[Want to watch the tutorial on YouTube rather?]

Are you selling your latest book through multiple eBook retailers? Looking for a fast, simple (and free) website to showcase ALL retailers that link to your book? You may also be looking for a simple way for Amazon readers to find the right store link for their country. I got you covered. (Well not me, Books2Read does…but you get my meaning.)

Welcome to this easy to understand (I think so) tutorial helping you create + setup your very own free book landing page.

WHAT IS BOOKS2READ?

Books2Read, is a service brought to you by the team behind eBook distribution platform, Draft2Digital. Essentially, Books2Read helps solve a problem that it created: How an author selling a book through multiple retailers can show several purchase links to readers, without confusing them. The reader then chooses their favourite retailer link to buy your book. Nailed it.

BUT WHAT CAN BOOKS2READ ACTUALLY DO FOR ME?

The goal of this tutorial and the biggest reason to be excited about the Books2Read platform is the ability to create what’s known as a Universal Book Link or UBL. Think of this as “the one link to rule them all.” – A single online or “landing” page for authors showcasing multiple store links for your readers to choose from.

Wondering what all the fuss is about? Here’s how a Books2Read page can look 👇

• books2read.com/Empire-Discovered (Our main book landing page featuring the store sales links.)
• books2read.com/b/Empire-Discovered  (Our book “overview” page, including the book description and author profile.)

BOOKS2READS IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR AN AUTHOR WEBSITE.

Why? For a start, you cannot fully customise the book sales page. If you needed full control over the book sales links and how they are displayed, then an author website, designed in an easy-to-use platform like WordPress would be a smarter choice.

Read more about designing an author website here.

YOUR (e)BOOK SHOULD ALREADY BE PUBLISHED

Before starting, your eBook should at least be published on Amazon. Have your Amazon eBook sales page link ready. For example: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08Q4HKPPM

If your eBook is then also being sold widely using either Smashwords or Draft2Digital, these sales links will be automatically populated by the Books2Read platform when creating your UBL page.

BOOKS2READ CAN SHOWCASE OTHER BOOK FORMATS

If your paperback book is published via Amazon KDP print on demand, it can also be shown on your Books2Read page. If you selected “Expanded Distribution” when publishing your Amazon KDP Paperback then Books2Read will scan for other retailers selling the paperback title too.

AudioBook Tip: I see that Books2Read is also be able to showcase links to retailers selling your audiobook title. For those of you wanting to publish an existing audiobook online, the FindAway Voices platform is your friend.

THE AMAZON LINK AUTODIRECTS VISITORS TO THE RIGHT TERRITORY

Books2Read only let me add a single Amazon book link. I can however confirm after testing that this Amazon sales link seems to then auto-direct the visitor to the relevant Amazon store based (I would guess) on the visitor’s IP address. Very very cool that this powerful ability to (re)direct a visitor based on their IP address is given freely. (I see WordPress website plugins offering the same functionality from $8 pm.)

See the video of this free geolocation functionality in action.

IS BOOKS2READ USEFUL IF I AM ONLY PUBLISHED THROUGH AMAZON?

Yes. As the Books2Read platform can direct your readers to the ideal Amazon book page, it can work as a “cleaner” sales page to share with your readers. However, the Books2Read platform’s functionality really shines for an author who is selling a book through multiple online retailers.

BTW BOOKS2READ HAS BASIC VISITOR ANALYTICS

If you were wanting to know how many of your readers had visited your UBL page OR perhaps how many might have clicked through to a store purchase link: Books2Read makes this information freely available. This functionality would normally cost an author a few bucks.

A BOOKS2READ TUTORIAL

STEP 1: START AT HOME.

Access the Books2Read homepage here 👉 books2read.com

Create your account by selecting the “AUTHOR SIGNUP” link on the menu ribbon at the top of the screen.

STEP 2: CREATE YOUR BOOKS2READ ACCOUNT

Create your account with Books2Read by sharing a few basic details with them.

Don’t forget to verify! Check the relevant inbox for the verification email before your Books2Read account can be finalised.

Click the “Confirm your account” button seen in the email.

