Friday, April 27, 2012

How to promote your books - FREE - by Lizzie Stevens

Hi  Everyone,

Thanks for having me today. Today I'm going to blog about all the free stuff you can do to promote your books. I hope that at least one of these ideas helps somebody out.


1. Set up a website. You can do this completely free at www.webs.com or www.weebly.com and if you want it to be a true dot com you can go to www.godaddy.com or www.names.com and I'm sure there are others and pay for your domain name for the year. It will cost less than $12 and then you can go back to the free site and use your own domain. You have no fees at all and you have a new website.


2. www.facebook.com
Set up a facebook page and friend everyone and tell everyone about your page. Use your page to promote your book. Don't just open the page but actually go there and post on it daily.

3. www.twitter.com
Follow people and ask them to follow you. Tweet and retweet other people's tweets. Join in on the fun.

4. www.myspace.com
Same thing here. Friend people and ask them to friend you.

5. www.manicreaders.com has free pages

6. www.linkedin.com another social networking site.

7. Start a blog. There are a few different free ones. You can try www.blogspot.com or www.wordpress.com either one are free.

8. Join yahoo groups. Be sure to follow their posting rules.

9. www.goodreads.com is another really good place to promote you book.

10. Get reviews for your book. The more reviews and good ratings the better. You can take that review and then tell all the above places. Out of every good review you get several promo opps out of it.


This list should get you started but the ideas are endless in marketing. I hope at least one of these things helped somebody out.


My new book is:

Blackbeard’s Treasure


Synopsis:

Edward Teach, better known as the pirate Blackbeard, was killed November 22, 1718. Two months before, he purposely ran his ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, aground at what is now called Beaufort Inlet.

He emptied the ship of all treasures into his other ship, The Tender, and fled to where nobody knows. Two months later, when he reappeared, he was killed in battle, and his body was tossed into the ocean. To this day, nobody knows where the treasure went.

For years, people have searched high and low for his treasure. It has been said that Blackbeard said nobody but he and the devil knew where it was located.
Cassie Andrews returns to Branson Missouri to clean out her grandfather’s house, who recently passed away. While emptying the attic she comes across an old diary belonging to a woman who claims to have been married to Edward Teach. Cassie soon realizes that she holds the key to the famous Blackbeard’s Treasure.

Cassie turns to her friend Levi for help in finding the treasure. "In her zeal to uncover the clues to Blackbeard's Treasure Cassie lands herself in the hospital.

Attraction explodes off the page as Levi nurses Cassie back to health and together they experience the adventure of a lifetime to uncover their true feelings for one another and Blackbeard's Treasure.

9 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Absolutely...your tips are invaluable! Thanks for joining me!

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  2. Enjyed the post, Lizzy. Some great tips here. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Hey, Pat - thanks for visiting and commenting! Your name will be put in a drawing for my awesome, wonderful, must have, really groovy, "Get Ready for Summer" basket!!!!

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  3. Thanks for the reminders about what to do to promote your book.

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    1. Hey Gary....thanks for stopping by! Always appreciate a visit! I am throwing your name in for my groovy basket - you lucky dog, you!

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  4. That's a good list to start with! Do you have any specific tips on how to use sites like Goodreads and LinkedIn to promote our books?

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    1. Thanks for stopping my Margay. I have sent this on to Lizzie and told her, "I'd like to here tips on this myself!"

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    2. For those sites all I ever do is post quick updates or a status update like a review that I got or a guest blogger that I'm having on my blog. I don't find those sites as fun and interactive as twitter and facebook. But that's just me :) Other people may love those sites. But for me I find twitter the most fun and facebook would be second.

      I have found that the more interactive you are with other people the better your books will sell. Readers like to buy books that they can say "my friend wrote this" or "I talk to this author all the time on twitter. She is really nice" or whatever. They want to have a connection with the author. Because it makes them feel a little better about spending the money in this tough economy if they feel like they know the person a little.

      So my advice would be to first just forget about selling the books. That will come in time. Start with simply making friends and the sales will follow on their one. Once you start having fun with it and making connections and sharing what you did over the weekend and having somebody share back with you what they did. You will start having fun and before you know it the sales will start coming in.

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