Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

Hey Everyone,
So I've been wondering, where is a good place to promote your book and how exactly do you go about it? I mean aside from the obvious bookstores and coffee shops where else is there? I myself thought of this when my first book was published. I had a signing at a book store and flyers at a coffee shop across the shop but honestly where else is there a good place to promote ones book? I did a shopping plaza but the places were shoes and women's clothing stores along with a Old Navy, not exactly fitting in any way! So I'm curious, where are some places you've gone to promote your books and what did you do to promote?

Hi Justin. One thing I know for sure is don't bother with Facebook. It's full of people who want everything for nothing :p Cheers, Darrin :))

Hi Justin,
I would recommend contact your local radio stations and newspapers for advertisements. In addition, try to join some book clubs so that you can expose your book to other book lovers.

Have you created a website? In your website, display a sneak preview (a few sample chapters) of your work. Participating in a book giveaway could never hurt. And lastly, ask for reviewers to review your book. The more positive reviews you have on your book, the greater the chances your book will sell.

I hope this helped. I wish you the best!

Antonello Fiore

Darrin wrote: "Hi Justin. One thing I know for sure is don't bother with Facebook. It's full of people who want everything for nothing :p Cheers, Darrin :))"

That's funny because I use Facebook to befriend authors, and promote their books, all the time. Lol

Facebook has done wonders for my promotions. But then, my audience frequents social media.

I use Facebook, too, and it's enabled me to get to know other writers. :)

Social networks of all kinds are good if you don't come across as spammy.

I donated a few signed copies of my book to charities so that they could auction them. I didn't do it as a promotional excercise, but I found I had a significant jump in sales just after the auctions.

Hi Justin and Everyone

Marketing/Promoting can extremely diifficule & definitely is time consuming. I have a section on my web site, which also contains the original copy for all my blog posts, and I'd like to share the link with everyone here:


http://mypennameonly.webs.com/offline...

No, No, No. I know all about promoting online, Ive done this countless times and still do, The question is where in your towns can you go to physically promote your book? I know all about online, Physically where can you go to promote?

Mitsy wrote: "Darrin wrote: "Hi Justin. One thing I know for sure is don't bother with Facebook. It's full of people who want everything for nothing :p Cheers, Darrin :))"

That's funny because I use Facebook to..."

As do I and there is quite a community of authors on there willing to at least share your information with their friends. But alas it can be hit or miss.

Justin wrote: "No, No, No. I know all about promoting online, Ive done this countless times and still do, The question is where in your towns can you go to physically promote your book? I know all about online, P..."
I agree sign up for as many places locally where you can have a booth to promote your book. Word of mouth is power!

What if you live in a crap town that has next to nothing? This is my question, do Dunkin Donuts work? Libraries? What places work...

Then do your research and be willing to step out of your comfort zone and over into perhaps a town bustling with activity. Does the town have an annual craft fair or festival? Talk to local book stores see if they will take your book on consignment. See if you can do a reading there for shoppers. Same at local library see if you can do a reading there. Have business cards with your website and genre and start
Getting out there talking to people. Go grab a coffee and just strike up a conversation. You are your best chance at selling your novel. Leave them with your card. These are just a few ideas.

I don't have any physical locations such as bookstores to sell my books at and my local library wasn't too helpful for me either. All I got from them was I can donate a copy and if people check it out they may buy some copies but since no one yet knows me they aren't too likely to check it out.
But I have found the library in the next city to be extra helpful. They bought 4 copies for their library system even though I donated a copy to them, as well as allow me to sell my books during each of the 4 libraries book sales. On average I still only sell about 5 or 6 books but it's still better than selling nothing. So I would suggest if you haven't already, talking to whoever the head librarian is at your library to see if they will let you have some sort of event or time to sell books.
Aside from this I mostly attend vendor/craft shows. Although I don't always sell books during these events it has led to making connections in which I do sell books later on.
I also have a couple of local schools that would like to set up some kind of book signing and selling event but nothing has come of this yet.
So aside from libraries and local vendor/craft shows I haven't yet found many physical locations to sell books yet and there may not be any.

