere.

This is a list of all the stores I visited on October 25, 2012 on Mariahilfer Straße. Not one of these stores sold even a single pair of vegan shoes:

Delka
Salamander (three branches)
Humanic (three branches)
Geox
Stiefelkönig (two branches)
Gesta Schuhhandel
Max Shoes
Aldo
Högl Store
Street Fever
Görtz im Gerngross
Deichmann
Gabor Shoes & Fashion
Ma Jolie
Ara

See also Vegan Shoes (Part I – Manufacturing)

Posted in Vegan Living | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Vegan Shoes (Part II – Retail)

Vegetarian Shoes (UK – Brighton)

Posted on 02/27/2021 by Ingrid Haunold

Please note: This article was first published on The Vegan Tourist and last updated December 28, 2012.

A few days ago I wrote about the challenge of finding vegan shoes on the High Street – practically impossible in Vienna, Austria, where I live.

So where do I buy my shoes?

In the United Kingdom, that’s where.

About ten years ago, I saw an ad for Vegetarian Shoes – in Ethical Consumer magazine, if I remember correctly – and shortly thereafter mail-ordered my first pair of shoes from this company, a pair of Derby Boots. (They are no longer being sold, but Boulder Boots are similar.)

The following year, in 2004, during a week-long vacation in London, I took the train to Brighton, where their store is located, and bought three more pairs of shoes.

I chose a pair of Office Shoes from the men’s collection. It’s one of their most popular models, and still being sold today. I also bought Nevis Boots (discontinued, try Snowdon Boots), and a pair of Bush Boots (or a similar model).

Back then, Vegetarian Shoes didn’t have as large a selection as today, and their selection of women’s shoes was particularly small, so I chose all my shoes from the men’s collection. I didn’t care, I was just so happy that I’d finally found shoes that were not made from leather. In 2003/2004, non-leather shoes were still hard to find, and that was my main concern. I didn’t even know about vegan glue back then. (All shoes from Vegetarian Shoes are 100 % vegan).

I only became a vegan about two years ago (after almost 29 years as a vegetarian), so I did on occasion buy plastic (but non-vegan) shoes in the past, like sandals or espadrilles. But each year during the last ten years, from autumn to spring, I’ve worn almost exclusively those four pairs of shoes, which I bought at Vegetarian Shoes. They were hand-made, and are of superior quality, worth every penny. Today, only the Nevis and Derby boots remain, I’ve worn out the other two pairs of shoes.

I’m planning another vacation in London in the spring (2013), and will once again take the train down to Brighton to stock up on shoes from Vegetarian Shoes. They now offer more than 300 different models, and it’ll be fun to be able to choose from such a wide variety of shoes. Please know that Vegetarian Shoes also delivers by mail to many countries (including continental Europe, the US, and Canada) – I simply prefer to buy my shoes at their shop in Brighton. It’s a lovely city, and a day-trip from London to Brighton is always fun. (Make sure to visit the Royal Pavillion.)

In addition to shoes, you can also buy vegan jackets, belts, wallets, and satchels at their store. On their website, you can take a virtual 360-degree tour of their store. You can also read up on the company’s history. They have photos of all their shoes on their website as well as detailed product information.

Address: 12 Gardner Street, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 1UP, UK

Phone : +44 – (0) – 1273 685685

Website: http://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/

Email:  shop@vegetarian-shoes.co.uk

MAIL ORDER
Office hours: 9.30 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday to Friday.
Tel: +44(0)1273 691913
Fax: +44(0)1273 626376
Mail-Order Email: information@vegetarian-shoes.co.uk

VISITING THE SHOP?
They ask that you please phone ahead to check that they have stock of what you want.
Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Saturday: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Wednesday: 1:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Closed Sundays and holidays.

 

Posted in Vegan Living | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Vegetarian Shoes (UK – Brighton)

Tian (Austria – Vienna)

Posted on 02/27/2021 by Ingrid Haunold

Please note: This article was first published on The Vegan Tourist and last updated May 25, 2019.

Updated on May 25, 2019

I published a blog post about this restaurant on September 3, 2012 here, which I have now deleted. The restaurant’s concept has changed so much over the years that there was really no point in keeping that original blog post online.

