Remember the Time Before Social Media?

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Even your grandmother is now on Social Media. Do you remember the time before Facebook, Twitter and Google+?  See the steep curve of the user growth rate in all age ranges and demographics, and the continuing pervasiveness of social networking into every facet of work, play and life in general.

Social Media Facts – did you know:

• 53% of all employers research potential job candidates on Social Media?
• 80% of companies use Social Media for Recruitment?
• 43% of companies used blogs in 2012 and growing?
• 33% of companies use YouTube videos for marketing?
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Readers are making book purchasing decisions every day based on social media interactions.  Social platforms are a way to connect with your readers. Use it and be social!

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Source: The Growth of Social Media: An Infographic
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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

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 730 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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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 Get More Followers on Your Google+ Page

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Google+ or Google Plus, no matter how you write it, is an author’s best friend. Why? Here are just a couple of reasons to join for the ones that are not already on Google Plus, more in an article from September 2011 “7 Reasons to be on Google+“:

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Search Engine Ranking:  As the main search engine Google indexes and ranks its own site much higher than any other content. Google+ posts are easily indexed by Google search, and unlike tweets or Facebook posts, are treated much like regular web pages. That means a well-constructed G+ post – with a main keyword in the first sentence / title and a good amount of engagement – can rank well in Google search and stay ranked for a long time.
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Google+ helps in building your author rank content, and your author reputation will be determined by your Google+ activity, e.g. how many +1′s (Likes or re-tweets) you receive and in how many circles you are.
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An important step in claiming authorship is to link from your blog to your Google+ profile and linking back from Google+ to your blog.
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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, which I just tried out. And you can show images as often as you want during the day. Important tip: Always add the image of your book cover first, and once it shows up, add text and link to Amazon, B&N etc. If you start with the link, only the ugly generic icon from Amazon appears, not showing your cover at all.
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On Google+ you can publish your press releases, blogs, testimonials, case studies and news. The difference with Google+ is that your content, if found, will be listed at the top of Google personal results mixed in with traditional search results.
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Google+ works with “circles”, which will enable you to “separate” your readers from your private followers or to divide genres in which you write, for sample romance from children’s book readers. Each of your posts can get different audiences.
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Another great feature are the “Hangouts”, which can be “used for interviews, small-group Webinars, question and answer sessions etc.
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Then there is the Event-Planner where book launches and book signings can be announced, including a map where the event takes place. This way an author in Melbourne, Australia can invite people to her book signing or a book launch party in New Orleans can be brought to the attention of readers. URL

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Set up the automatic function of transferring your Google+ posts to Twitter, as described in a blog last month.
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Don’t forget to be “social” and comment and +plus other peoples content. It is called social network, not advertising board, so engage a bit with others and appreciate their posts, it is a two-way lane after all…
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How can you get lots of followers on your Google+ presence?

• First of all your Google+ page needs to be attractive for visitors: Spend some time optimizing your Google+ page and building it up with content and posts before you start promoting your presence.
• Use lots of images, get links to free images at former blog posts, where we listed free photo sites.
• Announce your Google+ page on your other social media sites.
  If people are following you on social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter, they already find value in the content you are sharing.
• Write a blog post about your new Google+ Page,
  what you’ll be sharing there, and why your blog readers should want to follow you.
• Include a Google+ Badge on your blog or website.
  Link your Google+ page to your site. Get more recommendations for your site in Google search and grow your audience on Google+. Just go to Google developers and copy / paste the code there into your website code (choose between an icon, or a small or standard badge).

