How Can You Publicize Your Book for FREE?

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There are lots of possibilities to let everyone know about your book, here are just a few. Browsing through this extensive blog, you will find hundreds more!  Most important is to have a solid amount of friends and followers on Goodreads, FB, Twitter and Google+ and long list of opt-in email addresses to send out invitations for your book launch.
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Announce books on these book reader’s blogs and websites:

http://www.ebooksjustpublished.com/about

http://jcphelps.blogspot.com/p/submit-content.html

http://www.manicreaders.com/index.cfm?disp=authors

http://www.Goodreads.com

http://books.google.com/googlebooks/tour/

Google writes:  “Once you send Google your titles (or upload them as PDF files), we’ll add them to our index for free. By matching the content in your books with user searches, Google Books connects your books with the users who are most interested in buying them. Each Google Books result will display the book’s title and author, a short excerpt containing the highlighted search terms, and other public data about the book.”

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Get as many book reviews as possible:

Just some samples of many. To find reviewers is so much easier if you are well-established in Goodreads communities and other writer / book forums. Start a book giveaway on Goodreads at least a month before your book will be printed (create “dummies” with the help of a digital copy/print company or through “espresso book machines”. When giving out these early copies, try to solicit as many reviews as possible. Use the best reviews for blurbs on your final book cover.
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http://www.GoodReads.com

http://www.Wattpad.com

http://bookreviewclub.blogspot.ca/

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=47

http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/forum

If you have an Amazon account, you could visit the Amazon Kindle forum, where Kindle users share their experiences with the Kindle reader, and also talk about books available for the Kindle. Many authors also post about their new books and join the conversations. When you introduce yourself, consider telling folks there about your book.  Be polite and conversational in tone, and be sure to provide direct hyperlinks to your book page.
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Start early! If you’re waiting until the book is finished to start marketing, you’re already behind the curve. As an author, you should devote a portion of every day to get your name out there and to build relationships with prospective readers, partners and friends.
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All books live or die based on word of mouth!
If you try to build your network after you release your book, you’ll face a more difficult challenge. If you build a large social network BEFORE you release your book, your marketing efforts will be much more successful.
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Help is on the way:
If you have a full-time job and / or other commitments and not at least an hour per day left to build your platform and network with potential readers, let us do a good part of your book PR, and at the same time teach you how it can be done on a very low budget – all for only a dollar / day.  Read more about the extensive package we offer for 3 months-promotion of your book.

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Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://pinterest.com/111publishing/

http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

Don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks

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Reader Statistics: How to Use them for Your Book’s Success

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Did you know that the main driver of e-book purchases is “referral by a friend”.  Number two was Media (including Social Media) and number three of the answers was Goodreads – the world’s largest reader community – as well as the Goodreads Choice Awards. 
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Equally important for authors should be the follow-up question in this survey: “What do you want to do once you get to the end of a book?”
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83% wanted to see what else the author had written.
75% wanted to find more books similar to what they just read
69% wanted to discuss the book with friends
35% read other people’s reviews
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Why not give readers exactly what they are looking for?
How can you achieve this? Add a highly visible link to your upcoming e-book – and a link to your author page on Amazon, B&N, Kobo or wherever you sell your book, plus one to your website and your Goodreads page at the end of your first e-book!
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Equally important: link to your mailing list.
To be successful, you need to have a list of people who have signed up to hear about your new releases. You will benefit from more initial sales, which will boost your rank and push you higher on new releases lists, plus other genre lists on Amazon and in other retailers ranking.

To make sure, even people who browse only and read the “look inside” feature of the Amazon website, add these links at the beginning of your book as well.

Every time you publish a new e-book, update these front and back pages of your previous books, as well as your Author Central page on Amazon, and make sure that it is updated with every book.
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“What’s Going On With Readers Today?”

It was the title of the poll, which was introduced at the “Tools of Change Conference 2013” in New York last month. Interesting fact in these statistics: readers are about two times more likely to learn about a book on Goodreads, than on Amazon!

As you can see, this is exactly what Goodreads’ site offers to their 15 million book lovers / members:

• browsing all the books of the author they read
• finding similar books to what they liked
• seeing what their friends read
• reading other member’s reviews
• deciding what to read next
• discussing books in their numerous communities

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The best course of action for every author – if not already done – should be:

1. Join Goodreads and invite / add as many friends as possible, which is very easy, just read a former blog post where we described it.
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2. Don’t forget to add the “Top Readers”  and the “Top Reviewers”  on Goodreads to add as friends. Only friends can recommend your book to others, you can’t do it!
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3. Fill your book shelves on Goodreads with lots of books from your friends, read, review and recommend these books to others (and let your friends know about it : ) Most likely they will return the favor.
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4. Learn about and use the many free features on Goodreads, such as “events” for your book signings and KDP free days, join one or more of their book communities in your genre, create Listopia lists,  participate in “creative writing”, just to name a few fun activities on this site.
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5. Make sure that each of your books is listed on Amazon, even upcoming ones are mentioned and that your author page is updated. Don’t forget all these other communities you might have joined, and update the list of your books there, e.g. in Amazon communities.
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6. Add links for your next and all your already published books: on the first and the last page of your e-book, to send readers to your author sales pages of all online retailers your books are listed with, to your website / blog and to your Goodreads author page.
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7. Try to get as many reviews on Goodreads as possible, do frequent giveaways, garnering reviews and recommendations.
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What an easy and totally free way of advertising! Yet, many authors are not using this small trick … Have you prepared your digital books already with links to your other books?