So what’s new?

Tian has turned into a very posh and very expensive vegetarian restaurant, which doesn’t even publish a proper menu anymore – just a list of vegetables which they use for their dishes.

A 4-course set lunch (without drinks) costs 89.00 Euros, you’ll pay 109.00 Euros for 5 courses,  and 127.00 Euros for 8 courses. Dinner is even more expensive, you’ll pay 127.00 Euros for a set dinner (8 courses). If you want wine of juices with your 8 courses, that’ll cost you another 73.00 Euros. (I researched those prices in March 2019.)

As the restaurant doesn’t publish any information about the food anymore – except that it’s vegetarian – it’s really too much of a bother for vegans, or at least for this particular vegan.

Posted in Vegan Living | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Tian (Austria – Vienna)

Blogging in the Age of Social Media

Posted on 02/25/2021 by Ingrid Haunold

Please note: This article was first published on Viaduct Dreams and last updated August 28 2018.

I’ve been blogging since 2010, and have witnessed countless blogs start up and disappear again during that time. Many bloggers start out enthusiastically; they blog frequently, set up blogging schedules, and try to turn their ventures into businesses by selling ad space on their sites, finding sponsors, or trying to generate other sources of income. After a few years, they become disillusioned, stop blogging, and eventually let their domain registrations expire.  As Facebook (launched in 2004), Twitter (2006), Instagram (2010) and other social media networks became more and more popular, online communication shifted to those forums. Whereas readers previously frequently engaged with bloggers by commenting on their posts, they now “like,” “retweet” or engage in other – simpler – ways with people who publish content on these social media sites.

I became painfully aware of the ever-changing evolution of the Internet after I started re-reading David Meerman Scott’s excellent book The New Rules of Marketing and PR. I own the book’s 2nd edition, published in 2009 (an updated 6th edition is available). The book’s central message is as valid as it was almost ten years ago: you can market your products and services directly to potential buyers, and you can do it yourself. But the chapter about blogs is somewhat outdated in the book’s 2009 edition, as many bloggers have discontinued their blogs and now publish content only on social networks like Instagram or Twitter. Blogs – as a tool to communicate with readers and to market products and services – are simply not as popular as they used to be.

However, I think this will change again in a few years. Marketing experts are becoming disillusioned with Social Media, they are simply not getting the sales and marketing results they want and need.

Recent scandals about the sale of personal data by social networks for marketing purposes don’t help. I believe that in a few years, people – and small businesses – will start blogging again. Blogs are a great marketing tool. Each published post has its own URL and will show up in online searches. In 2013, I published a few posts about (the lack of) vegan restaurants in Menorca, Spain, on my website The Vegan Tourist, and each summer these posts get the most web traffic of all my published posts.

As with all projects, one needs to have a clear vision for a blog. On my website, Viaduct Dreams, I focus on providing information about my work as a writer and Public Relations consultant. On The Vegan Tourist, I publish information about my self-published restaurant guide The Vegan Tourist: Vienna and about vegan issues in general. I have no intentions to monetize my blogs. I don’t sell ad space and I don’t publish any sponsored posts on those sites. I do provide information about my products (books) and services (ghostwriting, Public Relations consulting) on both websites, so I use them as marketing tools; and I do have an Amazon Associates account (but usually forget to link products I mention in my posts to Amazon’s site). But I don’t have a blogging schedule, I rarely check my Google Analytics statistics, and I don’t care about website traffic. When I have something to say that’s important to me, or when I mull things over in my mind (like the evolution of the Blogosphere…), I blog. It’s as simple as that, and I think that’s why I am still around, while so many bloggers have abandoned their blogs after just a few years. I make my living as a writer, not as a blogger, and therefore don’t need to continuously provide new content for my readers. Blogging is fun, and that’s how it should be.

Posted in Media/Communications | Tagged | Comments Off on Blogging in the Age of Social Media

Amazon Author Central: Author Pages

Posted on 02/25/2021 by Ingrid Haunold

Please note: This article was first published on Viaduct Dreams and last updated August 14, 2016.