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Now you can invite people into your circles:

1. Use the icon on the left side of your Google+ page, from there go to “find people” around reader keywords: (type them into the search function on top of your page) book lovers – book worms – reading – books – reads – literature – e-books – Kindle books – publishing – novels etc. and add interesting people to your circles. Try to find readers, not writers and build your own circles.
2. Visit other Google+ circles to find like-minded “Googler’s”
3. Transfer your Gmail account contacts and add them to your circles

Bill Hartzer gives these tips in a great post:

– Follow people and add them to a Circle.
– Wait a period of time and see if they follow you back.
– If they aren’t active and they haven’t followed you back, then consider removing them from your Circles.
The timing of all of this (adding people to Circles, waiting for them to follow you back, removing them from Circles, etc.) is really up to you–I recommend keeping it to about 250 people a day, although there are some limits on Google+:

– You can only follow 5000 people at any one time.
– There is NO limit to the number of people who can follow you.
– There is a limit to adding people to circles, which is 1000 per day.

Read his very useful post with lots of screen shots.

A great help in establishing your Google+ presence is Guy Kawasaki’s e-book (only 99cents) “What the Plus” – which we already described in a former blog post.
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Google+, which was only officially launched in June 2011, has now already more than 400 million registered users, and more than 135 million active users and is rapidly growing. Compare it with Twitter which has only 500 million total users after almost seven years, and more than 200 million active users. Let us know about YOUR Google+ presence and we will add you into our circles. Find our brand new publishing page http://bit.ly/VmtVAS which we just launched, beside the other page, that has around 2,000 followers and 4,600 following (no time to un-follow : )

Google+ is just like any other social network. In order to be social, you need to have friends. You need other people on your social network to interact with, people who are active members of that social network. If they don’t log in on a regular basis and keep their profile active, they can’t interact with you.

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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 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 to Communicate With Your (Future) Readers

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Even if most of your readers purchase books or e-books at Amazon or in bookstores – who don’t reveal book buyers names or email addresses – you can still communicate with them through social media and later often directly.
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First listen to your readers / customers
Why listen to what your customers have to say? It’s free feedback from the people who matter most to your book business. If you go shopping and a sales associate doesn’t listen to you, rather bombards you with sales pitches, you get annoyed. Same in online book marketing. Listening and asking questions is an important part.  What do your readers want? What are they interest in? Ask them to provide feedback. Are you able to ask or to read between the lines? Google+ FB, Twitter and your blog’s commenters will reveal a wealth of information, keeping an eye on social media channels is a great way for any business to watch for trends.

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Monitor Social Media for your ideal readers
You don’t need any expensive software or services to do so. Twitter and also Google+ offer their own search tools, which allows you to search for any keyword, phrase, handle or hashtag. Facebook will show you anyone who “likes” or mentions your books page or profile in a status update. Same with Goodreads.

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Meet your readers online
After listening to your readers you then are ready to start communicating in real time with messaging systems that they are comfortable with, whether that be Twitter, Facebook or email. If you want to continue to have a relationship, you need to provide from time to time something of value to them. In order to get feedback readers must be able to communicate easily with you. Provide them with several ways to reach you – and also with your name. K.L or V.G. instead of your real (or pen) first name are very odd. How can a reader choose a salutation?  Dear K.L. ?

Scan any Twitter or FB streams, and you will see it over and over again: writers asking people to support their book, to share and promote it. Some will even write simply “Buy my book,” over and over again and wonder why nobody does. They are forgetting to add any kind of value for their readers.

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Send valuable content for free
Apart from useful tips and responding to your readers, give them some free content, such as certain chapters of your book or a short, free story. It gets shared, however, it does not mean that you give everything away – but enough to build trust and spread your content to the global online book readers community. When you then publish a new book they will buy it because they know you and love your writing. Write original articles or short stories, repurpose blog posts, send links to helpful articles written by others. Encourage your readers to subscribe to your mailing list and send out an update several times per year.