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 700 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://pinterest.com/111publishing/
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS    111Publishing @ Google+

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Hidden Gems at Goodreads

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A commentator on this blog wrote: “I have been using Goodreads for a while now and I had no idea about the author program or how to really get the most use out of it. I am hoping that now, that I have claimed my book, to become part of the author program, I can make better use of the site.”

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Here on this blog you will find many Goodreads topics, such as: How to sign-up with Goodreads and add friends – old and new ones - and where to meet people, for sample top readers and the most popular reviewers.  If you are blogging, you might have incorporated your blog to your author page on Goodreads, added your book trailer or you have publicized your book signing.

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Did you realize how many writer forums and groups are on Goodreads?
Just go to the top of each page and click on Groups. A new page opens and shows “Recently Active Groups”, “Featured Groups”, “Goodreads Author Groups” etc. and one the right hand site of the page “Browse by Tag”. This is were all the groups are listed by over 1,000 keywords. For sample:

• Book Club
• Historical Fictionistas
• Non-Fiction
• Young Adult Book Groups
• Suspense
• Super-Natural
• The Perks Of Being A Book Addict
• Womankind Worldwide Book Group
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As you can see, when you scroll down on the right hand site, there are ten-thousands of groups!!!
Books & Literature (26598) Business (1393) Entertainment & Arts (2222) Friends & Common Interest (6914) Geography (490) Goodreads Authors (2535) Just for Fun (22709) Organizations (3365) Student Groups (6129)
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There is even a group that encourages Author-Publishers (Indies) to promote their books – a rarity at Goodreads, were obvious self-promotion is not well received otherwise.

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A hidden gem for authors to meet readers.
Almost all are public groups. Anyone can join and invite others to join. However, it’s not a place to blatantly tout your books, with the exception I just mentioned.  ”Authors are welcome and we support authors in many ways, but the group is primarily geared towards readers. Authors should join and participate in the group as a reader first.” Once you are known in these forums, your author site and your books will automatically read and often reviewed.
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I was talking recently with an author, who desperately wanted more reviews. When I asked him how many reviews he has written in the last year, he stumbled … and said: “well, NONE so far”. Shall I say more? Don’t forget:

To be a Goodreads member and to benefit, especially from reviews, requires that you are a bit more active on this site, for sample in shelving books of other writers, in participating from time to time in forums, read books and review them. How could someone expect to receive reviews if they are not writing some for others? Be a good pal in this book community!

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 700 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://pinterest.com/111publishing/
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS   111Publishing @ Google+

Don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks

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2 Basic Rules To Follow for Your Books Success

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… on Social Media
Are you promoting your book like crazy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook … but nothing seems to happen, no book sales? Are you competing with other writers in “buy my book, buy my book, buy my book… Are you choosing to follow other writers, hoping they will buy your book?

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1. Choose your following very carefully: You want to interact mainly with READERS, NOT writers. The question is: How to find readers?

All Social Media sites have a search function on top of the page. Type in: book bloggers, read, reading, book lovers, book club, love reading, book worm, love to read, mystery book reader, science fiction reader, YA readers, YA book blogger, readers, word nerd, non-fiction book blogger, reading books, reviewing book… and even librarian. Click on “people” or scroll down a lot, as the first names that appear are often publishers and other commercial accounts.

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Another method is to type in the name of a very successful book in your genre and find readers there, talking about this book. Follow those readers that you feel belong to your book genre, based on what they say in their tweets. Re-tweet their posts, engage in meaningful conversation, be funny or refer to blog posts you wrote, but don’t mention your book. They will find out about it soon enough.

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2. Understand the meaning of Social Media – being SOCIAL and STOP talking constantly about your book!
I noticed one writer on Twitter who writes 100% only and only about his book. He seems to use automatic tweets, as he never, ever engaged in any conversation with others. Kind of autistic .. For sure, I was not the only one who un-followed him. Write about interesting things that are happening, give valuable advice or engage in a humerus way with your readers. No one goes on Twitter, FB, Google+ or Pinterest to read constantly about your book. That’s not entertaining or interesting. Many writers don’t buy books from other writers, they want to sell their own. If ALL writers are doing on Twitter, Google+ or FB is self-promoting they are not only NOT attracting readers, but turning them away.

Yes, famous writers may attract attention for what they have to say – not normally related to their books – but rather to their writer’s life or ideas – and they are often interesting or funny. It’s called social networks not selling pages…
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Authors should rather focus their promotional efforts on trying to get people to talk about their books (review them, read and recommend them, give them awards, take them to their book groups, write articles or blog posts about them) instead of trying to get people to buy them. A much better place to do this is on reader forums, such as Goodreads, Shelfari, Bibliophil, Biblio Connection, BookTalk and the like.

So, following these two basic rules: Finding the right followers “readers” and be “social” on Social Media is key to successful promoting your books.

To get more book marketing help, see what we can do for you in individual sessions.

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Don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks  http://about.me/ebookPR

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6 Social Media Sites, Essential for Writers

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Going through my list of tweets for the day, I paused at this one:
1. Why engage in yet another social media when I am already on Twitter, Pinterest & Facebook ?
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It reminded me of other statements from new writers, I hear on a daily basis:
2. None of my friends is on Google+ …
3. I have a website, why should I additionally have a blog?
4. Writing my book, I don’t have time for all these Social Media…

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Answer for question 1 and 2 – Google+
This says it all: Google+ = Google, the famous Search Engine… You don’t join Google+ to meet your friends and family as you do on Facebook!  You join to improve your Search Engine Ranking: As the main search engine, Google indexes and ranks its own site much higher than any other content. Google+ posts – with a main keyword in the first sentence / title – will rank well in Google search and often show up on the first page, for a long time.  And now Google+ outranks Twitter as no. 2 social network, having more active users than Twitter!

