Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by KK Brees on April 25, 2012 at 1:42pm

I'll also be interested in what other writers have found. It seems that after a while you are getting the same audience over and over again and they all tend to be other writers, not necessarily readers. So the burning question is, "Who reads the blogs for book tours? Writers or readers?" Now I know writers are readers but...

Permalink Reply by Shay Olivarria on April 25, 2012 at 5:24pm

Hi Jackie,

Have you signed up for www.Goodreads.com? You can do a promotional book giveaway for a specific time for FREE. The site will  promote it (and you can too) to readers. I thought about doing a blog tour, but I couldn't find the value in it. I would suggest:

Sign up for Goodreads.com - it's a community of readers. There are loads of good promotional tools and googobs of readers that will talk about your book.

Setting up a Facebook page - post things about your book, things about the characters and things that relate to the general topic of the book.

Sign up for HARO.com - get story pitches from newspapers, magazines, etc. sent to your inbox three times a day. Reply to the ones that are a good fit for you. Get free promotion.

Get reviews on Amazon.com - The more reviews you have the more people will purchase your book. The more purchases you have the more Amazon will push the book for you. Many readers on Goodreads will also post a review on Amazon.com.

Exhaust as many free resources as you can to help build an audience before you choose to pay. Good luck!

PEACE,

Shay Olivarria

Financial Education Speaker & Author

www.BiggerThanYourBlock.com

Permalink Reply by Jackie Bouchard on April 25, 2012 at 5:37pm

Thanks very much Shay for the advice. I'm leaning towards not doing the blog tour so appreciate the input.

I'm doing 3 of the 4 already that you suggest. Will check out HARO.

For Goodreads, it's my understanding that they only do the promo book giveaway for hard-copy books, but I could be wrong.

All the best and thanks again,

Jackie

Permalink Reply by Maria Daddino on April 26, 2012 at 1:23pm

Hi Jackie,

My book is a paperback and I just did a give-a-way on Goodreads. If this helps, almost 400 readers entered my giveaway. Less than half put it on their "to read" shelves. I set the time for the giveaway at 3 weeks - it should have been longer, I think. I also gave away 10 copies - that could have been less. Of the ten copies that I gave away, I received two nice reviews and for that I felt it was worth it.  I still may get another review or two out of it and that would be great. I would definitely do it again for my next book.

Permalink Reply by KK Brees on April 26, 2012 at 1:30pm

This is great. Thanks for all the good advice.

Permalink Reply by Jackie Bouchard on April 26, 2012 at 3:13pm

Thanks Maria for the giveaway advice! Getting 2 nice reviews out of it (and potentially more) definitely sounds like it's worth giving away a few books.

I checked Goodreads again and they won't do giveaways for e-books, but I can always organize one on my own via my blog.

Thanks for the input and best of luck to you!

Permalink Reply by Maria Daddino on April 26, 2012 at 4:01pm

Have you tried Smashwords? All they sell are ebooks and I believe they do giveaways too ... I'm not sure how it works ... I just put my ebook on their site ... they also have specials that they promote where you can give coupons away for half-price (or whatever price you set).

Permalink Reply by Jackie Bouchard on April 27, 2012 at 1:49pm

Yes, I do have my ebook on Smashwords and saw that you can do coupons or freebies via them.

I think I saw something today about them helping promote your book if you do a freebie on a Friday thing. Need to look into that more.

Thanks for the reminder to look into that again.

Permalink Reply by KK Brees on April 26, 2012 at 7:58am

Sylvia, when I go to HARO.com or haro.com for that matter, I get a flooring company. Help!

Permalink Reply by Jackie Bouchard on April 26, 2012 at 9:59am

I googled "HARO news" and found this - http://www.helpareporter.com/

HARO = help a reporter I guess.

This looks like it would be a great resource for non-fiction authors.

Permalink Reply by KK Brees on April 26, 2012 at 11:50am

Ah ha!

Permalink Reply by Shay Olivarria on April 26, 2012 at 3:53pm

Sorry about that. I have the address saved on my computer. It's also great for fiction writers because there are journalists, radio hosts, etc. looking to interview interesting women. I was in Redbook (with a full page photo. They sent a hair/make-up photo team to my house!) and Ebony because of HARO. No,the articles weren't about my work, but it helped to get my face out there and it mentioned my work in the article. Sign up and take a look. You might be surprised at what you find.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page