Tech Tips for Writers is an occasional post on overcoming Tech Dread. I cover issues that friends, both real-time and virtual, have asked about. Feel free to post a comment about a question you have. I’ll cover it in a future tip.
You may have seen this on my education blog
When I promote my books on Amazon, I want to provide a link that automatically takes readers/buyers to their country’s Amazon outlet without adding a reference to the website that provided the universal link. I don’t want to depend upon that site always being there to manage the link. What if they go out of business? Or their site is down? It’s the same reason I buy ISBNs directly rather than use the ‘free’ ones on offer from various markets. For a while, I thought there were no options.
Until I found this. Here’s how to set up a simple Amazon universal link without branding, that goes directly to Amazon:
- Type in the Amazon Universal link URL http://a-fwd.com/asin=
- Add your book ASIN after the =. For example, my book is: http://a-fwd.com/asin=B0B9KPM5BW
Sound too easy? Click the link! You’ll see my latest book, Natural Selection. I know–way too simple.
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Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Man vs. Nature saga, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and the acclaimed Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, blog webmaster, an Amazon Vine Voice, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. Look for her next prehistoric fiction, Savage Land Winter 2024
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Thanks for the tips as a beginner I have really suffered with technology but this takes me way beyond.
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This is a great universal link creator. No fuss at all.
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A great tip, Jacqui, and I love the fact the link is short!!
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It’s a great find. Now, I need to change all the links in my signature block!
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That’s a lot work! I’ll be doing the same 😉
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Yep. It will take me a while.
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Great advice, Jacquie – and congrats on all those reviews on Amazon for the book, so well-deserved. Toni x
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Thank you so much! Reviews scare me. I am way too thin skinned! Thankfully, most of these are fine.
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I use mybook.to, but I should explore this! Thanks, Jacqui.
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I hadn’t heard of that one, Damyanti. I too shall explore!
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Thank you for this, Jacqui. I’ve been using a commercial site (but still free) and wondering if it’d always be there.
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I’m not terribly trusting, but Amazon sounds like a safe bet, especially since all of my books are there anyway.
On the other hand, Amazon is discontinuing their Ignite education portal that took me hours (and hours) to set up, which was after they discontinued their Amazon Advantage portal (which took me weeks to set up and maintain and at one point made me a lot of money). Not sure what will happen with that.
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That’s cool! I like books2read because it allows for my affiliate links, but I can see your point, too.
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There are a lot of ways to create this. I have an Amazon affiliate account which I rarely use. I’ll have to look into Books2Read’s options there.
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This is great! Thank you so much for the tip!
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This is a nice trick, innit? As long as Amazon stays in business!
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This is great! Being Canadian, I’m usually blocked from purchasing directly from most people’s blog links. I have to go to the Canadian Amazon site to purchase. I’m way behind in all things writing because I’ve been busy working on my AUTOCAD course, but I will keep this in mind when I get more free time. Thanks for sharing, Jacqui. 🙂
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I tried to learn Autocad back when I worked for a design firm. That is a tough program. EasyCad was, well, much easier. What are you learning it for?
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There are so many features to the program, so I know what you mean. I’m looking at a possible job change. I’ve just completed the first level course, and have started the second. We shall see how it goes. 🙂
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Best of luck. That program–in savvy hands–could do just about anything. The designers at my firm were creating child care centers according to my non-techie thoughts. They did great.
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Thanks, Jacqui. I appreciate your encouragement. 🙂
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I’m the same as Darlene but I’m used to working around it….but a good tip yours are always so easy to follow and execute 🙂 x
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I did used to work around it, but then I wondered how many people didn’t know how to so discovered this. Yay!
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And our ASIN would be?
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ASIN is the number assigned to your book by Amazon. Yours is 1681922924 so the link would be http://a-fwd.com/asin=1681922924
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Huh. I’ll have to look at how you found that. Wow! Thanks, Jacqui!
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Oh, so it’s the same as the ISBN. That number I can find easily.
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It’s not always the same. Like my ASIN–B0B9KPM5BW–isn’t my ISBN at all (don’t know why). Go to your book on amazon, look in the URL, and you’ll see the ASIN number https://www.amazon.com/dp/1681922924/
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Thanks!
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Thanks for the tip, I had no idea this was an option!
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Pretty nice. I mean, if this Universal link stops working because Amazon goes out of business, I guess it just doesn’t matter for us!
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are you sure there isn’t a complicated version of this?
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Hehee
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What a handy tip, Jacqui! Thank you for sharing!
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It does feel easy, doesn’t it?
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That’s an incredibly useful trick I did not know about. Thanks for teaching us.
