The Secret to Find Readers: Wattpad

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In a former blog post we wrote about Brittany Geragotelis’ six-figure-deal offer from Simon&Schuster, which she received after being “discovered” on Wattpad by millions of their readers, who downloaded chapter after chapter of Life’s a Bitch.  Canadian-based Wattpad.com, founded in 2007, was initially providing a mobile platform for public domain works from Project Gutenberg.  Within two years, the Wattpad app had been downloaded 5 million times. Writers post work in chapters, which tend to be short, to make them suitable mobile.

Wikipedia explains: As of April 2014:

• 85 percent of its traffic and usage comes from mobile devices
• 3 million stories total, with 250,000 new stories added every month
• 1.3 Million registered users
• Over 16,9 Million unique visitors per month
• Users spend an average of an hour a day on Wattpad

The most frequently voted stories (every day) appear on the “What’s Hot List”. These stats change daily, due to reads and votes by other users. According to the profiles visible on the site, many of
these authors are young adults.
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Featured Story List and Contests
Wattpad also has a Featured Story list, which promotes content reviewed and approved by staff and an editorial review board. Many of these featured stories are written by self-published and
professional writers from different genres.
Wattpad holds several smaller contests a year and one major one. The large annual contest is called “The Watty Awards”. Contests are open to anyone who has a Wattpad account.

During the summer of 2012, Wattpad in collaboration with Margaret Atwood, Canadian poet/novelist/literary critic, held the “Attys”; the first major poetry contest offering a chance to poets on Wattpad to compete against each other in one of two categories, either as an “Enthusiast” or a “Competitor”.
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What is the Real Benefit?
With 16.9 million unique global visitors per month and an average of 30 minutes spent reading per visit, it’s easy to understand why it’s getting a lot of attention.  Authors can upload either the completed or working version of their books for readers to read. It is not possible to upload a book as one single file, it has to be done on a chapter-by-chapter basis.
Wattpad is entirely free for all of its users which means that authors are actually giving their work away for free – no sales on the Wattpad site! However if your readers ask you, send them a list with links to all your sales pages.
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Wattpad is a Social Media Site
Bronwyn Hemus gives this advice: “You have a captive audience. People who sign up to Wattpad are clearly interested in books, there are millions of engaged readers looking for their next great read. The golden rule applies:  Always actively engage with people who are reading your chapters. If someone has left a comment, make sure that you respond to their comment as soon as you can. Take the time to look at your reader’s profile so that you can engage with them on a personal level. Wattpad readers certainly seem very willing to engage with an author and provide feedback as a startling 5 million new comments are posted every month.  If you want to breed reader loyalty, spending a bit of time getting to know your audience will go  a long way to increasing sales. It will also help you better understand your readership which in turn will help you focus your marketing efforts outside of the site.”
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Serialization Keeps Readers Interested
Her second great advice:  “You have to release your content on a chapter-by-chapter basis which in turn encourages continuous engagement with readers. Loyal readers can register themselves as a “fan” and as such, will receive email alerts whenever their favorite author posts something new.  Consistency is crucial to the success of serialization so it is best not to join Wattpad if you don’t have
a completed book (even if only in the first draft) to share.

Readers like knowing that once they’ve invested in a book, they will be able to read the story to the end. And: Chapters that are posted on a Friday afternoon and a Saturday morning have the most visibility.
Dianne Greenlay wrote in Selfpublishing Advice:
Although Wattpad has a high proportion of YA users, it includes readers and writers of every age and genre, including the much-acclaimed Margaret Atwood. Several writers on Wattpad have caught the eye of literary agents and received offers based on the number of “reads” that their writing has accumulated.
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Read more how Wattpad is useful to writers:

http://outofprintwriting.blogspot.ca/2014/02/how-writers-can-build-following-on_6.html

http://www.theliteraryplatform.com/2012/10/wattpad-building-the-worlds-biggest-reader-and-writer-
community/

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/15-million-readers-before-her-book-was-even
-published/

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/author-brittany-geragotelis-got-a-six-figure-deal/

https://www.standoutbooks.com/6-things-every-author-needs-to-know-about-wattpad/

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,070 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, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
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Prequels: Author’s Benefits of Writing Them

