Ginny Frost
Books2Read
This universal link generator
will create one link for your book to bring readers to many booksellers. These
links reduce the clutter on your social media and websites.
First, sign up for a free
account. Just a couple of steps, and boom, you’re in.
Next, begin creating links to
your books. Go to a bookseller and copy the link to your book. Then paste the
URL into Books2Read and press the Make My Universal Link button. It will take a
second if you are wide. They check several places, including Amazon, Barnes and
Noble, Apple Store, Kobo, Google Play, and more.
Don’t see a seller? You can enter it manually on the Add A
Store field. Just copy the link from your seller, and the app will add the
link.
If the search takes too long,
the site will prompt you to enter links manually. If your book is in KU, the
exclusivity will cause the site to spin. But you might not keep the book in KU
forever, so why not make a free link? You won’t have to change it when you go wide.
You can also add audiobook and print
links. Audiobooks include Kobo, Amazon, Walmart, Apple, Overdrive, Hoopla, and
more. Print links include Amazon, Barnes and Noble, !ndigo, Booksamillion, and
several others.
Now that your links are in, we
can make the link our own. On the left side of the screen under the Link Tools
menu, choose Customize Link. Type in the desired name after the books2read part
of the URL. The app will inform you the name is available.
You can also add Affiliate
codes. I’m just going
to leave that here for you advanced users.
Let’s check out what we’ve made.
Click on the Link Tools menu at
the top-right menu. Choose UBL dashboard. Now the app generates a list of all
the books you’ve added
to the site. It shows the title, author name, and the universal link (to be
copied and pasted to other places). Next are the sellers where the book can be
purchased. The last column has the number of clicks on your links (once you’ve
shared them everywhere.)
Wait, Ginny, you skipped one!
Yes, I wanted to highlight the
Book Tab. This links to a page with the universal link, a copy of your cover, the
blurb, and an Also By section. It’s
beautiful. Book Tab is a landing page for your universal link. The image on the
page is your book with the background a blurred, close-up image of the cover
(making it all matchy-matchy). And if you worked with Books2Read through
Draft2Digital, you could also have an author bio with links to your social
media and, drumroll, a newsletter sign-up button!
You can edit content on the
page by pressing the Enter Edit Mode button on the top of the screen or the
Edit mode if you are in Reader view. (Readers do not see the buttons on top.)
Anything with a green square around it can be edited. You can add a tag with
promo information. You can format the description or change it entirely. A red
light bulb will appear to let you know to save the changes. It will take you
out of edit mode when you hit save.
Now that you’ve created and edited your
links, time to use them. Readers will click the link and hit that landing page.
The app will display all the places the reader can buy the book. Once they
choose a seller, it will prompt them to default to that seller every time. The
next time they click a Books2Read link, it will automatically go to that
seller.
There’s more on the site and Draft2Digtal
additional content, but for now, you’ve got the basics to get your universal
links started.