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I’m glad you find it useful, Thomas.
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Thanks for this helpful info Jacqui. You said it. All my booklinks on my blog for all my books, except my newest, are dead links I discovered when I went to use the site I’d used for years, for my new book. What a pain. 😦
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I am so sorry to hear that. That sort of thing has stopped me from using the Universal links I read about, but then, all I post is for the US (not good). This one is associated with Amazon so it shouldn’t go dead.
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Thanks for sharing. 🙂
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Wow, what a great trick, Jacqui! It is truly ridiculously simple and what a great way to get a book in front of a universal audience. ❤
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I live with guilt, and one of those is posting only US links. Now, I just have to get myself to use this.
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This sounds easy! Thanks. I do have a problem with universal links though. I live in Spain and buy my books from Amazon.ca as I often have them sent to Canadian addresses. So when I click a universal link, it always takes me to Amazon.es which I don’t want.
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That’s a tough one. I don’t think I have a solution for that!
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I know. I just go to Amazon.ca, look up the book and go from there.
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Thanks, Jacqui!
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My pleasure!
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I am going to have to try this, Jacqui! It will save me some time 🙂
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It will. No more listing a bunch of Amazon links.
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That is a genius idea! I don’t know much of what I’m doing with self-publishing, so I signed up for your newsletter.
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Thank you! I do have tech tips for writers a couple times a month. I hope they’re useful!
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I’m so impressed with your knowledge of technology and greatly appreciate these tips!! I printed it out so I can keep it on my desk and use it instead of the cut and paste from my books Amazon page.
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I have to confess, I figured this out almost by accident, but when I searched DDG (and Google), no one else had it. I don’t get that.
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This sounds great, Jacqui. I should have done this long ago. Will have to get it set up.
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I’m wondering how long it will take me to fix my signature block on my posts. Hmm…
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It’s a matter of priorities, I think. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it.
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I like that, Anneli!
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A handy tip, Jacqui. You always share such great info!
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It is handy, innit, and pretty easy.
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this is awesome to know. thanks Jacqui!❣️
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Glad you like it, Cindy!
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Thank you for the tip! I use D2D too and never thought about a problem clicking into kindle from the universal link.
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Nothing wrong with any of those that offer to create a universal link. I like to be as independent and insulated as possible, just in case. I have a D2D account and considered using their universal–until I found this!
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Good tip (and if I ever get around to publishing a book….)
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Hehee. Keep reviewing books. I love reading your thoughts on them.
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I’d seen a few people use this and I wondered how they did it. Thank you so much, Jacqui! xoxo
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It’s a nice, neutral approach to covering everyone. My problem is remembering to use it!
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A great tip, Jacqui. I’ve used this link for years and never had a problem. It saves me from having to list all the Amazon marketplaces, which can get really lengthy! THanks for sharing!
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I just recently came across it. I love it!
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Thanks, Jacqui. I always forget this step. I added it to my notes.
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I have it in my notes, too. It’s not intuitive!
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Morning, Jacqui. You’re really on top of things. Have you always been interested in tech?
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I got my first computer 40 years ago and never stopped. It didn’t intimidate me like it does some people. Maybe that’s the difference.
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Thank you for the tip, Jacqui! I’ve saved this post in Evernote for future reference.
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Now I need to remember to use it!
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There is a risk of saving so many good tips we can’t remember to use them!
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Thanks for the tip, Jacqui!
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I hope it helps!
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Excellent tip, Jacqui. Thanks!
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Thanks, Grant! It sounds too easy, doesn’t it?
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Thanks for sharing, Jacqui! You’re so smart!
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I couldn’t believe searching for ‘Amazon universal link’ kept directing me to sites that branded the link. This is much better.
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Hi Jacqui, thank you, this is great. I didn’t know how to create this link.
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Lots of sites will do it for you, but then I’m depending on them to stay in business. Hmm…
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Fantastic, Jacqui! I had no idea about this. Thanks for sharing this wonderful tip. Have a great week. Hugs 💕🙂
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I’m glad it’s helpful, Harmony!
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Great stuff, Jacqui. Thanks.
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Thanks, Norah! Anything to make a writer’s life easier.
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I did (clicked). And it did (took me to your book on Amazon India).
That is a nifty piece of advice, Jacqui. Thank you!
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I actually couldn’t believe it worked. I forget where I came across it, but it’s impossible to find anymore!
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And it seems to work with the ISBN too 🙂 Had forwarded yr post to a friend who self-published last year. It worked on his ISBN.
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Didn’t know that. Thanks for letting me know.
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