Add Links to Your Book

Lacuna gives you three kinds of link: external links to any URL, internal links to another section of your book, and store links that carry a different URL for every bookstore. All three live behind the same link button.

Store Links

Readers buy your next book from the store they are already in. A store link lets one “Also by” or “Buy now” link carry a different URL for every store, so the Kindle copy points to Amazon and the Kobo copy points to Kobo. You add the link once, and Lacuna resolves it to the right store when you export.

1. Select the text you want to turn into a link, such as “Get the next book in the series”
2. Click the link button in the editor toolbar and choose Insert Store Link (it’s in the bubble menu over selected text too)
3. Paste a URL into each store field in the Add Store Link dialog: Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and Generic
4. Click Add Link

You do not have to fill in every field. Add the stores you publish to; if a store’s field is blank, Lacuna falls back to the next best URL you did provide, so a link never comes out empty.

Tip

The Generic field is the URL used for print and ebook PDFs, where there is no store to detect. A universal link from a service like Books2Read works well here. To keep the link out of print entirely, place it inside a device-specific block set to ebook only.

Store links pay off at export time, where you can generate one EPUB per store or a single file tailored to one store. See Export Store-Specific EPUBs for that side of the workflow.

How to Create a Link

1. Select the text you want to turn into a link
2. Click the link icon in your editor toolbar or press Ctrl+K (Windows) or Cmd+K (Mac)
3. Enter the URL, and optionally a Title (the text the link shows, if different from your selection)
4. Click Add Link

Link Requirements

Use complete URLs with https:// or http://. Only text can be linked, images cannot be turned into clickable links.

Internal Links

You can also link to another section in your book. In the link dialog, switch the type from External Link to Internal Link (Section), then choose the section to link to. For numbered references with citation text, use footnotes instead.

Editing and Removing Links

To edit a link:

1. Select the existing link
2. Click the link icon or press Ctrl+K / Cmd+K
3. Modify the URL as needed

To remove a link:

1. Select the link
2. Click the link icon
3. Click Remove Link

The same flow works for store links: clicking one reopens the dialog as Edit Store Link, with every store field editable and the same Remove Link button.

Testing Links

Links are fully functional in preview mode. Click them to test they work correctly before exporting.

Links in Print vs eBook PDFs

Links work differently depending on your export format:

• EPUB and eBook PDF: Links are fully clickable
• Print-ready PDF: Physical books can’t have clickable links, so Lacuna automatically displays the full URL next to your link text

For example, a link with text “Visit my website” pointing to https://example.com will show the URL in your printed book.

Manual Control for Print

Want full control over how links appear in print? Create a device-specific section for print only and type the URL exactly how you want it displayed. Keep the original section with clickable links for your EPUB and eBook PDF versions. This is useful for About the Author pages where you want different formatting for print versus digital.