Draft2Digital Universal Book Links Review – Makes It Easy To Buy Ebooks

With Draft2Digital Universal Book Links, readers can buy your ebook from their preferred bookstore.

Book buy links have always been a problem. Which store do you choose to add to your promotions, or do you add a long, confusing list?

Most choose Amazon links, of course, but this is not ideal if your ebook is available from a number of online ebook retailers.

Where do your readers buy your ebooks? Are you missing out on potential book sales?

Draft2Digital universal book links

Draft2Digital offers authors and publishers a way to overcome these problems with its Universal Link, which gathers all bookstore buying options into one small link.

The service runs from Draft2digital’s reader-focused site, Books2Read.

Even if you are not publishing on Draft2Digital, you can set up Universal Book Links by registering for a free account on Books2Read.

Another great feature is that you can add affiliate links.

Setting up a link is very easy. Copy and paste your individual store links and start a scan.

If you publish on Draft2Digital, many of your stores will already be on the list, and you will only probably need to add your Amazon link.

Setting up

Once you lock in your stores, return to your booklist to find your book’s Universal link.

Now all you need to do is copy your new Universal Link to your book promotion pages, blog posts, or promotional emails.

When a user clicks the link, it will allow them to set up their favorite bookstore.

Once a user makes a selection or chooses not to set a favorite store, the buying choices appear.

Books2Read Universal links are very simple to create and use and offer a solution to a longstanding problem when your book is available from a list of book retailers.

Issues

However, in my testing, I came across a couple of minor issues with the Safari browser that will hopefully be resolved in the near future.

One is a problem with the Safari browser on Apple laptops and desktops running OS El Capitan. Short links have been a problem on Safari for some time, especially Twitter short links, as this article from OSXDaily explains. I tried to use Universal links on two MacBook Air laptops, and Safari would not open the store links.  Update: This problem is now resolved.

In all other browsers on my MacBook Air, including Chrome, Opera, and Firefox, the links worked fine. On iOS, however, on iPhones and iPads, Safari opens the links without a problem.

This is definitely an Apple issue, so I can’t say there is anything that Draft2Digital can do to fix the problem other than wait for Apple to update Safari. Update: This problem is now resolved.

The only other small issue I found was with affiliate links. I tried to add my Amazon Associates code to my links, but there was no way to save. Update: This problem is now resolved.

Summary

All in all, Universal book links are exactly what the doctor ordered for authors and self-publishers.

To find out more, read the Universal Book Links User Guide.

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