Every MWSA author submitting a book for inclusion on our website is asked to provide a link (URL) to their book's sales page. For the vast majority of us, that means a link to Amazon's website.
But how do you do it? Are there any "tricks to the trade?"
The easiest way to provide a link to your book is to 1) search for your book on Amazon or Google, and 2) "copy and paste" whatever you find in your web browser's address block.
However, if you use this method and don't pay attention, the resultant URL can be very—in fact, ridiculously—long.
Don't believe me... or don't know what in the world I'm talking about?
I just did a Google search for books dealing with PTSD on Amazon. I've pasted the resulting link to one of the books (not an MWSA one, so I'm not endorsing it) that came up near the top of the search results below:
https://www.amazon.com/Deepest-Well-Long-Term-Childhood-Adversity-ebook/dp/B01N7HZ73B/ref=zg_bs_16311441_6?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=N5YW9P772K6VB868BSS7
If you were the author of the above book, would you want all that gibberish on your website or on a poster or other marketing media? Of course not.
Here's a cleaner link to that same book:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N7HZ73B
The key to a "clean" URL linking to your book's sales page on Amazon is the "/dp/" followed by your book's ASIN number. All the rest of the "junk" added before or after isn't required!
Generally speaking, the "cleanest" version of your book's Amazon link should look like this:
https://amazon.com/dp/[Your book's ASIN]
Note that the "s" in "https://" will be automatically added, as will the "www." in "www.amazon.com".
Here's another, "graduate-level," Amazon URL tip...
If you want, you can add a slash "/" after your ASIN number and add whatever information you'd like.
Let's say you want to keep track of the various editions/formats of your book—or direct potential readers to a specific version/format of your book.
For example, I could distinguish between the paperback and Kindle versions of my book, Delta 7, like this (yes, this is a shameless plug):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1438243901/paperback
https://www.amazon.com/dp/ B0043GX216/Kindle
Depending upon which version you're highlighting to potential customers/readers, you could use one or the other—and easily keep track of "which was which!"
That wasn't so hard, was it? :-)
Good luck and here's wishing for massive increases in your book sales from all of us here at MWSA!