© Ingrid Haunold

If you are a self-published author, whose book is sold on Amazon, you should sign up for Author Central accounts and set up Author Pages on various international Amazon sites. It’s a free service provided by Amazon, which lets you promote yourself and your books to readers.

As I write this article in August 2016, Amazon has 14 international sites: in addition to the main website in the United States, there are websites in the United Kingdom, in Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, India, Mexiko, Japan, Brazil, and China. You can buy my books on all sites, except China. I’m not sure why my books are not sold in China, I’ll check that out at a later date.

In the Netherlands and in Australia, you can only buy eBooks for Kindle on Amazon’s sites, but not printed books.

You need to set up separate Author Central accounts for separate Amazon sites, and not all sites offer Author Central accounts. You can set up Author Pages for the following Amazon sites, these links will take you directly to the separate Author Central sign-in pages: United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Japan. Your Author Page in India is automatically supplied with information from your US Author Central Account. However, your Indian Author Page will only show images and videos from your US account, your Biography and Blog RSS feed will not show up on your Indian Author Page.

I expect that more Author Central accounts will be made available in the coming years, and you should set up as many Author Pages as possible, as it’s a free marketing tool. You need to do everything you can to promote your self-published books.

The information displayed on your various Author Pages is linked to the information provided on the respective Amazon sites. When you self-publish a book on Amazon, you can specify in which countries you want your book to be sold. Not all books are sold in all countries, that’s why you need to set up separate accounts.

On your Author Pages you can add a biography, photos and videos, you can list upcoming events, and – only in the United States – add a Blog Feed. Readers, who are interested in buying your books, will find your name linked to your Author Page when they click on the detail page for a certain book. Here’s a link to the detail page for the 2nd, updated edition of “The Vegan Tourist: Vienna“, which I published in May 2016. Right below the book’s title my name is listed, and linked to my Author Page on Amazon.com. You can also click here to check out my Author Page for Amazon’s US website.

You’ll notice the Blog Feed, which is linked to my website The Vegan Tourist. I blog on another site, Viaduct Dreams, but I’ve published only one book so far – a vegan restaurant guide for Vienna -, so it makes sense for me at this time to link the blog feed to the website where I exclusively blog about vegan issues. The Blog Feed is a feature that is only offered by Author Central in the United States.

Start out by setting up your Author Central account for the United States, and pay close attention to the separate steps. You might even want to take notes while you set up your account. Unless you speak German, French, and Japanese, you’ll struggle with the set-up for those sites, as the instructions are only provided in these individual countries’ languages. There are no instructions in English. German is my native language, and I have rudimentary knowledge in French, but setting up the Japanese Author Page was a struggle. I used Google Translate to set up this account, and struggled for half an hour before I succeeded. I think I might have set up a second account on Author Central Japan by mistake, with a different Email address.

My advice would be to set up your accounts in the United Kingdom and in Japan concurrently. Whenever you click on a button on the site in the UK, immediately repeat that step on the Japanese page. That way you should be able to set up your Japanese account with fewer problems than I experienced. If you speak no German or French, try setting up all those accounts at the same time.

During the set-up process, you need to “claim” all your books, so they can be linked to your Author Central pages. For each book, there are two tabs: Book Details and Editorial Reviews. The Book Details are automatically provided by Amazon, but you can enter a lot of information in the Editorial Review tab: there are separate categories for reviews, product description, notes from the author, information from the inside flap, information from the back cover, and you can also add an author biography. I only entered “product information” so far on all my Author Pages, so I have more work to do.

Before you sign up for Author Central accounts and set up your Author Pages, check out your book listings on all the 14 Amazon websites. I am selling all my books on all Amazon sites (except China), so I was surprised to notice that the availability of my books differed on the various Amazon sites. This had to do with the fact that I “retired” the first edition of “the Vegan Tourist: Vienna” – I want customers to buy the 2nd, updated edition, and not buy the outdated first edition by mistake. (If you retire a print-on-demand self-published book, no more copies will be printed.) But there was some mix-up in regard to the editions, so at this time the first edition is still available on some Amazon sites, while the German-language edition shows up as unavailable on one site. There are a few other issues that I still need to take care of in regard to my book listings, and I am working with Amazon’s (very helpful) customer service representatives to correct wrong information for book listings on 13 different Amazon sites. I should have done this a long time ago, and am only now realizing that I need to pay more and closer attention to all my book listings. This is a prerequisite for all press & public relation activities, and I didn’t really start paying attention to my book listings until a few days ago. Don’t make the same mistake I did, and make sure that your book listings are all correct and up-to-date before you set up your Author Pages.

