Creating Signatures - An updated tutorial including NEW SIGNATURE SIZE LIMITS

[pidgeon92]

Why isn't the Link-maker 2.0 finding my book?

There are two possibilities:

1. You just published your book to Amazon. It may take a day or two for the database that the Link-maker 2.0 is gathering data from to update.

2. You are not changing the drop-down to Kindle Store prior to searching.

[pidgeon92]

Why can't I fit more book covers into my signature? How do I stuff in more?


Again, please remember that no matter how many books you have, you must not exceed our signature size limit:

It is 89 default font characters wide, and 10 default font characters high. That's about 800 x 140 pixels. This is enough for book covers (which, when made through our Link-Maker, are 125 pixels high) plus two lines of plain text. Keep your signature to that size or smaller; otherwise it may be changed or removed.  The maximum size for images is 125 pixels high, regardless.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


The signature field of the profile page for this forum is limited to 1,000 characters. A basic Link-maker 2.0 created signature has 151 characters. Add a space behind it, now there are 152 used. Add some text and use code to format that, a whole lot more characters are used up.

If you add nothing but book covers to your signature, using the Link-maker 2.0, you can get six (6) covers in your signature.

The 1,000 character limit is fixed, but there are a few different ways you can get more covers in. Two are described below.

1. Combine several book covers into one image (using whatever image editing software you choose). You can post this new image as described in this post, and you can link it to an external websites, such as your Amazon author page, or your own personal website, as described in this post.

2. You can use a URL shortening service, such as bit.ly, to shorten the URLs for both the image and the URL to your product page.

For example, here is a sample of code:

[url=http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001QWDRF6/?tag=kindleboards-20][img height=125]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ihUUQCuCL._SL160_.jpg[/img][/url]

The URL of the product page is in BLUE, the URL of the book cover is in GREEN.

2a) Copy the URL of your product page and paste into the field on the bit.ly website, then click the shorten button, as in the example below.



Which will result in the following:



2b) Copy the result, as in the example above, and paste in place of the BLUE text of your original code:

[url=http://amzn.to/gVxpYU][img height=125]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ihUUQCuCL._SL160_.jpg[/img][/url]

2c) Repeat steps a & c above, using the image URL in GREEN.

[url=http://amzn.to/gVxpYU][img height=125]http://bit.ly/fYvadb[/img][/url]

Using the URL shortener in this example, the number of characters used has dropped from 151 to 75, allowing 13 covers to be displayed in the signature.


TIPS

If you want to get more covers into your signature, make your covers smaller. I've seen quite a few very tiny covers, and they actually look pretty good. You can vary the height on yours by changing the img height tag. For example, instead of the standard img height=125, try img height=100, or img height=80, etc.

Another thing you can do is get all of your images into a single picture (using whatever image software you like [Photoshop, etc.]), then link that single image to your Amazon author's page, or your own website. Get creative!

[pidgeon92]

How do I put text next to a cover? (Using Tables in Your Signature)

TIP
The best, easiest was to do this is to create the code in a post, not directly in the signature field. This allows the use of the table and other format buttons which will keep you from having to type the code manually. Of course, you do not want to save or actually post your post, it is only for creating the code.  Creating your signature in a post also helps you see your whole sig as you work.  Use the "preview" button to check what the signature will look like.

Putting text next to a cover, such as in the example below, requires the use of code that creates a table. This is similar to the rows/columns you see in a spreadsheet. In this example, we are only going to use two columns, not rows.  In general, you will use only one row in your signature.

Little Bee This book has been on my to-be-read list for a long time. I'll get to it when I'm done writing tutorials.

Here is what the code looks like, with color coding to match the additional comments at the bottom of this post.:

[table][td][url=http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001QWDRF6/?tag=kindleboards-20][img height=125]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ihUUQCuCL._SL160_.jpg[/img][/url][/td][td][b]Little Bee[/b]
[i]This book has been on my to-be-read list for a long time.
I'll get to it when I'm done writing tutorials.
 [/i][/td][/table]

Get the code to create a table by pressing this button above the posting field.
This will put the tags [table][/table] into your posting field.  The [table] goes at the beginning and the [/table] goes at the end.  If you want text below or above the table, put it before the [table] or after the [/table] (or both).  Note that you are limited to two total lines of text below or above the cover images.

Get the code to create a column by clicking the button above the posting field.
This will insert the tags [td][/td]  In the example, two columns are created, so you will need two sets of these tags.  The book cover(s) are between the first set of [td][/td] tags and the text to appear next to the images is in the second set of [td][/td] tags.

****

Here's a color coded generic table that some have said was useful to them, along with additional comments about tables:

To get the text next to the cover images, you have to designate a table.  You put the start table tag [table] at the beginning of the table, and the end table tag [/table] at the very end.  You can see those in blue in the above code.  (Note that you will only want one table in your signature.  Using a second set of table tags will force the second table onto a new row, which you do not want.)

Next you'll see the "table row" tags [tr] and [/tr].  You don't really need to put these in, the system software will put them in for you--your whole signature will generally be a row.

Here's the most important part--the table cells or columns.  Each column has to begin with [td] and end with [/td]  You can see below, the cover links are between a set of the td tags.

The key thing is to have all the text in their own cell, starting with a [td] and ending with [/td].  The table below would have two covers, side by side on the left, and three text comments, stacked to the right.

[table][tr][td]Cover Link 1  Cover Link 2 •[/td] [td] Comment 1
Comment 2
Comment 3
[/td][/tr][/table]

So, to use the example from the beginning of this post, it would look like this (below) with two covers.  I've repeated the same cover twice; obviously you would normally have two different covers.  The code for those cover links would go in the first table cell, shown as Cover Link 1 and Cover Link 2 in my color coded example above.  If you want to add a third cover, it would go where the orange • is in the generic example above, after and on the same line as the last /url] of the second cover.

Little Bee (Comment 1) This book has been on my to-be-read list for a long time. (Comment 2) I'll get to it when I'm done writing tutorials. (Comment 3)