Six Ways to Promote a Book Online
The Internet is an Essential Marketing Tool for Authors
May 17, 2009
The Internet provides a variety of cost effective methods to promote books.
An internet presence is an important component of any book promotion plan. Many of the promotional opportunities are inexpensive, free, or only cost time. They can also be fun. Here are six ideas to aid authors in promoting books online.
- Website: A good starting point for online promotion for a book is the author’s website. Authors should set up a website and get used to maintaining it early in their career. A website creates a platform for the author to promote a book, list appearances, share news, and provide a biography. An author’s website should express professionalism and be updated on a regular basis. Authors with the time, the right software, and a limited budget can set up and maintain their own websites. Authors should register their names as a domain name early in their careers to protect the name. There are fees to register a domain name and to have the website hosted. The fees vary and the author should consider his/her needs before signing up with a host. Websites provide worldwide publicity twenty-four hours a day, three and sixty-five days a year.
- Blog: Authors who create a blog have a platform to express ideas and thoughts that contribute to the writing world. A blog with a theme creates a reason for visitors to visit often. A professional blog should tackle issues that are related to the author’s writing interests. The blog can be used to discuss the author’s point of view on topics. The author should be tactful and not overly personal. The blog provides the author with the opportunity to connect with other authors as well as potential readers; therefore, the author should never post anything they don’t want potential readers to know about them.
- Guest Blogging: Authors can embrace guest blogging in two ways. They can invite others to guest blog on their blogs and/or set up a blog tour guest blogging on other people’s blogs. Either way the blog content should fit the theme of the blog where the blog will appear. Guest blogging is a great way for authors to help other writers and draw attention to their work. Guest blogging only costs the author the time it takes to write the blog entry. The reward is the opportunity to showcase one’s writing talent to an interested audience.
- Social Groups: Social groups range from social network sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Shelfari to Yahoo Groups like Murder Must Advertise, The Literary World, and Crime Scene Writer. After joining, it is imperative that authors participate in the discussion. Asking questions, providing answers, and offering insight all increase an author’s visibility. Investigate the social network sites and participate in the activities most beneficial and interesting. These are places to reconnect with friends, colleagues, and former classmates as well as make new contacts. Authors should always be personable and approachable while maintaining their professionalism when participating in online groups.
- Get Listed: There are sites that specifically list authors and their websites. Sites such as Authors Den allow authors to list their particulars in an easily searched format. Organizations of which authors are members also often have a listing of members, member websites, and their books. Authors should take full advantage of these lists. Sites like Shelfari and Goodreads allow authors to list their books as well as books they’ve read providing potential readers a bit of insight into the author. Authors should also be sure to list their websites and books on any social networking site they join. Groups such as the Yahoo group, My Books Out, provide authors the opportunity to inform its members about the author’s available books. The goal of the listing is always to drive traffic to one’s website and to draw attention to one’s book.
- Email: Authors should be judicious in their use of emails for promotional purposes. They should only send promotional emails to those who’ve expressed an interest in receiving them. To do otherwise is SPAM. However, authors can create a signature line that includes their book’s title and their website. Signature lines shouldn’t be more than four lines and should be professional. With a signature line, every sent email becomes promotional.
Promoting a book online is time consuming but cost effective. Authors should take advantage of the vast array of opportunities the internet presents to promote books. For other book publicity tips, see my article, Six Easy Ways to Promote a Book.
The copyright of the article Six Ways to Promote a Book Online in Resources for Writers is owned by T. L. Cooper. Permission to republish Six Ways to Promote a Book Online in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
