PSA for Writers

As a writer, you might have a website, social media profile(s), and a newsletter. An important part of maintaining them should include the sharing of links, while preserving a ratio of at least three useful links to each that could be considered promotional.

Unfortunately, many writers don’t know the best ways to format links without ugly extraneous characters. Read on for tips on how to streamline URLs.

Amazon Book Links

All you need to share an Amazon URL is the domain name, followed by dp and the book’s ASIN.

For example: https://www.amazon.com/dp/YOUR_ASIN/

Anything else, including the name of the book, question marks, and variables followed by = signs are unnecessary.

If you’re not linking to amazon.com, substitute that part of the link with the appropriate domain:

UK: https://amazon.co.uk/
CA: https://amazon.ca/
AU: https://amazon.com.au/
IN: https://amazon.in/

… etc.

Likewise for amazon.com link examples in subsequent sections of this post.

For more guidance, see:

Writers: Are You Tossing Away Potential Book Income?

Deleted Book Reviews and Waning KENP Income: Your Fault?

Do You Make This Mistake When Sharing Links? An Easy Fix

Amazon Book Review Links

All Reviews

Link to all reviews of your book with the following URL:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/YOUR_ASIN/#customerReviews

Specific Review

To link to a specific review, click on it and delete everything after the alphanumeric characters that comprise the unique review identifier.

For example, instead of this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R7XQ7V25EE7YY/ref=cm_cr_othr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B088KL2GLR

Post this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R7XQ7V25EE7YY/

Leave a Review

You can encourage people to review your book by building a link like the following. Note: The question mark is required.

https: //www.amazon.com/review/create-review?asin=YOUR_ASIN

This will bring up a page that invites readers to provide a star rating and review.

Facebook

Regardless of what you share on Facebook, precede the link with a few lines of text. If done properly, this will move the link below the See More notice and provide a neater-looking post. Edit if necessary until you’re satisfied with the post’s appearance.

Public Group Posts

Sharing a group post looks ugly if you copy and paste. Substitute a link like the first one that follows with the shorter version below it.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/GROUP_NAME/permalink/10164880084885137/?__cft__[0]=AZU-YwEyMdl9BK8GLdOOfm-rlXLk_q-oSi1DsjH-0B7O-L5H2SRPYobZ05KAdUyZLwzmDAydr4wKKV7B9Ey8VCDNZD2Q27bTIFgPVOp5isjiivGGWaJx_N8bdjIYabhWW1fZ-mmQCjTtUcswnP7JHYeiat-GrMIYoDFbMfOYzJbhxHsYB4V4gnQefag4EdaQul0&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

https://www.facebook.com/groups/GROUP_NAME/permalink/10164880084885137/

Advertisements

When Facebook redirects for an advertisement, the URL in your browser will look something like the first version below. Shorten it.

https://SOMEDOMAIN.COM/get-it-here.html?fbclid=IwAR2wW2BVudiXENYdduS0f2opgDVLZz13kdO0iQFD2ANGHDEs9HMuTOZsqdY

https://SOMEDOMAIN.COM/get-it-here.html

Photos

Photos aren’t quite as long as other Facebook URLs, but you can shorten them a bit too, by deleting the ampersand and whatever follows:

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1234567890&set=a.1234567890

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1234567890

Blog

Whether you link to a page on your own blog or on someone else’s, avoid the following boo-boos.

“Continue Reading” Link

This type of link takes readers to a point within the blog post, not at the top. Eliminate the # and everything following it:

https://DOMAIN.COM/url/#more-5405

https://DOMAIN.COM/url/

Comment Link

A link from a comment brings readers to the comment it represents. Similar to the previous example, eliminate the # and everything following:

https://DOMAIN.COM/url/#comment-123456

https://DOMAIN.COM/url/

Redirects

I’ll use Twitter as an example. If you right-click on a Twitter URL to copy it, you’ll see something like the link below.

https://t.co/vfyiBNIR0S?amp=1

This redirects to the URL that displays within the Twitter post. To compound the problem, URLs like this often redirect to a link shortener URL such as:

https://ow.ly/SCYg97sjhfkl

The shortener redirects to the final destination — unless the redirect takes users to a page that also redirects.

All these redirects result in unnecessary internet hops and delays, or even a broken link if a site is down. Grab the link from the final destination and strip unnecessary characters as described previously.

Tips

Copy and paste URLs from your browser into a text file. Then experiment with removing everything that looks extraneous, saving each version of your modification, until you produce a short URL that still functions.

If you need lead-in text with formatting not provided by your intended medium, try https://capitalizemytitle.com/bold-text-generator/, which provides eleven options:

• Bold
• Bold Italics (Sans Serif)
• Bold Italics (Serif)
• Bold Cursive
• Cursive
• Italics
• Small Text
• Upside Down
• Small Caps
• Bubble
• Backwards

And true to its name, the website also provides title capitalization recommendations for several sources.