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Make it interesting
Provide content in a variety of media, not just in plain text. Find out what type of media your audience wants. Your readers are used to images, videos, podcasts, webinars, book trailers, pdf… not only to reading e-books or receiving plain email text.
Website and social media updates: let your customers know when you have improved your website or are launching on social media such as a FB Fan Page, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube or Twitter profile.
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Offer to write guest posts on blogs of your readers.
Don’t forget: It is cheaper to keep a customer (who spreads the word about your book) than it is to find a new one, and the best way to keep them is through regular, quality communication.
Follow and re-tweet other writers in your niche so that when you tweet, they will re-tweet your content to their followers who will have similar interests. FB-marketing can target interests and geography. Remember that social marketing involves passion and if you are passionate and motivated about your book, it will show, and will be shared.
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Find some inspiration at Publetariat’s article about “Reader Centered Book Marketing” too:
It starts with: “Some authors think that readers will appear out of thin air, throwing dollars at them mere seconds after their book is published. Others see book marketing as some sort of unnecessary burden. And yet others appear to have given up altogether, sadly begging for book purchases on Facebook or Twitter. Don’t let that be you!”

If you’re enthusiastic, confident and passionate about your work, you can expect to jazz up readers. Give more than you take – it will come back.

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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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Acting Like a Professional Author on Social Media?

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Are you prepared to act like a serious business man / woman when hitting the Social Media arenas?
Or do you act like a teenager on Facebook?
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Do you agree that selling books online or in stores is a business? You are getting money for writing and delivering your work, no matter how many books you have written, and no matter if you go with one of the big publishers or if you self-publish.

And don’t forget:  Many publishers and literary agents have a Social Media presence too.  They are using Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Goodreads or LinkedIn and mingle on these sites with authors famous and unknown.  If you like to get a name in the world of books, get a favorable publishing contract or establish a successful career with your self-published work:  create a professional online presence.
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Your readers (and maybe future publishers) like to see the person behind the book.  Invest a couple of dollars or more for a brilliant studio photo which you can use for years on all of your Social Media sites, website, blog, Amazon author page or submit to your publisher to use in your books. Publishing businesses use their logo and stick with it everywhere, to have brand consistency.

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Avoid: Party images, pics taken with your phone or computer, landscapes, snapshots from your last vacation, images of your children, wedding photos, art work, dogs or cats, cartoon characters, half-nudes unless you write porno and any dark photos, that don’t reveal your face or photos taken from the side or from behind and show only your hair and no face.  Never have a second person on your social media photo. You might be in love with your partner, but it is less than professional to show this off on Twitter.
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Take the time to write a compelling bio (or an avatar, or “about me”) that you can use for all your presences, for your Amazon website, your blog etc. Same as with your photograph: once established you can use it everywhere, even if you have to shorten it on some places, such as Twitter. Use lots of keywords and add abbreviated links to your web site or Amazon page. And choose your username wisely!  Is it important for your readers which diseases you survived?  No! Unless you are posting on a health-related site or forum. So please, leave this out if you are talking about yourself as an author or your books.  Why would anyone tell that he / she is a single dad / mom? Are they looking for a new mate or are they talking about literature?  Always remember:  what’s on the internet, stays on the internet – forever!
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Avoid: Don’t leave the space empty. Imagine you visit someones place and it is empty – a reason to click away immediately. How should they know if it is worth following you?

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Visit and post on your Social Media sites at least several times a week – better several times a day.
Re-tweet, but not too much, add own content between your re-tweets.  If someone wants to re-tweet your content and they have to scroll down for minutes until they find anything YOU contributed, they will think twice in the future about wasting their time.
Post USEFUL content, something interesting, new and exciting, funny – a post that is worth to read and to share or re-tweet. Think sharing. What do people want to share? Entertain, inform and solve readers / followers problems with answers. Give information away for free.
At Twitter use not more than two hash tags (#) to avoid clutter.
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Avoid: Not posting for weeks and your visitors will assume you are in vacation, sick, dead, emigrated or not interested at all anymore. Don’t annoy your readers with posts how many un-followers you caught or the stats of last week with the precise amount of new followers. Good for you – but who cares? No one! Your automated tweet or messages clog only Twitter streams. Same with posts what you will have on your dinner plate on Sunday or that your dog dug up your garden bed. Not even your most loyal readers are interested in it. Think about every post: “What is in for my reader?” or “What will it give my readers?”
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Talk about your book – but not too much. Keep a fine balance between the amount of “advertising” your work and postings that are interesting for those who purchased your book already. Create at least a variety of 15 – 20 posts for your book, to keep the stream interesting. Sprinkle these sparingly over the day and share or re-tweet more content from followers / friends or talk about interesting subjects and news in publishing, marketing, writing, culture etc. Social marketing (your books for sample) is about informing and solving peoples problems with answers and information. What you are doing on social media sites is “content marketing” not selling.  See the difference?