On Google+ authors can create a separate page for each of their books. You have immense space to show images, such as your books cover, even if it has 36 MB and you can show your book as often as you want. More reasons to be on Google+ can be found in a former article: “7 Reasons Why Google+ is Perfect for Writers“

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Answer to question 3 – Why should I have a blog?
Your website is something very static. You usually don’t do many changes or new content writing. A blog – either on your website – which would increase SEO – or on WordPress or BlogSpot is adding constantly new content. This means search engines index your blog site higher.
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Writing is fun – why else would you have written this novel!  As a writer, it is only a matter of minutes to write a blog post.  And you don’t need much fantasy to come up with topics. You can write about, well, writing, your writers life, the publishing process, what you have learned about marketing your book… the subjects you can write about are endless.

An important reason for a blog is that you can use snippets from the content to fill your social media sites. For sample: use one sentence and a link to your blog and post it as a tweet.  Readers see your post and click on your blog or website – and voila! they learn about your book. Here are two samples from the blog page you are just reading:

Author of “The Wolf’s Moon” Patrick Jones, in an Interview, talking about the characters in his book http://wp.me/p1uIFg-1il

9 Compelling Reasons to Get Marketing Help, Boosting Your Books Success
bit.ly/X3rwul
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Readers and fans have a reason to come back to your blog, as often as you write a new post, and will re-tweet your blogs and spread the message about your book. Plug-ins and share buttons automatically send your blog posts to all your social media sites.
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Answer to statement 4:
What you are just reading here, was automatically send to Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, Tumblr, Reddit, Triberr, Yahoo and Goodreads – at the same moment I hit the “publish” button! I don’t need to go to all these sites to fill them with content. What more could you wish for? Writing one blog post, it can be as short as 300 – 500 words an it will be found all over the internet! You certainly can add more Social Media sites to your blogs sharing button, to spread the word even more.

Your post is yet sent more often among Social Media sites:

• Google+ can send your post automatically to Facebook and Twitter, I wrote in December how authors can set up this function. 
• Twitter gets feeds from Google+ and Pinterest, among others
• Facebook for sample gets feeds from Pinterest and Goodreads and your blog
• Pinterest feeds Twitter and Facebook

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SUMMARY: To have maximum exposure for your book and you, as an author, and to save lots of time, join: 

• Google+
• Twitter
• Goodreads
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Write a blog.

How to get more followers on your social media sites is explained in one of last months’ blogs, and also at How to Get More Followers on Google+
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Be very selective when choosing followers:
You want READERS and REVIEWERS as followers. NOT your friends. Type into the search functions on top of these pages: readers, book lovers, book worms, reading, love to read etc. to find the right people as your following.
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One last tip: Set up a second page on Google+, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest – only for your book. Separate it from your existing private presence.
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Part of our Book Marketing package we offer, is dedicated to help you to create or improve your reader community platform, such as:

• create an attractive media presence
• increase the amount of followers
• learn how to connect all these sites 
• and how to save time on Social Media

Find out how else we can help you to have more success  for your books and more fun in marketing.

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 700 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://pinterest.com/111publishing/

http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

Don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks

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Happy Valentine’s Day

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Happy Valentine’s Day

These Valentine’s greetings are for our thousands and thousands of followers and readers on our blogs, especially on http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com, and on Twitter, Google+, Chime.in, Facebook, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, FavStar, Goodreads and on http://www.111Publishing.com.

We wish you all a wonderful and relaxing Valentine’s Day.  Spoil the writer in your life with a gift that saves time – more time to write.  See yesterdays post …

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How to Add Friends (Readers) on Goodreads

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Goodreads, THE social media site for avid readers, is a virtual version of a book club and a great opportunity to show off your own books as an author, to find new readers and reviewers and join a book lover community.  So, you signed up on Goodreads and what now? (I heard this comment pretty often…)  First of all you need an audience, as on all Social Media sites and forums. As larger as better!

How do I add friends – old and new ones?
Adding friends is easy. Before you search for new friends on Goodreads, encourage your existing friends to sign up for a Goodreads account and to friend you on the site. Goodreads has an easy “Add Friends” tool that searches through your existing friends list on Facebook, Twitter or contacts from Yahoo! Mail, AOL, MSN eMail and Google’s Gmail. See which friends are already Goodreads members and add them.
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Find Friends From

Gmail

Hotmail

Facebook

Twitter

yahoo

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Friends of friends

When you get a “Friends Requests” by email and you go to their Goodreads page, you will see the invitation to add your Yahoo / Twitter / Facebook / Gmail…. contacts to your Goodreads friends on the top right corner.

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 Friends > Requests

	from		confirmation
		Nancy 572 books 225 friends Glen Riddle Lima, PA	Friendship approved top friend2 hours, 23 min agocompare books
		Patrick 59 books 610 friends	Friendship approved top friend6 hours, 58 min agocompare books

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If you already have the profile link for someone you’d like to friend, just go to their profile, then click “add as a friend” which is beneath the “about me” section.