Posted in Publishing | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Amazon Author Central: Author Pages

Author Photo – Part II

Posted on 02/25/2021 by Ingrid Haunold

Please note: This article was first published on Viaduct Dreams and last updated April 28, 20127.

Ingrid Haunold
Photo Credit: www.fotoschuster.at

Back in June 2016, I wrote about the need for a new author photo, and my desire to hire a professional photographer “soon.” It only took ten months, and here it is: the photo was taken a few days before my 50th birthday on April 18, 2017 (do the math!), and I have to say I am quite pleased with the result.

I lost most of my hair to a chronic illness and some very nasty medication, and what little hair remains has turned grey, but I look happy in this photograph – and I am. I’ve learned to manage my illnesses; I freelance as a writer (and am able to pay all my bills); I work from my home office (dress code: pajamas), and I am working on a new project. The last 15 years have not been easy, but I’ve come out on top. So happy 50th birthday to me – and I look forward to the next 50 years.

Posted in Media/Communications | Tagged | Comments Off on Author Photo – Part II

Author Photo

Posted on 02/25/2021 by Ingrid Haunold

Please note: This article was first published on Viaduct Dreams and last updated June 4, 2016.

20 years ago….

Every writer needs an Author Photo. It’s an essential part of every press kit. It’s been twenty years, since a professional photographer took photographs of me, and, damn, did I look good in those photos. But even I know that I’ve changed (a lot) since then.

I decide to take a few selfies, and to start out by taking a photo without makeup. Then I’ll slap on the war paint bit by bit. Foundation, eye shadow, mascara, lipstick, everything I can find in my bathroom cabinet.

I’ll take one photo after another, with a little more makeup each time, and then decide which photo looks best. I’m happy. It’s a plan. I’m ready to promote my book, The Vegan Tourist: Vienna.

I take the first photograph, and need to sit down. This is me? I take another photo, then another. A stranger’s face stares back at me. She’s pale (like vampire-undead pale), her skin looks botchy and pasty at the same time, and she has dark circles under her eyes. She looks sick – I look sick.

This comes as a surprise, although it really shouldn’t. Twelve years ago, I was diagnosed with Sarcoidosis, and two years ago I was also diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. I had to take cortisone medication (steroids) for eight years to keep the Sarcoidosis in check, and I need to take thyroid medication for the rest of my life. I had a hard time adjusting to being sick and living with a chronic illness, and the steroids ruined my body and packed on the pounds (while saving my life at the same time). I’ve been feeling much better for the last couple of years or so, and I am off the steroids now. I feel fine. I keep forgetting that I am not fine – and it takes a selfie to remind me of my illnesses.

I abandon my plan to pretty myself up with makeup. Clearly, the Author Photo has to wait a while. Botchy, pasty skin? Dark circles under my eyes? I don’t think so! I decide to sunbathe on my balcony (in a bikini, no less). Weather permitting, that’s what I’ll do for a few weeks: sunbathe! An hour a day.

If this sounds like fun to you, it isn’t to me. I actually have to put it on my “to do”-list, so I’ll stick to it. I never liked sunbathing. I get bored easily, and I’m restless after just a few minutes. Just lying around in the sun, doing nothing? I don’t get it. But of course that’s why I look like a vampire, and why a recent blood analysis showed that my Vitamin D level was so low that it couldn’t even be detected anymore. So now I’m taking my vitamins, and I guess I need to step away from my computer more often, go outside, and spend more time in the sun.

I’ll give that Author Photo another try in a few weeks. Taking a selfie might not be the best idea, though. Maybe it’s time for a professional photographer again…

Posted in Media/Communications | Tagged | Comments Off on Author Photo