Marketing For Dummies (and Indies)

indie [in-dee] 
noun 
1.  an independently owned business: to work for an indie. 

   a.    Indie literature, a book published outside of mainstream publishing 

   b.    Small press, a book or magazine publisher whose publications appeal to small, niche audiences, and are typically not distributed widely

2.  a book that has been published by a small independent company, other than the “Big Six” publishing companies in New York.


If you’re an Indie author, you know book marketing and promoting is largely or solely up to you. That can be a daunting task, but there are a lot of free online marketing tools, other than Twitter and Facebook, to help you promote your work. While every author should have a Facebook and Twitter account, there are plenty of other avenues to explore. And did I mention the F word? Yes, they are FREE.

I. Blogs

Blog interviews are free and are great exposure for you and your book. Search Alexa or blogrank for top book blogs. The catch? Most of the time the interviewer has to accept your request to be interviewed. A lot of the time their schedule is packed, and in some instances it may be months before your interview goes live, assuming they even answer your request. I’m not saying interviews are bad, because they’re not. They’re great. But there are other tools out there just waiting for you.

So what’s an author to do? Try these sites that offer free book promotion. I’ve compiled sites I’ve come across. Let me know if you have any to add to the list.

II. Indie Sites

1. Coalition of Independent Authors

This site is run by Sharon Kay Roberts and will post a listing of your book with the title and a small blurb for free. If you want to add your book cover, there is a $10 fee. Books are grouped according to genre.

Motto: Authors helping authors market their books.



What they say: 

Our goal is to serve the reading public by serving the independent authors. 
This site is primarily a shopping search engine that helps people find and compare books online. That sterile environment doesn’t appeal to me. At heart I am a small town country girl and I love the independent bookstores that reflect the interests and values of their owners. My desire is to create the atmosphere of the friendly, helpful neighborhood bookstore online. My parents instilled basic honesty in me, and I have an innate distrust of “politically correct” terms such as “visions and missions.” I do take strong pride in my personal values, and my objective is to promote independent authors~~like myself!
 Winner of 2012 Writer’s Digest 101 Best Writing Websites.

2. Indie Book Lounge

Indie Book Lounge lists your book for free with sales links, cover art, a book blurb, reviews, and author contact links. IBL offers interviews, articles, reviews, recommendations, and books listed by genre. Authors need to register at: http://www.indiebooklounge.com/Register.aspx and then submit their information to list their book.


Motto: The Hep Place To Discover New Writing Talent

What they say:
Every time a user selects a genre or enters a search term, the books are loaded into the results dataset randomly. This ensures that everyone's books have a chance at being on the first page and even first position. We do NOT sell position placement for book listings. With the number of books growing daily, this was the best way to ensure every author gets a fair shot at prime exposure.

3. IndieReader

Amy Edelman is the force behind IndieReader, a promotion/sales/webzine about self-published books. IR features interviews, reviews, advertising opportunities, feature articles and columns.

Motto: If you saw it here, you read it first.

What they say:

In its simplest sense, IndieReader is a venue for discriminating book-lovers to find and purchase books published by the people who wrote them...


IR was created to help adventurous book-lovers sort out the plethora of new indie titles and authors…a road map of sorts to help navigate the rocky terrain.
 One of the ways we do this is through the IR Discovery Awards (IRDAs). Another is via our new “IR Approved” sticker. All books that receive a 4-5 star IR book review automatically receive an “IR Approved” designation, making it easy for booksellers and book buyers to know that the title is reader-worthy.


Wish list: It would be nice if this site featured small press authors and not only self-published authors. It in fact defines Indie as “an author who has paid, in full or in part, to produce a book.” A lot of people might take issue with that definition. It would also be nice if it offered author or individual book pages.

Visit IR’s Facebook page: “IndieReader is an online bookstore for those who prefer their summer's hot, their scotch "up" and their books a little left of center.”

Or follow them on Twitter.

4. Book Promo Group and Book Promo Group2

Book Promo Group offers free book listings by genre. Authors can maintain their page with a book blurb, cover art, author bio, and contact & sales links. Book Promo Group grew so big, they started a sister site, Book Promo Group2.
What they say:

This is a website designed by authors to help readers find new and talented writers. Take a look around, all the author's pages have links to their sites and where the novels can be purchased.

