Why do you need universal book links? To help you sell more books to more readers.
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 France?
If you do, you will probably lose a great chance to sell your book. Using one link to one ebook store limits your chances of selling your book.
Why you need 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?
From experience and my book sales, I know 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 to make it easy for readers to buy your book.
1. Book Linker – The universal book link for all Amazon Stores
Book Linker is an ideal solution for you to make sure you send potential buyers 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 Amazon Kindle store.
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 France, as there is no Amazon store in Switzerland.
Plus, I don’t speak German.
However, apart from rare issues such as mine, Book Linker is certainly a service that will assist authors in selling books 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 that 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 Books2Read with your Draft2Digital account, and you can do a scan to check for all your available retailers.
For me, it even 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. However, 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 try.
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
I use Draft2digital will check for universal link. Thanks for sharing
My children’s books, ‘Flying Santa’ and ‘Winifred the Wonder Witch’ are on many sites, such as Xlibris (Author Solutions) Amazon, Barnes & Noble and many more. They do not seem to sell and I receive very little in royalties. Most of the prices are far too high, One site was selling ‘Winifred the Wonder Witch’ for $40.00 ! The books are 32 and 44 pages respectively. I realise that you would deduct 10% but this would be better than not selling any books at all. The books have been edited well and have received excellent reviews. I know that children really enjoy reading the stories.
Could you please let me know the price you would place on the books. They are on Kindle, but this does not register as an ebook on your site.
What if you aren’t with KDP but your books are only sold on Amazon and Kindle?
If your books are only on Amazon and Kindle, you don’t need universal links. They are only used for linking to multiple book retailers.
Thanks – I use BookLinker all the time but I hadn’t heard of Books2Read. Will be investigating!
Ditto Sally Jenkins. And thank you once again for your excellent advice.