I wanted to provide a book marketing update on some new sites (at least new to me) that I discovered and how things are going on the marketing front. I hope some of this will be helpful to you, too!
YA Books Central:
The first new site I want to talk about is YA Books Central. I found the site through a tweet that showed up in my feed. Since The Gemstone Chronicles is written for middle grade/YA and up, I decided to check it out to see if I could reach more of my target audience (not that I mind getting reviews from adults). I was impressed by what I found. Here are some interesting things I found out about the site:
- The site has a ton of books and it has a separate place for Indie books. It makes it easier to find works by Indie authors
- @yabookscentral has over 33K followers on Twitter
- The site does offer reviews for traditionally published authors, and may review Indie books on occasion
- YABC on Facebook has over 14,000 likes
- Once you submit your book and it is approved (it cost me $3.99 to list my book), it is listed on the site with a cover photo and a link for sales. In the 3 days (as of April 3) since I posted my book, I have had over 50 views of the book.
- They also have a separate page for Kid’s books
Marketing Update! All four of The Gemstone Chronicles are now on YABC! In fact, Book One: The Carnelian is HOT on the site.
If you are a YA or Kids author, this might be a great place to list your book! To give you an idea of what the site looks like, here is a link to my book: http://www.yabookscentral.com/yaindie/17879-the-carnelian-the-gemstone-chronicles-series-1
Indie Brag:
IndieBRAG: I found this site after seeing a fellow author’s BRAG medallion. BRAG stands for Book Readers Appreciation Group and they will award a BRAG Medallion for books that have passed the rigorous standards for their reviews. Here are some facts about IndieBRAG:
- IndieBRAG is not a free site to submit a book. It costs $20 for a book to be considered for a review. Since I made a little money from the Augusta Literary Festival, I decided I would submit. We will see what happens!
- IndieBRAG has over 9400 Facebook Likes
- IndieBRAG has over 5300 Twitter followers
Update! I did submit my book to the site and guess what – The Carnelian was awarded a BRAG Medallion!
The last new place I want to tell you about is Cold Coffee Cafe. I stumbled across this site on Twitter. It’s a free site for authors to join and list their books and trailers. I signed up and haven’t finished setting everything up yet, but I do have The Carnelian listed and its trailer is linked there, too. More information on Cold Coffee Cafe:
- Just over 600 Twitter followers
- Just over 650 likes on Facebook
- Offers promotional packages
My page link at Cold Coffee Cafe is: http://coldcoffeecafe.com/profile/WilliamlStuart
As far as my marketing efforts are concerned, things have picked up since I have been implementing my own marketing plan. I continue to refine my strategy and, once I stumble on the key(s) to successful (and low-cost) book marketing strategies, I will share!
In conclusion, here is my Book Marketing update! I don’t know how well any of these might work within your advertising and promotional budget and strategy, but give them a look!
Connect with me:
If you want to connect with me, I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, or send me an email at bill@williamlstuart.com. Feel free to connect!!
Hey Bill,
Have you used reddit.com? I have found success in driving downloads for my app and to my 2HourAppreneur blog by using some subreddits.
Here is one of my posts on reddit that drove 477 views in one day to my 2HourAppreneur blog post:
http://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/31eyr9/how_to_analyze_revenue_without_seasonality/.
Look for a subreddit that has to do with books or reading, you might find it helps.
Steve
http://www.aMemoryJog.com
Thanks for the advice Steve. I’ve heard of Reddit, but I haven’t used it. I will check it out. How is aMemoryJog going?