Welcome to the Online Marketing Symposium. Another cool creation for the community from Arlee Bird, and hosted by Yolanda Renee, Jeremy Hawkins, and Alex J. Cavanaugh.
The rules are to share a marketing campaign that worked or didn’t work. Well, I haven’t published a novel, yet (hopefully I won’t have to stay that after April (nudge nudge wink wink)). There a few places I go as a reader to find books to read and I can only hope that other readers do the same.
If I need to find like minded people eager to help with anything from a blog post to spreading the word about a new release, I think Facebook Groups & Goodreads Books Clubs are great marketing outlets.
I would love to hear if engaging your audience in these two forums translate into book sales.
Also, as someone who host blog tour stops in the form of book reviews, do they translate into book sales and how can you tell?
Well, as you can see, I’m not much help.
So, when it comes to marketing, “What Works” for you? Write clearly, I’ll be taking notes. 🙂
Quick shout out and Congrats to Peyton Manning and the Denver Bronco’s – Super Bowl Bound. I named my dog after Peyton Manning, so we are quite excited!!!!!
Sydney Aaliyah Michelle 
You’re asking questions and that’s part of what something like this is about. Hopefully we’ll get some answers that make some sense. I think writers are blessed with things like FB and Goodreads. We have so many resources to turn to in order to reach an audience without having to spend big bucks. Of course maybe in the end big bucks are really what makes the difference in promotion, but I don’t think it has to be that way necessarily.
Let’s find out what others have to say.
Thanks for joining it with us on our quest for answers.
Lee
Tossing It Out
I’m not on Facebook, but I am part of several Goodreads groups. Just never approached any of them about my book.
Yeah, I’m not sure if it would work the same if they did direct approach, but the residual of making friends on goodreads is I buy their books.
LOL! Asking questions is a great way to learn. Usually I ask them to google or my writing groups, but there are mixed responses to most of these–and they may differ by genre/personality. You really just have to find what works for you.
Book reviews can translate to sales. Just depends on the reach of the blogger. A site with 1000 followers will have an impact for sure. If you’re also posting your reviews on Goodreads, Amazon, etc. then that will also help boost sales.
A newbie! Get that book done and start promoting it! Good luck and see you in a to z.
I belong to a few Goodreads groups and haven’t used them in book promotion at all. I’m learning lots today.
I’m new at this too and so far my goal has been to just get the word out about my book so hopefully that will eventually lead to sales. I’ll be interested to learn what others have to say about this and looks like some good advice above. 🙂
I used Goodreads groups to promote when my eBook first came out. This did help a little, I believe, but I was also promoting in a lot of other places as well, so it’s hard to be sure of specifics. As far as reviews on blogs, they can help with sales but only if the blog has a large following and caters to your genre. 🙂
I promoted more on FB and Twitter because I still have a lot to learn on Goodreads. I also provided giveaways on some sites.
I’ve seen a little bit of sales movement from Fb groups, but I’d have a better reach if I could bother to post my book info every chance I get.
Love your blog! I am coming from SITS. It is a pleasure to meet you. I’m working on my first book and I hope to have it complete by the end of the year. Congrats on yours.
Great questions! The networking with authors will get you the avenues for guest posts, reviews and book announcements, but you also need to develop the reader part of the equation. Putting your work out there in the form of a blog or online writing groups will get you some of those readers that you want to cultivate for when your book is released – build a fan base now by sharing your work and selling that book will be much easier – at least it supposed to be! LOL
Good luck and read the other posts – they have a wealth of information!
Thanks for participating!
I’m excited to read all of the comments. My son released a book he wrote on Amazon a year ago and we haven’t promoted it much. I’d love to get it into more readers hands. We’ve priced it low at .99 and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I hate to promote too much on facebook as I always feel like I’m spamming. (stopping by from the SITS Tribe)
Figuring out the marketing part is just as important as the writing in order to sell books. I am trying to find the formula myself.
Book reviews equals sales. Join more than one group at Goodreads, offer your book up for Read 4 Review and watch the sales climb.
Read 4 Review is a good tool. All the groups I belong to have this as an option and people seem to respond to it. I am going to use that option if I have some time to get my book in a readable state before my release date.
Networking definitely promotes traffic, which could translate into sales, depending on how you do it.
You right MJ. I need to find out how to do it the right way.
Networking and blog tours definitely help!
I need to find the magic formula to make sure I am working smarter and not harder to promote my book.
I’m learning so much from these posts (even though I don’t have a book… yet…)
Lots of authors promote on FB and Twitter. I’m wondering whether the level of success on these two platforms depend on the number of FB friends and Twitter followers…?
I’m am sure it does. But, for FB, I think it’s more Like on Facebook pages and not FB friends.
I’m not sure if anything specifically translates into sales, although I do know that social media activity when it’s sincere, consistent and giving will overtime bring sales.
Cheers!
Karen
I’ve concluded that hard work, persistence and a good product is the best plan of attack.