Festival booths? Make business cards and leave them around town (convenience stores, bulletin boards, etc.) Keep cards with you to pass out to people you meet. Make friends with your librarian, get him/her to talk about the great new local author. I don't have much in my town, but we do have a used book store that has a table featuring local authors...Talk to people about your book. Vistaprint will do colored postcards that you can put your book cover and info on to pass out to people.

E K, Facebook is fairly simple. You make your page, and word of mouth online slowly but surely generates likes to your page, I average 1-2 people every other day and over a week I get around 3-5 people liking my page just from simple talking here on GR and just basic talk.

Jennifer, I am glad I'm not the only one who has the same issues. Yeah aside from Libraries and book stores I can't think of any other place, I feel weird putting cards in places that aren't book oriented but I mean if anyone else has had success like Anne then I guess i could give it a shot. I just don't want to do like last time posting in a plaza with places that could care less. My library doesn't do much for local authors surprisingly enough, they have this no profit issue that prevents authors from promoting or something like that but the library in the town over maybe better.
How about restaurants? Any chance some would take cards? if so I need specific names. Coffee shops are always a plus but I have DD and not starbucks so blahh! How about the mall? Anyone think the mall would care to help a good cause?

I still have tons of business cards from my last book :/ I need to get rid of em. Vistaprint is excellent and I will definitely consider using them again for sure. I just wish I knew what to do with that last 100 cards I've been stuck with!

E K wrote: "What a great thread! I have a similar experience and facebook has been a total miss for me. Are the folks that have success with FB willing to share any tips? I've promoted via a page, my own profi..."

The most important thing with Facebook promotion seems to be to update daily (or more often if you can)... and don't just talk about your book! I have a slow, but steadily increasing fan-base (at 211 likes to-date). My posts range from "Name that Quote" to "Question of the Day" to various games (like the ones we play here on goodreads), as well as various updates about my adventures in writing.

Also, post pictures! Pictures of your book in a bookstore, on a library shelf, you at an event... or just anything interesting. People love seeing pictures (probably because it takes less time than reading a long post).

Be real. Express how excited you are when you sell a book, receive a review, or how discouraged you can get when it seems like nothing is happening quickly... but be careful, DON'T WHINE!!!!

Those are just a few tips. I think fb is a good tool, but that's all it is. There are definitely better ones out there.

Justin wrote: "Hey Everyone,
So I've been wondering, where is a good place to promote your book and how exactly do you go about it? I mean aside from the obvious bookstores and coffee shops where else is there? I..."

This totally depends on your genre/target audience... but since I write YA I've had a lot of luck promoting at high schools.

Libraries can often be very helpful. If you're unknown, you'll have to donate your book to them, but your book being available on library shelves is a great way to result in eventual sales. (Lots of people are like me: I don't usually buy a book I haven't already read...)

Justin wrote: "E K, Facebook is fairly simple. You make your page, and word of mouth online slowly but surely generates likes to your page, I average 1-2 people every other day and over a week I get around 3-5 pe..."

I was contemplating getting some cards made, maybe either business cards or small postcards and seeing if people will swap. I take say ten of yours, you take ten of mine and we go put them in local shops and such like.

Annoyingly I had a great template set up but I didn't use it and now it has gone and i can't get it to work again.

I am not sure how successful it would be but you never know. The problem I have is I don't drive and I don't actually go out much. Everyone I know already knows about the book and I am not the sort to simply go up to someone in the street and give out cards.

Justin wrote: "No, No, No. I know all about promoting online, Ive done this countless times and still do, The question is where in your towns can you go to physically promote your book? I know all about online, P..."

Someone suggested coffee shops and such like or supermarkets. Most let you put up postcards. Unless your genre is erotica (like mine) many places will.

Justin - I offer many book promotion and marketing methods on my website if that helps. http://florenceosmund.com/promoting_a...

E K wrote: "What a great thread! I have a similar experience and facebook has been a total miss for me. Are the folks that have success with FB willing to share any tips? I've promoted via a page, my own profi..."