STEP 3: NAVIGATE TO THE UBL DASHBOARD

Once your account has been verified, you should be automatically directed to your Universal Book Links (UBL) dashboard.

If not, navigate to the UBL dashboard from the Books2Read homepage:  

👉 Hover over LINK TOOLS (Top menu bar.)

 👉 Select UBL DASHBOARD.

You should now be seeing the UBL Dashboard as per the pic below.

Struggling with login? Not too sure why they chose to hide this, but if (like me) you’re struggling to find the login screen for Books2Read, either (click here) or look at the bottom of the home page, in the blue strip.

STEP 4: CREATING YOUR OWN UBL LINK

How the magic happens:

1. Insert the link to your book on the Amazon store front where it says “Paste a link to your book”
2. Click the “Make My Universal Link” button.
3. Watch as your UBL Link is created, and the store links automatically detected + populated.

Notes

• If your book is available through other online retailers (via Smashwords or Draft2Digital) then the other eBook retailer links should start autopopulating as Books2Read automatically scans these retailers.
• If successful, you should be seeing a screen similar to the one below. With your unique universal link AND the various retailers (auto-detected) store links.

Here’s a snapshot of the stores that Books2Read had automatically detected selling my title. This was all done by simply inserting the link to my eBook on Amazon. It was quick. Quicker than cooking my two-minute noodles. 🍜

Whilst Books2Read did the “hard” work for me by scanning and automatically linking to the stores where it found my book for sale, you’re still able to remove certain links, clear and insert links manually where you might need to. This automated linking also applies to the print edition of your title, if available. Books2Read automatically detected the print edition of my title as seen from the pic above.

An Amazon reminder: Manually adding in alternative links to the different Amazon store pages did not work for me. However, this did not matter (as mentioned at the start of this tutorial) as Amazon automatically directed readers to the relevant territory based on their IP location. This means that the one Amazon link is sufficient for all readers.

STEP 5: BEAUTY-FY YOUR UBL LINK

The next step is not vital however it will transform the Universal Book Link (UBL) from something ugly, to a link of beauty:

• Before: books2read.com/u/bPDJvj
• After:  books2read.com/Empire-Discovered

Here is how I did it: 👇

1. Once your store links are populated with the correct locations, look to the left-hand side of your screen for the “Link Tools” window.
2. Look for the heading in green labelled “♥ Custom name your URL”
3. Choose a meaningful address or URL name – normally the name of your book works best (I would not recommend including a subtitle to help avoid finger fatigue.)
4. If your desired custom link name is already taken, test a few variations until you are satisfied.
5. Then click “SAVE.”
6. Bam 👉 You have your user-friendly Universal Link! 👌

If you’ve successfully followed the steps to this point you should be seeing your shiny new custom UBL displayed as per my pic above. This will be good-enough for most of you to start sharing with readers immediately. *Happy dance. *

But wait…there’s more.

STEP 6: HOW TO CUSTOMIZE YOUR BOOK OVERVIEW PAGE

[Steps 6 +7 are optional, and only for those looking to further tweak things.]

Clicking on your book’s front cover image (from the step above) will take you through to an overview of your book, something like this page: https://books2read.com/b/Empire-Discovered

This overview page, seen a little further below, is not too different from the sales page above, except that it includes the book sales description as well as the author profile further down the page, if this is populated. (More on the author profile later…)

If you’re like me and love fiddling…to edit the book blurb or “promo tag” seen on the overview page: Click the “ENTER EDIT MODE” seen below.

Surely this is it. Surely our job is done and we can start sharing with readers!?

Well…yes, but how about populating the author bio page too?

STEP 7: POPULATING YOUR BOOKS2READ AUTHOR PROFILE

To find your author profile, navigate back to the UBL Dashboard and then click on the author name hyperlink as highlighted in the pic below.

No surprise on what to do next, click on “EDIT MODE” to make changes to your author profile on Books2Read.

• Make changes like adding an author profile pic
• Add links to your social media profiles and website
• Add a link to your mailing list
• Add or update the author bio text.

Once added, your author profile will be visible on your book overview page. Scroll to the bottom of my book overview page to see an example.

You made it! 💪

Relax, pour a cup, leave a comment ☕

Further Reading

https://books2read.com/faq/author/