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
One domain, two uses
Your links and your website can share one domain on different addresses: read.janedoe.com for links and www.janedoe.com for the site. The Custom domains dialog and the website's settings card both show the domain once, with each use and its status. When one use is set up and the other is not, Use for book links or Use for website adds the missing address in one click, and its own DNS record appears right there. Plan limits still count each address. When you remove one use, the confirmation offers to remove the other as well; it stays unless you tick it.
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 moves its links to read.booksparker.com, where they keep working; a link whose address is already taken there gets a new one, and the confirmation says how many. Addresses already shared on your domain, in books or newsletters, keep working for 30 days, then the domain is released. Until then Keep domain, or adding the domain again, brings it back with the links on their old addresses. 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 until you add a redirect (often called forwarding) from the bare domain to www at your registrar; the setup guide reminds you. Pointing the bare domain itself at cname.booksparker.link does not work. Once the domain is Active, the card also checks the bare domain: it shows whether janedoe.com forwards to your site and, if not, how to set up the redirect, with a link to the guide when your DNS is at Namecheap, GoDaddy or Cloudflare. Removing the domain returns the site to its booksparker.com address, and for 30 days visitors to the domain are sent there; Keep domain undoes it until then. Connecting a different domain instead ends that redirect at once.
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. A week after you added the domain BookSparker stops checking on its own, so from then on open the page to check again.
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 move to read.booksparker.com and keep working there, and their addresses on your domain keep working for 30 days.
Can I move a domain to another account?
Yes. Remove it in the account that has it, choose Release now under the domain, then add it in the other account as usual; your DNS record stays as it is. Without Release now, a domain that was live stays reserved to its account for the 30 days after you remove it: its DNS still points at BookSparker, so anyone could otherwise claim it. Links stay with the account that made them, so addresses from the old account stop working on the domain once it is released.
What happens if I downgrade or my plan ends?
Domains your new plan does not cover are paused, not removed, and you are told which ones before the change takes effect. Your Smart Book Links move to read.booksparker.com, where they keep working under new addresses shown in your list, and your author website stays online at its booksparker.com address. Addresses on the paused domain stop opening, including ones already printed or shared. The domain stays reserved for you, so leave your DNS record in place: when you upgrade again the domain reconnects by itself, usually within minutes, and your links move back to their original addresses. The read.booksparker.com addresses they used in the meantime keep working too.
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.