Publicity for Writers & Authors
Ranked #358 in Books, Poetry & Writing, #17,539 overall
Free and Paid Publicity for Authors
Are you a first time writer or author looking to spread the word about your recent book? The resources included in this lens are a great place to start. Exploring both your paid and free options online will increase visibility, book sales, recognition, interest from the media and press and will overall help to get you more exposure as an author.
Social Profiles for Authors
These sites allow authors to create free profiles and book listings.
- Author's Den
This site allows authors to create profiles for themselves and their published works. The site design is less than impressive, but the site claims to get 1,400,000+ visitors per month. So for the sake of visibility alone it is worth taking a few minutes to create a profile. Free accounts get 7 pages to share their titles, bio, blog, events and other writing-related items. The site is ad-supported, and there are multiple pricing plans available to upgrade your account.
- GoodReads
This is a well-designed, attractive website that allows users to create very professional looking author profiles, complete with a listing of titles and focuses on the sharing/social aspect of the web by letting other users add books to their virtual shelves, as well as write reviews and submit ratings. If you haven't published your book yet, they also have a cool option for holding a book giveaway contest. You must ship the books to the winners, who are selected by GoodReads based on members most likely to be interested in your title.
- LibraryThing
This site is great for cataloging your book collection, but it is also useful for writers since they allow you to create an author profile as well. In order to do this, you have to send an email to their admin requesting that your username be displayed as an author, and this will create a separate profile for you. This is great for adding all the technical info and details of your book, they have fields for characters, important places, biography, agents, education, occupations, links and more! Like a wikipedia for books almost. Also has a certain social element to it.
- Amazon's Author Central
"The Author Page on Amazon.com provides a handy place for customers to learn about you. Helping customers get to know you is an effective way to introduce them to-or better educate them about-your books. On the Author Page, we display essential information about authors-including bibliographies, biographies, author photos, and even feeds to blog posts."
Marketing & Promoting Your Book
Use Social Media Outreach to Promote Your Books
Tips for Promoting Your Book Using Social Sites
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Hopefully you have already created a Twitter account and a Facebook Page, since these are both no-brainers
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Without being overly self-promotional (since that's a big turn off to your fans and followers), only occasionally post items related to your books and any recent publicity
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Create a LinkedIn profile to establish yourself as the expert and author that you are. There are tons of valuable networking opportunities available on this site, which allow you to build meaningful relationships with other professionals.
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Make sure that your email signature includes: your full name, title (author, etc), location, phone number, website link AND links to ALL of your social media profiles. Associate your name with your online identity, so that people will remember who you are and will recognize your books more easily. Branding is essential to successful social media management.
Social Media Marketing
Book Marketing With Social Media
- Five LinkedIn Groups For eBook Readers - eBookNewser
Five LinkedIn Groups For eBook Readers
- 9 Ways to Use Social Media to Launch a Book | Social Media Examiner
How to use social media to promote the launch of a book or product and get your online network to help make your promotion go viral.
- Book Marketing: 7 Steps to Monetize Your Social Networking
Most people want to know what do first, second, third, and the rest... These steps are based on my seminars, books and my own Social Media successes that
- 5 Book Websites That Give You Sample Chapters To Read Online
5 Book Websites That Give You Sample Chapters To Read Online
- 4 Sites For The Aspiring Author & The First Book He Wants To Publish Or Sell
- Read free books online - make book, upload, share & publish book
BookRix %uFFFD The book community that connects authors and readers. Read and discuss free books online. Create, upload and share own books. Find new readers and get feedback.
- Myebook - get it out there!
- eBooks made simple - Wobook.com
Digital Magazines, ebooks and virtual catalogues: transform automatically your PDF files into a wobook for free.
- BookieJar Beta
BookieJar - Read, publish, promote, connect.
High-Quality Resource for Author Publicity!
Publishize: How to Quickly and Affordably Self-Publish a Book That Promotes Your Expertise (The Logical Guides)
Amazon Price: $24.95 (as of 06/04/2012)
List Price: $24.95
Track Your Books & Sales
- RankTracer Amazon sales market research | Amazon sales rank tracking
The world's premiere Amazon sales analytics & market research service. Socially integrated sales analytics for less than $1 per month.
- Sales Rank Tracking for Author Book Sales on Amazon | NovelRank
Free Amazon Sales Rank tracker for tracking book sales on all Amazon domains. No login required, no ads, no costs, charts, rss feeds and more.
