Ways to Promote Your Books Online

Creating a press kit for your newly published book is a great first step to take in marketing your title to readers. Essentially, a press kit can be used to gather all different types of media related to your book in one place, available for download on your website.

Obviously the items included in a print press kit and a digital press kit will be somewhat different, so let's go over what you should include in your online kit!

Another great move for generating some publicity for your novel is to write and distribute a press release to announce your new publication.

If you're already a writer, this shouldn't be too difficult for you to do on your own. However, if you don't feel like press release writing is your forte, then there are a ton of great online services that you can hire to write one for your book. My personal recommendation is PRWeb because I had an outstanding experience with them.

I wrote my own press release, and purchased their $140 standard package for distribution. I was 110% satisfied with their service, it was rather impressive. As a result of using them to distribute my press release, I was contacted by radio shows and offered public speaking opportunities in New York City!

Listing a free book giveaway contest is an effective way to generate buzz about your new book! GoodReads is a huge and thriving online community of both readers and authors. It's an amazing resource for newly published authors, it's worth checking out even if you decide to pass on this particular idea.

But if you have an extra copy of your book lying around, you should really list a giveaway contest!

GoodReads chooses a winner based somewhat on their reading preferences, in order to match your book with a reader who is likely to enjoy it. You can specify the amount of time that the contest is accepting entries, and you are responsible for shipping the book to the winner when the contest has ended.

Even if you only have one book to give away, listing a contest on this site is a guaranteed way to make your way onto the "to-read" lists of many users on the site who have entered your contest.

As you probably already know, book reviews can really boost sales and spread awareness of your books. These can be priceless when trying to establish yourself as an author as well. Amazon user reviews are even quite powerful selling tools and testimonials as well.

If you'd like to explore the other possible reviewers out there, you may want to consider creating a pitch letter to send book bloggers who review self-published books in your specific genre. Be sure you do your research before contacting them, however. Always read the submission policies on their blogs before deciding to pitch them your book for a review.

If they do review your type of writing, send them a brief email explaining how you found them, who you are, what your book is about and end by offering to send them a free copy if they are interested in writing a review for it after they read it. Some will say yes, others will say no. Some won't respond at all.

But I've found that if you select your bloggers with care and spend a little extra time researching their preferences, there are many friendly individuals out there with a passion for reading and a desire to give honest and constructive feedback for your writing.

Always follow up a review form a blogger with a thank you email a couple of weeks after the review is posted.

• Create a Facebook Page for your book
  

• Create a Twitter account for your book
  

• Use LinkedIn to network with other professionals in your field
  

• Submit your website to StumbleUpon
  

• Digg articles about your book
  

• Use social bookmarking sites like Reddit
  

• List your blog on Technorati
  

• Start a book blog and create an RSS feed
  

• Create a book trailer and upload it to YouTube