eBook social media promotion

There is so much to say about using social media to promote books. In this post I want to point you to what I think are the 4 most important places to be, and the very basics about using them. I'll dig into more detail next week.

1. Goodreads: This is a book-lovers social media network. It's the largest, with 16 million+ users. Also, just last week Goodreads got acquired by Amazon. With 16 million + book lovers using Goodreads now part of Amazon, there will be many, many tie-in features to come.

• Create a "Goodreads Author" profile. You'll need to do this when your book is published.
• Join relevant forums. Don't post the link to your book, but do get active in the relevant forums so people who read those kinds of things are becoming aware of your name.
• Make sure the title and links to your books are in your bio.

2. Twitter: You may roll your eyes, but Twitter is a great social media resource. There are lots of bloggers and press, and the folks who are active on Twitter are active all over the place. It's a focused group of people who are looking for new, fast content to consume all the time.

• Don't offer your book for free in a twitter greeting Direct Message (DM). This comes off impersonal and tacky.
• Don't randomly tweet about your own free book with a link. People will ignore it. Instead, find services that do that, and ask people you've built relationships with already to share it for you.
• Do include the link in your bio. That way, if people like what you're talking about and read your profile, they can choose whether to click through.

3. Blogs: Get yourself guest posts, interviews and book reviews. A lot of authors are intimidated by this. It's putting yourself out there and it's a lot of work. It's also thrilling to see someone else write or talk about what you spent so long creating.

• Make a list of blogs in your genre, or blogs you like to read about books
• Figure out how to contact that blogger
• Send a short, sincere email asking if they will review your book, or if you could guest post on their blog about it.

Image courtesy of mdurwin2 via flickr