Avoid: Don’t repeat constantly  Buy my book, buy my book, buy my book…too excessive self-promotion might annoy your readers so much, that in the future, they will just avoid your posts. Open your post to everyone. If you are talking only to one person, others will move somewhere else. And don’t post events, that are, long over, such as free days for your books.

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When you think of Social Media, think of a big party.
You are entering the room, you say hello to everyone, you small- talk a bit, you participate in a discussion, you listen what others say, you make some compliments or praise someone, you have fun and you show yourself from your best side – this is what your Social Media presence should be too. It is a kind of shop window for you and your books. Don’t automate your posts too often. Readers want to talk with you, not just consume your automated posts.

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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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Announce Your Book Signing on Google+ for FREE

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Create an event
While Facebook Events are geared towards getting people together, Google Plus seeks to help people plan beforehand as well as share their experiences during and after the event. Through its aesthetic design and prominent placement on profiles, Events promises to be a collection of group photo albums for commemorating special times, online and offline.

Through its aesthetic design and prominent placement on profiles, this Events feature is a great free tool to market your book launch or signing. But as always with Google+ : Your events success depends on the amount of people you can reach and this in turn depends on how many people you include into your circles.

• Log into http://plus. Log into Google Plus and click on “Events” in the left-hand menu.
• Click on the “Create Event” button in the top right-hand corner.
• Fill in the basic details of your event — title, location, etc.
• Decide which of your circles or single persons you want to invite
• By default, only those invited can see your event.
• You can also change it to be a public event.
• Set other options for your event. Click on the “Event options” button next to the event title field.
• Basic options. Decide if you’d like your guests to be able to invite other people and to add their photos to the event page.
• Add additional fields to your event. If you’d like to add a website, ticket seller URL, YouTube link, transit / parking information, or other details to your event information, check the “Show additional fields” option.
• Choose a cover photo of your event. Click on the “Change theme” button at the top to choose between pre-made Google Plus designs and your photos. You can also upload a new photo or play a live slideshow of all the photos.
• Hit “Invite” to confirm the creation of your event. You will be directed to your new event’s page.
• Share the event to your profile by clicking on the button in the top right-hand corner.

Google Plus also automatically creates a new album for all of the photos you upload to an event. You can access these photos from your albums page and from the event page. If this is a yearly-recurring event or a regular gathering between a group of people, you can post pictures from the last time a similar event happened. Otherwise, it might be better to post photos from the event after the gathering has taken place.
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Other possibilities are:

Create an event from the calendar list
In the calendar list on the left, click on the down-arrow button next to the appropriate calendar. Then, select Create event on this calendar.

Create an event via SMS
Simply send a text message containing your event’s details to the shortcode “GVENT” (48368). For example, if you send a message with something like “Book Launch at Chapters 3pm on Saturday, November 24, 2012″ Google Calendar can figure out what you mean and pop the new event into your calendar.

Publish the Event
When you click the “Publish Event” link you will be given some code that you can use to link to your event. This is how you would share the event on your website so that users can click a button to add it to their calendar. Within this code is the link that will take users right to your event. Copy all of the code between a href=” and the next set of double quote marks.
As the creator of the Event, you can manage your guest list, add photos, share your Event with more people, edit Event details and delete an Event. How to add a Google map and give directions how your guests can reach you is shown in this video.
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Be smart and use this exiting, free Google+ tool to spread the word about your book and your event.

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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 570 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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Authors: Have You Read This?

