This Amazon Widget is a Well-Kept Secret
Wouldn’t it be fun if you could embed a pretty and functional preview of your book on your site? Well you can. And it’s a snap.
So long as you can find it.
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1: navigate to your book’s Amazon page on a laptop or desktop. (The widget disappears on a mobile device. ) Underneath the yellow buy buttons you’ll see a host of options. (Give as a gift! Add to a wishlist!) Then, finally, there are some share buttons and a bashful little option to <embed.>
See that? It’s not well advertised.
Step 2: click on the <embed> link and a dialogue box pops up. Make sure you choose the radio button for “embed on your site.” You can include an affiliate code if you have one.
Step 3: copy the code! It’s that long thing that starts with <iframe and goes on for miles.
Step 4: use a code block on your Squarespace web page, pasting the embed code right in. You should immediately see your book cover and an option to turn pages or buy the book.
Looks great, right? Right.
Nice. But What’s the Downside?
There are a couple of times when you might not want to use these. If you are traditionally published and your publisher spends a lot of resources getting your books into independent bookstores, then you might not want to position Amazon out in front of other retailers. It’s just a thought.
Also, if you use this preview on your book’s web page without using any other images, Squarespace doesn’t have an image associated with the page. This doesn’t matter until you share the page on social media and nothing comes up but text.
Luckily there’s a fix: in the settings menu for your page, you can add your book cover as a thumbnail image for the page. Et voila, pretty previews, too.
