34: Seven Tips for Using Universal Book Links

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There are plenty of books and apps to help you

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market your books. But most of those come at a premium. Today

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we're going to look at a free tool that will simplify your

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life and help you market your books. In fact, you can earn

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money on books you didn't write by maximizing your affiliate

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links. Let's learn about universal book links and how can

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you use them? Welcome to the writing pursuits podcast where

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authors like you discuss writing craft, author, life and book

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marketing strategies.

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I'm your host Kathrese. McKee. I own writing pursuits and write

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and produce the weekly newsletter writing pursuits tips

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for authors. In addition, I am a speculative fiction author.

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Writing pursuits is for authors who drink too much coffee,

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endure judgemental looks from their furry writing companions

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and struggle for words. If you are a writer seeking

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encouragement, information and inspiration, this podcast is for

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you. Let's get to it. Hey, writing pursuits authors.

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Welcome back to the podcast. To those of you who are new, I want

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to extend a special welcome. My name is Kathrese McKee. And I'm

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glad you're here. Please leave a comment a star rating and follow

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the show to help others find writing pursuits. Today let's

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learn about seven ways to use universal book links. What is a

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universal Book link or otherwise known as a UB L. Universal book

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links provide a single URL that an author a publisher or a fan

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can share online. Instead of linking to just one digital

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bookstore, or posting lots of links to lots of different

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stores and territories. An author can share one universal

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Book link, and a reader can follow it to reach the book on

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their favorite store. Think of it as Bitly for indie books, you

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can create universal book links at books to read, which is the

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sister site of draft to digital or book linker, which is for

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Amazon stores, or BK lnk.com, or genius link. And there may be

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other places. Today, I will only consider books to read because

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it's the only service I have personally used so I can vouch

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for it. What is books to read from their FAQ. books to read is

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a reader facing site featuring discovery tools developed by

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indie publishing service draft to digital, we currently offer

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the following free services, new release notifications, universal

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book links, author pages and book tabs, I would add reading

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list to this list of features. And we'll talk about those in a

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moment. So seven ways to use universal book links. Number

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one, create one link to rule them all. A UBL can tie a title

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to all of the stores where it is sold, and in every format it

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exists. To begin, you can grab a URL from a store where your

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ebook is sold in books to read we'll run a search to find it

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anywhere else it is sold. If you offer your book in paperback or

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in audiobook format, you will need to add those locations

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manually. But that's pretty easily done. You do not need to

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have a books to read account to create a UBL anyone can create a

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UBL for book. However, if you do create an account, you can track

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clicks and see other analytics. You can also update the UBL to

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reflect store editions or places the book is no longer available

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to add or remove stores without affecting the link the ability

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to keep the same UBL. No matter where the book is sold is huge.

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Many authors start out publishing to Amazon only. Later

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they decide to go wide. All you need to do is refresh your UBL.

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To add and delete stores to keep it up to date, you have one

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universal Book link to maintain. Instead of having to track mini

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store links for your book. Think of that multiplied by a backlist

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of 10 books or 20. That is a major time saver. Plus you don't

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have to update web pages where you have mentioned your book.

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Links in your social posts continue to work. If you are a

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podcaster or a YouTuber, your show notes continue to be

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accurate for books you've mentioned. Number three, use the

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custom URL in your newsletters on your website. And in your

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social posts. books to read initially creates a cryptic case

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sensitive link for each UBL but you are allowed to create a

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customized link as I did for my first novel instead of books to

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read.com forward slash you forge slash three uppercase R six

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uppercase R x v. You can find it at books to read.com forward

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slash Martin's mark if the last segment of your URL has not been

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taken the You will be able to reserve it for yourself.

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Otherwise, you will need to be inventive. There was no other

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UBL that use Martin's mark as its customization so I could use

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it, I could save it. You may be asking yourself why you would

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use a UBL for book that is only on Amazon. Let's say you have

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one book on Amazon. The reason is books to read will provide

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automatic geolocation support for Amazon stores. So if a

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reader in Australia clicks on a UBL for your book, they will be

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sent to the Amazon store for Australia with no extra work for

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create a book tab for every book, you can add your book

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cover description, and it looks great. Number five, after you've

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added your books, create an author page with a list of your

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books on books read for my author friends who do not yet

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have a website, here's your chance to have an about page

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with a list of your books for free. And you can customize your

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author page URL to of course, in essence, you are creating a UBL

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for you. Or I guess it would be a universal author link anyway,

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you can find my page at books to read.com forward slash Kathrese.

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McKee that was a reason for using UBL. So in particular for

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using books to read my gut tells me and this is just my

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prediction that drafted digital has big plans for the future of

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books to read to my way of thinking they could become a

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book Bub alternative. Why not? They have their fingers on the

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pulse of indie publishing already, why not expand their

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reach? Number six, create reading lists for your books and

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similar books by other authors. books to read permits you to

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create reading lists, and they can include all of your

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recommendations, which you then can share using a reading list

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URL for best results. Create all of the little UB ELLs you're

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going to need first, and then begin setting up your reading

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list. You can customize the link to you guessed it, I have a

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custom link from my book series that books to read.com Ford

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slash R L Ford slash Martin's Mark series. The reading lists

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are presented as attractive carousels with your labels like

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my favorite fantasy books. Clicking on a book in the

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carousel will send the reader to a book tab where all the

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available stores will be shown. At this point a reader can

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indicate that they only want to make purchases from Kobo or

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Scribd, or Amazon books to read will remember their preferences

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to streamline their purchasing experience the next time if you

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input your store affiliate links into books to read. Then when a

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reader clicks on a bookstore link and purchases a book you

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have listed, you will receive your affiliate commission, I

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plan to create reading lists for writing precedes authors that

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will include books I am constantly recommending his

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author resources. And if you just happen to click one of my

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little ups where I am an affiliate, someday I will

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receive a small commission. Speaking of affiliates books to

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read currently recognizes the following stores affiliate

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codes, Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble Rakuten Kobo Google

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scribed smashwords, which is now part of drafted digital and

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Walmart eBooks by Rakuten. Your reading lists can be private, or

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public. So if you just want to create a reading list for

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yourself, you can keep it private, or public lists and

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public reading lists are available to anyone with the

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link can you see the possibilities, you can recommend

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your author friends books in a reading list customized for your

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genre, so your readers can find similar books to read while you

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complete your next novel, or how to book number seven create

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multiple use ups for campaign testing. You don't have to limit

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yourself to one UBL per book. Let's say you wanted to do a

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little AB testing to see which campaign is most effective.

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Create two or more UVs for your title, and pit them against each

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other. If you have a books to read account, you can see the

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results in your analytics. Imagine how you will use this

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free marketing tool that is both highly efficient and effective.

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If you already have a draft a digital account, your sign in

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information will be the same for its sister site books to read.

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That makes it all easy. And that's all I have for today.

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Until next time, keep writing.

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Thank you for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode,

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please leave a comment and follow the podcast. If you're

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new around here. I hope you will sign up for the weekly

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newsletter writing pursuits. Tips for authors that link and

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all the links mentioned in today's episode are in the

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shownotes at writing pursuits.com Please join us on

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Wednesdays for new episodes and keep writing my friends. Keep

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