How to Get Universal

/ harmonykentonline

linked-152575_640Hello SErs, Harmony here 🙂 A while ago, I tried using universal links to take interested folks to my books’ sales pages … the links didn’t work. So, I gave it up as a bad job.

Recently, an author on Twitter told me off for not using universal links. Duly chastised, I took another look. It seems that this capability has progressed a lot since the bad old days, lol. And still, it worried me to try it. Before I did anything, I made sure to research the heck out of it.

Eventually, I came up with Booklinker.net (https://www.booklinker.net/).

Here’s a screenshot:

Screen Shot 2019-07-08 at 12.14.48.png

It couldn’t be simpler to use. I created a free account and now have a universal link for each of my books. The final URL looks something like this: mybook.to/FALLOUT.

They do offer a paid plan with lots of author resources, but I’ve found that the free version suffices for my needs currently. Booklinker offers you a variation on how your finished URL will look. Sometimes, a title is taken already, so you then have to come up with something else. I had this with Backstage, so I added ‘erotic’ to the description: mybook.to/Backstage_Erotic, which got around the problem. You could go with your author initials, or anything you want.

Having tried out the new tech, I had left it alone for a long time, and I ended up falling behind the curve on this one. If any of you do try my example links above, I’d love to hear if the universal links worked for you and which country you tried them from.

Have any of you used universal links yet? If so, which provider(s) have you tried? It would be great if we could generate a list of tried and tested universal link resources in the comments for other authors to utilise. And if all of this is old hat to you, I apologise.

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Harmony Kent

© 2019 Harmony Kent–All Rights Reserved

 

58 thoughts on “How to Get Universal”

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  8. Thanks for sharing, Harmony! Off to get a universal link for my latest book. My other books all have universal links, but for some strange reason I haven’t been using them. I think I came across a post a year or so ago warning not to use them because SEO doesn’t pick them up… This may sound crazy, but I do recall reading about it somewhere.

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  9. Great post, Harmony. I also tried and failed to have a Universal Link set up back when I first started the writing journey. I think it’s a useful tool to have in our arsenal. Thanks for the links! I’ll be looking at yours and the ones that have been shared in the comments as well.😊

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  11. I started out with Book Linker which is great for getting all the Amazon marketplaces. I was told that some people prefer to use Amazon US instead. Then I discovered Books2Read. Their Universal Book Link (UBL) application does a whole lot more. I’m posting a link that explains what happens from both the reader and the author perspective. https://books2read.com/guide/ubl – I hope this helps you and any visitors who are on the lookout for UBLs. I really enjoy working with Draft2Digital and Books2Read as they are always finding new ways to help authors which in turn can help readers.

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  14. I’m just a relic from another era and have to confess that I don’t know anything about universal links, how they work or what they do… I’m feeling pretty stupid and out of my depth here. They sound as if they’re an important and useful tool for authors and I ought to be using them. I’ll screw my courage to the sticking-place and see if I can make more sense of it all!
    Thanks for sharing, Harmony.

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    • I know how you feel, Trish. This basically recognises which country you’re browsing from and sends anyone clicking your link to the relevant website (e.g, Amazon America or UK or Ireland, etc.) Even a dinosaur like me coped with it, lol. I had one person say she would have bought my book if it had had a universal link. So, I missed out on that one. Best of luck with everything 😊

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  21. I’ve never had a problem with Books2Read, but those are US links. I’m ashamed to admit I keep forgetting to add universal links for other countries. I suspect I may have luck with BookLinker, which I hadn’t heard of. Thanks for sharing your resource, Harmony.

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  22. I’m another one who uses Books2Read.com and haven’t had any issues.

    Sometimes i also just link to my publisher’s page which links all of the retail sellers. That saves me time, but moving ahead, I can see I’ll be doing more with Books2Read.

    It’s also great to have another option. I wasn’t familiar with BookLinker.net. Thanks for sharing that, Harmony.

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  23. Reblogged this on The Write Stuff and commented:

    Been wanting to convert your book links to Universal Links? This post from Harmony Kent on Story Empire tells you how. (Be sure to check the comments, too, as there’s more than one site where you can do this.) Super happy to know how easy it is! Thanks, Harmony!

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  24. I’ve been wanting to convert to universal links for some time, and just hadn’t found a moment to check them out. Thanks so much for this post, Harmony, and also to everyone who shared other sites where you can do this. I’m planning to work on it TODAY! Yay! Shared! 🙂 ❤

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