Create and test every purchase link
Create canonical buy links for each format
Build one master list of the correct purchase link for every format at every retailer, so your website, social profiles, press materials, and newsletter all point to the same tested pages.
Why it matters
Every place a reader hears about the book eventually offers a link, and a link to the wrong page or a dead one is a lost sale that nobody reports. One tested list, used everywhere, is the simplest sales infrastructure a book can have. It also makes the launch-week link test possible, because there is a defined list to test.
Your part
- What you do
- Do it. You normally do this yourself.
- Who normally owns it
- Author. Author builds and maintains
- When
- Before launch, once preorder links are live; update when formats are added (Create and test every purchase link: three months before publication, and again on publication day)
How to do it
The full walkthrough
A canonical buy link is the one URL you have decided is the right link for a given format at a given retailer. The Amazon hardcover page, the Bookshop.org paperback page, the Apple Books ebook, the Libro.fm audiobook, and so on. The list is short but it is used everywhere: your website's book page, your email signature, social profiles, the press kit, the newsletter, event listings, and the back matter of the ebook. Without it, each of those is built from whatever link was handy, and half of them go to the wrong format, a duplicate page, or a search result.
Building the list means opening each retailer, finding the exact page for each format, stripping tracking clutter from the URL where it is not needed, and adding your own tracking (an affiliate tag or a UTM parameter) where it is. Store the list in your Book Identity Sheet with the date each link was checked. Where a retailer offers a universal link that resolves to the reader's country store, note that too.
On the traditional path, the publisher's website will have its own buy buttons; collect those, but build your own list as well, because your materials outlive the publisher's page. On the hybrid path, the same. On the self-published path, the list is entirely yours, and the retailer set may be larger because of wide distribution.
Build it before launch, when preorder links are already live, and update it when formats are added.
Common mistakes
- Linking to a search result instead of the product page.
- Different links to the same book on the website, the newsletter, and the social bio.
- Copying a URL with someone else's affiliate tag in it.
- Building the list and then not using it, so old links persist.
- Forgetting the audiobook and independent bookstore links.
Identifiers for Create canonical buy links for each format
Set a status on any record and it joins this step. All author identifiers.
| My status | Identifier | Why this matters | Yours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Author Central The free Amazon page where you claim your author name, attach every edition of your books, and write your biography. | Unclaimed, the author page a reader sees is whatever Amazon assembled, and any edition listed under a different spelling of your name sits apart from the rest of your work. Only you can fix that: a publisher cannot claim your author page for you, and the platform account a self-publisher publishes through is a separate login, so the job is identical on all three routes. Amazon's help says author pages are not removed once created, so use exactly the name that appears on your books rather than creating a second page you would rather not have. You're done when one author page carries the right name and every edition and format is attached to it. | Add your Amazon author page link | |
| BookBub Author Profile A free BookBub profile that lists your books and alerts your followers when you publish a new one. | Claiming it gives you a follower list that receives automatic new-release notices, and it lets you correct the book titles, covers, descriptions, and retailer links readers see; left unclaimed, none of that is yours to fix. It is worth doing for any author whose books are sold as ebooks, and it does less for a print-only, academic, or picture book. It applies the same way on all three routes, whether a publisher or you released the book, and it is separate from any decision about paying for a Featured Deal or advertising, which claiming a profile does not enter you for. You're done when the profile is claimed, the photo and bio are current, and every book and retailer link is right. | Add your BookBub profile link |
What done looks like
- One list with the exact page for each format at each retailer, dated.
- Links point to the specific format page, not to a search or the author page.
- Affiliate tags or UTM parameters added where useful, and stripped clutter removed.
- The list stored in the Book Identity Sheet and used as the single source for every website, profile, and press material.
- Updated when a format is added or a listing changes.
Sources and last checked
- Official source
- No single official page for this step.
- Last checked
- Not checked against its source yet.
- How confident we are
- Verified