Always Use A Clean Book Link When Sharing your Book

What is a clean link, and why should you be using them?

Whenever I do an author interview or share an author’s book, I always ask for a clean book link to the book. However, I’m constantly surprised to see either dirty links to books coming back or getting asked, ‘What is a clean book link, and how do I get it?’

So, if you don’t know what a clean link to your book is, don’t panic. You’re definitely not alone, and I didn’t know what it was when I first started self-publishing my books, either.

In the following article, we’ll cover:

What is a clean book link?
Why is a clean link so important?
How to get a clean book link.

One. What Is A Clean Book Link?

Clean links are direct digital hyperlinks to your book on Amazon or wherever you’re selling it without any other data attached. So, when you’re trying to share your book with readers, hopefully, so they can ultimately read, enjoy, and review it, you give them a link that takes them directly to it.

It makes the process easier for the reader. The last thing you want to do is say, ‘Hey, can you read my book? Just head over to Amazon and search for it.’ Not very efficient and an excellent way to lose a review or reader right from the start.

A clean link is simply a short, direct link to your book without any of the other rubbish included.

Two. Why Is A Clean Link So Important?

Okay, now we know the difference between a clean and dirty link. But, you’re probably thinking, so what? Why do I even care? This is where we need to remember that Amazon loves data, like all big companies, and they’re collecting data on you as you use their site.

Therefore, when you go to Amazon, search for your book, get the correct format, then copy-paste the link, all that data from your digital journey through the site, including who you are, is contained in small bits of data within that link.

So, when you share that link with another reader or reviewer, Amazon says, ‘Hey, these two people are connected somehow,’ and then they may remove the review that person left on your book. Of course, Amazon is insanely strict about their reviews and typically doesn’t explain how they connect people or why they remove reviews, but this could be one of the ways.

My wife and I have fallen victim to this ourselves. We both had Amazon accounts. We both read and reviewed books. One day, all our reviews were gone. Because we used the same Wi-Fi network, Amazon deemed it a violation. No more Amazon reviews for us!

So, the goal for authors is not to give Amazon any more reasons to remove one of their reviews from their books because we know how hard they are to get and how valuable they are.

Three. How To Get A Clean Link to Your Book!

The simplest and easiest way to get a clean book link to your book on Amazon is to go to your Amazon KDP dashboard and follow these steps:

Go to your Amazon KDP Dashboard.
Scroll down until you find the book you want the clean link to.
Hover over the correct format, ebook, paperback, or hardcover, select which marketplace US, UK, etc., then open that in your browser, and you’ll get your clean book link ready to copy and paste.

If you’re working off a browser or computer and can’t log into the dashboard, you can get a clean book link by doing the following steps:

One. Copy and paste the link to whatever book and format you need into a document. The link may look something like this:

Two. Now, we can start by removing everything after the dp/198865646X/ we don’t need any of it. Our link will look something like this:

Three. Next, we can remove the title of the series and book. We don’t need that either. Finally, our clean link looks like this:

Remember, if you’re cleaning up your links to share via email, website, or social media, always test your links to make sure they work before you send them out!