On FB, try to keep the marketing down to a minimum. Fill your page with interesting or funny tidbits, and you will get FB fans. I operate my fanpage like I operate my personal page, but I'm just a little more uhm, ah, filtered on the fanpage.
Oh, and I try my best to respond to each and every fan that posts on my page or emails. Even when they speak a different language (Google translate is your friend). I think it makes a world of difference, and it is a great way to spread word of mouth when a fan says "Hey, check out this author, we chatted online."
Just my 2 cents, FWIW.

edited to add: I feel like a large amount of my sales come from FB, and I know for sure my website gets plenty of re-directs from FB. More so than goodreads, actually. Of course, I think I'm just not that Goodreads savvy. *shrug*

Curious, when you all are keeping your facebook author page, do you advertise it directly in any format? Or do you just allow it to spread organically via people liking it?

Florence wrote: "Justin - I offer many book promotion and marketing methods on my website if that helps. http://florenceosmund.com/promoting_a..."

Wow! Thank you for this amazing "to do" list!

*Dr S wrote: "Here’re some of my sites, where I promote. Hope it helps.
I am fan of pinterest.. Pinterest is my favorite place for fun and promotion.

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/drdln/
FaceBook: http://ww..."
Hello, I've just followed you on Twitter! Hope you'll follow me. @MargaretLynett1

Justin wrote: "Hey Everyone,
So I've been wondering, where is a good place to promote your book and how exactly do you go about it? I mean aside from the obvious bookstores and coffee shops where else is there? I..."

Justin, I know you said 'aside from the obvious bookstores,' but I wanted to share something that happened to me lately with a bookstore here in Denver. By the sounds of it, it's a bigger metro area than where you live, but you could consider checking into a bookstore in the nearest larger city (not sure where you're located.) Anyway, a large bookstore w/3 locations, The Tattered Cover (not national, but well known in CO) has something called the Rocky Mountain Authors Program, where you can submit your book for consideration to sell on consignment in their stores. In this case, the author has to be from CO or the book has to be about CO. My book happens to be sold through Ingrams, so they actually just added it as a regular sale book on their shelves, which is really lucky for me as I don't have to buy my own copies and hope they sell. They are now just carrying my book, something I never would have known was possible if I hadn't submitted it. You may want to look into something like that through bookstores in your area. I know it wasn't exactly what you were asking, but might be something to check into. One other marketing angle might be book clubs. A friend of mine is in a book club, and I offered to give them print books at my cost or free digital versions if they would be interested in selecting my book to read one month. They did, and though the month hasn't come yet where they're discussing my book, I actually sold about 12 copies of print books to them and have given away 4 digital copies. Hasn't made me any money (directly) but I know some of the books they bought were for family members or friends, so that's more than a dozen readers I wouldn't have had otherwise.

HTH~
*Angel

Caden wrote: "Curious, when you all are keeping your facebook author page, do you advertise it directly in any format? Or do you just allow it to spread organically via people liking it?"

I had a decent FB following on my personal page, so I started with a few invites there to my fanpage. I asked my good friends to share my fanpage, and that continues to generate new interest. I also have both my FB and Twitter listed on my author fanpage.
On message boards that I frequent, my FB & Twitter is linked at the bottom of my posts as a signature. I participate in many boards outside of the writing community, and I find I see a lot of new likes from that route.
Other than that, word of mouth. I'm not pushy about it. But chances are, when I'm out with my friends at a party or event, one of them will start telling everyone I'm a writer, and then I generate a bunch of new interest. I make great effort not to SPAM from my author page. I post occasional updates about my book, or news about upcoming books. I have posted a bit about the Amazon contest the book is in. But for the most part I just try to be the same old me.
www.facebook.com/ebbrownauthor

E.B. wrote: "Caden wrote: "Curious, when you all are keeping your facebook author page, do you advertise it directly in any format? Or do you just allow it to spread organically via people liking it?"

I had a ..."
This is really useful, thank you! My debut has just been published and I am trying to figure out new ways of spreading the word too!

Lisa wrote: "E.B. wrote: "Caden wrote: "Curious, when you all are keeping your facebook author page, do you advertise it directly in any format? Or do you just allow it to spread organically via people liking i..."
No prob, anytime :)

Victoria wrote: "Social networks of all kinds are good if you don't come across as spammy.

