Although self-published authors can benefit from selling their books internationally, it also creates issues. For example, if I advertise one of my books with an eBook link to the UK Amazon platform, then that’s of no use to a reader in the Philippines, Brazil, or Mexico who’ll want to buy it from their own Amazon store.
Likewise, an eBook link to the UK Amazon store is of no use to readers who want to buy a paperback, or readers who use one of the other eBook platforms, like Kobo or Google Play Books.
Thankfully, technology has come up with a solution to this. It’s called the UBL, or Universal Book Link. This allows authors to create a landing page for their book and then offer readers links to all the various stores and formats.
This benefits authors because it gives us one link we can share, which points readers to this landing page, and then the reader can choose their preferred platform and book format.
Location Links
Even better, many of these UBL providers can detect where in the world a potential reader is clicking from. So, if a reader from Brazil arrives at my book’s landing page and clicks on the Amazon eBook link, it will automatically take them to the Amazon Brazil store.
Joanna Maciejewska (authorjm.com/) writes epic, contemporary, and urban fantasy novels, including the first in her Dublin-based urban fantasy series, Humanborn. She created a landing page using the BookFunnel service, which means she only has one link she needs to share, which is bf.authorjm.com/Humanborn.
‘I liked BookFunnel for its laser focus on two main features: landing pages and content delivery,’ Joanna explains. ‘Their landing pages are extremely versatile. There’s some customisation to better suit one’s branding, which other services don’t offer, and an option to add a big button on top of all the other links, which allows the author to prioritise a link of their choosing. This could be their own store, a Kobo Plus subscription, or even a Kickstarter.’
What really appeals to Joanna is that she can put everything the reader needs on this one page.
‘BookFunnel allows adding any links, so there’s no issue with not having space for adding smaller and international stores, and on top of that, one can put them in the desired order as well, so the links will not be displayed in default order if the author doesn’t wish them to. What I also like is that I can link my own domain to it, which means my landing pages have my domain’s address instead of BookFunnel’s. The last great feature of the landing pages is having everything on one page: the ebook links, print links, audiobook links, and the book’s blurb, which means the visitor doesn’t have to click around to learn more about the book if they aren’t committed to buying it yet.’
Cost Choices
BookFunnel charges for this service, and its basic plan starts at $20 per year. There are free alternatives, which may be more suitable for authors with one or two books to promote.
One such service is Books2Read.com, which I use. It’s provided by Draft2Digital.com, so if you have a D2D account, then you can log in to Books2Read with the same credentials.
To create a landing page, all authors need is a link to an existing platform where their book is on sale, such as Amazon. Paste it in, and Books2Read will crawl the web, looking for your book on other stores and auto-complete them.
Sometimes it struggles to find a particular link, but I can always add that manually.
Unlike BookFunnel, I can’t add my own domain name to the link, but I can change its rather awkwardly named automatic landing page link to something more memorable. For example, for my cosy crime novel, Blooming Murder, Books2Read created the following link, books2read.com/u/3LRlP0, which isn’t particularly memorable. However, I changed this to books2read.com/bloomingmurder.
Despite being a free service, Books2Read also offers some useful data. It tells me how many times that landing page link has been clicked and the date it was last clicked on. This can be useful if you use these links in any promotions.
Data Decisions
Joanna points out that the lack of data is a weakness with BookFunnel, but it makes up for that in other ways.
‘When it comes to data, I wouldn’t say BookFunnel is top tier. While Books2Read shows the number of clicks on each link in a chosen time span, BookFunnel doesn’t provide such information at all. It’s better when it comes to group promotions and swaps, showing the number of views and clicks. It also collects subscriber emails on the mid-list tier and automatically filters out unconfirmed or spammy emails.’
UBLs are not just for self-published books. Any author can create these links for their books, including those that are traditionally published. I also have a landing page for my Hodder & Stoughton published book, One Hundred Ways For A Dog To Train Its Human, which is books2read.com/dogtotrain.
It’s worth spending time looking at the different services (see Business Directory for further details) to establish what is available for free, and what extras the paid-for services offer.
‘I think the choice will depend on individual authors’ needs and budget,’ says Joanna. ‘While it’s easy to get excited by yet another tool, setting a landing page on one’s website is also an option, and it’s more budget-friendly. Other than that, for anyone just starting out, I would suggest that they, before committing, see what other authors are using and how they are using them, interacting with their landing pages to learn what’s convenient, what’s annoying, and what’s missing.’
AI Adaptations
Rick Waugh (rickwaughauthor.com) is a Canadian author who enjoys weaving magic into his two series of novels. He used to use BookFunnel but decided to use his own website instead, to make the most of how artificial intelligence interacts with the internet.
‘When BookFunnel first came out with their universal book link pages,’ says Rick, ‘I jumped on it. It made it easy to set up a collection of links to all the retailers. Some of the other UBL pages have grown unreliable, and some of them cost extra. I already had BookFunnel, so there was no extra cost. The pages worked and looked good. But things have changed that have made them less useful.’
‘It used to be that your website wasn’t that important as far as readers finding your books,’ Rick continues. ‘They found new books by searching on Amazon, Kobo, or wherever they bought books. But what’s happening now is more and more people are using AI—in social platforms, in search engines, or right in AI clients like ChatGPT—to find books.’
One day, while listening to the Novel Marketing Podcast, Rick heard about how AI finds information online and what steps authors might want to take to make the most of this.
‘The suggestion was that all the info about your book, such as the blurb, genre, ISBN, author bio, retailer links, etc., should be on one page that AI bots could crawl. This way, they’re getting current/correct info. I could have done this on BookFunnel, but their pages are dynamic, built on the fly when visited, so they are not crawlable.’
The BookFunnel website explains that they do this because they don’t want a public index of their landing page links. Some authors use these links to offer free copies of their books, but only to those people they wish to share the link with. If BookFunnel’s links were public and AI-searchable, then anyone could find those free books.
DIY Decision
So Rick chose to create his own landing pages for his books on his website.
‘I rebuilt my book pages with all the info suggested. How important was it to do this? Difficult to tell, but there’s no reason not to do it, if it gives an advantage, and once it’s done, it’s there.’
Rick created his website using WordPress and has links to all the major stores for each book. If someone clicks on an Amazon link, they’re then offered the links for Amazon’s biggest book-selling markets (the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and Germany).
‘Make a complete page for one book to start with,’ Rick explains. ‘Get everything on it in place, looking good, colours, fonts, images, and links. Then you can use that one as a template and copy it. It makes it very easy. Don’t make the mistake of putting all your books on one page; each should be on its own, because the list will get way too unwieldy and difficult for people to search.’
Authors with one or two books to promote may find the free services enough for their needs. They can be an excellent way of pointing readers towards their preferred buying option.
But as Rick explains, times are changing, and the internet is evolving. That’s the joy of the business of writing! I currently take a joint approach. I have individual pages for each of my books on my website, but I also use the free Books2Read universal book link service.
Whenever I promote one of my books, I point readers to the relevant book page on my website. On there, they’ll find the relevant Books2Read.com link so they can buy from their preferred platform in their country.
While many universal book link services help readers find the right platform when buying our eBooks, we can also use them for paperback and audiobook links too. And for authors who sell their books directly, some UBL services will also direct potential readers to their author website’s sales page.
The universal book link offers authors a clever way to connect readers with their books in whatever format, platform, and country they wish. For some authors, this can make it an extremely useful tool to have in their writing business toolbox.
Business Directory
BookFunnel.com (paid)
Books2Read.com (free)
Booklinker.com (free)
Geniuslink.com (paid)
Storyoriginapp.com (paid)
© Simon Whaley