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J.K. Rowling did it for Harry Potter – every writer should create them too: Writing a Prequel for their upcoming book.  According to the FreeDictionary:  “A literary, dramatic, or cinematic work, whose narrative takes place before that of a pre-existing work or a sequel. [pre- + (se)quel.] prequel.” They are teasers in short story form that preview the key characters and settings of an upcoming novel.
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Prequels: Promote Your Future Book Through Short Stories
Savvy authors are building excitement and attract readers to their upcoming books. Editor Alan Rinzler describes them: “Back stories for the longer book to come. Others are like outtakes from the novel, standalone narratives that add to our knowledge of the characters but don’t appear in the books themselves.  Prequels provide readers with the flavor and quality of the forthcoming book in a way that makes them yearn to read more. This technique has had notable successes lately, like propelling a book from obscurity to six-figure advances, and building pre-publication buzz and momentum.”
Rinzler mentions two authors, published by the “Big Five”: Brittany Geragotelis and thriller author Mark Sullivan.
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When and What to Write?
It is never too early to write a prequel.  You might write it even before starting to write your book, using your research, character outlines or your first draft manuscript. Often your novel has to be shortened to create a faster pace. Don’t delete these text parts! Create your prequel out of it. Or use locations where your novel takes place to elaborate and write in detail about it. For example:  If you write a thriller and your protagonist is an art dealer in Paris, you can write several prequels how and where in Paris your mystery unfolded, a comprehensive description of the main character and his dealings or a pre-story of the events.

No Limit on the Number of Prequels
The prequel can be one story or a dozen. However, it should be an irresistible preview of the book itself, short, but with a revealing scene from the draft manuscript of the novel, and a great teaser for the upcoming work. The author’s goal should be: to make the reader want more…
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Where to Publish a Prequel?
There is no limit how you publish a prequel. It could be a short story in the form of a magazine or website / blog article, a short (free or inexpensive) e-book or a guest blog, and even a video or slide show.  Most import is that you post it in as many venues as possible, including your Social Media sites. Even better are reader communities or forums, where people tend to spend more time, including sites, such as Google+, Wattpad and Goodreads or FictionPress, and send an invitation to load it down to your readers on your mailing list.
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Prequels are beneficial for you and your readers: Show off the quality of your forthcoming book, build pre-publication buzz and momentum and create back stories for the longer book to come. Don’t see prequels as a marketing gig, they are valuable parts of your author platform and brand.
Don’t forget:  Promotion of your book must start long before you finish your manuscript if you don’t want to loose sales and success!  Competition is growing by the day… Do what you as a writer likes most:  WRITE!  Not only 90.000-word-manuscripts, but also short stories and blog articles.

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing:  We offer all this and more for only $159 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about our individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Or visit http://www.e-book-pr.com/book-promo/
to advertise your new book, specials, your KDP Select Free Days or the new Kindle Countdown Deals.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 980 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, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
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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.

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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

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Author Brittany Geragotelis: Six-figure Publishing Deal

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Remember the blog post about Wattpad I wrote in January?  This Canadian book “forum” Wattpad has experienced explosive growth since its inception and has become the world’s most popular destination to upload and read e-books.

MacLeans Magazine now wrote about Wattpad: “Could Wattpad be the ‘killer app’ for aspiring writers? On Wattpad, anyone can write and get feedback—just ask Margaret Atwood”.

They explained that Brittany Geragotelis  was an aspiring author who had written six novels – all of them had been rejected by publishers. She worked as an editor at American Cheerleader magazine. In October of 2010, a digital venture from Toronto called Wattpad, asked her if she would promote the company in the magazine. She was a “big book nerd” and Wattpad—an interactive online forum where anyone can upload their own writing, and readers can read, comment on, and even contribute—was compelling. With nothing to lose, she wrote a novel and gave it away, one chapter at a time, for six months.