- Track New Book - New book notification by author, seed sook, subject, or keyword
A free new book tracking and notification service by which you can track new book by author, seed book, 400+ subjects, or keywords of your choice. You can also fine tune your new book tracking by language, format (i.e. only Kindle book), and how often notification is delivered.
- 5 Websites That Alert Book Lovers About New Book Releases
5 Websites That Alert Book Lovers About New Book Releases
Press & News Releases for Books
Writing a press or news release for your book may also be worth considering. Obviously you're a writer, so you shouldn't have too much trouble with that part.
Use a service like PRWeb to distribute your release. Their standard package is only $140 and includes distribution to thousands of media organizations, submission to Yahoo and Google News, tons of feed headline impressions for your release title, keyword and search term tracking and full analytics for your release for four weeks.
That's an entire month of closely monitoring how many people are reading, printing and emailing news about your book to others!
I Need a Killer Press Release--Now What???:
A Guide to Online PR
Unless you are experienced with writing press releases, I would suggest you do some homework on how to optimize them for search engines.
What good is an awesome press release if no one can find it?
I suggest using a free tool offered by HubSpot called Press Release Grader. This is an outstanding resource that will critique your release based on search engine optimization factors such as keywords and linking, as well as proper press release formatting.
Huge Amount of Info for a Great Value!
The Step-by-Step Guide to Self-Publishing for Profit! Start Your Own Home-Based Publishing Company and Publish Your Non-Fiction Book with CreateSpace and Amazon
Amazon Price: (as of 06/04/2012)
List Price: $3.99
Pitch the Media to Get Interviews and Publicity for Your Book
Use a service like PRMatchpoint to create a campaign for your book. After you've spent some time thoughtfully putting this together, perform a search on their site for keywords related to your book's topic.
It will give you a list of reporters and even bloggers who have recently covered similar subjects and may be interested in what you have to say. This gives you an opportunity to plug your book, obviously. Do your best to pitch only those who you really think might want to hear about your book, based on your searching and investigating.
Personalize EVERY pitch you send to anyone in the media.
Pitch Tip
One of the most important things you must do to engage members of the media is to tie your topic into current events. This gives you a point of reference when contacting a reporter, since they are most interested in what people are talking about and wanting to read
Interview Opportunities
- RadioGuestList
For radio interviews, try RadioGuestList where you can sign up for free email notifications whenever the host of a radio show or online podcast posts a request for guests. This is a handy little tool with lots of new opportunities showing up each day.
- ArtistFirst
Another site worth checking out is ArtistFirst. They do a weekly show called Author's First, which features mostly independent authors for an hour long interview. While the service is not free, they accept a minimum donation of $10, which is relatively reasonable.
- Self-Publishing Review
Self-Publishing Review | Home
Radio & Podcast Interviews
Helpful Tips & Suggestions
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Try to use a landline for all phone interviews, and avoid any background noise whenever possible.
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Always send a thank you email or letter to follow up with any interview. Sending a signed copy of your book to the host of the show is also a nice gesture, though not required.
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Before you have a radio/phone interview, request an mp3 copy of the recording for your own website.
Get Reviews for Your Book From Bloggers, Readers and Fans
Amazon customer reviews are excellent testimonials for your book's value. Ratings and reviews have a significant impact on whether or not potential customers decide to buy your book or pass it up. Always encourage readers and fans to share their thoughts and reactions to your book by posting them as an Amazon review.
You may consider offering freebies like exclusive promotional downloads (i.e. ebook guide) to customers who post reviews.
Also, check out my blog post where I talk about my experience with 5 different eBook review sites for self-published authors.
- ManicReaders
This site is somewhat similar to the last one mentioned, since it allows authors to create profile pages with bios and also book pages with relevant info for each title. But the neat thing about this site is that you can submit your books to their "review depot" to request a book review from their list of participating sites. Although they don't guarantee that it will be reviewed, you have a good chance of capturing someone's interest if your title and description are interesting. Mine was reviewed probably a couple months after I submitted it for review. So far, I've only been reviewed by Manic Readers, actually. They gave my book 3 1/2 stars out of 5. They also have several upgrade pricing plans for paid membership.
- LLBookReview
"The LLBR was created in March 2008 as a service to Lulu authors who were seeking out honest and positive reviews of their work. In March 2009, the LLBR branched out to include authors of CreateSpace, Wordclay, and Outskirts Press. Today, we proudly consider any self-published book for review no matter who you published with. We also provide news and opinions related to the print on demand industry as a whole."