If you want to find your friends on Goodreads and you don’t have profile links, just click on the tiny friends icon in the header of your page, which is located directly to the left of your profile image. Then select the “add friends” tab. The “friends of friends” button (a bulk function) works only if you have less than 1,000 friends. But you can certainly click on friends of friends on their site manually and “add as a friend”.
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There is also this function “Meet People”, where you can find top users, top readers, top reviewers or most popular reviewers for sample, to invite them as friends:

Meet People

• top users
• top readers
• top reviewers
• most popular reviewers
• best reviews
• online now
• most followed
• top librarians
• recent statuses
• recent reviews

You can even invite friends to Goodreads on the iPhone app. Goodreads explains:

You can invite friends from your phone’s address book, your email contacts, or your Facebook friends.
1) From the home screen, tap ‘Friends’ (it should be on the bottom right).
2) On the top right, select ‘Add Friends’.
3) From there, you will be asked where you want to search for your friends. Choose appropriately*.
4) Contacts already on Goodreads will have an ‘add’ button, while contacts who haven’t yet joined will have an ‘invite’ button. Tap ‘add’ to send a friend request or tap ‘invite’ to send an invitation to Goodreads.
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*Choosing ‘email contacts’ will take you into your browser. Choosing ‘Facebook friends’ might open the Facebook app to ask you to grant posting permission – don’t worry, we won’t post anything unless you tap ‘invite’ next to a Facebook contact.

Using all these possibilities to add friends to Goodreads you should have a thousand or more new readers / friends in no time. As always, use Goodreads’ HELP section for any questions you might have, and if it is not covered and a search doesn’t bring results, drop them an email..

Take advantage of the great possibilities at Goodreads to present your book:
Listing your print book for a giveaway is a great way to get free exposure for a book before and during its launch. List any title that is not yet released or was released during the last 6 months. Or upload an e-book with the “add e-book” links and let users browse, preview, download, and even purchase your work.

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 600 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Follow us on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris

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7 Great Features for Authors on Goodreads

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Many authors mentioned to be overwhelmed after signing up at Goodreads  with the complexity of the site and I experienced the same initially and even had to write them several times e.g. to get advice how to take advantage of the blogging feature on their site.
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Yet, if taken one task at a time, you will be surprised how much you can get out of Goodreads’ site – even though they don’t explain it very well. Let me a bit clarify in a series of blogs how to maximize your social media presence – and the success of your book – at Goodreads. I have the impression that readers trust reviews and book recommendations more on Goodreads than on other sites.  Here is how you can improve your Goodreads presence:
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First of all:  Get more “friends” and “fans”.
To do this you can click on any persons name and when their site appears, “click on add as a friend”. Do the same also with their friends and fans and in no time you will have quite a few followers. You may also add FB or Twitter followers. When receiving a notification by email thank the person with a welcoming email to show your appreciation. Use the icons for Google+ and FB on the left hand site of their Goodreads page. Click on them to spread the word about this site (and invite your friends to do the same on your own one).

Join the Author Program
Published one or more books? It’s completely free to join this Author Program and it will allow you to manage your own book data.
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Here are just a few benefits of the Author Program:

1. Write a blog or import your blog. Authors are the only members of Goodreads who can have blogs, and author blogs are a great place to start a conversation. You can add a link to your personal website or blog and add the Goodreads Author widget to show off reviews of your books
2. Publicize upcoming events, such as book signings and speaking engagements
3. Participate in an online Q and A session with your readers
4. List giveaways for print copies of your books
5. Share excerpts of any upcoming publications
6. Post videos about your books or anything you choose
7. Share your list of favorite books and recent reads with your fans

How to join the Author Program? Start at your author dashboard:

• If you are already a Goodreads member, make sure you are signed in. If not, sign up for an account.
• Search for yourself and click on your published author name. The author name is listed below the title of your book in the search results.
• Clicking on your name takes you to your basic author profile page. This page has your name at the top and “author profile” to the right of your name. This page is part of our database of books and authors and is separate from your member profile page (which lists your bookshelves and friends).
• Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Click “Is this you?” to send a request to join the Author Program.
• It might take a few days to process your request. You will receive an email confirmation when your user account is upgraded to an author account. Joining the program merges your author page with your member page. The email will also contain further instructions for managing your author profile. .

Who can join?
The Author Program  is designed for writers with published books, or who are in the process of publishing a book. If your book is self-published and is not yet in the Goodreads database, you may manually add it.
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Take advantage of the great possibilities at Goodreads to present your book:
Listing your print book for a giveaway is a great way to get free exposure for a book before and during its launch. List any title that is not yet released or was released during the last 6 months. Or upload
an e-book with the “add e-book” links and let users browse, preview, download, and even purchase your work.

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Meet you at Goodreads  and please let me know of any Goodreads topics / questions you might learn about or have them answered here on this blog.  What are your experiences with Goodreads?

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 600 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris

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How Can Goodreads Help Your Book Take-Off?

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Goodreads  is a kind of Facebook for people who love to read books. A free website for book lovers. Imagine it as a large library that you can wander through and see everyone’s bookshelves, their reviews, and their ratings. You can certainly post your own reviews and catalog what you have read, currently reading, and plan to read in the future. There is more offered on their website: join a discussion group, start a book club, contact an author, and even post your own writing. More tips about the benefits of joining Goodreads and how you can use Goodreads to promote your blog.
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How can friends recommend your book?
Or how can you recommend books from your writer friends?
To send out a book recommendation, go to the book’s page and click on the “recommend it” link at the top right side of the page. A new site appears with three possibilities: “friends” “manual” “facebook“

• Under the icon “friends” your Goodread friends are listed and you click next to the name to whom you want to send your book recommendation.
• Enter under “manual” single email addresses of readers that are not yet on Goodreads.
• The “facebook” icon lists your FB friends, who are not yet members of Goodread to recommend the book to.

