Two BookSparker features can run on your own web address: Smart Book Links, which otherwise live at read.booksparker.com, and author websites, which otherwise live at a booksparker.com subdomain. The setup is the same for both, one DNS record at your domain registrar, so this article covers them together and notes where they differ.
What you get and what it costs
Custom domains are part of the paid plans. Growing Author includes 4 and Pro Author 8, counted separately for each feature, so you could run four link domains and four website domains at once. An author website takes one domain at most, while the Smart Book Links page accepts several. On the free plan the Custom domains button opens the upgrade dialog instead. The certificate is set up and renewed for you; there is nothing to buy or install.
Add the domain
Type your website's address in any form; BookSparker trims it to the domain. A bare domain such as janedoe.com cannot point at another service directly, so a subdomain is added for you: read.janedoe.com for Smart Book Links, www.janedoe.com for an author website. Type a subdomain yourself, such as links.janedoe.com, and it is used as typed. Two-part endings like co.uk and com.au are understood. A hostname can only be claimed once across all of BookSparker, so the same address cannot serve both your links and your website, or belong to another account.
Add one DNS record
After adding, a guide appears under the domain with the exact record to create at wherever you bought the domain, whether GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare or another registrar. The record is always a CNAME, never an A record with an IP address. Name is just the subdomain, read or www, because your registrar appends the rest; a few hosts such as AWS Route 53 want the full hostname instead. Target is cname.booksparker.link for every domain. Leave the TTL on automatic. Each value in the guide is a chip you can copy.
Wait and check
The domain shows as Validating until both the record and its certificate are live, then flips to Active. While the dialog or settings card is open BookSparker checks every few seconds; Check now asks straight away. Nothing checks while you are away, so come back and open the page if you left it. It usually takes a few minutes, and some registrars take hours. There is no failed state: a wrong record simply leaves the domain at Validating, so if it has not turned Active after a few hours, compare the record with the guide, fix it, and press Check now.
For Smart Book Links
Once a domain is Active it appears in the Link address dropdown when you create a link, and you choose it there; a link cannot be moved to a domain later. A link on your domain answers only on that domain, not on read.booksparker.com, because addresses are unique per domain. Removing a domain therefore pauses every link on it, and the confirmation says so. Add the domain again, or create new links on the shared host, to bring them back. Removing does not touch links you made on read.booksparker.com.
For author websites
Custom domain sits under Settings in the website editor, below your web address, and each site takes one domain. Once Active, readers reach the site there and search engines are told that address is the main one, while the booksparker.com address keeps working too. The site must be published for the domain to show anything. Because www.janedoe.com is what gets set up, a reader typing janedoe.com without www is not covered unless you add a redirect from the bare domain to www at your registrar, or your registrar can point the bare domain at cname.booksparker.link directly. Removing the domain returns the site to its booksparker.com address.
Common questions
The domain never turns Active
Check the record type is CNAME, the name is only the subdomain unless your host asks for the full name, and the target is cname.booksparker.link exactly. Save, then press Check now. Validation only runs while the page is open.
Can I use one domain twice?
Not the same hostname. Use different subdomains, such as read.janedoe.com for links and www.janedoe.com for the website; each is a separate record and a separate claim.
What happens to old links?
Links on read.booksparker.com are untouched by anything you do with domains. Links on a domain you remove are paused until a domain is connected again.
Do I need to set up a certificate?
No. HTTPS is issued automatically once the record is live, and renewed for you. That issuance is part of what Validating waits for.