- Literary R&R
Great blog and book review site willing to consider self-published authors and their titles.
- ArmchairInterviews
"Launched on January 25, 2005, we were all about books. Reading them, talking about them, recommending them to our book clubs, reviewing them, and interviewing the authors who wrote them. Our philosophy has always been to accept and review good books, whether they're from giant publishers or self-published authors."
- IndieReader
Self-Published Books Review, News, and More
- Book Reviews - read, review, share at Revish!
Revish, book reviews for the masses. Read, review and share your favourite books.
- Reader's Favorite
Book Reviews and Award Contest - Book Reviews
- 1000 + Books to Read
Book review blog.
- Mind Fog Reviews
Book review blog.
- The WM Review Connection
Review blog that reviews ebooks.
- The Contemporary Reader
Book review blog.
- The Authors Speak
Book reviews.
- FutureBook
Book blogger and reviewer listing
- Midwest Book Review
MBR: Our site hosts monthly book review e-zines for public use, as well as articles of advice, tips, tricks, and techniques for writers, publishers, publicists, reviewers, and book lovers!
- Book Blogger Directory | The Big Blog of Book Blogs
Book Blogger Directory
- Reviewer List - Step-By-Step Self-Publishing
- Book Reviews - read, review, share at Revish!
Revish, book reviews for the masses. Read, review and share your favourite books.
Create a Press/Media Kit for Your Book
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A press kit is essentially very much the same as a campaign. It is a collection of promotional material related to your book, which is sent to the media and all other individuals who you pitch your title to.
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For digital press and media kits, the following should be included: book preview/sample, cover art, author photo, fact sheet, past media coverage, recent interviews, an author biography, a brief one page synopsis of your book, publisher details (including ISBN, publication date, etc.), any free promotional content being offered as a freebie with your book, editorial reviews and related materials.
Publish Your Blog
- Zinepal | Online eBook Creator
Use Zinepal to create eBooks from online content or read eBooks created by others. Zinepal can make eBooks in PDF, ePub, Kindle and Mobipocket formats. You can select content from blogs, websites and Atom/RSS feeds. Print your eBook as a PDF, read it on your eBook reader or share it with your friend
- Paper.li - Be a publisher
Turn Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds into online newspapers in just a few clicks.
- simplebooklet.com
- Blog2Print - Print your Blog. Save your Blog. Love your Blog Book.
Blog2Print gives blog owners and authors the ability to print their blog, turning it into a professionally-printed book. Bloggers can also use the Blog2Print widget to enable sales of your blog as a book, sold directly from your site. Write, and post, and earn money!
- Blog Publishing for the Kindle eReader
Search for book bloggers
Always read their submission guidelines from their blog before you consider contacting them!
Read this blog post to learn more about pitching book bloggers.
Build an Email List With an Online Newsletter
Email marketing has been successful for countless authors, so it's definitely worth exploring. If you don't have the cash for paid services, start out with something more basic that allows you to casually experiment with the whole process.
TinyLetter is a free, no-frills newsletter service that lets you compose updates for your subscribers and send them off, simple as that. They also provide you with a subscription sign-up page and if you already have a list of subscribers, you can import them to your account.
More Ideas
- List a Book Giveaway on GoodReads
Another great idea is to hold a free book giveaway to your fans and interested readers. GoodReads allows authors to list book giveaways, along with countless other sites for book lovers.
- EZineArticles
Promote your book by creating content for article marketing sites like EZineArticles, which allows you to submit writing in your area of expertise. Take advantage of their author's resource box, where you can place a link to your website/book and give background information on yourself.
- How To Create Quizzes that Sell Your Book
One way to entice potential book buyers is to provide helpful, useful information and provide it in a format that is both fun and interactive. "Quiz" your prospects! Get their input. Then use this input to create a link between the information you are providing and the book you have to sel
- Using Cross Promotions To Save Money And Sell Books
Author Marketing Experts, Inc.
- Using SquidLit to Promote Your Self-Published eBook
Find a Literary Agent
- AgentQuery :: Find the Agent Who Will Find You a Publisher
- Free Database of Literary Agents and Publishers - QueryTracker.net
Free Database of Literary Agents and Publishers - Query Letter Statistics - QueryTracker.net
- Find a Literary Agent Online with AgentInbox
Craft the perfect query letter, find a literary agent, and submit your book proposal at WEbook's AgentInbox.