5. Indie House Books 

IHB offers free book listings when you sign up for their free updates (on indie authors and books, occasional drawings and giveaways). They also offer more prominent promotions for a fee starting at $25. http://indiehousebooks.com/authors-corner/ 

Authors get a page with the title, book cover, book blurb, and author name. Readers can search this site for a particular book. The site also lists books by genre, displaying the cover and a small blurb in a list. A reader can click on your book cover, and they’ll be redirected to the same book page the search would produce.

Motto: A place for readers and writers to call home.

What they say:
Indie House Books is a site dedicated to connecting readers with talented indie authors. We feel there are a multitude of great indie authors out there who are not getting recognition by the readers due to the lack of exposure in a market geared toward mainstream authors.  We hope to introduce the readers to indie authors by providing a place where they can come to get acquainted with each other, find out about the great books available, and learn a little bit about the authors.

Wish list for IHB: sales links and author bio and contact links would be nice.

6. Ask David

AskDavid.com provides free book marketing, advertising, and promotion for free. They provide the most comprehensive book promo page I’ve seen. This site is different in that they require you to write a book blurb unique to their site. They feel by doing so, this increases search results to their site. You’re also able to write a much longer blurb than the standard one or two paragraphs.

What they say:
We offer free book promotion for authors. This is a great opportunity to reach new readers. This site promotes books and publishes reviews submitted by the community. In order to ensure high quality, all reviews are manually checked before they are published. Only reviews are accepted which cannot be found elsewhere on the web.

What AskDavid offers:
•    They will create a book promo page for each of your books. The page displays your name, author photo, your cover art, a book blurb (longer than usual,) category keywords, publisher, book review rating, one full review of your choosing, and links to all of your reviews on Amazon. Plus they provide a space for readers to post new reviews
•    They link to your website and social media sites and even post 3 x 2-inch thumbnails of them on your page. They also allow visitors to promote your page through Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest
•    They display your book trailer
•    They tweet about your book to their 5300 followers
•    They link to your book’s Amazon page

The catch? They ask that you tweet, post and Google+ about their site and also post a link to askdavid.com on your website. They also retain full control of the page, so if you want to add or delete anything, you have to contact them. But for what you get, these are catches I can live with.

7. Fresh Fiction 

Fresh Fiction features contests, reviews, columns, blog, author profiles, and more. Fill out their online form and they will list your name alphabetically. When a reader clicks on an author’s name, they’re redirected to a page with the author’s, picture, bio, book title, and link to the book trailer. When they click on the book title, they’re redirected to a page with all of the book’s information (publisher, pub date, page count, ISBN, EAN, Kindle, and price). The page also includes a book blurb (as long as you want) and displays the book cover. At the bottom of the page, a book trailer can be embedded. At the side is the Amazon thumbnail link to the book, along with the current Amazon price, as well as other online stores that carry the book and their buy links. If an author has published more than one book, it will list them on this page, with links.

Motto: A good read is just around the corner


What they say:
Fresh Fiction...for today’s reader is a web site for popular fiction with new titles, daily blog, contests, over 40,000 author profiles with backlists, and over 8,000 permanently archived reviews, plus all the industry buzz of interest to readers.

8. Wonderbookland 

Wonderbookland is a Boutique Book Club and Social Site created by Robert Coles in 2012. Despite its young age, it has attracted over 100,000 page views since the launch, and 15,000 in September alone. They list authors by genre, displaying the author’s name, bio, and picture on a biography page. Under a separate tab, they also list books by genre, displaying the title, cover art, book blurb, and sales links. Readers can add reviews to the page if they want.

You can also promote ebooks, book sites, and author blogs for FREE on their ad exchange network on their sister site. 

Motto: The Book Site for Readers by Authors

What they say:
Our aim is to spotlight new literary talent that is 'quirky', 'unique' and wonderfully 'free spirited.'
 Wonderbookland is a boutique book club and social site for book fans of all ages.

We aim to spotlight great new books and authors that often get lost in the haystack of listings on sites like Amazon or Smashwords. We do this in the hope that your next favourite author is a Wonderbookland author.


Created from the collective energies of a group of like-minded writers and artists, Wonderbookland offers a fabulous and eclectic mix of new books, something for every book lover: children, YA readers and adults alike. Additionally, we feature book reviews, author interviews and articles, writing competition and event news, publishing industry news, local bookshop and club directories, and much more.


