I’ve been researching today what other self-published authors do to get the word out about their books beyond their own sphere of influence. (i.e., my Facebook and Twitter friends are getting tired of being bombed about the book)

I’ve read several great suggestions and here are a few of the better ones:

• Sponsor a Pinterest contest. (I hardly use Pinterest, though I confess to having an account.) I wouldn’t know how to go about this without further research, but I did learn that the times of 6-10p are the optimal pinning times. Wow.
• Create a launch team. I wish I’d thought of that back in December. I’d love to implement the idea of a 30-day period to see what could happen. Basically, you recruit 6-10 people and ask them to help you identify avenues for promotion and to even use their circles of influence – both digital and personal to get the word out about the book.
• Giveaways. I’ve done this on both librarything.com and goodreads.com. Perhaps I didn’t give away enough copies (5 on each), but the stipulation was to write a review of about 200 words related to the book to enter the giveaway. I haven’t seen any fruit from either giveaway yet.
• Mail out books to select bloggers and sites. In process.
• Create an internship. This idea was submitted via Twitter by Allie, and it’s a great one since Virginia Tech has an excellent PR and communications department. I’m going to look more into it.
• Simply suck it up and find a literary agent. This is a strong option as well since I have other writing projects in queue.

What other ideas do you have to help a self-published author or content creator?

A great turnout at the book signing in Monticello, Arkansas

As we mentioned in the last post, online reviews are important to the book. First of all, they help communicate to people who are shopping online and look at the reviews. Second, and this is key for the book’s promotion, online reviews encourage book merchandisers to buy the book to sell in stores – as in brick and mortar. As a book generates good online feedback, it is a definite plus to encourage store buyers to pick up the title for shelf space in their stores.

We’ve been so appreciative of early reviewers of the book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and CrossBooks, but now we need your help to generate some second-month buzz about the book through your reviews. Since the book was released on December 18, help us to get to 18 reviews on each of the following sites (click on the link to go to that site):

• Amazon

• Barnes & Noble
• CrossBooks

• Books A Million

• Christianbook.com

• GoodReads

If we had to prioritize the sites, we’d encourage Amazon, GoodReads and Barnes & Noble.

Thanks for your help!

Blacksburg got walloped with a nine-inch snow on January 17. My daughter Adelyn and I ran outside for a quick snow selfie.

Many folks have asked “How is the book doing?” Truth is, I have no idea. CrossBooks, my publisher, doesn’t release data until the end of the quarter, and so I won’t have any idea of that until after March 31.

Online is where it’s at… for now

To date, the book is on most major online retailers. Sites like Amazon, Books A Million, Barnes & Noble, Family Christian Stores, etc. all carry the book. Crossbooks began publicizing the book in their new release catalog sent out to thousands of stores and chains across the nation just a week or so ago, from my understanding. That means that they “buyers” for bookstores, or merchandisers, will have the opportunity to see my book advertised in that publication and then decide if it looks interesting enough to select for in-store sales.

This is one of the reason we’ve peppered the airwaves – or web streams – with promotion about the book and asked people consistently to write reviews. The merchandisers will, many times, check out feedback on online sites that carry the book and see how people are responding to the book there. If they see good reviews and feedback, they will be more motivated to carry the book in stores.

Why is getting the book in stores important when web sales are dominating the market these days?

Great question! One reason is people still love to browse bookstores. I suspect you have done that yourself a time or two. Walking up and down book-laden shelves, a book will often catch your eye that you weren’t even looking for. You may then whip out your smart phone and compare the store price with the online price, but seeing it in the store triggered an interest. (By the way, this digital price comparison is called “show rooming” and is one of the main reasons for Target’s recently announced matching-price policy.)

Soooo… it’s very helpful for the book for you to write a brief review – whether good or constructively critical – and leave it on a site or two. Of course, leave it on the website that you bought it from, and then consider leaving a review on one of these book sites:

• Goodreads
• LibraryThing

For those of you just stepping into the Super Center Savior site, here’s how the book finished up on it’s Buy-Launch Day on Amazon on Saturday, December 22, 2012:

Under Best Sellers:
#5 under Inspiration
#86 under Spirituality
#31 (for Kindle under Inspiration)