Reviews are essential
Like on Amazon reviews on their site help your book stand out in two ways. The more people review your book, the more visible it will be. Goodreads reviews also appear on sites like Powell’s, Google Books, and the Sony Ebook Store.  From a Goodreads statement: “Books with no written reviews are added, on average, by 7 people, while books with just five written reviews are added by more than 40 people.”

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Let your friends ping to Google+ and FB
On the left lower corner of Goodreads are icons to these two websites to which your friends can send your image, books name and a link for your book – as well as a comment, such as “must read”, “great book” or “you will love it”.

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Add your favorite books
Click on “My Books” in the top navigation menu and add away!  You can add books into read, currently reading, to read categories or edit your bookshelf to add your own categories. Many authors who’s books you recommended will return this favor to you.

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Give away as many copies as possible.
It makes sense to give away a lot of books – if your goal is to get reviews. More than 50% of giveaway winners review the books they win, so the more books you offer, the more reviews you are likely to get. Run your giveaway for two weeks to a month. Goodreads says, “Giveaways less than two weeks run the risk of not getting enough entries, while a four-week giveaway will generate more entries. We recommend even two giveaways: one about three months before publication to build pre-release buzz and reviews, and a second to increase awareness when your book hits stores. Both will result in a lot of people adding your book to their to-read shelves.”

Goodreads will also use the recommendations to help authors and publishers advertise their books to readers who are most likely to be interested in them. Seventeen thousand authors, including James Patterson and Margaret Atwood, use Goodreads.

Infographic 25 Top Reviewers on Goodreads (no links to them, to find out one has to dig into Goodreads website.
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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 600 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris

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MEAN: A Psychological Thriller

MEAN by Renata F. Carcelos

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Cassandra Connelly looks like a normal twenty-four-year-old girl. She seems sweet and shy. She works hard in two jobs and still finds time to do volunteer work. Nonetheless, there’s something wrong within her. She has a lot of anger boiling inside, and a very problematic past, making her a dark, twisted woman. She hides her true self from the world, but there’s someone Cassandra hates so much, she has been thinking of doing something unspeakable: killing this person.

To her, killing this person is absolutely necessary, for he or she should not be alive. However, since she is still not sure about doing it or not, she seeks help.  She goes to a psychiatrist in order to make a decision: should she continue hiding her meanness and being a normal girl, or should she let the meanness win and kill this person she believes deserves to die?

In this contemporary fiction novella, we will find out how badly child abuse and a dysfunctional family can transform a life for worse, much worse. Mean is a novelette (longer than a short-story but shorter than a novella). ADVICE: CONTAINS VIOLENT SCENES AND HARSH LANGUAGE

Available at Goodreads, Kobo, Amazon…

From a book review:  ”MEAN by Renata F. Barcelos is captivating from the very first sentence. It starts off with the reader being let into the chilling mind of Cassandra Connelly, hinting at the deep but downright scary thoughts to come. The unique style of writing makes this thriller even more exciting, as Cassandra could well be talking to the reader themselves. We soon find out that the whole story is her side of the conversation with her therapist and…”
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Renata F. Barcelos lives in Brazil with her beautiful and creative daughter and teaches English and Spanish as Second Languages. She loves dark, twisted and flawed characters and stories. She watches way too much TV and reads perhaps too many (almost exclusively) mystery novels, convincing herself it’s all work—research for her own stories. She writes for as long as she can remember, and her other stories are waiting impatiently to be published. Her next book is coming soon: a coming-of-age mystery novel called “My Sore Hush-a-bye”.

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are more than 520 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful.
Thanks, Doris

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52 Top Websites to Post Your Book for FREE

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For your book to sell, you need to create the demand. You need an audience, a platform – which you will get when your book is showing up on many websites, visible to readers.

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1. Goodreads
Use your free membership to promote yourself and your books. Reviews are essential and reviews on Goodreads site help your book to really stand out to millions of visitors.

2. Wattpad
Wattpad has experienced explosive growth since its inception and has become the world’s most popular destination to publish and read e-books. Wattpad delivers billions of pages from its library of works created and published by the Wattpad community.

3. On BookTalk,
You’ll find an online reading group and book discussion forum that can help you discover new books. If you’re an author or publisher looking to promote your books, you are welcome to use BookTalk.org as a tool to reach a vast audience of book lovers. They have a Google Page Rank of 5, over 14,000 members and close to 700,000 site views per month. Book discussion forums are free and open to anyone including authors and publishers. Create a free account and write about your books in either the Fiction Book Forum or Non-Fiction Book Forum. Mail a few copies of your print book and it will be advertised. They will advertise your book on the Home page for 15 to 30 days and on the Featured Book Suggestions page permanently.”

4. And then, there is another Booktalk
Booktalk.com is an online booklovers’ community composed of many of today’s bestselling and popular authors. Personalized author home pages contain excerpts from bestselling novels as well as information about upcoming releases, author notes and personal hobbies and interests as well as publisher, literary agent and book industry information. Writing related articles by Booktalk authors and others in the writing community and upcoming literary events are also included.

5. KindleBoards
Authors are always welcome to post about their books in the Book Bazaar.

6. Library Thing
Social networking site and forum for book lovers. Free profile where each book contains tags, reviews and links to conversations about the book.

7. Shelfari
Enables you to build a virtual book shelf, that include book reviews from Amazon and to interact with your Shelfari community.