Please note that membership to some areas of the site is required. This is free.


Benefits: 
All registered members to Wonderbookland can:

✔ Get free offers

✔ Upload books to your virtual book shelf

✔ Post to the News & Discussion forum

✔ Post adverts to the Offers & Services section

✔ Publish your short stories or poems 

✔ Make friends in the Community

✔ Hold discussions

✔ Join events
And more!

Visit Wonderbookland’s Facebook page

9. AuthorsDen

AuthorsDen invites authors to maintain their own free profile page on the site with an author picture, bio, and links to their website and/or blog. On the sidebar of that page, authors can post their cover art. When someone clicks on the book, they’re redirected to the book’s page, where authors can share their bio, books, articles, stories, blogs, poems, news, events, photos, attachments, videos, excerpts, keywords, link to bookstores, receive reviews, see stats and sales. Readers can also review or comment, add books to their library, and become a fan of an author.

10. The Books Debut 

The Books Debut showcases new books, featuring one book each day. They’ll display your title, cover art, book blurb, sales links, and also link to your Amazon author page. They list books by genre, so you can click on the genre you want to read, and scroll down the page to see what’s offered.

Motto: We are the Books Debut, bringing you only the hottest Indie books!

What they say:
Welcome to The Books Debut! We share great books and promote indie authors.

11. Front Row Lit 

Front Row Lit is a sister to Front Row Monthly. Run by Adam Hornyak, it also features one book per day, although they display a bit more: the cover art, title, book blurb, excerpt, author bio, and contact and sales links.

What they say:
Front Row Lit is always looking to offer free publicity to authors. If you're interested in submitting your work simply follow the guidelines found at http://frontrowlit.com/?page_id=503 and we'll do the rest.

The catch: There’s no search box or pages other than the home page. The posts are added, instead of replaced, so readers can scroll down to see more than one book on the page, and previous page buttons are at the bottom of the blog, but exposure is limited. 
FRL has over 10,000 Twitter followers, which would be great exposure, although as of this writing, tweets stopped in September.

12. Indie Author Anonymous

Indie Author Anonymous is another site that spotlights your book for one day. Run by an avid reader, this site posts your book with the title, your book blurb, cover art, and a review of your choice. Features offered are “Spotlight Book,” “Golden Review,” and “Free Kindle books.” To qualify for a free “Golden Review,” you must have at least ten reviews averaging 4 stars. The Golden Review of the Day is also emailed every night to the blog subscribers.


What they say:

This blog is dedicated to Indie or self-published writers. I am an AVID reader and I never knew there were so many awesome authors out there getting almost NO recognition! I am here for YOU! I know there are many many awesome writers, and I KNOW there are MANY readers who want to read your masterpieces! Having a link to send out that has no affiliation to YOU is indispensable. Promoting yourself gets old. With a promotion on this blog YOU can link to it for YEARS to come.

Contact AnnMarie to find out about her services that offer more prominent book promotions for a fee.  

The catch: This site is another that features one author per day, and then your 15-minutes of fame is over. But 15 minutes is 15 minutes.

13. Bookperk  

Authors can submit an idea for a book bundle, gift with purchase, sweepstakes, or contest related to their latest book launch, and Bookperk will promote it.

Motto: Insider access to the world of books.

What they say:
Bookperk is a site for all of us book lovers. For the first time, readers get access to exclusive merchandise and experiences from their favorite authors and books.

14. Red Room 

Red Room offers a free membership and a premium membership. To get the most perks, you have to pay the big bucks, of course. But a free membership will get you a page with an author picture, basic information and bio, links to social media, embedded book trailer, favorite books, and a few other things. I find the site a little confusing, and it doesn’t allow you to list your book if it’s not for sale on the site. But you can’t argue with free. How Red Room works.

