Joined
·
305 Posts
Okay, this plugin was called Buy This Book Extended - but due to shenanigans with the older version, I had to rename it. It's now called the Author Showcase plugin!
It's a WordPress plugin for self-hosted blogs that lets you display your books in several different ways using shortcodes and a sidebar widget. Big thanks to everyone for their feedback!
[Original post]
I'd also like to get some suggestions for extra functionality. I can make the code do just about anything, but I don't know what authors really need. So if you've got a wishlist, or something you want a WordPress site to do that it doesn't do right now, lay it on me and I'll try to build it into BTBE before I submit it to the WP Directory.
Current implemented functionality
It's a WordPress plugin for self-hosted blogs that lets you display your books in several different ways using shortcodes and a sidebar widget. Big thanks to everyone for their feedback!
[Original post]
I'd also like to get some suggestions for extra functionality. I can make the code do just about anything, but I don't know what authors really need. So if you've got a wishlist, or something you want a WordPress site to do that it doesn't do right now, lay it on me and I'll try to build it into BTBE before I submit it to the WP Directory.
Current implemented functionality
- Admin page allows you to add each of your books with title, series, author, blurb, cover image, and any number of links to buy it
- You can choose the icons for each link
- Shortcodes can display different layouts on pages, see here: http://imgur.com/a/ZDq5o#0
- Grid, List, Columns, Single
- The grid layout includes the same slideout menu as in the sidebar widget
- The grid allows you to choose the number of books per row
- The sidebar widget displays book covers in a row, with a slideout menu of the links
- Built-in responsiveness, so it should display properly on any screen size
- Adding the ISBN and your Goodreads API key displays Goodreads reviews on the single book display shortcode (you can see how the reviews look here: http://raynfall.com/the-meldling/)
- Adding your Amazon Affiliate access credentials and the ASIN displays Amazon reviews on the single book display shortcode (you can see how the reviews look here: http://raynfall.com/the-meldling/)
- The sidebar widget has a 'Randomize' function that shows a new book from the chosen selection every time the page is reloaded. (Thanks to Vaalingrade for the suggestion)
- You can now disable the grid or sidebar slideout menus and show the sales link icons by default. (Thanks for elizabethbarone for the suggestion)
- There's now a dropdown list of pages in the Book editing screen that allows you to specify a WordPress page for each book. If this is set, a Find out more link will appear below the sidebar covers, and in the grid, columns and list formats. You can see the book page in a new column on the Book List screen. (Thanks to Kate Lowell for putting the idea in my head)
- A short blurb has been added to the Book editing screen. The short blurb will be used in the list format, the columns format, and the sidebar (if set to visible). The original long blurb will be used in the single page format.
- The List, Columns and Single layouts have text buy links by default, but you can specify that icons be used instead.
- There is an 'icons only' option to show one book's buy links in icon format. (Thanks to Brandon Shire for the suggestion)
- There is an 'links only' option to show one book's buy links in text format. (Thanks to Jamie Ross for the suggestion)
- You can add a series number value to each book which will show up wherever the series name appears, e.g. A Song of Ice and Fire Book 1, Bodies and Souls #1 (thanks to Kate Lowell for the suggestion)
Update: the Author Showcase plugin will soon be available in other languages! French is on the way, and hopefully Brazilian Portuguese. If you'd like to help out with a translation, please message me.