Sign Your eBooks
- Kindlegraph
Personalized digital inscriptions available for more than 7500 books from 1700 authors.
- Autography
Autograpy is more than just a book title page autograph - it's a unique personalized, branded page that you can sign to anyone from anywhere. Can't make the NJ book signings? Now you can sign books for your fans in NJ or anywhere from any location. Using Autography is easy: simply buy ebooks online,
Book Marketing & Promotion Blogs
- The Savvy Book Marketer
Book marketing blog packed with free book marketing tips and resources for promoting your book.
- Author Tech Tips | Marketing Tips to Sell Books Through Social Media
Step by step guides & simple answers for writers who need help with blogging, twitter and online book promotion.
- Marketing Your Book for Self-Publishers and Indie Authors - The Book Designer
Marketing Your Book for Self-Publishers and Indie Authors
- Promote your book on Amazon.com | Selfpub.info
The best place to promote your book is Amazon.com, the leading online book retailer. Amazon.com has innovative ways of getting connected with the audience
- "Look Inside" for Kindle Books - 3 Tips for Authors
Password Inccorect Blog
- Indie Books Blog
Gorgeous Writing Journals
Handmade Notebook - small Scrabble notebook | Price: $10
This small size handmade notebook has been made from a vintage Scrabble game board. Inside are 100 pages (200 sides) of blank white 80gsm paper.
T... (full description)
Horse Lovers Recycled Journal - The Ranch Girls at Boarding School - A Premium One of a Kind Handmade Vintage Journal or Sketchbook | Price: $42
The Ranch Girls at Boarding School - A one of a kind, premium handmade journal reincarnated with care from a slightly shabby antique girls' novel!... (full description)
Painted Desert - handbound hardcover sketchbook/journal | Price: $0
Handbound sketchbook/journal
Sized 15,5 x 11 cm
Cover made of linen bookcloth handdyed in exciting shades of rusty orange and light blue/turquoise... (full description)
New York City - Recycled Retro Vintage Journal - I Like the City - Handmade Vintage Journal or Sketchbook | Price: $0
A fun, one of a kind, premium handmade journal reincarnated with care from a slightly shabby children's library book all about New York City. (Th... (full description)
Rose & Leather, Cross Stitched Ephemera Journal | Price: $39
The covers of this journal have been made from upcycled materials, including scrap board and pretty floral fabric. It is bound with waxed linen bookb... (full description)
Book Promotion Services
- BOOKWHIRL.com - Affordable book marketing services.
Book marketing services provider for self-published authors, with affordable book marketing campaigns designed by highly-qualified marketing consultants.
- Odyl | Odyl helps authors and publishers connect with readers on Facebook.
Odyl helps authors and publishers connect with readers on Facebook.
- CoverCake
Leading social media monitoring & analytics solutions for the book industry
- BookieJar
BookieJar - Read, publish, promote, connect.
- BuzzReads
Great Writing That's Fresh, New & Free!
- Create stories using social media - storify.com
Create stories using social media. Turn what people post on social media into compelling stories. Collect the best photos, video, tweets and more to publish them as simple, beautiful stories that can be embedded anywhere.
- Self-Publishing Review
- BookRiff
Riffs are remixes of published books, essays, magazine articles, and even your own content.
- Book marketing tips and book promotion ideas from book promotion expert John Kremer
Book marketing and book promotion tips for book authors, book publishers, self-publishing authors, and e-book publishers who want to sell more books
- Quips and Tips for Successful (and Aspiring!) Writers
Tips range from making money writing to coping with rejection letters. Quips from famous published authors. What else do writers need?
- World's Biggest Free Book-Winning Site
Win Hundreds of exceptional books (including best-sellers!) Learn how to get free prizes on fReado. Earn points by playing a simple game and win books of your choice. Also win a brand new Kindle as a Grand Prize absolutely free.
- Author Marketing Club - Free Book Marketing Resources & Tools For Authors
A new forum for independent authors seeking to publicize and promote their eBooks. Kindle authors can request book reviews, exchange product tags with other forum members, schedule notifications to be sent out when their book will be offered at a discount or for free on Amazon, and even find guest posting opportunities.
- BookTango
A new independent publishing service for eBook authors that allows them to edit their ebooks on the go using a mobile publisher app.
