A good book reviewer is worth their weight in ink to authors in need of creating an online presense. They are doing a great service, reading a book and then writing about their experience. Some reviewers are gaining large followings using giveaways and other promotions to bring readers to their blogs.
I found Kathy and her blog; I’m a Readers not a Writer on Twitter @toobusyreading. At her review blog she offers lots of giveaways to her readers. I asked her how she started.
“When I first started doing giveaways I offered books I had read for giveaway and sent them out myself. I got everything I read from the library or borrowed from friends.
Once my blog had grown I started contacting smaller publishers asking to review their books. I would offer those for giveaway once I’d read them. Then authors started coming to me offering their book for review and/or giveaway. I then started contacting authors and asking them if they would like to have their book reviewed or do an interview & giveaway on my blog.
Books are coming at me faster than I can read them. I wish I could read them all. Even reading 250 books in a year I don’t put a dent in what I wish I could read.”
That’s a lot of books and a lot of work for a stay at home mom who confesses to reading one book every 1 ½ days.
But does she feel giving away books makes the authors’ time spent at her blog as successful?
“I’ve never really thought of giveaways as being successful or not successful. If I help an author by exposing their book to new readers who are interested in reading it I would say that is a success. If a book gets into the hands of a reader who loves it and shares their love of the book that’s even better.”
I would say she’s doing a pretty good job of spreading the word. Her blog shows 198,560 page views. She also has a widget to show visitors who else visited, from where and when they read the reviews Kathy has posted. During my last visit which lasted about 10 minutes, eleven other fans stopped by.
How did she do it?
“My blog is not the norm. I’ve only been blogging for 7 months. I put a lot of time into my blog.
Most of my followers have come through blog hops and giveaway hops. I started participating in hops several months after I started blogging and then began hosting giveaway hops in October.
I also use Good Reads to cross promote everything I do on my blog.
I’ve networked with other blogs for events like BIR2010 and donated items to other blogs when they are having a special event which also brings people to my blog.
My blog posts automatically post to twitter and I use twitter to tweet about contests on other blogs but other than that I’m not really savvy on Twitter.
I contact authors and publisher for interviews and giveaways.”
So you see, for a book reviewer who uses a blog to share their reviews it takes time and energy to create a following.
And it’s this kind of reviewer that Authors yearn for when circulating their books during their publicity rounds.
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PAC offers a service that lands dozens of reviews and interviews for you. Check it out.
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In your opinion, what is the most vital element to make a book publicity campaign successful?
As a publicist, a blogger and a radio show host, I talk with a lot of authors who struggle with their publicity campaigns. They all seem to know this is a vital piece of the puzzle they are working on – how to become a best selling author. But they just don’t know what’s worth their investment of time and money.
Let’s find out. Throughout this ongoing series, I would like to hear from all who have an experience or preference of publicity do’s and dont’s. Authors, publishers, reviewers, interviewers and publicists, let’s get your input.
Leave a comment here, to allow the conversation to keep going. If your comment or question is something that needs more exploring, you may be contacted for an interview either on the blog or the new Promotion a la Carte Radio Show http://www.blogtalkradio.com/promotionalacarte.
Be sure to follow us on Twitter @PACAuthorPromo where we’ll post new questions using the tag #PACBookPub.
A couple of years ago authors were still looking down their noses at the thought of self publishing their work. To them, this meant the author had been turned down by those in the know, that their work wasn’t worth the time of publishers and therefore, not worth their time either.
Now, we all know differently. As the purse strings of large publishing houses are drawn tighter, the pressure to only take on “sure things” is real. So unless you are already a best selling author, a celebrity with a closet full of skilled ghost writers, or your uncle owns the place, you’re not getting in.
More and more, authors are turning to the world of self publishing. And they are learning that this world is full of incredibly talented, welcoming and successful writers. The club now includes those who are planet conscious, wishing their books to be paper savers, going out as digital versions only, unless the buyer must have a paper version. Then it is the buyer who orders the book to be printed. Just that one and no more. Trees are not torn down, shredded to pulp to become paper, printed and bound, to sit on a shelf in the hopes of being purchased.
The members of this club are also learning that when they self publish, they also retain the rights to their work in ways publishing houses would never allow. And maybe the authors of time past didn’t care so much about these rights. But today’s authors are much more savvy.
To help you sort out the pros and cons of both, my friend, mentor and business partner Aggie Villanueva has written yet another information packed report discussing Traditional and Self Publishing. What You Don’t Know About POD & Self Publishing Can Ruin You is an important read for every author – before you start sending out those query letters!
Promotion a la Carte was created by best selling author Aggie Villanueva to help other authors promote their work.
After she wrote her novel, “Rightfully Mine” Aggie discovered that she now had to promote it, or she’d have to pay someone else to promote her work. Looking around she discovered that publicists and promoters were expensive and no one promised results.
So she set about to learn the business of promotion herself. She studied hard and watched what the experts were doing. And she learned a few things along the way.
Her hard work began paying off as her novel climbed higher and higher on the best sellers lists at Amazon. Interviewers and reviewers started contacting her to be on their shows, requesting her book for review, instead of her contacting them. Reviewers wrote wonderful things about her work and the best part; people were buying her book!
Over time she created Visual Arts Junction to share her wisdom with others who were on their own journey of writing, publishing and promotion. The blog grew in popularity and her followers asked for more.
She then realized that the time had come to create a business out of her knowledge. But, the services she offered needed to be affordable for all writers. Authors who had poured their hearts into their work in between the other moments of their lives, their jobs, their families and responsibilities, who didn’t have a trust fund or lottery winnings to pay the steep fees of a publicist. It was those people that Aggie wanted to help.
There you have it. The creation story of Promotion a la Carte!