I donated a few signed copies of my book to charities so that they could auction them. I didn't do it as a promotional ec..."


Can you tell me how you went about donating your books to charities please.

Thanks

Lori x

Social media and online promotion are not at all worrying me nor do I have an issue with it. All you really have to do is post a thread about your work in groups on goodreads, offer giveaways, fb fanpage it and talk about it on any other groups your apart of.

Now promoting outside and in the real world? This I ask is how?? If you only have one small coffee shop does Dunkin Donuts allow book promotion? If so I could make a killing! Would Barnes and Noble be welcoming to a book signing with a self-pub author? And where else are good places or companies that are good.?

@Justin: this is what B&N says about author events in stores:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/help/cd...
http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/for_...

Once you wind your way through this, you'll find out that they'll want you to become a Vendor of Record, meaning you will handle the supply of books to the outlet, deal with returns, and so on. Basically, they would want you at their store only if they make money by it, and for that to happen, your title has to be in stock at that location.

I looked into the VOR program and decided it was far too much trouble just for the privilege of sitting at a table for four hours, telling people how to get to the bathroom.

Justin wrote: "Social media and online promotion are not at all worrying me nor do I have an issue with it. All you really have to do is post a thread about your work in groups on goodreads, offer giveaways, fb f..."

Justin, you do not need to become a Vendor of Record. I am a self-pubbed author and I did a booksigning with B&N this past November. What you WILL need to do is print your book through Lightning Source Ingram in order for B&N to look at you seriously and allow you to sell your books in their store.

Hi Justin. As someone said earlier, where you go really does depend heavily on your genre and target audience. We are taking our book "Which One Am I?" to college and highschool audiences, particularly Journalism and Psychology schools. You might also hit up English teachers. What you have to do is make sure to emphasize that the day you come in and talk with their class is one less day they have to prepare a class assignment.

There's loads of online sites (like mine)for promoting ebooks as well. Just do a keyword search and lists will come up.

There's a wealth of knowledge on this page! Thanks to everyone who's posted, I'm reading along and learning a lot. Unfortunately there's not much I can contribute personally, I'm still new at this and I've been at it a few months. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone :)

Honestly, I've found a lot of promotional opportunities here on Goodreads through the groups. Another suggestion I was just turned on to was Google Alerts. You can set them up for any item of interest and Google will email you with a list of what's online each day. I set them up for indie authors and the genres I write in (science fiction and mystery). You can go to http://www.google.com/alerts to set them up. That's a good way to get tips on upcoming online events that authors can participate in.

Sherri wrote: "Honestly, I've found a lot of promotional opportunities here on Goodreads through the groups. Another suggestion I was just turned on to was Google Alerts. You can set them up for any item of inter..."

Google Alerts is a great idea, Sherri! I just followed your advice and set up alerts to help me with my research for the novel I am currently working on as well. Great post! Thanks!

Mary Sumeridge: Beginnings
Hi I have tried the local papers and writing blogs and sending out information on the net but I must admit there are so many good books out there it is a readers paradise. I am just hoping my U Tube will help but who knows what is around the corner for any of us. I do hope you all have a lot of luck with your books and sell loads of them. If you get some free time, you might like too have a look at my U Tube and if you do, can you like it too? Thanks and the best of luck to the authors and good reading to the readers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgz_Zv...

http://flurriesofwords.blogspot.com/ and http://flurriesofwords.blogspot.co.uk/

:-)

Florence wrote: "Justin - I offer many book promotion and marketing methods on my website if that helps. http://florenceosmund.com/promoting_a..."

Florence, You've created a concise and helpful resource! Thank you!

I linked to it on my blog, in the following entry. The tag at the bottom of the entry leads to more writer resources.

http://duanesimolke.blogspot.com/2013...


Duane Simolke

I'd say to any author don't rely just on social networking sites to attract people to your books as not all of us reviewers go there. In the last 3 weeks I've read and reviewed 11 indie books, 6 short story/novellas and 4 finished from my own bookshelves but you won't find me on Facebook, Twitter etc as I have no interest in that kind of thing. I go through groups like this looking for books in genres I like being advertised by authors, then I decide based on blurb whether it interests me or not.

