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Create 1 Link That Works for ALL Kindle Shops

Let's talk about the smart way to link your book so readers will find it in their specific Amazon Kindle stores. There are many ways to do this. Everyone has their own idea about which link service for Amazon is best, and there are several.

I plan to present these different ways for you. Then you can decide for yourself which you think is easiest.

(This article previously appeared in Writing Hacks, my free subscription newsletter for writers sent the 1st and 3rd Tuesday each month. Subscribe today if you want to read articles like this as soon as they are published.)

Creating Amazon Links for Other Countries

You probably know that you can create individual Amazon Links for each country in which your book is sold. (This is long so hang in there.)

First, a reminder, always delete any extraneous elements after the ASIN in your book page URL. Anything beyond the ASIN/ is referral code to show Amazon where you found the book link.

Example:

This is a link to my book, The Trouble With Love, that was generated from CUSTOMERS WHO BOUGHT THIS ITEM ALSO BOUGHT section of the book webpage:

http://www.amazon.com/Trouble-Romantic-Comedy-Texas-Stands-ebook/dp/B004WSQ94W/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=041PEDV67M49WH6AKYCM

Everything after B004WSQ94W/ is referral code and should not be part of a clean link you're generating--unless it's your affiliate referral code of course.

On the U.S. Amazon webpage for my book, Still The One, you'll see that the URL is:

http://www.amazon.com/Still-The-One-ebook/dp/B005062SLS/

Over on the right sidebar, I can scroll down to SHARE. Clicking that for email will generate a super short clean link: http://amzn.com/B005062SLS -- (If you're unsure about what clean link means, read my post Create Amazon Clean Links.)

Of course, for foreign sales, I can create a link to the UK store, for example, just by changing the .com after amazon to .co.uk, yielding this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Still-The-One-Romantic-Comedy-ebook/dp/B005062SLS/ (United Kingdom)

with the shortest clean link being: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005062SLS (notice that amazon is written out here, and "dp" for digital publishing is also part of the short URL.)

http://www.amazon.fr/Still-The-One-Romantic-Comedy-ebook/dp/B005062SLS/ (France)

with the shortest being: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005062SLS (like the UK link, this one has amazon spelled out and also includes "dp" for digital publishing)

To create a link for each country's Amazon store is time consuming. There are a few ways you can create an Amazon link that will automatically send a reader in another country to their specific Amazon website store.

Wouldn't it be better to have 1 link that would send a reader to the specific Amazon store in his or her own country?

Authl.it

Screenshot, Authl.it Link Maker Page
I like Authl.it because it's fast and so easy to use. In fact, it's the easiest, fastest way I've found to make links that work in every Kindle store plus the link sends you to a page that shows the reader where she is for authenticity and security by showing the country's flag .

Authl.it was created by the UK Kindle Users Forum and was designed to make linking and promoting Kindle eBooks as easy as possible worldwide. The system generates a single link to direct readers to the Amazon store for their country or region.

The process is so simple. Just go to http://authl.it/ and when the webpage opens, you'll see a form like the one above.

In the empty box, paste in the ASIN for your book and click GO.

I input my ASIN for Still the One: B005062SLS

This is what Authl.it did with the Amazon Serial ID number:

Option 1. Really short URL -- http://authl.it/1ox  -- along with a clickable
"Try URL" to see how it works.

Option 2. URL with ASIN showing -- http://authl.it/B005062SLS -- again an option to click to try the resulting URL.

Below that is the option to "Create another" link.

You'll notice that the authl.it link with the ASIN is about the same length as the super short, Amazon clean link we made, but the difference is that the authl.it link will send the reader to his or her specific Amazon store whether that's in Japan or France or wherever.

Screenshot, Page Opened by Authl.it Link
When you click on an authl.it link, a page opens, showing the book cover and the Amazon description as well as the flag for each country where there's an Amazon store.

That's the authentication for the reader's peace of mind. The reader just has to click the flag for the country that pertains to him or her.

Another Way to Create Authl.it Link

Create your own authl.it link in one easy step without going to the website: just add your ASIN to the end of the authl.it URL

Example: http://authl.it/YOURASIN

You can also create direct links that will click straight through to the correct Amazon store without going first to the intermediate page with the flags. The direct link connection is based on geo-detection. Just add -- ?d -- (for direct) to the end of the authl.it URL

Example: http://authl.it/YOURASIN?d

Want to use bit.ly for statistics? Then enter your generated authl.it url into bit.ly for a short link that does both.

Takeaway Truth

Take some time to create an Authl.it link (or bitly TinyURL or whatever floats your boat) for each of your books. Do the same for an Affiliate Referral Link if you monetize. Set the links up in a text document that's easy to access,and you'll always have them ready to copy and paste.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for article. Is this still working? I tried the http://authl.it/YOURASIN?d method from the UK and it is defaulting to amazon.com not amazon.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello! Go to http://authl.it/. In the window that opens, enter your ASIN in the search box. (I went to Amazon and did a search for Sam Flint and found some books. I don't know if these are your books, but let's use this as a test.) The novel Lives Taken has this as its ASN: B01A4NRF9Q. I entered B01A4NRF9Q in the AuthLit search box and it generated the 2 url's I tested each and they worked. I just clicked Try It and the window opened showing the flags of several countries. I clicked the UK flag and the webpage opened to that book on the UK Amazon Kindle shop.

      Try it for yourself now.

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