Book Profiles (and how to get on our new KB Books page!)

[Harvey]

Psst - hey, author! Author! Yes, you. We like your book so much we created a profile page for it here on KindleBoards.

What's special about your book's profile page?

- It features a large display of your book cover (500-pixels high).

- It includes your current book description and current customer reviews from Amazon.

- It (optionally) displays an online sample of your work right in the browser - no extra clicks required to get your book's words in front of your readers and potential buyers.

- It has no distracting links or graphics. No distracting header and footer clutter. Everything on the page is about your book, with easy links for readers to purchase your book.

- You can customize your book's profile page, with an author message, video trailer, links to other purchase sites, and many more options. Check it out by clicking the Author Control Panel link, which is in the lower right corner of your book's profile page. And while you're there, be sure to set the genre for your book... this is what KindleBoards uses for its "KB Books" lists of authors and books.


To see the Book Profile for your book, just use the following URL, and replace those X's with your book's ASIN.

http://www.kindleboards.com/book/?asin=XXXXXXXXXX

Example:
http://www.kindleboards.com/book/?asin=B001J54AWO




FAQ

When I try to view a book profile, I get an error message: "Invalid ASIN."  Double-check the ASIN and try again. It's safest to copy/paste the ASIN as it must exactly match the ASIN for the book.

When I try to view a book profile, I get an error message: "Sorry - this is a valid ASIN, but the information for this item is not accessible from Amazon."  Some items are not available through Amazon's developer web services. When that is the case, we're unable to retrieve book information from Amazon's database in order to construct the book profile.

Some books by other authors are being displayed in the "More books" area. This can happen and is a limitation of how we are able to query the Amazon database. It occurs most often with authors who have common names. You can turn off the "More books" display with the author control panel.

Why should I use the Author Control Panel to specify the genre for my book? Our KB Books page uses that to help KindleBoards members find books by KB authors... by browsing by author or by genre. The pages allow sorting and filtering to help our members find books.

What if I don't update my book's Genre? No problem, but your book will not be displayed when KB members sort or filter by genre in the KB Books page.

Why can't you use the Genres that Amazon has for my book? Those genres are difficult to get in an automated way from Amazon's database. And, those genres and subgenres are very granular. That works great on Amazon but the way that we're going to use them, your book will get more exposure with the broader genre categories listed in the Book Profile page.

I want to use more than one genre for my book. Sorry, only one genre can be selected for each book. Please pick the genre that most closely matches your book.

I would like to have a new genre added to the list. Post about it in this thread and we will certainly consider that. Keep in mind, we don't want to get too granular with the genres. But if we're missing a broad category, let us know.

The wrong price is being displayed for my book! Unfortunately this can happen for some books and is a limitation of how we are able to query the Amazon database. You can use the Author Control Panel to prevent the display of the price, or to override the price with a price that you specify.



Link Options

It's better to use the author control panel to customize these settings, but you can also use the following options in the URL:

&sample=N  - Add this to your URL to turn off the online sample. You may prefer to not display the online sample, because of its current formatting quirks. Or, an online sample may not yet be available for your book.

http://www.kindleboards.com/book/?asin=XXXXXXXXXX&sample=N

Example:
http://www.kindleboards.com/book/?asin=B001J54AWO&sample=N


&more=N  - Add this to your URL to turn off the display of additional books by this author. The page attempts to bring book covers for books by authors with the same name. Sometimes this may work imprecisely and bring back incorrect books. If so, you can turn off this feature.  

http://www.kindleboards.com/book/?asin=XXXXXXXXXX&more=N

Example:
http://www.kindleboards.com/book/?asin=B001J54AWO&more=N


Note: the above parameters can be combined; e.g. http://www.kindleboards.com/book/?asin=B001J54AWO&more=N&sample=N

[Arkali]

Ooooh, shiny!

[Cliff Ball]

I think its cool. It would be useful to be able to link our websites, blogs, and the various places where the novel can be bought, if people don't want to buy it from the Kindle.

If you're not getting paid for this Harvey, you should!

[Monique]

I'm not sure what to do with it yet, but it's super-cool!

[LKRigel]

I'm not used to someone being so nice. I don't know if I can stand much more of this.

[Arkali]

Careful, LK - it's a trap

[LKRigel]

I just looked, and I love it!