Fair enough:) I hang about on FB but it can get a bit annoying and as they have just changed it all again I now can't find anything:)

I use Facebook a lot and reach out to the local newspapers/radio stations!

My first motivational book is titled "Win No Matter What." It is composed of several inspirational stories and most book sale profits are going to Acumen, a charity investing in solutions to global poverty. You can buy the book here:

http://www.amazon.com/Win-No-Matter-W...

On social media you gotta keep it to a minimum. When you do post stuff post little things, it may be small but it might attract interest

Wow, so much great information and Florence -- thank you! Best list I've seen yet!! I'm just releasing my latest title, nonfiction, and I'm starting off my campaign with a GR giveaway. But last year I was promoting two of my fiction titles and I tried doing a number of street fairs and author events locally (San Diego area) because we have a good local authors' collective that allows us to share booths, reducing costs. Still, many events had few visitors and when all was said and done, the high cost of participation did not balance well with the number of books sold for any of us. I always came out even.

But as one author said, "You only need one reader -- the right one." Shortly after he said that, he appeared in an interview with Jay Leno, whatever venue he used right after Tonight Show. (I'm not a fan, so not sure where -- cable? -- although I did watch that interview.). Why did Leno choose my friend's book? Because of his SUBJECT MATTER. My author friend wrote about motorcycle racing; Leno is a fan of that sort of thing.

No has asked Justin what his subject matter is, or even fiction or nonfiction, but I'd like to know. That's the key to finding physical, local, hand-shaking type events and potential readers. Go where your readers are!

A lot of my readers live in the area I chose for my most successful street fair events (I write visionary fiction & nonfiction, aimed at spiritual Truthseekers; north San Diego county is a mecca for that sort of thing.) I'll be doing that fair again, simply because I enjoy meeting actual readers. Otherwise, I'm going to direct my efforts toward the right audience, meaning I'll be going wherever they congregate, participating in activities. In addition to all the FB, blog, GR, etc. efforts I'll be making.

Best wishes to you, Justin! And to the rest of us!

Oh - one more tip: I've sat next to many fledgling authors at those book events and watched how their attitudes repelled or attracted people. The same goes for your online demeanor. Cranky and frustrated? Repellant. Outgoing, happy, positive, and self-confident? Attractive. Giving away free cookies? (Cookbook author) Drew a crowd and lucky me, I was sitting next to her with my novels. :) Giving away bookmarks? Few wanted them because he was cranky and so was his book. 'nuff said.

Mitsy wrote: "Darrin wrote: "Hi Justin. One thing I know for sure is don't bother with Facebook. It's full of people who want everything for nothing :p Cheers, Darrin :))"

That's funny because I use Facebook to..."

I agree. I've gotten more out of Facebook from the authors I've met than from any previous friends or other people. The independent authors seem to be super cool and willing to help each other out. We're all clawing our way fighting the jungle of mainstream.

I was on Facebook for several years before my book was published so my account is not really geared toward promoting the book. Should I change the emphasis of my current account, open a new one centered around the writing, or what?

Lianne wrote: "Wow, so much great information and Florence -- thank you! Best list I've seen yet!! I'm just releasing my latest title, nonfiction, and I'm starting off my campaign with a GR giveaway. But last yea..."

Hey Lianne, Yeah Florence's site has a great source of information. I actually took some of the advice and am looking into seeing if I can use some of it to help promote. That's cool that you did street events, I'm not able to do such a thing cause I'm in a crap town. Fair and events are great ways to market.

I made this thread to ask people where they promote their books so it's for everyone but if you'd like to know, my book is a fictional Western Horror book, A Bloody Bloody Mess In the Wild Wild West. Given the content of what it's about there's not a lot of events I can take part in that pertain to the Wild West, if there is I haven't found them. But that's what it's about Lianne!

Your right, the best thing to do is to find an audience or the right audience and draw them in. Some simple stuff works but sometimes you need to think and go outside the box if possible.