8. Authonomy
Features weekly top rated books, top talent spotters. You can join the forum, upload books and post reviews.

9. WritersNet
List yourself at this writers and authors directory, sorted by genre or location. Various resources for writers, agents and publishers.

10. Bibliophil
Forum about books. Offers: profile with books appearing in signature, list of favorite and wished books.

11. Booksie
Share Your Poems, Short Stories, Novels, and more with the world. Sign up, it’s free.

12. BookBrowse
Selected book listing, authors interviews, link to authors’ website; Reviewed by humans, not all books accepted, check submission guidelines.

13. Nothing Binding
Upload and manage your book cover image & book promotion materials. Showcase your work for free: writings, books, articles, short stories, essays, poems and more.

14. Book Buzzr
Has a 30 days free trial listing and a paid listing with monthly payment of under $5.

15. Filed By
Kind of “Twitter” for authors , platform for books, have your own author site, post short blogs.

16. Bookhitch
Free Listing : a 60 words description and 5 keywords per book. Premium listing : $19.95/year – 120 words description and space for book reviews.

17. Jacket Flap
For children books only. Directory of children books, publishers and professionals related to children book publishing. You can create your own profile to add your book and blog for free.

18. Scribd
Find out what others are reading on Scribd. This service is somewhat comparable with Wattpad. Authors upload their PDF, Word, and PowerPoint docs to share them with the world’s largest community of readers.

19. WhoWroteWhat
Authors can advertise free for thirty days. Submit a portrait photo (jpg), up to fifty words inviting readers to your website and your URL where your book(s) are for sale. After thirty days it is as low as 27 cents a day.

20. SavvyBookWriters Blog
Our Marketing clients’ books and author bio are posted here on this blog as well, plus we will have an interview with them, published here too.  Both articles will stay forever on our site, free of charge.

21. Bookreportradio
A lively mix of author interviews, audio book previews and chats with those influential in the literary world, The Book Report has become appointment listening for bibliophiles and book clubs alike.

22. Tim Greaton Forum
Tim Greaton is presenting the most talented authors & artists, living and working in our world today.

23. Figment
Figment is a community where you can share your writing, connect with other people who love to read, and discover new stories and authors. (In a nutshell.) Figment was co-founded by Dana Goodyear, a staff writer at The New Yorker, and Jacob Lewis, the former Managing Editor at The New Yorker and Condé Nast Portfolio.
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24. Bowker
You may know Bowker from ordering your ISBN numbers, but they are also the provider for Books In Print and Global Books In Print that contain listings of bibliographical information for international titles available in the USA or internationally.

In addition, Bowker sells its products worldwide to retailers and libraries, so your titles are exposed to many facets of the book industry through a single web application including inventory status checks, library catalogue information, and sales data reporting. Your data is circulated to all of these customers free of charge. To market you book successfully worldwide you need to have it listed worldwide!

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FREE (e)-book listings:

http://www.kindlemojo.com

http://flurriesofwords.blogspot.ca/

http://blog.booksontheknob.org/

http://authormarketingclub.com/members/submit-your-book/

http://addictedtoebooks.com/submission

http://thekindledailydeal.com/contact.cfm

http://www.freebooksy.com/about/

http://thefrugalereader.wufoo.com/forms/frugal-freebie-submissions/

http://digitalbooktoday.com/join-our-team/

http://www.bookandreader.com/forums/

http://www.canadianbookclubs.com/forums

http://www.ebookforum.info

http://www.friends4brandt.com

http://www.bookgrouponline.com/forum

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums

http://forums.onlinebookclub.org

http://www.bookandreader.com

http://thebookmarketingnetwork.com/forum

http://www.reading-forum.co.uk/forum

http://www.online-literature.com/forums

http://www.writing.com

http://forums.onlinebookclub.org

http://spssmessageboard.com

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Send the cover image and short book description:

http://www.thebookdesigner.com
for a monthly competition of the best cover design

http://www.Pinterest.com

http://www.Flickr.com

http://www.etsy.com

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out previous posts (there are almost 500 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line – and then on “Like” next to it.

Follow us on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, Chime.in or StumbleUpon – or other social networking sites of your choice) – other people might also enjoy this blog and find it useful.

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How to Get Book Reviews – Lots of them

 

Reviews sell books. The more you have, the more credibility you will have with your potential buyers. Author-published books usually don’t attract reviews by major book magazines or newspapers such as The New York Times.

However, there are ways to get book reviews, especially if you are creative. Through social networks such as Twitter, Google+, Chime.in or Facebook, you can request book reviews. Here are some popular book reviewers on Twitter:  MediaBistro and Scribd

Check the sidebar, links or blogroll on each site you visit, as they may have links to other reviewer’s blogs. You may check their ranking on Alexa which indicates their traffic – the lower the Alexa number, the better.

There are organizations you can access through the internet which conduct book reviews, for sample:
http://thebestreviews.com
http://www.bookwire.com/bookwire/bookwire.html

Don’t forget book networking sites such as Goodreads, Shelfari, LibraryThing, Wattpad etc.

Ask local newspapers and publications to review your book. While it is difficult to get a book review by a major publication or newspaper, your local newspaper might be interested in local authors.
OK, you did your homework, a list of websites run by bloggers who might be writers or readers and who like the genre of our book. But how to approach them and request a review?