Motto: Where the writers are

What they say:
Become a 'Red Room Author' and start promoting your books. Build up your author profile with books, audio, video, blog posts, and more—create your online home. Get a recent review featured on our homepage. Opt-in to Red Room Royalties and Red Room Relationships for each of your book titles so Red Room can share profits and customer data with you. Create custom thank-you notes that get automatically sent to readers when they buy your books on Red Room. Watch new customers get automatically added to your “Connections” as they purchase your books. Get checks in the mail—15% of your book sales—mailed to you by Red Room (in addition to what your publisher pays you). Buy yourself something pretty with the extra money. Do a book giveaway through our newsletter and reach thousands of new readers. Get a comment from one of your literary heroes and re-read it several times. Gather the email addresses of readers who want to be on your mailing list. Get an offer from an agent trying to steal you away from your current agent. Ask us to tweet about your upcoming reading. Have a hundred people show up for your reading and at least a dozen say they found you on Red Room.

Authors can sell their book(s) on the Author’s Bookstore. Red Room offers royalty payments that allow you to double or triple your income. They pay you 15% of your book sales in addition to what your publisher pays you.

The catch: You have to purchase a premium membership for $250 per year. Go here to learn more.

15. January magazine  

Okay, this one isn’t free, but I’m throwing it in anyway. January magazine is a literary e-zine that features news, interviews, reviews, and author links. They’ve been around since 1997 and tout themselves as being one of the leading voices about books on the Web. They offer authors help in promoting their websites. You can get listed along with the likes of James Lee Burke, Deepak Chopra, Michael Connelly, Nelson DeMille, Robert Fulghum, Emeril Lagasse, and J.K. Rowling, among others. Call me shallow, but I’ll pay $35 to be included alongside them. Their “author links” page lists authors alphabetically. Readers click on the author’s name and are redirected to their website.

The catch? Well, the thirty-five dollar fee. But see above. (She says with a sheepish smile.)


What they say:
The Author Links section gives authors an easy and inexpensive way to establish a permanent link to their personal Web site to help get that site in front of readers and search engines.

16. Author Marketing Club

Offers free author promotional tools. With a free account you can:

•    post a request for reviews in the forum
•    post your book cover in their gallery
•    submit your book trailer for others to check out 
•    submit your book to their Kindle update email list
•    participate in author guest post exchange and author tag exchange
•    connect with other authors
•    if you have a book going free on Amazon, list it and announce it for you. You can also use their page to submit to multiple sites to promote your free book promotion.

What they say:

There’s no question. The hardest part about becoming a successful author in today’s digital world is figuring out how to do the marketing. That’s because most people aren’t marketers, nor do they want to be.
But the fact remains that if you want to sell a lot of books you cannot ignore the marketing. At the Author Marketing Club, you will join a robust community of other authors who feel your pain, and who want to work together to help each other learn how to promote their books.

Oh yeah, and help each other promote each others books too! When you become an AMC member you will have access to the following:

•    A review request system where you can put your book in front of readers who want to read and review your book
•    A thriving community of authors willing to share their marketing tactics and lessons, and failures
•    Helpful advice and resources for new and experienced authors alike
•    Specials and offers for discounted services to help you publish your book
•    Much more 


17. Galley Cat

This site has a huge list of free sites to promote your ebook. Definitely worth a look.

18. Awesome Gang 

This site offers free book promotions for authors.
Facebook / Twitter / Google+

19. Black Caviar Book Club

This site offers free book promotion with writer billboards. Authors add information to their own web page on the site.

What they say:
Welcome to Black Caviar Book Shelf, the number one Kindle eBook source from the Amazon Kindle store. Our mission is to provide you easy access to a whole range of Kindle books, from Feature Best Selling, Most Wished For, to Brilliant Gift Ideas. We have over 37 different categories to choose from, with book blurbs and reviews, all at a click of a mouse. Support Black Caviar by purchasing your Kindle eBooks here..."And like The Kindle Fire, Spread the Word!"

20. Carolina Readers Guild

Authors can post their book information and start a discussion on it as well. They invite readers and writers to share great books.

What they say:
Carolina Readers Guild is a community for avid readers to interact with each other.  Also we encourage passionate independent and professional authors to share their works.

This website was established as an email list amongst readers and authors across the world.  We decided to form a website to communicate with each other, as well as to find like minded people to share and learn with.

Our community also calls upon readers, writers and publishers lead and inspire everyone to enjoy literature.

21. ReadWave

Motto: The World Is Made of Stories

Authors are encouraged to submit their short stories in the hopes of connecting with readers, who will like an author's work and seek out his or her books. ReadWave is a great site where readers can discover new authors and authors can build their readership.
 