Self-Publishing Success Guide
Find Your Next Book
Book Search Sites
- Leatherbound
No more searching the Kindle, Nook, and iBook stores to find the eBook you want at the price you want. Search once with Leatherbound.
- ShelfLuv - Builds a Bookshelf as You Type
ShelfLuv - Builds a Bookshelf as You Type Tweet
- Bookflavor - Taste, Review, and Buy Books
Welcome to Bookflavor. Here you can rate books you have read or find new books recommended by your friends.You can leave anonymous ratings or reviews as a guest, but if you create an account you will be able to save bo
- The Greatest Books: The Best Books of All Time - 1 to 50
The Top 50 greatest fiction books of all time determined by 43 lists and articles from various critics, authors and experts.
- OnRead.com - instant free e-book download. Read books online via this free e-book library. Become a literary critic and write your own review to any book.
Download and read free e-books at OnRead.com - the best online ebook storage. Each book is available in several versions: .rtf, .txt, .pdf, .epub, .PalmDOC, .FB2, playable on various media devices. Become a literary critic and write your own review to any book.
- BookLikes
BookLikes - discover new books, share your book likes, discuss & review.
- epubBooks: Free EPUB eBooks
Download free high quality epub eBooks for use on your iPad, Sony Reader, iPhone, Kobo, Nook, BeBook, Desktop Computer and other eBook Readers.
- Litfy - All the free e-books you can muster
Read all the novels you want, anytime, anywhere, on any device, for free.
- MindTheBook.com - every book answers a question
- What Should I Read Next?
Enter a book you like and the site will analyse our database of real readers' favorite books (more than 80,000 different titles so far, and more than a million reader recommendations) to provide book recommendations and suggestions for what to read next. (You can register for free
- YourNextRead: Book Recommendations (USA)
YourNextRead recommends your next book. YourNextRead provides a book recommendation system showing aggregated book reviews, updated by real peoples opinions, in a simple visual map, helping you to decide 'What Should I Read Next?'. Perfect for both bookworms and casual readers!
- Find Your Next Book, What Book Should I Read, Book Recommendations
Bookyap offers books of all genres. We have lists of best sellers to books you've never heard of. Come to us for your recommendations. Check us out today!
- Find Free Kindle Books – Fevered Mutterings
- Feedbooks | Free eBooks for Android & iPhone/iPad
Discover thousands of eBooks, including new releases and the best collection of free public domain and original books, that you can read on any mobile device.
Loan & Borrow eBooks
- kindlend . Lend and Borrow Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook Books Freely
- Lendink Loan and Borrow eBooks for the Kindle and Nook for Free
Loan and share your lendable eBooks for your Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook for Free.
- BookLending.com - Borrow and Lend Kindle Books for Free
BookLending.com - Borrow and Lend Kindle Books for Free
- Lendle: Kindle%u2122 Book Lending, Borrowing, & Sharing
Lendle is the easiest, fastest, fairest, and best way to lend and borrow Kindle%u2122 books.
More Great Information for Authors
Comments
Share your experiences and suggest additional resources.
Your comments, experiences and feedback are welcomed.
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keepingscore
Jun 1, 2012 @ 5:32 pm | delete
- Lots of great information, yet a large number of the links are broken. Might be time for a remodel.
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thegirlnextfloor
Jun 2, 2012 @ 3:20 pm | delete
- Hi there, thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I recently moved my site over to Wordpress and so that's why some of the links to my own blog posts were broken. I have fixed the ones that have been moved over to the new site and removed the link for the entries I have yet to move. I hope this helps the user experience when checking out the resources I listed on this lens.
Thanks again for the tip!
-Ashly
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TateFisher May 30, 2012 @ 8:01 am | delete
- Great work, Girlnextfloor. You sure put a ton of good stuff into this. Thanks so much! I'm bookmarking for future reference.
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Water Damage
Apr 19, 2012 @ 2:03 am | delete
- Nice blog here I really appreciated with it.Great information about publicity for writers and authors.And I think people may like it.
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thatgrrl
Apr 1, 2012 @ 2:07 pm | delete
- I don't trust LinkedIn, they use your email address to spam everyone on your address book. You don't have to add friends to LinkedIn for them to grab everyone out of your web mail account. Pretty unethical I think. I deleted my account and they still kept using my email. Sending email to everyone as if I had personally sent it to everyone. Which I had not done. I had to email LinkedIn a few times and demand they stop using my email and fully delete my account.
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