Writing a review is time consuming and requires reading the book first, so it is actually requesting a big favor from a complete stranger. The prospective reviewer has no incentive in investing time an effort in a review. The least a writer can do is to show the prospective reviewer respect:

• Most sites publishing reviews have a procedure for receiving requests. Abide by the blogger’s requirements and show respect for the reviewers time.
• Find a way to convert the book into the format, most convenient for the reviewer.
• Send an email with a query first. You are competing with other books so be professional. Don’t be pushy as reviewers are doing you a favor reading your book.
• Send a variety of requests to your prospective reviewers: A reviewer receiving a request that looks like mass mailing has no incentive to review your book.
• You certainly have to offer a free copy of the book, reviewers will not fork out the money to buy your book and invest time in reading and reviewing it.
• Not all books are for all people. The reviewers opinion is required and that includes the risk that the review will be scathing, if that is the reviewer’s opinion.

Be courteous, professional, thank them for their review and reciprocate the favor, making sure you credit the reviewer and provide them with publicity in return for their book review. Write more reviews and you will get more reviews! When did you write your last book review?

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With a Little Help From Your Friends…Part 2

Reviews, Tags, Highlights, “Listmania Listing”, “Like Button” all help to boost up books in Amazons popularity list. Take two books with identical sales numbers: the one which has been promoted with these features is much higher in the ranks and will definitely sell better in the future.  But your friends can do more, just ask them:
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Book Extras
Book Extras are community edited database which includes series information, character descriptions, important places, memorable quotes and more. The content is added, edited and maintained by both, Amazon customers and the Shelfari.com community.  Shelfari is a community-powered encyclopedia for book lovers. Create a virtual bookshelf, discover new books, connect with friends and learn more about your favorite books – all for free.

Use Social Media
If you are involved with Twitter, Google+, Pinterest or Facebook, you can mention your favorite authors when they release new books. If they blog, you can follow their site (through Google Reader or other RSS readers) and share the link when they post something that may be interesting for others. On Twitter, you can “follow” and re-tweet their links now and then.  If you like to be social about books, you can join sites such as Goodreads, Shelfari, or LibraryThing. You can help your favorite authors by posting reviews and talking about their books on those sites.

Promoting on Your Blog
Do you ever talk about books or what you’re reading on your blog? You might consider reviewing your favorite authors on your site (you could even make a few dollars if you sign up as an Amazon affiliate). You can also add an “author blog roll” list in your menu with links to their sites.

Good old-fashioned word of mouth
Tell every one of your friends and family about your favorite author and his/her books, or mention it in your emails with a link to their site or to Amazon.

Help with “blurbs”
These days, most authors have websites and contact forms so you can get in touch. If you enjoyed their work, consider sending them a short note to let them know. It does not only make their day, but it can help them sell more books, if you allow them to use your words in their “praise” section.

A little promotional help now and then is greatly appreciated. And if you are a writer yourself, let your readers, friends and family know how they can support you on your book seller’s websites, copy and paste this list and send it to them or send them a link.

Part of this list are Lindsay Buroker’s ideas.

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46 Top Websites to Promote Your Book for FREE

Stand out Against Thousands of Books

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1. Goodreads
Use your free membership to promote yourself and your books. Reviews are essential and reviews on Goodreads site help your book to really stand out to millions of visitors.

2. Wattpad
Wattpad has experienced explosive growth since its inception and has become the world’s most popular destination to publish and read e-books. Wattpad delivers billions of pages from its library of works created and published by the Wattpad community.

3. On BookTalk,
You’ll find an online reading group and book discussion forum that can help you discover new books. If you’re an author or publisher looking to promote your books, you are welcome to use BookTalk.org as a tool to reach a vast audience of book lovers. They have a Google Page Rank of 5, over 14,000 members and close to 700,000 site views per month. Book discussion forums are free and open to anyone including authors and publishers. Create a free account and write about your books in either the Fiction Book Forum or Non-Fiction Book Forum. Mail a few copies of your print book and it will be advertised. They will advertise your book on the Home page for 15 to 30 days and on the Featured Book Suggestions page permanently.”

4. And then, there is another Booktalk
Booktalk.com is an online booklovers’ community composed of many of today’s bestselling and popular authors. Personalized author home pages contain excerpts from bestselling novels as well as information about upcoming releases, author notes and personal hobbies and interests as well as publisher, literary agent and book industry information. Writing related articles by Booktalk authors and others in the writing community and upcoming literary events are also included.

5. KindleBoards
Authors are always welcome to post about their books in the Book Bazaar.

6. Library Thing
Social networking site and forum for book lovers. Free profile where each book contains tags, reviews and links to conversations about the book.

7. Shelfari
Enables you to build a virtual book shelf, that include book reviews from Amazon and to interact with your Shelfari community.

8. Authonomy
Features weekly top rated books, top talent spotters. You can join the forum, upload books and post reviews.

9. WritersNet
List yourself at this writers and authors directory, sorted by genre or location. Various resources for writers, agents and publishers.

10. Bibliophil
Forum about books. Offers: profile with books appearing in signature, list of favorite and wished books.

11. Booksie
Share Your Poems, Short Stories, Novels, and more with the world. Sign up, it’s free.

12. BookBrowse
Selected book listing, authors interviews, link to authors’ website; Reviewed by humans, not all books accepted, check submission guidelines.

13. Nothing Binding
Upload and manage your book cover image & book promotion materials. Showcase your work for free: writings, books, articles, short stories, essays, poems and more.

14. Book Buzzr
Has a 30 days free trial listing and a paid listing with monthly payment of under $5.

15. Filed By
Kind of “Twitter” for authors , platform for books, have your own author site, post short blogs.

16. Bookhitch
Free Listing : a 60 words description and 5 keywords per book. Premium listing : $19.95/year – 120 words description and space for book reviews.