A control panel would be nice, especially for when we put our books on sale ([plug]like I just did a few minutes ago for 99 cents through November [/plug])

[Gordon Ryan]

Careful, LK - it's a trap

Harvey is going to ask all of us to submit a few hair follicles for his upcoming transplant.  Either that, or he is just continuing his outstanding service to the users of KB.  Thanks, Harvey, whichever one motivated you.

Gordon Ryan

[Harvey]

Ooooh, shiny!

I think its cool. It would be useful to be able to link our websites, blogs, and the various places where the novel can be bought, if people don't want to buy it from the Kindle.

If you're not getting paid for this Harvey, you should!

Mmm, good thought, Cliff. Maybe I should allow multiple URL links - to allow for links to Smashwords or other places where the book can be acquired.

I'm not sure what to do with it yet, but it's super-cool!

That's kind of where I am with it right now!!

I'm not used to someone being so nice. I don't know if I can stand much more of this.

 I think your cover looks really good in the large format: Space Junque book profile page

[Valmore Daniels]

Yup.

Love it.

Is it possible to include current sale price as well as (or instead of) list price?  (My list price is $3.74, but it sells for $2.99 -- 'cause of kobo, etc.)

http://www.kindleboards.com/book/?asin=B003XT5S4S

Harvey ... you da man!

[tonyaplank]

Very cool! Thank you, Harvey!

[Luvmy4brats]

Pretty... Does this just work on KB author books or any Amazon books... I can see a use for it in the Quasi-Official Book club thread and book recommnedations... and even the Book count threads... I go to those threads for inspiration and to have that info on hand would be nice.

[Dawn McCullough White]

How nice!!    Thanks Harvey.  

Dawn

[LKRigel]

 I think your cover looks really good in the large format: Space Junque book profile page

argh! that was nice too!!!!! (it is pretty...)

[Sandra Edwards]

Thanks, Harvey!

Sandy

[David 'Half-Orc' Dalglish]

Oh that is NEAT.

[Harvey]

Harvey is going to ask all of us to submit a few hair follicles for his upcoming transplant.  Either that, or he is just continuing his outstanding service to the users of KB.  Thanks, Harvey, whichever one motivated you.

Gordon Ryan

Watch it, full-hair-headed one...!!  

I think a lot of you have really good author websites already, so this may not add much for those of you who do. But I got the idea because the Amazon detail page is great but it doesn't get your book's words immediately in front of your potential buyers. I think putting the online samples right in front of your potential buyers is something that could make a different in promoting sales.

[Harvey]

Yup.

Love it.

Is it possible to include current sale price as well as (or instead of) list price?  (My list price is $3.74, but it sells for $2.99 -- 'cause of kobo, etc.)

http://www.kindleboards.com/book/?asin=B003XT5S4S

Harvey ... you da man!

Thanks, Valmore.

I'll have to check on the sale price - - good point. I'm pulling that information from a query using Amazon's web services - will do some research and see if the sale price is returnable. I hope it is.

[Imogen Rose]

Awesome, Harvey!  Thanks!

[Harvey]

Very cool! Thank you, Harvey!

How nice!!    Thanks Harvey.  

Dawn

Oh that is NEAT.

Thank you all!! I appreciate the feedback. It feeds my desire to do more of the same.

Pretty... Does this just work on KB author books or any Amazon books... I can see a use for it in the Quasi-Official Book club thread and book recommnedations... and even the Book count threads... I go to those threads for inspiration and to have that info on hand would be nice.

Well, we definitely prefer our KB authors' books!!! But yes, it will work for any book on Amazon.

[ldenglish]

OH WOW!

I nominate Harvey for the Mr. Incredibly Awesome Award.
 

[Chris Hallbeck]

Don't know if it's possible but this would be really cool if you could embed it into a post. It would look really good in the book bazzar threads for individual books.

[Harvey]

LOL. Thank you, ldenglish! And Imogen!

Chris - - good question. Most of it would not be postable in a forum post, because it uses real-time queries into Amazon's database to pull the info, and for security reasons we've restricted post content to be pure bulletin-board code ("bbcode"). I'll have to think about how we might be able to do some value-added content right in the forum posts, though.

[MosesSiregarIII]

Harvey, thanks so much for doing this.

I'd love to hear everyone's ideas for how to use this page. It's definitely cool, but I'm not sure what to do with it yet.

[LKRigel]

Harvey, thanks so much for doing this.

I'd love to hear everyone's ideas for how to use this page. It's definitely cool, but I'm not sure what to do with it yet.

a link in your signature?