Author Pro – Adding Buttons to Book Pages

[Zack D.]

My wife and I are both authors and I'm setting up her latest website with Author Pro. It's a great design, however, we need to add more buttons to the book pages in the library to accommodate more buying options as well as creating a link to an excerpt of the book.

I'm not very proficient in css. Is this a very complicated process? I honestly don't know where to start.

Any insight is greatly appreciated.
-Zack

For reference, her website is: http://www.evaleighauthor.com

http://www.evaleighauthor.com

[SavvyJackie]

Hi,
There are 3 buttons /urls available for each book in the Book Details section. You need more than 3?

The only other option I see is to add a link in the Book Details section, something like:

Test <a href="url goes here" class="button">This is a test button</a>

but that would not appear on the home page, only once you've clicked on the book to get the the details page.

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Web Designer and Developer at Savvy Jackie Designs | Lucky with plants | @SavvyJackie

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[Zack D.]

Thanks for getting back to me, SavvyJackie.

Yes, more than 3 buttons would be great. For example: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Google Books, AllRomance EBooks, as well as an url for an excerpt page for the book within the website.

Having these buttons on the detail page is ideal, they don't need to be on the home page.

The code you posted would create the same look/functionality as the other buttons on the detail page?

If it's not too much to ask, how would I go about adding this code?

[miam]

Zack,

I've been trying to do the same thing with no luck. You can add buttons to the content area, as SavvyJackie noted, and style them to match the other three. However, I've made several queries about adding additional buttons below the original 3. Apparently, it's a significant bit of coding that would cost a few hundred dollars.

If you enter SavvyJackie's code and align it to the right, the button may sit next to the other three. The problems are a) the buttons will never be the same size, as the original three expand and contract based on the size of the browser window or mobile device and b) when the window is small (as on a mobile screen), the book cover, book metadata, and buy buttons go on top of the post. Any buttons you add to the post content will display below the book description.

I'm a bit disappointed by this, to be honest. There may be three big ebook vendors, but Kobo is no slouch and Google Play is growing. Plus, some of us sell print books or want to offer an indie option.

I haven't decided whether I'll add a bit of text at the bottom saying "This book is also available here, here, and here." or just scrap the plugin altogether.

[miam]

Oh, and I just looked at your wife's site. That's not a bad solution. I hate sending readers all over the site to find the info they want, but at least it's clear and doesn't leave any possible sales on the table.

[Zack D.]

Thanks for checking out the site, miam. I was just about to write back with our workaround for the limited button issue. This solution is growing on me. Otherwise, there would be a lot of buttons on the page, even if they all matched the original style. And this is also a way of making a link for an excerpt or further reading.

[miam]

I'm torn. I like the clean look of just a few buttons (and suspect it's why StudioPress limited it to just the three, as from a design perspective it's more appealing). However, home > books > book detail > print or eBook > vendor of choice is a lot of clicks to get the reader to a site where they can buy the book!

[Zack D.]

Yes, a lot of clicks, but we're hoping that the reader is spending some time on a couple of pages, reading the blurb, some details, etc, then will decide to buy it. I don't know if people visit an author's website with the sole intent of buying the book and need to get to that link immediately.

[enaid]

Unfortunately, I DO know whether or not people will click through many pages to find a buy link for a book. They won't.

This theme limiting us to three buy options is not useful. If we use multiple bookstores, we use 4 or more. There are some authors who like to link to individual Amazon stores (Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, etc.).

Is there really no way around this?

[miam]

I agree, enaid. Plus, if they're clicking tabs between series, rather than having all that information on one page (not just all the books, but all the books grouped by their series--series which are the bread and butter of most successful indie authors), then a visitor needs to look even longer to find the buy link for a book.

Between the three buttons and the limited series functionality, I confess that it doesn't feel like StudioPress consulted many authors on this theme and plugin. I *love* being able to enter all the publication info once and have it display attractively across the site, but I wish there was more flexibility in how the books are displayed.

[Erik D. Slater]

I'm actually installing the demo version on a test site as I speak ... because I'm not entirely clear what the problem is 🙂

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Erik D. Slater: Digital Platform Consultant • LinkedIn

[Erik D. Slater]

OK. I see the problem ... and I have implemented the solution on a test site ... but it involved changing the Genesis Author Pro plugin. If the plugin gets updated - automatically or manually - the changes will be lost.

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Erik D. Slater: Digital Platform Consultant • LinkedIn

[miam]

Please share, Erik! How did you do that so quickly?

[Erik D. Slater]

The change involves a simple modification to two PHP files in the plugin ... but why do I feel like this was a bad idea? 🙂

Hmmm ...

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Erik D. Slater: Digital Platform Consultant • LinkedIn

[miam]

I figured out the edits needed to the book metadata file but couldn't figure out how to get them to display.

[Erik D. Slater]

I don't know what changes you have made there ... but here it is ... use at your own risk 🙂

You will need to navigate your way to the plugins folder ... then find - and go into - genesis-author-pro.

Firstly:
- go into the classes folder
- find the Genesis_Author_Pro_Book_Meta.php file
- make a copy of it!!
- open the Genesis_Author_Pro_Book_Meta.php file
- look for the following code:

array(
	'name'        => 'button_3',
	'label'       => __( 'Button 3', 'genesis-author-pro' ),
	'description' => __( 'This will create a button on the book page that can be used as a link for purchase, download, etc.', 'genesis-author-pro' ),
	'type'        => 'button',
),

- duplicate this code block ... then change button_3 to button_4, etc, and Button 3 to Button 4, etc (add as many as you require)
- save the file

Secondly:
- go into the functions folder
- find the template.php file
- make a copy of it!!
- open the template.php file
- look for the following code:
$buttons = array( 'button_1', 'button_2', 'button_3' );
- modify this line to look something similar to:
$buttons = array( 'button_1', 'button_2', 'button_3', 'button_4' ); (add as many as you require)
- save the file

Obviously ... it should go without saying ... that the number of buttons in the two sets of changes above should match!!

I should also point out that I am not providing formal support for this change 🙂

And just in case people are not aware ... I do NOT work for Copyblogger Media in any shape or form ... including StudioPress 🙂

I feel like I should be burning in hell right about now 🙂

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Erik D. Slater: Digital Platform Consultant • LinkedIn

[miam]

All disclaimers noted! And yes, I did the first part, but completely missed the second. I thought I searched every file, but obviously that one slipped by.

Thanks a lot, Erik. That puts me one step closer to getting the site to actually look and function the way I want it to.

[Erik D. Slater]

When you use a decent text editor that can perform search activities in seconds, it's amazing how quickly you can find source code 🙂

Ordinarily, I wouldn't have a problem providing the code for things that are supposed to be modified. Sometimes, plugins provide hooks ... in which case, no problems at all.

But when you are making changes to code that could be overwritten by an update? And when most people on here don't know what they're doing at the best of times? Things don't usually end well 🙂

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Erik D. Slater: Digital Platform Consultant • LinkedIn

[Erik D. Slater]

Let me know if/when you get this working ...

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Erik D. Slater: Digital Platform Consultant • LinkedIn

[miam]

I did use the text editor! And somehow still missed it. Let's blame it on lack of coffee that day.

Yeah, I've had enough white screens of death to learn my lesson about making copies. I'm completely self-taught, so prone to frequent bouts of idiocy, but normally I can pull things together, more or less.

The code worked perfectly! Thanks again. As soon as I figure out how to reorganize the books page and enlarge the header, I may manage to finish this site without going nuts.

[Author]

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