I have recently received a flurry of emails from authors all experiencing the same things …

Their books are gathering dust on the shelves (including the cyberspace shelves…)

Giveaway or Freebie days are great, lots of books downloaded or given away, then, when the book price returns, nothing moves and reviews from readers are scarce, if at all, even from the Giveaway in exchange for honest reviews…

WHAT ARE THEY DOING WRONG?

Answer = Nothing.

ARE THEIR STORIES THAT BAD?

Answer = No, probably not.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a magic wand to change the situation many of you are in, nor can I utter any words of wisdom.

However, I can remind you all that my blog was set up to be a resource for authors and to expand the existing publicity opportunities for them to promote themselves and their books.

This includes having every kind of share button possible, provided by WordPress, available under each article, so that even though I  use them to share the articles everywhere I have a presence (see the list on my About page), the authors themselves can ALSO use them to share with their friends, fans and family, as well as on their own Twitter, Facebook, etc, accounts.

Now, I am not saying that my blog will make your books fly off the shelves, but I can say it provides a means for you to get that little bit more publicity.

Here’s how:

For Authors, there are two types of post I do on my blog:

Featured Author

Where I have to research my subject author (these take up a lot of my time) and the articles are posted (almost) daily. I try to have as many completed (draft) articles in reserve as I can because they take so long to generate.

Guest author

Where the authors email me their own promo article, complete with details of their books, websites, and a photo of themselves that they won’t be embarrassed by 🙂

Guest posts are normally sent out on Fridays (but I don’t mind sending them out any other day the author prefers, either way I need at least 3 days to prepare them for publishing online.

The Guest Author articles can be as long as they like to make them, most authors are not shy but tend to spend most of their efforts on detailing their books, which I think is a pity, because ‘The Readers’ DO also seem to like knowing all about these creative people, including what they look like. Hence the tendency for photo’s and personal blurbs on most books printed nowadays (especially Hardbacks) and authors profiles on the Online bookstores (which I notice are not always exploited by authors…).

Publishing Houses don’t do these things just to fill a space, like every other business, there are reasons why they do things.

I have been asked why I don’t post the reviews of books I’ve read, on my own blog, after all, I do book reviews, including posting them on Goodreads, Amazon (.com and .co.uk), Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, or wherever else the author needs them posted.

The reasons are that my reading time has become severely restricted now, for various reasons, so it takes me a while to get through books (what I could normally have read in a day now takes me a week)and I don’t want this blog to become another Books Review Site. That is why I have included a list of Book Reviewers on my blog.

If you look down the left column of my Main Blog Home page, you will find a list of Book Reviewer sites, I don’t know if they charge or not, but I do know they give good, constructive and well balanced reviews on their blogs (and in some cases, also on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, etc)

If you use any of them and they publish their review of your book on their blogs, don’t forget that most WordPress based blogs have a reblog option at the top of the page (you will need to be signed in to your own WordPress based blog to see it) plus, they usually have share buttons, so their reviews can be shared all over the place, (that’s why I have so many share buttons, so authors can share my articles about them with their own friends and fans in addition to what I do as a matter of routine).

One thing to remember, YOU are not alone in having books seem popular during giveaways, etc, then seem to fall out of favour when they need to be bought …

I suspect that the General Public, aka ‘The Buyers’ (unless they order through their local Libraries), in these uncertain economic times, consider books (like so many other so called ‘non-essential’ things) to be the last thing on their minds to spend money on.

So all I can advise is for you to adhere to the three “P’s”

publicity … Publicity … PUBLICITY at EVERY opportunity.

One last thing…you all know this blog started on 4^th April 2013, have a look at the stats on the top of the left column…in 2½ months this blog has had over 8000 visitors and gathered 320 followers from around the world, so it must be having SOME effect.

But, it could have even more impact if these stats were increased by several factors and that is where YOUR SUPPORT comes in, providing you think it is worthy of it.

In order to give YOU more publicity and spread the word about your books, this blog needs to increase its readership even more, therefore, I am asking you to spread the word about it to all your friends, family, fans and complete strangers so that they come along, see for themselves what a wonderful bunch of people authors are and, hopefully, decide to come back time after time.

This is NOT an ego trip for me, I’m already a happy ape…this is about YOU getting more publicity!

It’s every authors dream to become famous and live off the proceeds of their book sales and it is my ambition to help you to do just that…

WHY? I hear you shout…

Because without books teaching me things, so I would try and do things that I’d never otherwise have tried or done, and also transporting me away from the mundane aspects of life, from a very early age, I would have gone completely barking mad before I had the chance to actually DO anything with my life.

As it is, I’ve had a full, active and interesting life (and still continues to be those things) and I strongly feel that it’s PAYBACK time!

THIS is why I keep asking if there is more I could be doing for you, are there more Groups I should join, other ways I should promote you in order to spread the word about you and your books?

Your spreading the word about this blog is needed!

Your comments are needed!