What they say:
We believe that an amazing story can change your life - and that story can come from anyone - a well-known published author, or an unpublished and unknown writer. We created ReadWave to give all writers a place to share their stories and start building up a passionate readership.

22. Digital Book Today

Motto: Helping Book Lovers Find Authors In A Digital World

23. Addicted to eBooks 

Authors can post their eBooks for free. Readers find great deals on eBooks, along with how much violence, sexual content, and profanity is in a particular book.

What they say:
Addicted to eBooks is owned and operated by Victorine E. Lieske. I started this website to help readers find low cost eBooks.

I've always loved books, and the invention of the eReader was perfect for me. Now I can carry around all of my books in one little gadget. (I admit, I'm a gadget lover.) However, I quickly found out I could spend quite a bit of money on eBooks. This website is perfect for readers like me, who want to watch their book budget.

This website also allows the author to rate some of the content of their book. I want to know before I buy if a book, what is the level of profanity, violence or sex within it. I'm excited that authors can now rate their books for the readers.

24. The New Book Review

Authors, reviewers, and readers can submit their favorite reviews of their favorite books to this site. An added bonus is you may submit one review per month. This is good exposure, as the New Book Review was named to Online Universities' 101 Book Blogs You Need to Read. Follow Carolyn Howard-Johnson's guidelines when submitting.

What they say:
This review spot is NEW because it embodies the new idea that a book should not be judged by its cover or its press. If a reviewer thinks a book is great, The New Book Review lets readers know about it. Please submit your own favorite review. It makes no difference whether you're an author, reviewer or reader, I want to post your favorite reviews. See guidelines for submission on the left of this blog.

25. Indie Writer's Network

Check out their blog, The Indie Writer's Guide for writer tips, articles, support, and interviews.

Motto: Connecting Indie & Aspiring Writers Around The World

What they say:
The IndieWriteNet Mission
To offer a space where indie writers can:

1. Connect with other indie writers around the world
2. Share and discover the tools for publishing success
3. Establish themselves as professional writers
4. Inexpensively promote their work

To this end, IndieWriteNet offers a fully functional social network, over 25 genre and interest-based groups, three directories including Featured Books, Indie Authors, and Indie Author Services, and community sites where indie writers can share their expertise and experience as an indie writer.
We invite you to explore our network, join our community, and invite your friends. The larger our community, the more potential we’ll have for the sharing of good advice and friendships to last a lifetime.

26. Indies Unlimited

Motto: Independent Authors, Independent Readers, Independent Minds

This site celebrates independent authors with features such as: guest posts, interviews, reviews, writing challenges, sneak peeks, tips, and video trailers. I particularly like their Freebie Friday (list your free promotion days) or Thrifty Thursday (list your books under .99).

What they say:
It is the mission of Indies Unlimited to celebrate independent authors; to help them build their followings; to provide a platform for members of the independent author community to share and exchange ideas, knowledge, expertise and frustrations; and, for readers and reviewers to become exposed to the amazing depth and array of talent in the indie community.

27. AUTHORSdB

Motto: Great Readers Find Great Authors

On AUTHORSdB, authors can list themselves and their book(s) with a very easy and painless registration process. The site features Top 25 Authors list, contests, and they have an "Author Services" feature, where authors can find resources they may need in order to self-publish.
What they say:
List yourself as an Author 100% FREE
List your business that offers quality services to Authors 100% FREE
Enjoy the exposure from our comprehensive Promotional Programs for AUTHORS today!

28. BookGoodies

This site offers multiple ways for authors to promote their books through reviews, interviews, guest posts, features, and podcasts.

III. Amazon Tools

Amazon has several free marketing tools to help authors better market their books--some you may have heard of and some you may have not. Here’s the low down:

1. Amazon Author Central Page

If you don’t have an Amazon author page, get one. Amazon offers a free author page to any author with an ISBN and who has a book listed on Amazon. You can log on with your personal account, but you’ll need to register with Author Central for your author page. Start with setting up your profile page with your bio, a picture, your books, your book blurb, and your book trailer. The page will also list your book, with available formats and buy links. You can list review snippets, display your recent blog posts and twitter feed, and advertise upcoming events. You can even start discussions from your author page.
Author Central also gives you access to your sales information (using BookScan Data that supposedly charts all US sales), your rank (author and book), and your reviews.

