How to include your publications in your LinkedIn profile
So your LinkedIn profile includes your current work, your relevant experience, and perhaps some interests as well. But what about the work that textbook and academic authors alike pour so much of ourselves (and our time) into – our publications?
Fortunately, there are a couple simple ways you can incorporate your publications into your profile to highlight all that work.
The Publications section
First, you can add a Publications section to your profile to create a list of all of your publications.
This section isn’t active by default – you have to add it. If your profile contains an Accomplishments section, you can simply click the + next to accomplishments, and click Publication from the list.
If you don’t see Accomplishments on your profile, click the Add profile section button, click Accomplishments, then click Publications to add this section, and then click the +.
In the Publication dialog box, the only required field is the title, but there’s space for other information, including the publisher name, publication date, and links to any co-authors who are in your LinkedIn network.
The Publication URL box lets you include a link, such as your author website or your publisher’s order page. The final field is Description, which I usually fill with the marketing blurb prepared by my publisher.
When your profile contains publications, the titles are displayed in a list under the Publications heading. You can view the details by clicking the down arrow to the right of the heading.
Publications aren’t limited to just articles and books – think broadly! For instance, my publications list also includes video courses that I’ve authored.
The Experience section
Another way to highlight your publications is to incorporate them into the Experience section.
In the description for your authoring role, call out each publication you’ve written, listing its main features – perhaps what you’re most proud of, or what you think will generate the most interest.
For instance, in my profile I’ve created an Experience entry for my authoring role at each of my publishers. I summed up one of my textbooks like this: “Author of two editions of HTML5 and CSS3 Illustrated, which builds basic web development skills for students who are new to front end programming.”
If you have access to sales data that you’re allowed to disclose publicly, you can add that to your descriptions to point out the impact of your work. For instance, “Author of Building Web Applications with Ajax, which has helped 5000+ developers incorporate third-party data into their apps.”
Finally, don’t forget to take advantage of the Media option in the Experience section. For each Experience entry, you can upload image or other files to be displayed within your profile – perfect for a book or journal cover image. Note that when displayed in your profile, the images will be approximately twice as wide as they are tall, so it’s best to use a wide image to avoid cropping.
Adding your publications to your LinkedIn profile highlights your significant skills in authoring instructional or academic material, rounds out your professional accomplishments, and invites the world to explore the works you’ve authored. Now go proudly show off what you’ve accomplished!
Sasha Vodnik is a textbook author in the computer sciences discipline. His most recent publication is HTML5 and CSS3 Illustrated Complete, 2e. He is also an author with Lynda.com / LinkedIn Learning. Check out how Sasha incorporated his own publications into his LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sashavodnik/