Within a week, the first chapter of “Life’s a Witch” had been read a couple of thousand times. By the time she finished writing and uploading the entire book, it had been read six million times. Half a year and 19 million reads later, Brittany Geragotelis had a new literary agent and a six-figure deal from Simon & Schuster.
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Wattpad has now 24 million visitors who spend about 2.2 billion minutes on the site each month and 6.5 million “stories”— in 24 different languages—have been uploaded. Recently bestseller author Margaret Atwood joint and published three new poems, Thriller Suite, on Wattpad.  Wattpad received more than US$17 million venture capital, some of that from Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang according to a MacLeans magazine article.  Have a look at this YouTube video to learn more about Wattpad in an interview with Ashleigh Gardner, who is the Head of Content at Wattpad.com the world’s largest platform for discovering, reading and sharing stories. Wattpad has 24 million users, the majority are readers, with only 10% authors. It’s not a publishing platform, more of a social network.
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Wattpad’s Numbers
Average session length is 30 mins, and 85% read via mobile devices. Serialization is a huge part of the platform, so you post chapters or new parts of the story. All the followers get push notifications to their phone when new parts are added, plus you can also email followers. Writers across their careers are writing on Wattpad. Established traditionally published authors, such as Margaret Atwood, as well as aspiring writers who are just expressing themselves. There have been book deals out of Wattpad, e.g. Beth Reekles, 17 year old who got a 3 book deal off her Wattpad success. It is a very popular site for teens 13-18, but 35% of the site is 18-30.  If you write YA, Young Adult or New Adult, you should be on Wattpad!  Romance and Sci-Fi communities are very large too. Urban fiction is a flourishing example. 

Calvin Reid from Publishers Weekly wrote: “YA Author with Huge Wattpad Fan Base Tries Self-Publishing” and “Swamped by Offers, Self-Pubbed YA Author Gets Agent and More”.

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars  Or visit http://www.e-book-pr.com/book-promo/ to
advertise your new book, specials, your KDP Select Free Days or the new Kindle Countdown Deals.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,030 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, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://www.111publishing.com
http://www.e-Book-PR.com/
http://www.international-ebooks.com/
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+
http://pinterest.com/111publishing/

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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

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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. Especially the many communities on these sites, often by book genre.  This way you can meet and be known by book reviewers, before you even pitch your book to them.

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 and 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 customized 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 for your books!  So, when did you write your last book review?

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46 Top Websites to Promote Your Book for FREE

Stand out Against Thousands of Books

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Added June 23, 2013:

Dear Reader:  This list of websites, which we compiled in March 2012, grew in the meantime to almost 100.  Please visit our two new blog posts with even more possibilities to announce your work for free:

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/11/03/50-web-links-to-let-your-book-go-viral/

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/11/04/part-2-45-more-websites-to-promote-your-book/

All three blog posts are officially copyright registered.  To link to our blog posts, and let your own readers know about these websites, please use the RE-BLOGGING link on top of this page.  Thanks!  Please learn about re-blogging here:
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/re-blogging-vs-copyright-infringement/

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Original Article from March 11, 2012:

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 are 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.

20. 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.

22. 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.

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

24. 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://www.ebookstage.com/authorAreaPage.xhtml

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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 shows up on many websites, visible to readers.

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Hyper Smash

 

Book Marketing on a Shoe String

The Internet offers a cornucopia of free and effective promotion tools for writers. They can achieve these marketing goals through online activities in a fun way, as most writers already like to hang out in cyberspace and blog away.

Join Book Communities
As an author it is a MUST to be a member of these communities and a free (other than your time) way to introduce your book(s) and show your book titles. Join Goodreads, Wattpad, Scribd, BookMoch or Shelfari. More on my blog about book communities and for direct links. Post snippets (or chapters) of your book to excite potential readers at Wattpad – see my blog about Wattpad: 15 million readers before the book was even published.

Use your signature
Never send out an email without your author’s signature. You have probably heard this advice before, but: do you use the gains of e-mail signatures to market and promote your books?
Every day you send out emails to friends, business colleagues, your lawyer or accountant, potential clients, potential readers … If you have an email signature, you are constantly sending people “passive” marketing, spreading the word about you, your brand and your books. Create your email signature right now!

Involve social networks.
Show up on Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Facebook and Linkedin (at least Google+ and one more of these). Click on “public” when posting on Google+ and your content will be immediately picked up by Google’s search engines. If you share interesting links (and your blog posts), and offer great free information, you will quickly become a favorite in these social networks. Your followers and connections on Social Media will later become your fan base, read and subscribe to your blog posts and newsletters and buy your books.