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From useful blogs and articles I found on the Internet:

iBookstore now in 17 Latin-American countries
Christian Zibreg wrote in idownloadblog.com:
“Apple has rolled out paid iBookstore content in a slew of new countries. Paid electronic books first surfaced this morning over in the New Zealand iBookstore, but subsequent reports confirmed that paid content is now live – or in the process of going live – in as much as seventeen Latin American markets such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela.”
One more reason to sell your books on Apple’s iPad.
http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/10/22/ibookstore-paid-content-new-countires/

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Sad News: Timely.is will shut down on November 16th
Timely.is started as a fun side project back in 2010. Since then it has grown to help tens of thousands of people publish millions of Tweets and Facebook updates. Starting November 16th you will no longer be able to access your Timely.is account.
They explained:
“When we launched Timely almost 2 years ago there were no other tools that would automatically figure out the best time for a Tweet to go out. Thankfully there are some great alternatives today such as Buffer or Hootsuite.”
Well, not as conveniently and easy to use as Timely was… I will miss it.

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Book Blogger Directory
The Book Blogger Directory is a comprehensive listing of Book Blogs, separated by genre and listed alphabetically. The goal of the Book Blogger Directory is to not only to organize book blogs for users to easily find your blog, it is also there to create a link exchange for search engine optimization. Their mission: To cross promote book bloggers, provide listings by genre and increase links to increase page rank. The benefits of listing on the Book Blogger Directory:  As cross promotion occurs from one blog to the next, your Google Page Rank can increase, higher Google Page Rank means higher search engine rankings!  Higher keyword saturation on the Directory can have your listing show up on search engines.

Requirements to be on the Book Blogger Directory:
Your blog is primarily used to talk about books (8 out of 10 posts are book related). The Book Blogger Directory will not search out book blogs, it is up to users to enter their listings
http://bookbloggerdirectory.wordpress.com/

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Google+ (Author) Pages FREE
What more can you wish for? An authors pages that tremendously increases your Search Engine Optimization! A great tool no one should omit, at least not if you want to sell more books…

Google explains: “Differences between Google+ Pages and Google+ Profiles

• Pages are extremely similar to profiles, but they have some key differences:
• Pages can be made for a variety of different entities whereas profiles can only be made for people.
• Pages can have multiple administrators.
• The default privacy setting for elements on your page profile is public.
• Local pages have special fields that help people find the business’ physical location.
• Pages have the +1 button.
• Pages can’t +1 other pages, nor can they +1 stuff on the Web. (But like profiles, they can +1 inside Google+.)
• Pages can’t play games.
• Pages don’t have the option to share to ‘Extended circles’.
• Pages can’t hangout on a mobile device.
• Pages can’t add people to circles until the page is added first or mentioned.”

http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1713824

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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 570 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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Great Info Graphic: History of Social Media

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Beth Hayden and Rafal Tomal created a marvelous info graphic to show

the (short) history of Social Media:
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Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

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Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 570 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, from where you can submit blog posts 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 to Announce Your Book for FREE on Google

Market for Free on Google+

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Would you like to have your book cover and description seen by millions on the internet?
If your answer is YES, then sign up with Google plus – Google+ and use one of the best ways on the whole internet to announce your book for FREE – several times a day!

Once you are signed up with Google+, write a compelling “Profile” and add images of you and your books to it.  Start building circles and adding potential readers of your book into these circles. Unlike Twitter you can build circles with thousands of followers in a very short time. No 2,000 limit here…

No need to “hand-pick” these followers, just start out by adding already existing circles to your own. Type in: readers, writers, literary agents, publishers, librarians, book reviewers, book worms etc. or keywords of your books to find the right circles. Don’t forget your personal interests, sports and hobbies to have well-mixed community. Select the audience or the parts of your list that will be receiving your message according to your choosen topic of circles.

Create also a Google+ Business Account for each of your books – easy and free again. Google+ allows every business to act as an individual in many forms.

Like with any other social media, comment on postings of others, ask questions, give a “1+” on their postings and “share” them (same as “re-tweet” on Twitter). After some partizipating days, start your own posts, write short articles about anything your Audience might be interested in. After all it is called “Social Media”…
Add lots of photos and snippets from your blog or website. Post your book trailer – see 111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer how to do this.  And add links to Amazon or other book sales pages.

