Why do you need universal book links?
When a potential book buyer clicks on your book link, where do they end up?
If they live in Scotland, do you send them to Amazon US? For someone in South Africa, do you send them to Amazon UK?
If you do, you probably lose a great chance to sell a book because book buyers in the UK cannot buy books from Amazon US, and nor can South African buyers use Amazon UK.
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Universal book links
Do you open publish? Yes? Great.
But how do book buyers who use Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, or Kobo buy your book?
Certainly not from your Amazon Kindle link.
Using one online bookstore link to promote your book, such as Amazon Kindle US, will only work for US buyers.
But what about the rest of the world?
I know from experience, and my book sales, that there are keen readers and book buyers all over the world.
So how can you help readers find your books at their preferred online bookstore?
Or at least in a geographic area where they can make a purchase.
The solution is to use universal book links (UBLS) to promote your books for all your online bookstores.
Here are some options to help you combine all your links to your bookstores into one link.
1. Book Linker – The universal book link for all Amazon Stores
Book Linker is an ideal solution for you to make sure your potential buyers are sent to the correct Amazon store.
It’s especially useful if you are publishing exclusively with Amazon KDP Select.
All you need to do is paste your Amazon book link, and this service will create a short link for you.
You can even edit the link to include your book title.
It works by using the geolocation of anyone who clicks on your link and will send them to an Amazon store that services the buyer.
Not only that, but it will also find your books on Apple, with more retailers coming soon.
Another feature is that you can earn affiliate income.
Using this universal Amazon link will be extremely useful for UK authors because of the restrictions on Amazon UK.
With this link, UK and US customers, in particular, will be directed to the correct store link.
While it is certainly effective for many countries, it is not perfect.
I live in the French-speaking west of Switzerland, and when I click the short link, I am sent to the German Amazon store, even though I can purchase from Amazon US, as there is no Amazon store in Switzerland.
Plus, I don’t speak German.
But apart from rare issues such as mine, Book Linker is certainly a service that will greatly assist authors listed on Amazon.
2. Books2Read – Universal book links for ALL your online bookstores
Books2Read, which is part of Draft2Digital, offers a fantastic universal link.
I can say fantastic because I use their links all the time.
With this link, you can add all of your retailers. Yes, ALL! You can even add affiliate links.
If you publish with Draft2Digital, the link will be automatically populated with all of Draft2Digital’s retailers.
Login to your Draft2digital account, and you can do a scan to check for all your available retailers.
For me, it found my ebooks on Google Play. But you will need to add your Amazon link.
The reason Amazon is manual is that you can add your Amazon affiliate account if you have one.
It only takes a few seconds, so it is easy.
The result is that you create one link that will give your book buyers a range of retailer choices.
If they wish, they can set a preference for a favorite store and always be direct there.
3. 1Link – One link to find all your books
1Link is a new tool from Derek Murphy at Creative Indie.
With it, you can add links to your books as well as to your social media accounts.
The free version allows you to highlight one book with your book cover and a buy link.
It’s super easy to use, and I created my page in only a couple of minutes.
Once you create your page, you can share the link, and your page will render perfectly on mobile and desktop devices.
Like most apps, there is also a premium version that offers more features. But the free version provides plenty of links and styling choices.
4. Boook-Link – Another universal bookstore link option
Another universal link option you can investigate is Boook-Link.
It is similar to other services that combine your promotion links into one clickable link.
The extra that comes with this service is that you can add your website and Twitter links.
5. Linktree – For Instagram and social media book promotion
One last suggestion offers a solution for authors who are promoting their books on Instagram.
Linktree overcomes the problem of only having one link available on your Instagram account.
There are free and paid options available, but the free version offers more than enough to help you promote your books.
You can add as many links as you like, and you can also track your views and clicks.
Another benefit is that you can use your link on other social platforms such as TikTok, Twitch, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
Can you use all these links? Why not!
Depending on where you are targeting your book promotion, you could certainly use any of these universal book link services.
For example, if you are promoting your ebook on social media using your five Amazon Free Ebook Days, a universal Amazon link would be the very best solution.
However, if you open publish, you would almost certainly use a link from Books2Read or Boook-Link on your main website to give visitors a full range of buying choices.
For social media marketing, Linktree is clearly a great tool you can use.
Using universal bookstore links is a simple solution that will take you only minutes to implement.
It will improve your book promotion by making it much easier for readers to buy your books.
Related reading: Change The Look Inside Percentage For Your Book On Amazon
