Excerpted from my chapter in AuthorsAccess’ upcoming book tentatively titled Authors Access: 50 Success Secrets for Authors and Publishers. My chapter is titled Successfully Selling Your Book Online.
In it, I list 10 (almost) free things you should be doing to sell your book online. I wanted to share them here as well.
5) Social networking sites: Social networking sites barely existed just a few years ago. But they have quickly become one of the best, “free-est”, most exciting ways to market your book online. Simply put, social networking sites aggregate people – many people – into online communities. The people in these communities are tied to each other into networks of relationships. These people share with each other information that they find interesting. Because they are all connected, this information can spread through large numbers of people very quickly.
The latest generation of sites don’t even require people to pass information along. It’s done automatically. Anything you add or post to your page will automatically be broadcast to all of your friends’ pages. With a click up a button, you can promote your book on hundreds of pages to be seen by thousands of viewers. This is very powerful.
The two biggest, of course, are facebook and myspace. Between the two, though its popularity seems to be waining, myspace offers the most opportunity for marketing your book directly to hundreds – ney, thousands – nay nay, tens of thousands – of potentially interested readers. While facebook protects its members from unwanted contact, myspace thrives on it. Instead of adding friends that you know, myspace encourages you to befriend every- and any-one you can get your hands on. This has led to online celebrity-hood by bands, authors, and… well, people… with a nack for connecting themselves to as many people as possible.
You can create a profile for your book itself, and start “inviting” freinds. The lit community has gotten pretty huge on myspace. In addition to creating a profile, you can blog, create forums to discuss the topic of your book, and invite folks to upcoming events and readings that you may have scheduled.
As opposed to the open free-for-all marketplace that myspace has become, facebook is far more stayed. However, its “friendships” seem to be far more meaningul and trusted. Additionally, it really allows you to penetrate the most important demographic for your book… I call it the “fanf” demographic. Freinds and Family.
Facebook allows you to, and believe me this will happen, find, be found by and get back in touch with ancient ghosts of friendships that you may not otherwise even have remembered. Old flames, high-school band class music-stand partners, and that weird girl you always thought was kinda cool in your community-college creative writing class all suddenly exist in real life again. Do you want to be in touch with these folks again? I don’t know. But when they see you are an author, they may just feel compelled to order your book.
And, as I have found, there are far more ghosts from your past than you probably know.
Now, right, so these are the two biggest social networking sites. But hundreds of smaller, niche-oriented sites are popping up all over. There is probably one somewhere that has something to do with the subject of your book. Look for them, join them, tune your profile, and start making friends.
Finally, don’t forget the author and self-publishing communities that are cropping up.
AthorsBookshop has many community functions built into it behind the bookstore, and I recently hilighted
The Book Marketers Network just two name two. And then there is the venerable
Authors Den.
It can take some of your precious time to keep up with even a few of these sites, but it can be worth it. It’s direct marketing, and it is free. Plus, millions are doing this without a book to sell. Why? Because it’s fun. So don’t be afraid… get social!
October 7th, 2008 at 5:02 PM
A couple others are Writer’s Cafe, which offers many contests (you can even host your own, I did with a copy of my book as a prize) and GoodReads which is set up for readers to share info and comments and reviews about what they’re reading, but if you’re an author, you can set up a special Author Page.