Let’s play Fun with Marketing!

Twitter, Facebook, website, Goodreads, Amazon, Google+, Pinterest, features, interviews, signings. Where do you start?? Well, I kind of started everywhere!

I teach a monthly marketing seminar at our bookstore, All on the Same Page, and the first thing I tell authors is that you MUST have a website. Must. Most people, when they want information, first check the Internet. No website = little information = more questions than answers. I also recommend that your website is for YOU, not your book – unless you plan on never writing another book. All the rest of your online marketing is hard enough to keep up with, you sure don’t need five websites to work on too!

Buy a domain name – preferably your own name, or pen name, not something cutesy and hard to remember. And do your website yourself. It’s not hard, and if you’re doing it yourself you can be sure the info is correct and timely.

Get on Facebook – but here you can diversify. Have a page for you, for fun and keeping up with everyone; have a page for your book; you can even have a page for your work in general, plus you can help promote other authors too. Twitter is great for promotion as well – you don’t have to sit there and Tweet constantly, but a presence certainly helps. More followers = more people to see what you post = equals sales.

These are the biggies – the rest are extras, although reader websites, like Goodreads, can help tremendously. Folks read and review there, and you can have a professional profile, giveaway books, include your blog, and get your book on lists, like “best of” and so forth. Warning: it’s highly addictive!

I don’t know the numbers, but I’d venture to say that Google+ has fewer users than Facebook; I tend to forget I have an account there, but it’s certainly useful and gets your name and your book out there. LinkedIn is less about authors and books and used more for networking in other types of professions but, pay attention – your name and your book will be in more places on the web, and that’s always a good thing!