Great Tool for Writers: Making Short Links for Your Books

I recently put a book up on Amazon. Super excited. Of course, I wanted to tell the world about my baby. So I fired up Twitter and got the URL from Amazon—but then heard metal grinding against metal in my head, because this was not going to work.

 

 

I recently republished my book. Now the default URL looks even worse:

https://www.amazon.com/Hear-Me-Baby-Hold-Together/dp/1968557008/ref=sr_1_1?crid=PGMZBN5AKJ97&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.x42uIBBm6oHVujdp-Upwrv3VAVH-ORZTqonqH3SB5joTBVj91CEG8cAWl7V7hTq7Vz8IKxv7C-LQlo0h2mAR-sJUlAwaF4rSNKYV2rwPPPSWVwDF4V6lNcs23g7sZuAoEzFM1IME1Ba3mi-_G0UWgw.VZop9dML41w4-pG8unmd1c1PvdmnKlwKQdJRLa-A6hg&dib_tag=se&keywords=hear+me+baby+hold+together&qid=1753870228&sprefix=hear+me+baby%2Caps%2C111&sr=8-1

What a nightmare. Whenever people see a huge block of text, most of them think, Too long, didn’t read. Which is why you see TL;DR at the bottom of so many posts on places like Reddit. People don’t have time for all that text online; they want a short summary instead. It’s just human nature.

Nobody wants to scare off potential readers. What writers need is a TL;DR for URLs. And then I saw something one day that would change my life forever. (OK, not really, but I found something cool.)

I was browsing Twitter, and saw some writers I follow with posts linking to their current books. The links were unique, not those million character links you get by going to a default page on Amazon.

Here’s an example:

 

 

Getbook.at/risengods. Simple. Elegant.

How’d she do that? After some searching, I found the solution. Easy to use, it’s a good resource for all writers who want to create custom, short URLs for linking to their books on social media.

It’s called Booklinker, and can be found at http://www.booklinker.net/.

 

 

You need to create an account, but it’s simple and quick. Just give them your email, and make a password. Easy peasy. Once logged in, you simply paste the default URL for your book from Amazon. Hit the button for “Create Universal Link,” and you get a short, simple URL like the one below.

getBook.at/HearMeBabyBook1

The only downside is it only works for books on Amazon. But it’s a start for independent authors who are gearing up their social media campaigns. It’s about marketing, people. Brand, brand, brand. Every little thing helps—even “TL;DR” URLs for books on Amazon.

Is there anything else out there for Kobo, etc? If I find anything, I’ll make another post to let you all know. And if any of you have a lock on other cool tools like this, please leave a note in the comments.

In the meantime, keep writing.