How to Leverage Social Media

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Statistics have proven how important social media networks are for a business:

• 8 out of 10 internet users are reached by social media sites and blogs.
• 87% of small businesses claim that social media has helped their business.
• Marketers saw an increase of 74% in website traffic after devoting just 6 hours per week in social media.
• 85% of business-decision makers believe that at least having one social media channel is very important for technology purchase decisionsHowever, there’s much more to just creating a Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest account and expecting success to follow writes the Search-Engine-Journal. Understand which platforms work best for your brand and where your audience spends most of their time. Don’t forget Goodreads, where readers are searching actively for interesting books!

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Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

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More info about Social Media Networks and how to use them:

6 Social Media Sites that are Important for Writers
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/6-social-media-sites-essential-for-writers/

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Brands with great GooglePlus pages
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/10/18/10-brands-with-great-google-plus-pages/

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Social Media Facts 
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/01/17/20-social-media-facts-and-statistics-you-should-know-in-2014/

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How to Get More Followers
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/how-to-get-more-followers-on-your-social-media-sites/

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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 1,100 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.
Thanks a lot for following:

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http://www.111publishing.com
http://www.e-Book-PR.com/

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Did You Know? e-Book Giveaways

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e-Book Givaways !!!
If you’re an independently published author, then book giveaways are a powerful way to get a lot of exposure – and your book in the hands of new readers, who might even write reviews.  We wrote several times about Goodreads Giveaways, here is one example of a Giveaway … Peter Standish Evans thriller OMINOUS: BORDERS: COFFEE: 
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On the other hand: Goodreads only allows print books as Giveaways. If you offer only e-books: there are ways to print a handful of books, once you have an ISBN. However, there are some competitors to Goodreads, who offer e-Book Giveaways for members, such as:

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BookLikes
In terms of features and functionality, BookLikes is similar to GoodReads. Of course, they don’t have nearly the traffic that Goodreads does, so you should not expect similar results if you have done a book giveaway there in the past. If GoodReads allowed e-Book giveaways, they would be almost perfect in my mind. But since they don’t, sites such as BookLikes are another alternative for authors who don’t publish print books.
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To list your book giveaway on BookLikes, sign up for a free account and click on the giveaways link when you are logged in. On the next page, there should be a tab at the top of the page in the main navigation that says “Create Your Giveaway.”
You will be asked for the same info as the other sites in the form on the following page.  Their rules seem to have been almost copied directly from Goodreads, as they appear to be identical.
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The only real (and great!) difference is, that you can choose to pick the winners of the giveaway yourself and BookLikes allows e-books!

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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! Learn more about this 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 960 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/

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Use the Dog Days of Summer to Meet Readers

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Nova Scotia South Shore Beaches

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July and August are not the best months for book sales – at least not compared to November and December. Quite a few authors are feeling the summer slump. Author Marla Madison wrote a great blog post about it and gave seven useful tips, how you can overcome the Dog Days of summer.
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Starting with “Take a break without guilt.” to “Try something new to market your writing.” and five more ideas, how you can improve your writing and develop plans for fall. Read the whole article and all the comments here.
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Today I received an email from a client who worried about dwindling book sales and lower rankings on Amazon. My suggestion: “Don’t stress yourself with rankings and sales – what is needed first, is a wide and strong basis in terms of establishing quality connections with readers and – very important – potential reviewers. It is much easier to receive reviews from someone you “know”, such as “real” people – or through solid Social Media connections.
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Social Networks
Authors need more followers, especially READERS (not fellow writers) on all Social Media sites. I am talking about at least 2,000 on each of these sites! Those who do not follow, even when you re-tweet them, un-follow after one month. Un-following 25 people per days is free. See Just Unfollow.
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On Goodreads for example, it’s even more easy: you can load Facebook, Twitter and Google+ followers over to Goodreads with one click. No matter which campaign you create – Book Giveaways on Goodreads or free KDP days on Amazon – it is crucial to have lots of followers first, who know you and will help you to let your message go viral.
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I just read recently an article by a publicist “Are you ready for publicity?” who does not accept any customer who has not at least 5,000 followers on all Social Media sites.

Do you use Hootsuite.com?  Or any other site to automate part of scheduling tweets, thank you notes, welcome new followers etc.? This frees up time to interact personally with more of your followers.
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Reader Communities / Groups
There are quite a few communities / groups on Google+ and on Goodreads, where you can make connections and later! offer reviews of THEIR books – you might get the favor later reciprocated.

Let’s assume you are the author of children books, you could join these GOOGLE+ Communities:

• Children’s book lovers – Google+ http://bit.ly/17NMxho
• Books for EDUCATIONAL learning – Google+ http://bit.ly/13pUC7w
• Readers Meet Authors And Bloggers – Google+ http://bit.ly/13S37g1

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How to find Goodreads Groups:

Click on the link Groups, on top of the site.
Type into the search function: children or young readers for example, and there are hundreds of pages!!! with groups to join, such as these:

• http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/188-children-s-books
• http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/109753-matching-kids-to-books
• http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/71883-great-middle-grade-reads

Write and then copy/paste a friendly introduction and even include a link to your website or blog. You don’t need to spend so much time on these groups, just a nice introduction and from time to time peaking in, or exchange some thoughts and see what people are talking about.
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To invite more friends on Goodreads:
click on Explore (top right), you will see “People”, click on it, then you will see:

“Meet People”
top users
top readers
top reviewers
most popular reviewers
best reviews
online now
most followed

Invite from these sections people to follow or friend.
You can send out 25 invitations a day according to Goodreads, which means per month 750 invitations! And each one is just a click! If only half of them follow, this means more than 300 new reader friends per month. However, usually 95% become followers/friends on Goodreads, when you invite them.
Once you have more than 1000 followers/friends you can relax and just sit back, as people come to YOU! I get about 20-30 friend-offers from Goodreads every week, sometimes lots more and don’t have to look for new followers anymore. You can just choose and pick : )

Being busy during the slow summer months, working on your author platform gives you an advantage for your higher book sales in fall and winter. That’s happening for sure, when days are getting shorter and people are more at home, reading. and the holidays are rolling in.
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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 815 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 to StumpleUpon.