Place images of your books and a short description along with your author bio – several times a day! Place your book trailer in separate posts to achieve even more buzz. Write at least five unique descriptions of each of your books, to avoid this “spamming look” on your posts and change the headline as well.

You can use Google Talk to chat with friends, potential customers and readers. In your sidebar, you have an option to connect with people in through chats. Again: As larger your audience on Google+ is, as more people you added to your circles, as more potential readers you will get and as better the result will be.

Best of all: Your Search Engine ranking increases exceptionally when participating on Google+.  Submit each of your blog post to your Google+ account. Google treats the information on its own platforms, aka Google Search Engine, pretty high. This means your SEO-ranking for your website or blog improves tremendously.

Take advantage of Google+, one of the best ways to market books or e-books which authors and publishers yet have to discover. Let me know about your Google+ presence and I will add you into my circles too. Mine is:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/108229068198031646389/posts

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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 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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When is the Best Time to Twitter?

Tracking service and link shortening company Bit.ly found out when your link get’s the most traction on Twitter: Post it on a Monday between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. ET.
They released new data on the best and worst times to share links on popular social networks, from Facebook and Twitter to blogging site Tumblr.

The company revealed that posting links to Twitter between the hours of 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time will give you the highest click rank, especially early in the week. Meanwhile, sending a tweet with a link after 8:00 p.m. should be avoided — as should posting links after 3:00 p.m. on Fridays.

However, Facebook’s optimal posting times are slightly different than Twitter. Links sent between 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. get the most traction, with Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. being the best time to post on Facebook all week. Bit.ly recommends not posting the links you want to go viral during the weekend or between 8 pm and before 8am.

On the other hand, Tumblr has a much different usage pattern than Facebook and Twitter:  wait until at least 4:00 p.m. ET. to post important content, and posts after 7:00 p.m.Eastern Time on Monday and Tuesday, as well as on Sundays, get the most clicks during a 24-hour period. Friday evening is the best time to post on Tumblr — a time bit.ly recommends to avoid on Facebook and Twitter!

Keep in mind, these times are for North American users only, the ones in Australia, Asia and Europe have completely different times. It all depends if you want to get hits only from the USA and Canada.  As an English speaking Writer you might be interested in an international audience…

Stats for this blog show that quite a few readers are from all parts of the world.  Hello to you and welcome!!!

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How to Create a Search Story Trailer

Google-YouTube Search Stories

It’s free and easy:  With Google Search Stories you are able to create short, commercial-like trailers… provided you have a website, blog and you are on Google+, Twitter, Pinterest or LinkedIn etc.  

Go to http://www.youtube.com/searchstories
You will find several “tutorials” – more the home-made type, nothing official.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMR_vOdrpwA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qysbh0iZx2s&feature=related

To get some ideas watch the featured play list. One of the non-commercial search story trailers “Parisian Love” has been watched over 6 million times!

Enter your search terms and which Google Search tools you want to use, such as web search, books, images, maps, news, blog and product search. Add music, give it a great title, a discription and genre. Then preview the video, and if you like it, upload the video directly to:

• your YouTube account
• your website and your blog
• your Amazon authors website
• Google+ and all other social media sites you are on.

Use this powerful marketing tool for writers, artists and small entrepreneurs to make a great impression with a short trailer to your customers and cement your brand.

Excerpt from the brand new e-book: ***** 111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer ***** featuring valuable tips and links to video tutorials, free music downloads and free images, available on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008Y15YYO

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How to Create Excitement Regarding Your New Book:

Once your book is finished and is in your editors hands to be “fine-tuned” you can use the time to prepare for your book launch and to improve even more your marketing efforts:

