We had a great Publishing Insiders show May 4 on How to Maximize Book Reviews, with special guest Simon Barrett, book reviewer and editor of Blogger News Network.
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It’s not over once the reviews are in; in fact, those reviews give you a great opportunity to spread the word about yourself and your book online, making it easier for others to discover you. Think of it this way: when people want to learn about something, they tend to go online and type words or phrases into their search engine of choice, such as Google or Bing. If you’ve been posting your content online – including reviews, interviews and articles – using those same words or phrases the searchers are using, you increase your chances of being found. How? You can do this via social bookmarking.
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SEO Expert Susan Gilbert explained that social bookmarking involves saving the links to web pages (which can consist of your articles, reviews, interviews, etc.) to share with people or groups. Using tags – keywords or phrases that describe your topic – you can organize your bookmarks so the links can be found by others. Then they can then save, share and tag your links as well as rate and comment on them.
This is a great way to spread the word, perfect for sharing book review and interview links, as well as your articles, your website and more.
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Recommended social bookmarking sites include:
Simon Barrett also encourages authors to establish themselves as experts in their field, through branding. This can work for fiction or nonfiction, although nonfiction may seem more logical. However, a fiction author who has researched a particular topic can brand themselves as an expert in that area – for instance, if your book is fiction about a historical period in China that you’ve researched, then that could be your area of expertise.
This concept of branding is probably best covered in Alan Siegel’s Branding and Clear Communications, a book Barrett highly recommends.
Barrett encourages authors to write articles on their topic – some could be tied into current news events if you can make the connection, other articles can be about your topic in general. There are numerous sites online that accept articles, including:
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Each site has its own criteria; some are portals that distribute articles online (Ezine and GoArticles), others are sites that require you to apply to be a writer and you’ll have to meet certain criteria to be accepted. Of course if you have a blog, you should be blogging on your topic a few times each week, and then use social bookmarking to help others find your blog posts.
For additional resources on social bookmarking check Susan Gilbert’s website, www.susangilbert.com.
We’ve got some great shows coming up, and you’ll definitely want to save the date on June 15, when bestselling author Marci Shimoff joins us to discuss Powerhouse Promotion! http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepublishinginsiders/2010/06/15/powerhouse-promotion-with-marci-shimoff.
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It’s great to read articles written by people that have actually been in the trenches with the subjects that they’re covering. That’s when you get the real thing in terms of detail, background, and knowledge on a topic. For those reasons, reading this was a pleasure.SEO Expert