RS WP Book Showcase & WooCommerce: How to Sell Books Directly from Your Book Pages (Without the Duplicate Work)
You have spent hours curating the perfect book library on your WordPress site using RS WP Book Showcase. Your book pages look beautiful—they have the cover, the author details, the ISBN, and your review.
But now, you want to sell those books.
Usually, this means creating a separate WooCommerce product, copying the description, uploading the cover image again, and managing two different pages for the same item. It’s tedious, and it’s bad for SEO (duplicate content).
RS WP Book Showcase solves this with a smart, seamless WooCommerce integration. Here is how it works under the hood and how you can set it up in minutes.
How It Works: The “Zero-Conflict” Architecture
As a site owner, you might worry: “Will adding a third-party ‘Add to Cart’ button break my site or conflict with my theme?”
The answer is No. Here is why RS WP Book Showcase is different:
- Native Standards: We don’t “hack” the system. The plugin utilizes standard WooCommerce hooks (like
woocommerce_template_single_add_to_cart) to render the purchase buttons. - AJAX Reliability: We strictly adhere to WooCommerce’s AJAX standards. This means when a customer clicks “Add to Cart,” it works instantly without reloading the page, just like your main shop page.
- Theme Compatibility: Because we use the native global
$productobject safely, your current theme’s styling (colors, fonts, button styles) is automatically applied. It looks and feels like a native part of your website.
Essentially, the plugin acts as a bridge. It tells WooCommerce: “Handle the transaction logic, but let RS WP Book Showcase handle the presentation.”
Why You Should Use This Method
- No Double Data Entry: Keep your product descriptions blank! Your Book Page already has the review, synopsis, and details. The WooCommerce product only needs a Price and a Title.
- Cleaner Shop Page: You can hide the “incomplete” product files from your main Shop Catalog so customers only see your beautiful Book Pages.
- Better SEO: Search engines will rank your content-rich Book Page instead of a thin Product page.
Step-by-Step Guide: Turning a Book Page into a Sales Page
Ready to start selling? Follow these simple steps to make your book pages shoppable.
Step 1: Create a “Ghost” Product in WooCommerce
Go to Products > Add New.
- Title: Enter the book name.
- Price: Set your selling price.
- Inventory: Set your stock quantity (if applicable).
- Description/Image: Skip these! You don’t need them here.
- Publish the product.
(Note: This works for both Simple Products and Variable Products, like Paperback vs. Hardcover).
Step 2: Link the Product to Your Book
Navigate to your RS WP Book Showcase book list and edit the specific book you want to sell.
- Look for the “Linked WooCommerce Product” box in the sidebar.
- Search for or select the product you just created in Step 1 from the dropdown menu.
Step 3: Clean Up Your Catalog (Optional but Recommended)
In that same sidebar box, you will see a checkbox:
“Hide this product from WooCommerce Shop/Catalog?”
Check this box.
- Why? This ensures that if someone visits your main
/shop/page, they won’t see the “Ghost” product (which has no image or description). - Instead, they will only find the book through your beautiful RS WP Book Showcase layouts, ensuring a premium user experience.
Step 4: Publish and Sell
Click Update on your Book page.
That’s it! Visit your Book page, and you will see a fully functional Add to Cart button (or “Select Options” for variable products) right next to your book details.
Conclusion
Your job is to write great reviews and curate amazing books, not to fight with technical setups. With RS WP Book Showcase, you get the best of both worlds: the content management power of a dedicated Book plugin and the e-commerce reliability of WooCommerce.
Ready to transform your library into a bookstore? Try the integration today!