2. Amazon So You’d Like To...Guides

So You’d Like To…Guides are pages you can tailor to your interests…or books. You can write about whatever you want and link an Amazon product (your book) to your guide. All you have to do is come up with a subject, give it a catchy title, and write about it. Suppose you’ve written a book about vampires. Your guide could be, “So You Want To Be A Vampire.” Write up a short, tongue-in-cheek guide on how to be a vampire, and link your book to it. You can write as little as the 100-word minimum and as much as the 5,000-word maximum, but if you write that much be careful your guide doesn’t exceed the 30,000 characters limit. You can even put up to 50 links in your guide, but this is one time you probably don’t want to mention your competition.

3. Amazon Listmania!

Amazon allows anyone with an account (i.e. purchase account, not author central page) to create lists of their favorite things. Authors can create lists to promote their work with bestselling books that are similar to theirs. The goal is to attract potential readers. Yes, the books in your list will technically be your competition, but readers use these lists to find out what to read next, so if your book is on a list with bestselling books, you’re attracting a wider audience. Cool, huh? You can create as many lists as you can think up. So get thinking.

4. Amazon keyword tags

What words would a reader use to find your book? What keywords does your competition use? Do a little research and then tweak your tags to make your book more discoverable. Add as many as you can think of and that are appropriate. Then get all your friends to agree with your tags by visiting your book page and clicking on each keyword box. Amazon uses a book’s popularity (sales) and how well the book matches the keywords (checks on keywords) to determine which products to display in the search results page and in what order. The more agreements you have with your keywords, the better chance you have of greater visibility, which could lead to sales.

 Note: Amazon may be doing away with these.

5. Amazon forums

Amazon forums are a great way to attract readers and become known. Hang out in the forums and start a discussion or join a discussion. Don’t forget to mention the title of your book. Don’t be obnoxious, but don’t be shy.

6. Amazon Marketplace

Amazon’s Marketplace is a third-party online storefront where you can sell your books. Drawbacks to Marketplace are: you have to be willing to have the inventory on hand, and you should ship out the orders within 1-2 business days. There’s no fee to list an item; you pay Amazon a fee when you sell a book.


Tips: It’s a good idea to set up your seller account with a name different from your author name. Even if you provide excellent service, there is always a possibility for negative feedback, which you don’t want associated with your book or you as an author. 
Set your price just below Amazon’s--you’ll draw readers looking for a deal.
 Offer autographed copies. Readers love autographed copies.

7. Search Inside The Book

Amazon’s Search Inside The Book is a great feature that lets the reader have a sneak peak at what’s inside. Buyers at a brick and mortar store get to leaf through the books before they buy, why not give an online buyer the same opportunity? Follow the step-by-step instructions provided on their site. 


IV. Virtual Bookshelves


There are several virtual bookshelf sites where you can spotlight your book. Belonging to all of them can get to be tedious and repetitive, but my philosophy is the more places you are, the more opportunities there are for people to find you.

1. Goodreads 

Goodreads is an online book community for authors and readers. Members maintain profile pages where they can share books in categories (read, are reading, or are planning to read) on their virtual bookshelves. You can follow friends to get recommendations of what to read. (Just like with Facebook, you friend-request to build your friend list.)

Goodreads allows authors to set up their own page to promote themselves and their book. In addition to the bookshelves, your page can include:

•    basic information about you (i.e. a bio, a blog feed, your book trailer)
•    reviews—both ones written by you (for other books) and ones written for your book
•    a list of groups you belong to on the site
•    your favorite authors
•    favorite quotes
•    your book(s)

Motto: Meet your next favorite book.

What they say:
Goodreads is the largest site for readers and book recommendations in the world. We have more than 12,000,000 members who have added more than 400,000,000 books to their shelves. A home for casual readers and bona-fide bookworms alike, Goodreads users recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they've read and would like to read, find their next favorite book, form book clubs and much more. Goodreads was launched in January 2007.

Are you an author or publisher? Gain access to a massive audience of more than 11 million book lovers. Goodreads is a great place to promote your books.