• Transfer your book cover-photo to Pinterest.com and Flickr.com and other free-photo pages with a link to your website.
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• Create a short book trailer for YouTube, using images, words or even scenes from your book*
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• Write about your upcoming book launch and post small bits and pieces
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• Get Marketing help at Fiverr.com
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• Ask your friends to “Thumbs up” & “Listmania” your book on Amazon
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• Announce your new book to the Independent Authors Forum
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• Let your followers on Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media know about the books “birth”.
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• Create as many free Author Pages as possible, on Amazon, B&N, Goodreads, Wattpad etc.
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• Join even more forums, such as Kindle Forum or the AbsoluteWrite Forum
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• Set up e-Book Launches:

An e-book launch is when you get several (at least 10 – 15) website owners together to promote YOUR e-book all on the same day to their lists by sending out an email or write an article on their blog. The idea of a book launch is to turn the publication of the book into an event.

The key is to find the right joint-venture partners who can get your ebook in front of a lot of targeted traffic, readers who are interested in the kind of book you are selling. Each of your partners gives a bonus that buyers can get when they purchase, which allows your partners to collect names and emails and build their lists with buyers who are more valuable to them than prospects.

*Find more ideas in the brand new e-book: ***** 111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer ***** featuring valuable tips and links to video tutorials, free music downloads and free images, available on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008Y15YYO

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Why Are You on Social Media? To Give or Take?

Google+, Pinterest, Twitter, Chime.In, Tumblr, Reddit, Squidoo, LinkedIn… 

I network with lots of people online, and the ones that keep me coming back consistently offer something interesting, something helpful, and an overall positive, fun tone. Your own “brand” or reputation as we said in the good old days, is something that must be lovingly built, one post at a time and then carefully maintained. Its value is priceless.

There is a huge selection of social media sites to spend time online. If you want to keep your readers engaged with you, nurture your relationships with them through what you choose to share online, and respond to them.  Consider how your actions reflect on your author status in regards to your work. Make valuable contributions and allow yourself to shine by putting your work and your reputation always in the best light.

What doesn’t work?
Talking at people and not with them, and making it all about you.  Being repetitive and only shouting about where people can buy your books, your latest review, your book blurbs, etc., over and over again.  People will just tune you out if that’s all you offer.  Why should they return if you sing the same old tune time after time? Keep it fresh and develop your online personality into something that would keep you coming back if the tables were turned.

Be generous and engage with people
It actually shouldn’t be all about you.  I know a lot of authors who see every online post as a golden opportunity to sell a book.  However, people like those who help them and who give of themselves freely.  We all rely on others to various degrees. Therefore, use your online presence to benefit more than just yourself.  Pay it forward.  Not only does it feel really good, but it will foster loyalty and warmth.  Pass along the word about books you like or want to read, interesting authors, news items or tips that you think will help others, and a variety of other items that add value in different ways.

You will also find others much more willing to help you and get the word out about your work if you are generous and help them, too.  Do a good turn for someone else and always acknowledge how others have helped you. Show gratitude, and reciprocate good deeds.  Have a generous spirit and people will gravitate towards you.

As an author, you write for yourself, but also to entertain and move other people in some way.  Before every post consider, what’s in it for them?   Your writing success depends on more than simple sales.  Engage and intrigue and people will happily come back.
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How Authors Can Promote Their Books During the “KDP Select” months?

You can do a lot of things to promote your book while it is for three months locked in the KDP Select program:

• have an email PR action,
• send out press releases
• create a book trailer
• try to get as many reviews as possible
• be active in forums – work on your platform
• listing it on each and every website that promotes free books,
• extensively announce the free days and the lending in Amazon’s Prime program through Twitter, Google+, Chime.in, Pinterest, LinkedIn…
• If you haven’t already, list it for free at Bowker, get an ISBN number, improve your authors’ website and have friends and customers help to spruce up your success on Amazon - and most important of all:  write your next book !

Here are some tips how you can boost your book sales:

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/amazon-marketing
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/important-expose-your-book-to-the-world
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/your-e-book-on-flickr
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/10/17/9-ways-to-support-your-favorite-author
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/how-to-create-your-book-trailer-2/
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/how-to-promote-your-book-for-free/
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/how-can-you-maximize-your-success-on-amazon/

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