Comment on other blogs.
Take the time to find bloggers who write about topics similar to those you write about. When they have something good to say or you can add something to what they have written, leave a comment on their blog. Each time you do so, you leave behind a link to yourself, your website, or your blog. If people who read your comment find what you have written interesting, they will click on the link to find out more about you. They may then decide to become regular blog readers or subscribers, newsletter subscribers, or book buyers.

Start and maintain a blog yourself.
Blogs serve as the best tool for increasing online visibility as these are constantly updated and thus attractive for search engines. The more visible you, your book, your website, and your blog become, the more traffic (readers) your blog will attract. This means more buyers for your book now or when it is released. To create a successful blog, write about something you feel passionate about and do so often and consistently. That’s all it takes.

Contribute content to e-zine article directories.
Recycle parts of your blogged book manuscript or blog posts into short articles you can post in content farms or e-zine article directories, such as Ezinearticles.com, Amazines.com, Freezine-articles.com and many more. Often they have a resource box for a short bio and a link back to your website, book, blog, or subscription form. These articles are picked up by other bloggers, newsletter editors, e-zine editors, etc., and each time your resource box is featured. Readers click on your links to find out more about you, subscribe to your blog and newsletter or purchase your book. You can even use an e-zine article distribution services, such as http://www.submityourarticle.com, and get your articles distributed to hundreds of e-zine directories at once, making
it available to hundred thousands of new readers and possible book fans. Or you can really do it on a shoestring and create your own data bank of e- zines and submit your articles to them.
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Optimize your Amazon Page
What you can do to climb up to bestseller status:

– “autograph” Kindle books
– choose the best categories for your books and update them regularely
– add tags/keywords/subjects to your book listing for more exposure
– add lots of reviews, “About the Author” and additional information to your Amazon sales page
– get the most out of your Amazon Central account, create a brilliant authors page
– find out which part of your books your customers highlight the most on the Kindle and post it on your website or blog.
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No Money? No Problem!

Success in social media book marketing and with the tools described here, doesn’t require any financial investment. Depending on your level of involvement, it may demand a time commitment, at least in the beginning. Yet, as more you use these marketing tools, as faster you can handle them and as more visitors and buyers you will get.

 

Why Authors Should Join Book Communities

For authors it is a MUST to be a member of these communities and a free (other than your time) way to introduce your book(s) and show your book titles.

BookTalk: Here you will find an online reading group and a book discussion forum that can help you discover new books (yours?).

They write: “If you’re an author or publisher looking to promote your books we welcome you to use BookTalk.org as a tool to reach a vast audience of book lovers. We have a Google Page Rank of 5, over 14,000 members and close to 700,000 site views per month.

Our book discussion forums are free and open to anyone including authors and publishers. Create a free account and tell us 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. We will advertise your book on our Home page for 15 to 30 days and on our Featured Book Suggestions page permanently. Mail your books to the below address. Once we receive them you will see your books advertised within a few days. You don’t have to email us to ask if we want you to mail a few copies. Just ship them and wait for your ad to appear. The system works flawlessly and is easy for both of us.”

However, there are way more book communities:

Wattpad: Join the Wattpad community to read, vote and chat with readers and writers for free. If you are a writer but have not yet published a book, you may want to check out the writing section of your profile where you can post your writing for others to read and review.

Goodreads: The Goodreads Author Program is a completely free feature designed to help authors reach their target audience — passionate readers. This is the perfect place for new and established authors to promote their books. Use Goodreads also to get book recommendations for your own reading, keep track of what you’re reading, and socialize over books. 

Scribd: Find out what others are reading on Scribd.
BookMooch:  Exchange books with other members.
Shelfari: Build a virtual bookshelf, see what others are reading, and discover new books.
Reader2: You can find new books to read and put your reading list online with Reader2.
aNobii: You can create and find book lists within this reading community.
Listal: Here you can list, rate, and discover books and lots of other media.
WhatsOnMyBookshelf?: This site offers readers a way to trade books with a simple point system.
Revish: Read, review and share books with other Revish members.
KindleBoards: Authors are always welcome to post about their books in the Book Bazaar.

Book Communities are a great way to kick-start your online self promotion, and get involved with a community of like-minded individuals at the same time. However don’t join to only promote your book, but to discover what other authors write and recommend them. Give & Take!