Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Social Media Marketing - for Authors and Their Self-Published Books

How to Market Your Self-Published Books

The trick with self-publishing is to realize - as has been true all the time - authors do all the heavy-lifting in book sales. Your agent isn't manning that book table or giving speeches (even though they may take a split of the fees you earn) and your editor isn't out there pitching your book...
  1. Authors have always been the marketer - just like the band's job is just started when they finish recording an album, and then the endless touring starts to promote it.
    The consensus among successful authors is to connect with and build your fan base. In our social media days, this means finding where the reader-communities are holding court. Lulu has been in the printing business longer than most, and so has a bit to say about how self-published authors can promote their books. And Lulu is working to help as best they can - since they have a nice community right there:
  2. But what seems to be a huge, almost underground community is over there onWattpad. Millions of readers reading millions of words daily - and voting up their authors, as well as helping out with error-finding and a few well-earned "attaboy's" given out. But nearly impossible to find on Google, interestingly - which could mean that it's a buyer's market, not some SEO-enabled pitch-site.
  3. Next (or first) on this list is Goodreads. You can claim your author page for all the books you already have up online. And that means a nice profile with links to your site. As well, another place for reviews.
    So Goodreads and Wattpad are musts according to all the current buzz and statistics.
  4. But this isn't all there is - our "Novel Publicity VP" Ron W. Hart (of Novel Publicity & Co,) has a list of several more to check out.
    Library Thing:
  5. Shelfari - an Amazon offshoot which only does books on Amazon, apparently.
  6. GoodBookIdeas
    Check out our #Shelfari page? Follow us dld.bz/aHUbqand help us promote our hard working authors #PUB
  7. Melangie
    I finished reading The Greater Journey and wrote a review. shelfari.com/books/17937798....
  8. Searching on Google had a completely different set of sites come up -
    WeRead:
  9. Authors:
  10. Webook:
  11. Booktalk:
  12. Now the weirdest one, which is by reputation, but is almost impossible to find anything for authors here (except you can sell your PDF directly to their millions of readers). Scribd:
  13. dtyarbrough
    Read story #15 in The Explorers Club series ALL GOOD THINGS scribd.com/doc/35388310/A  …
  14. Summary - Goodreads and Wattpad seem the best place to invest most of your author-time "coins". As we are all publishing on Amazon, popping intoShelfari every now and then would be a smart one. And even though you are selling your epubs and hardcopy books there, it would be a smart deal to post your PDF's on Scribd as you go.
    -o0o-
    Daily self-promotional blurb: Here's all the social marketing I've done to date - but that's why I'm doing this research for both of us...
  15. ("Less" seems to fit with the sales I've been getting...)

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