Goodreads goodies:

•    Giveaways: they recommend you host giveaways two weeks to a month long and do an author Q & A at the same time.
•    Quizzes: create a quiz about your book.
•    Join groups, make friends, talk about favorite authors, create bookshelves
•    Link your blog feed to your author page.
•    Reviews: rate and review books you’ve read, see reviews from other members.
•    Forums and groups: Join groups, post comments. There are a lot of groups specifically for promoting your book. You can also advertise for reviewers in some of the threads.
•    List your events: You never know who’s local.
•    Share your writing or a sample chapter from your book
•    Post your video
•    Recommend books to your friends: Go ahead, recommend your own book!
•    Add a Goodreads author widget to your website
•    Goodreads also offers paid promotion opportunities

2. LibraryThing   

LibraryThing is another social cataloging site for cataloging and sharing books. Like Goodreads, every user has a profile page that contains an overview of you and your library. You list your books and add books to your shelves. Authors can have a page with pictures and links to their website and social media sites. You can also design a page for your book with cover art, book details, reviews, descriptions, tags, and more.

The site offers:

•    groups
•    connections
•    recommendations
•    events
•    author chats
•    member giveaways program
•    book trivia

What they say:
LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. You can access your catalog from anywhere—even on your mobile phone. Because everyone catalogs together, LibraryThing also connects people with the same books, comes up with suggestions for what to read next, and so forth. 
A free account allows you to catalog up to 200 books. A paid account allows you to catalog any number of books. Paid personal accounts cost $10 for a year or $25 for a lifetime.

3. Shelfari  

One more online social cataloging website for the book community is Shelfari. Create an author page with a virtual bookshelf, join groups, contribute to discussions, read reviews, get recommendations from friends, and create your book page. Through Shelfari, Amazon supposedly allows authors to add information (book extras) about their books and characters and import it to your Author Central book page. I say supposedly, because for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to import the information. I’ve contacted folks at Shelfari and Amazon numerous times to see why I can’t link the pages, but they’re not responsive. If anyone has a suggestion, I’m listening.

What they say:

An Amazon owned company, Shelfari.com is the place for book lovers to connect with friends, catalog their library and discover new books. Shelfari is a community-powered encyclopedia for book lovers. Create a virtual bookshelf, discover new books, connect with friends and learn more about your favorite books – all for free.

Follow Shelfari on Twitter


V. Social Networking


Online social book sites are popping up everywhere. They’re there. Why not have a page?

1. Google+

Google+ is Google’s social network. Your home page is similar to your profile page on Facebook. Every time you post something new and +1 it, it will appear in your feed. You can also see what people in your circles have posted. The more you +1, the more your name and thumbnail appear in the feed, and the more they appear in the feed, the more people see you, and that may lead to book sales. Google+ isn’t just for authors, but it will give authors more exposure and chances to promote their books.

Google+ motto: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web.

Google+ goodies:

•    Profile page: design your own.
•    Blog posts: lists your blog posts when you hit “share.”
•    Photos: Picasa.com is owned by Google, so any picture you upload to your albums on Picasa automatically show on your Google+ profile.
•    Videos: you can upload your book trailer or other videos.
•    +1’s: you know all those places you see the +1 buttons? Every time you click one, it shows up here.
•    Circles: add people to your circles: friends, family, acquaintances, or following (people you don’t know personally but find interesting.)
•    Hangout: invite friends to free video chat, anytime, anywhere.
•    Other: make pages, play games, find local places—rate & review your favorites, list or find events.

2. About.me  

About.me is a personal web hosting service that lets you build your own page that will attract visitors, tell them about you, and direct them to your content around the web. You can be creative and make your page your own. It can be as splashy or as plain as you want it to be.

What they say:

About.me is a free service that lets you create a beautiful one-page website that’s all about you.

Upload a photo, write a short bio and connect your favorite websites to show the world the big picture of you. We've focused on enabling you to: Create your own personal page. Quickly build a personal and dynamic page that points visitors to your content from around the web. Have fun with the numbers. Understand how many people see your page, where they're coming from, and what they do on your page.

Why get an about.me page when you already have your own website? Why not? It’s free, and it gives your followers one more way to find you.
Cool perk:
You can get free business cards and connect your online page to your offline business cards. You pay shipping ($5.50) and you get a business card with a QR code that links to your about.me page. People can scan the code and immediately find your about.me page on their phone. You can download your own images to design your card and personalize it.

3. Tumblr

Depending on who you are, Tumbler can mean different things. For authors, it means you can post and read book reviews. Just another way to get you and your book out there.