17. Jacket Flap
For children books only. Directory of children books, publishers and professionals related to children book publishing. You can create your own profile to add your book and blog for free.

18. Scribd
Find out what others are reading on Scribd. This service is somewhat comparable with Wattpad. Authors upload their PDF, Word, and PowerPoint docs to share them with the world’s largest community of readers.

19. WhoWroteWhat
Authors can advertise free for thirty days. Submit a portrait photo (jpg), up to fifty words inviting readers to your website and your URL where your book(s) are for sale. After thirty days it is as low as 27 cents a day.

20. SavvyBookWriters Blog
Our Marketing clients’ books and author bio are posted here on this blog as well, plus we will have an interview with them, published here too.  Both articles will stay forever on our site, free of charge.

21. Bookreportradio
A lively mix of author interviews, audio book previews and chats with those influential in the literary world, The Book Report has become appointment listening for bibliophiles and book clubs alike.

22. Tim Greaton Forum
Tim Greaton is presenting the most talented authors & artists, living and working in our world today.

23. Figment
Figment is a community where you can share your writing, connect with other people who love to read, and discover new stories and authors. (In a nutshell.) Figment was co-founded by Dana Goodyear, a staff writer at The New Yorker, and Jacob Lewis, the former Managing Editor at The New Yorker and Condé Nast Portfolio.

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FREE (e)-book listings:

http://www.kindlemojo.com

http://flurriesofwords.blogspot.ca/

http://blog.booksontheknob.org/

http://authormarketingclub.com/members/submit-your-book/

http://addictedtoebooks.com/submission

http://thekindledailydeal.com/contact.cfm

http://www.freebooksy.com/about/

http://thefrugalereader.wufoo.com/forms/frugal-freebie-submissions/

http://digitalbooktoday.com/join-our-team/

http://www.bookandreader.com/forums/

http://www.canadianbookclubs.com/forums

http://www.ebookforum.info

http://www.friends4brandt.com

http://www.bookgrouponline.com/forum

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums

http://forums.onlinebookclub.org

http://www.bookandreader.com

http://thebookmarketingnetwork.com/forum

http://www.reading-forum.co.uk/forum

http://www.online-literature.com/forums

http://www.writing.com

http://forums.onlinebookclub.org

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For your book to sell, you need to create the demand. You need an audience, a platform – which you will get when your book is showing up on many websites, visible to readers.

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Hyper Smash

 

How Do People Discover New Books And Authors?

Last month I put together a brief survey to find out how people discover new books and authors. One of the biggest challenges new authors are facing, is getting the word out about their work, regardless of whether they are self-published or going with a traditional publisher.  Increasingly, authors have to do a significant amount of legwork in terms of promotion as marketing and advertising budgets are widely slashed.

However, most self-published authors don’t have a particularly detailed understanding of their market. Either they haven’t thought to find out, or simply don’t know where to start. It’s understandable – we didn’t get into writing in order to become expert marketers – but it is something that we just have to get to grips with.  So I thought I’d start my own journey towards understanding by asking people where they find out about new books and authors.

Question 1: What genres of fiction do you enjoy reading?
The most popular genres were Science Fiction and Fantasy; the least popular were Western, Chick Lit, Romance, and Horror.

Question 2: Where do you find about new books and new authors?
The second question asked people to rate how frequently they found new books or authors via different methods. There’s bad news for self-publishers here: The most popular ways to find new authors remains word of mouth, browsing in a bricks and mortar bookshop, browsing in an online bookshop and newspaper reviews.

Now, my sample size was quite small, just 238 responses. But it echoes Verso Digital’s 2011Survey of Book-Buying Behavior, released last month, which polled 2,200 respondents. Verso Digital found that most of their respondents found new books through personal recommendation (49.2%), bookstore staff recommendations (30.8%), advertising (24.4%, and a source I forgot to add in), search engines (21.6% and ditto). 11.8% found new books through social networks and 12.1% via blogs. Book reviews accounted for 18.9%.

There are a lot more interesting nuggets in the report, so it’s well worth a flick through the slides. Conclusions: Personal recommendation most important for self-publishers

The results of this survey are a bit of a mixed bag for self-publishers. For most of us it’s impossible to get our books into prominent positions in bookshops either offline or on, and even harder to get newspaper reviews. The places where it’s easy for us to gain access, such as GoodReads, Twitter, LibraryThing, Facebook and on our own blog simply aren’t that influential. It’s disappointing, because these are places where authors can be very proactive.

So what are we left with? Both my graph and the Verso Digital figures show that self-published authors should focus on encouraging people to make personal recommendations for their work, as that is still the most important way that people find new authors and books. Simply telling your friends that you recently read a book and loved it appears to be the single most important thing one can do to help an author along.

By SUW, re-blogged, first published 24/02/2012
from http://chocolateandvodka.com/2012/02/24/how-do-people-discover-new-books-and-authors/

My Comment:
Roughly 12% social network, 12% blog and 16% Online algorithm recommendation makes up for over 40% of all books sales, which should convince to invest time into these marketing strategies as they are totally free, just the author’s time investment.  Plus: over 65% of avid readers are purchasing their books online.
The Verso Digital Survey also shows where former Border customers went: mostly to online retail stores, such as Amazon or Barnes&Noble.  Amazon makes it easy to send emails to your friends, acquaintances and family about recently purchased books with their form on their checkout page. Ask everyone who buys your book to fill out this window and send it to someone who might purchase your book too.

 

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