Indie authors know the importance of connecting with readers. It’s about building community, using the gifts of the internet to network with people all over the world and ultimately help with book sales. How can you facilitate this within your ebook?
If a reader enjoyed it, there’s a good chance she/he will click on your author page especially if it’s easy to find in the Table of Contents. Somewhere in that author bio should be links to places like Facebook, Twitter, your website or blog, whatever you prefer for connecting. Most authors do it with text links. The problem is the growing number of links many of us want to share with potential readers. I have a half dozen or more, and suddenly the page looks a lot less appealing with so many hyperlinks blaring at the reader. Icons are more effective, and it doesn’t matter how many you have. The more the merrier.
On a minimal scale, notice which example below gets the job done better. Text links…
https://www.facebook.com/author.name
https://twitter.com/authorname
http://www.amazon.com/authorname/e/B004A8W4BG/
or icon links… 
The answer is clear especially when you get into higher numbers. Images quickly tell readers where you and your other books can be found. List the sites you want and hopefully enough of them so that the readers can choose the social media connection they prefer. Others may include G+, Pinterest, Goodreads, YouTube or maybe your blog feed. Bottom line, make it easy for readers.
If you format in MS Word, just use the Insert tab to add a Picture for each icon image and size it accordingly, around .5 inches or 100 pixels square. Then use the Insert tab and add a Hyperlink to the URL of the destination. Choosing the Open in a New Window option is wise too.
Only include Amazon icons for Amazon books. If you upload directly to vendors like Kobo or Apple, use their icon or none at all. For Smashwords, Draft2Digital or other distributors, just use social media icons and not book vendors.
What about copyright and legal issues? It’s true that each company has its own specifics on what you can and can’t do with their logo. You can check each website’s branding guidelines, which I’m just going to list a few because there are dozens of possibilities. Unfortunately the approved icons are rather boring, and the creative ones you find online with an image search are typically not allowed. Boo-hoo, I know. My assumption is this rule gets broken like the old 55 mph speed limit and you’re probably just risking a notice to make a change, but I’m no lawyer and sense the idiot emails coming soon. Here are the places to go for the company approved icons:
https://www.facebookbrand.com/
https://about.twitter.com/press/brand-assets
https://developers.google.com/+/branding-guidelines
http://www.youtube.com/yt/brand/downloads.html
Questions or comments? Leave a reply below.
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March 4, 2015 at 4:31 pm
Your author page looks awesome with the icons. Thanks for the tips, Jason!
March 4, 2015 at 4:43 pm
Aw shucks. Thank you, Kristina 🙂
May 14, 2015 at 4:31 am
Hi Jason! I just wondered if you have an idea about the Facebookbrand.com link not being active. I enjoyed your video about multi-national book reviews too.
May 14, 2015 at 7:28 am
Hi Jane! Thank you for the feedback. Always the best reward 🙂
I’m not sure what you mean about the FB link not being active–is the link from the article not working for you? I just tried it and didn’t have a problem: https://www.facebookbrand.com/
Maybe it’s something else?
May 14, 2015 at 10:05 am
Hi Jason, Well..that’s great that it is active. It looks like a problem with my browser. Your tips are much appreciated. Hope you have a beautiful day.