Motto: Follow the world’s creators

What they say:

Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos from your browser, phone, desktop, email or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors to your theme's HTML.

4. Facebook

Everybody knows about Facebook, but a list about promoting your book wouldn’t be complete without it. Community pages and groups for authors are another good way to connect with readers and other authors. Below are just a few of the many community pages that you can join to promote your work and get to know readers and other authors:

Read My Book! Facebook page  
The Write Stuff Facebook page
Book Promotion Facebook page
Authors To Watch Facebook page
Just Released Books To Talk About Facebook page
Ready To Read Facebook page

Websites that offer free book promo pages are especially helpful for Indie authors, and many set themselves apart by having Indie in their title.

5. Twitter


Another site everyone knows about, but do authors take advantage of it? You don’t have to tweet a lot, but if the name of the game is getting your name out there, the more you tweet the more they know you. Follow readers. Find out who readers are by searching on hashtags such as (duh) #readers or #books. Use your imagination. I once saw a tweet where someone was actually asking what book they should read next. Hello! Follow authors and writers, too. They’ll have their own followers, who might retweet something and give you more exposure. They’ll tell their followers, who will tell their followers, who will...and authors are readers too. Plus, you can peruse their follower list for people you might want to follow. Tweet about links, helpful tips, articles you saw that were good…the sky’s the limit. You’re a writer—use your imagination.

6. Stumbleupon 

Share websites, photos, videos, articles. Get recommendations based on your interests.

What they say:
StumbleUpon is the easiest way to find cool new websites, videos, photos and images from across the Web. We make the best recommendations just for you.

7. Pinterest

Pin photos on theme-based boards. Authors can create boards for their books and pin pictures to illustrate and promote their work. The Pinterest button can also be embedded into a website so people can pin the content and spread the word to their followers.

What they say:
Pinterest is an online pinboard. Organize and share things you love.

VI. Book Trailer Sites

If you have a book trailer there are a lot of sites that will post it for free:



1.    Dailymotion 
2.    sevenload  
3.    YouTube  
4.    Chick Lit Trailer Park 
5.    Kendincos  
6.    Book Trailer Central Community 
7.    Frequency 
8.    A Blue Million Books Trailer Park

VII. Helpful sites

1.    Google analytics Website tracking

2.    StatCounter Website tracking

3.    Tweetreach  How far did your tweet travel?

4.    2EPUB  Free online ePub converter allows you to convert
      pdf, doc and other types of documents & ebooks to
      ePub format, mobi, and more

5.    Hootsuite  Enhanced social media management

6.    Social Mention  Real time social media search and
      analysis

7.    Row Feeder Social media monitoring and analysis

8.    Ow.y.com http://ow.ly/url/shorten-url Shorten urls,
      share files and track visits.

9.    TweetChat TweetChat helps put your blinders on to the
      Twitter-sphere while you monitor and chat about one
      topic. Choosing a hashtag directs you to a TweetChat
      room.

10.   Klout Discover and be recognized for how you influence the world.

11.   Writing A Synopsis For A Novel: Excellent How to article.

12.   StoryToolz "Resources for authors." Word count meters, story idea generator,
       readability, cliche buster. Thanks for the tip, Tricia Drammeh!

13.   Bestseller Labs, by Jonathan Gunson. Practical advice on how to get published and
       grow your readership.

14.   A Newbie's Guide to Publishing by Joe Konrath. Interesting points about theself-
        publishing world and how to sell books.

15.   How to Self-Publish by Leti Del Mar. A step-by-step tutorial for self-publishers.

VIII. Book Review sites and lists

Below are some sites to look at to find possible reviewers.

1. Ottinger’s Book review Blog list 
2. Step-By-Step Self-Publishing reviewer list
3. Book Review Blogs
4. Readers Favorite Book Reviews and Award Contests
5. Book Blogger Directory

Tip: When asking for a review or interview, unless it’s stated differently on the blog, include the following in your request:

•    Book Title
•    Author’s name
•    Your website
•    Length of book
•    Release date
•    Book Format
•    Genre
•    Publisher
•    Book trailer link
•    A short description of the book
•    A short author’s bio


I'll add to this list whenever I find another great source to pass along. Please leave comments and let me know which sites you recommend. In the meantime, get out there and market those books!