Access ALL Amazon websites with just ONE link

With Twitter being limited to 140 characters per tweet, each character becomes precious, and if, as an author, you are trying to access a wide audience, it can create an issue as to where you focus your pitch. This is particularly problematic with Amazon.  My novel is currently on nine different Amazon platforms - .com, .co.uk, .fr, .it, .de, .ca, .es, .com.br, .co.jp – each of which has a unique link for my book. Clearly .com and .co.uk provide the biggest combined audience, but I also get sales from the other country platforms. Thankfully there is now a way around the problem of multiple links, namely - viewbook.at

This website helps you create ONE link that accesses ALL territories. I’ve used it, tested it with fellow authors in different countries, and it works. So, if you happen to be based in Canada, and click on this link – all territories – you will be redirected to Amazon.ca. If you are in France, and click the same link, you will be directed to Amazon.fr. This is great for using with Twitter, as it doesn’t then matter where your potential customers live, because once they click on your link, they’ll be taken to the most appropriate Amazon store. This is particularly important for books. I wouldn’t, as a customer, want to set up nine different Amazon accounts to make purchases. If I click on an book on the Amazon.com website, invariably I get redirected to Amazon.co.uk (because I reside in the UK). That’s fine, if I were always taken to the specific product page. On most occasions I get redirected to the Amazon home page. As an author I don’t want to put any unnecessary barriers in the way of my potential readers, so a ‘global’ link is an elegant way of overcoming that problem. (This service only works with links, and not the html code needed to create pictorial Amazon links, such as those on the right hand site of this site.)

So how does this all work? Viewbook provides you with a link, which directs the customer to the appropriate Amazon site, via their site. It is a seamless operation, and the customer isn’t aware of this happening. The next question you’ll probably want to ask is this – ‘Is this service free?’ – and the answer is yes . . . and no! Yes, the service is actually free, but if you have an Amazon affiliate account, you won’t be the one making the money if a sale is made – Viewbook will, via their affiliate account, which isn't unreasonable, as they are offering an excellent service. So you have to make the choice, a very small percentage of the sale lost, or the possible potential of more sales. Your royalties, by the way, will remain unaffected. It is just affiliate commission you’ll lose, paid by Amazon. Personally I’ve chosen to use the one global link, and not lose any sleep over lost affiliate commission, as I believe my chances of making sales significantly increases with the reduction in customer barriers.