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Getting Strong (Strong Armed, #1)
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Publishing and Promoting > Getting the Word Out

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message 1: by Elisabeth (new) - added it

Elisabeth Mayer | 3 comments I'm just starting to use the Goodreads author program. I saw that you can promote book giveaways, but not for ebooks. I am running a free promotion of my book tomorrow and Saturday and was wondering if there is any way to get that promotion posted or available to members on Goodreads? If anyone can give me some pointers, I would really appreciate it. Thanks so much, and good luck to all of you as well.


message 2: by Edward (new)

Edward Wolfe (edwardmwolfe) Well this sucks. There are people far more qualified than I to advise you. But until they come along, I'd say check out the Authors/Readers group.

They have multiple categories where you can post about a book.

There might even be a group dedicated to free ebooks, but if there is, I don't know about it and the search feature on GR really sucks.

You might be better off informing websites that focus on free ebooks, although a lot of them require advance notice.

I wish I could be more helpful, but I don't promote very much. I find it to be distasteful. Word-of-mouth works so much better when the word comes from someone else's mouth.

I wish the best of luck and hope someone else comes along with a goldmine of info for you.


message 3: by Mellie (new)

Mellie (mellie42) | 639 comments Short answer - no. There may be some groups that will allow a self promotional post for your genre, but make sure you read the rules before spamming anyone. And never, ever spam members as it is one way to draw negative attention.

Most of the good sites for promotion require you to book/pay in advance so you are probably limited in what you can do at short notice. Maybe utilise your FB & Twitter following to do a shout out?


message 4: by P.D.R. (new)

P.D.R. Lindsay (pdrlindsay) | 43 comments Join up with Book Marketing Tools - bookmarketingtools.com - who have some excellent ideas and a marvellous ap which you pay US$14.99 for which allows you to enter your free book on over 30 email newsletters to readers.

You really need to get this organised weeks ahead. See how you go and try these guys later. I do suggest you sign up though as their marketing advice is good and they are not pushy about selling you things.


message 5: by Martyn (new)

Martyn Halm (amsterdamassassinseries) | 248 comments Shut Up & Read have a program called Read It & Reap, where they distribute ebooks to reviewers, I think that's what you're looking for.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...


message 6: by P.D.R. (new)

P.D.R. Lindsay (pdrlindsay) | 43 comments Read It & Reap is closed until next year.


message 7: by Martyn (new)

Martyn Halm (amsterdamassassinseries) | 248 comments Yes, that happens when there's a popular channel.


message 8: by Debbie's Spurts (D.A.) (last edited Jul 20, 2014 08:31PM) (new)

Debbie's Spurts (D.A.) You're not spamming anyone if you post from your author page or from a linked blog (although unless there are goodreads members who have fanned or followed it's possible those posts may go unread).

Some authors use their review of their book as a sort of author's note instead. (If no one looks at book page, again, no one may see.)

In both places, you could promote the giveaway and any free or free for review options you might want to offer.

Readers sometimes browse giveaways and new releases by genre. Make sure you don't forget to shelve your own book as appropriate genre and subgenres. (Because goodreads crowdsources a book's genre once two people, one of whom can be the author, shelve it that way.)


message 9: by Debbie's Spurts (D.A.) (last edited Jul 20, 2014 08:30PM) (new)

Debbie's Spurts (D.A.) I haven't visited in a while but the Making Connections group at https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/... did at one time do read for review stuff. ( they also have Young Adult and New Adult spinoff groups.)

A list of groups tagged as self-promotions at https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_... although I have no idea how many of them are mostly writers talking to other writers.; tagged as "read and review" at https://www.goodreads.com/group/searc...


message 10: by Martyn (new)

Martyn Halm (amsterdamassassinseries) | 248 comments D.A.-bully victims suffer more than a ★ on their commercial product wrote: "Some authors use their review of their book as a sort of author's note instead. (If no one looks at book page, again, no one may see.)"

I advise against reviewing/rating your own books, but you can do what I did and use the review space to re-post blog interviews, so someone interested in the book can read something about the author.


message 11: by Wendy (new)

Wendy (sweetiessweeps) | 1 comments I know this is a bit late, but I run a book site to help authors promote their books for free. You can submit your books here, whether they are free or not. I allow Free Kindle book days in this form as well. http://www.sweetiespicks.com/submit/


message 12: by Elisabeth (new) - added it

Elisabeth Mayer | 3 comments Hey, thanks Wendy. I just submitted the first book of my latest series. I appreciate the promotion. I also signed up for newsletters. Thank you for sharing.


message 13: by Elisabeth (new) - added it

Elisabeth Mayer | 3 comments Thank you for the ratings advice. I'm not into rating my own book, and I'm pretty pleased with the ratings I'm receiving from readers. Just looking for more places to promote the books. Hoping that they pick up enough that I can write full-time and then I'll have the money to pay for marketing!


message 14: by Debbie's Spurts (D.A.) (last edited Jul 22, 2014 09:27PM) (new)

Debbie's Spurts (D.A.) Elisabeth wrote: "Thank you for the ratings advice. I'm not into rating my own book, and I'm pretty pleased with the ratings I'm receiving from readers. Just looking for more places to promote the books. Hoping that..."

On the subject of ratings, also keep in mind that, although users here don't always follow (or have to): goodreads' suggested star ratings scale is not the same as amazon's (I'm not actually sure how that gets handled if a reader rates a book from a kindle device that has goodreads integration enabled). That is, a ★★★☆☆ on goodreads is the equivalent of a ★★★★☆ on amazon. And on both scales, some readers will rate a book as "okay" without meaning anything negative; to them "okay" just means a normal/average reading experience.


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