Build your author presence
Publish a canonical book page
Each book needs one page on your own site with the correct title, description, identifiers, formats, and purchase links, live by the time preorders open.
Authors often hire help with this: website or technical.
Why it matters
A stable book page gives every announcement, profile, and pitch one link that you control and can update. It is also the source people check when retailer data disagrees. If the description on Amazon differs from the one on Goodreads, the version on your site is the tiebreaker, and having identifiers listed there makes it easier to get corrections made upstream.
Your part
- What you do
- Do it. You normally do this yourself.
- Who normally owns it
- Author. Author maintains; publisher supplies final description, cover, and identifiers
- When
- Live when preorders open, usually 3 to 6 months before publication, and updated at every milestone (Build your author presence: any time, and the earlier the better)
Your part changes with your publishing route.
How to do it
The full walkthrough
A canonical book page is the reference record for one title. When a retailer listing is wrong, a librarian is unsure which edition to order, or a podcast host needs the description, this page is where the correct information sits.
Traditionally published authors will usually have a publisher page for the book as well. Link to it, but do not rely on it alone. Publisher pages tend to show the current season's format and drop older editions, and they will not link to every retailer you care about.
For hybrid and self-published authors this page is the publisher's official record of the book, so it carries more weight. Include every edition and format with its ISBN (International Standard Book Number), the publication date for each, and a note about which are available now versus forthcoming.
Timing matters: the page should exist before preorders open, because that is when you start sending people somewhere. It can start with a cover, a description, and one preorder link and grow from there.
Common mistakes
- Publishing the page with a placeholder description and forgetting to replace it once the final jacket copy exists.
- Listing only one retailer link.
- Omitting the ISBN, which is the first thing a librarian or bookseller needs.
- Changing the page address when the paperback comes out, which breaks every link already in the world.
Identifiers for Publish a canonical book page
Set a status on any record and it joins this step. All book identifiers.
| My status | Identifier | Why this matters | Yours |
|---|---|---|---|
| ISBN The International Standard Book Number, printed above the barcode. Most formats sold through the book trade get their own. | Every retailer, wholesaler, and library orders and lists your book by this number, and the title, contributors, format, price, and publication date attached to it are what those systems display, so one wrong detail shows up in many places at once. Traditionally and hybrid published authors normally receive the numbers from the publisher and check what is attached to each one. If you publish the book yourself, you buy the numbers and assign them, and you are the one who decides whether your imprint or a platform is recorded as the publisher. Keep one list of every ISBN beside the edition and format it identifies so you can check listings against it. | Add your ISBN-13 |
What done looks like
- One page per book at a permanent address, not a section of a long list.
- Title and subtitle exactly as they appear on the cover and in the metadata.
- The full description, plus a one-sentence version for people who skim.
- Every format with its ISBN, page count or running time, price, and publication date.
- Purchase links to more than one retailer, plus a library and bookstore option.
- The cover image at a size suitable for download, and a link to the media kit.
Ask your publisher
Copy this into an email. Replace the bracketed parts with your details.
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