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12 Reasons to Get the Help of a Mentor

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12 Reasons

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Writing a book and then promoting it, are two different things… Don’t forget: Writing is an art – publishing a business!  You are a very talented author who has written a fantastic book, or even several – but the publishing / promoting process is an adventure and it can take up quite some of your valuable writing time. So it is smart to get professional help, especially when it is so easy and inexpensive, and when you can learn a lot about publishing and publicizing your future books. 

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12 Main Reasons to Choose our Valuable Book Marketing Help:

1. Introduction of your book on dozens of Google+ reader communities with a 60,000+ audience
2. Unlimited book marketing consultations by email for up to three months
3. Unlimited social media help for up to three months
4. Three hours of one-on-one Book Marketing Online Seminar phone-consultations
5. Instructions / checklist / links for you to use for your book promotions
6. Advertising of your book on free days /promotions with Amazon KDP to 315.000+ readers
7. Blog posts including cover image/author bio/book description on both, blog & our websites
8. Author interview on our blog website – this article stays there forever!
9. “Book of the Month” recommendation to more than 3,200 readers on Goodreads etc.
10. Book ads several times/week for 3 months on all sites to more than 600.000+ readers
11. Free e-book for you: “Book Marketing on a Shoestring” launch Summer 2013
12. Plus one surprise gift we will reveal once you signed up!
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We certainly customize our Book Publishing and Marketing Support
directly to your book and your needs!
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What former clients say:

• “Thank you so much. You are amazing, so helpful to all of us who are starting down the road of self publishing. I just printed that blog post off this morning and will start to act on it today. You are an inspiration. Thanks again for everything.”
• “Your advice all along the way has been so very valuable to help me make those important decisions, thank you so much for that”
• “Boy, you really provide a service. If you ever need a reference, count me in. Anything I can do to promote you back. You rock.”
• “I am so happy with 111Publishing for helping me out. If ANYONE is self-publishing a book I highly recommend using her for consulting. Thank you Doris for saving me $3700

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And this is how it works:
It all starts with our purchase of your book and then an evaluation of your book’s sales page, your social media presence and your marketing activities so far. We will explain you the benefits of various steps in building the platform for you as an author and how you can establish a brand without incurring extra cost, such as expensive ads or how to avoid costly POD’s.
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Take advantage of our professional help, we have studied business, marketing and e-publishing and have 30 years publishing experience. We customize coaching to your needs and explain you:

• researching your possible competition & popularity of genres/positioning
• how to identify your target readers & plan your blog content & marketing strategies
• how to find lots of readers, book bloggers & reviewers
• the publishing and retail possibilities
• all the pre-publishing book marketing steps
• how you can establish a brand as a writer
• blogging & posting of your articles to Twitter, Google+, Goodreads, Tumblr, Chime.in…
• how to save a lot of time using social media sites for reader contacts
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You just wanted to write – and upload your book to Amazon, Kobo or Barnes&Noble, expecting that it becomes an instant hit. And now a new challenge comes up: book promotion.

Sign up today to take advantage of this limited offer for only a bit more than a dollar / per day (= $179 for 3 months):   http://www.111Publishing.com/seminars

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Our blog has had now 615,000 readers/visitors and 1,200 subscribers. On Twitter we have more than 40.000 followers on two accounts, in our Google+ circles & communities are 60,000+ people. On Goodreads we have 3.200 friends, not to mention Pinterest, Tumblr, StumpleUpon, Facebook with two accounts, 111Publishing.com  website… and some more … Why do we list all this? To show you how much visibility your book(s) can get when we help you to built a community/network platform and a brand for you as an author. We show your book constantly on all these sites!
Articles about your book, your author interview etc. will appear on two websites, one of them belongs to the 9% most visited sites in the USA, according to Alexa.com web ranking!

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Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 785 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks a lot for following:

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

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Hidden Gems at Goodreads

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks a lot for following:

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

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

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2 Basic Rules To Follow for Your Books Success

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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6 Social Media Sites, Essential for Writers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://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 https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com, and on Twitter, Google+, Chime.in, Facebook, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, FavStar, Goodreads and on http://www.111Publishing.com.

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

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How to Add Friends (Readers) on Goodreads

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

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

Gmail

Hotmail

Facebook

Twitter

yahoo

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Friends of friends

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

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 Friends > Requests

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

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

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

Meet People

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

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

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

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

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

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

Follow us on Twitter: @111publishing

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

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7 Great Features for Authors on Goodreads

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

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

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How Can Goodreads Help Your Book Take-Off?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

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

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MEAN: A Psychological Thriller

MEAN by Renata F. Carcelos

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

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

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

Available at Goodreads, Kobo, Amazon…

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

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

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

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

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