16 Bookstore Review Sites
Looking to get great book reviews for your book? Here’s an idea that may at first seem counterproductive but actually may jumpstart your own book review process.
What’s the idea?
It’s based on the age-old biblical maxim, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Which means while waiting for those five-tar book reviews to come in for your own books, start writing reviews for others.
Writing book reviews is a good way to stay connected with books in your genre, assess your competition,and even help you to craft writing ideas for composing your book releases and sharing information about your books on your blog.
As you write a book release, you will find yourself thinking critically about why you like one type of writing over another. What makes the book stand out? How can you creatively write selling copy for your own material?
Some authors used book reviews to link back to their own books; this is now a red flag for Amazon reviews. If you do that, you’re likely to get your book reviews (and books) removed from Amazon.
Writing five-star reviews is also a warning sign that your book review writing may have an underlying motive. Aim to write honestly. A good review is an honest one. If it’s a two-star book, give it two stars…
Write for the sake of pushing good books into the limelight. Here are 16 bookstores that accept book reviews.
http://www.abebooks.com/Alibris
http://Amazon.com
http://barnesandnoble.com
http://www.biblio.com/
http://booksamillion.com
http://buy.com
http://christianbook.com
http://costco.com
http://familychristian.com
http://lifeway.com
http://overstock.com
http://www.powells.com/
http://www.tatteredcover.com/
http://www.valorebooks.com/
http://walmart.com
To learn about real book marketing strategies and to get a jump start on your marketing, check out the Authors Academy.
7 simple letters any author can write to sell more books
One easy way even the most introverted author can sell a few books is to write letters.
Here are seven different kinds of letters you can write. With each letter include a bookmark or business card, handmade or professionally printed, that includes the title of your book, a quote, and a link to your web site.
1. Friendship letters to family and friends. Share whatever is going on with your life and of course, part of that is your book! Talk about how excited you are about it. The challenges you are facing, the successes you have had and ask if they have any ideas to help you to promote your book.
2. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper in response to an article that interests you. You don’t have to promote your book, just getting your name out there for a cause that is important may cause someone to check you out.
3. Write a thank-you letter to someone that has done you a favor or is someone you admire. Thank you letters can be short and sweet but will make someone’s day and cause you to be remembered as well!
4. Write a praise letter to the owner of your favorite restaurant complimenting them on their menu, service, or promotion of a cause. Write a letter of praise to your mayor, business leaders, or anyone in your local community that you admire. A letter of praise is a great way to make new friends in high places even if only casually.
5. Write a letter to other authors you admire. Become a fan and perhaps they will become a fan of yours in return. At the very least, it will make you feel good to build someone else up who is in the same profession you are. Your letter may be just what they need on a cloudy day! Another bonus is that you will find in sharing about how you value them as a writer is that it will clarify your own appreciation for the writing profession.
6. Write a letter to a bookstore. Thank them for carrying your book and be sure to tell them that you encourage your friends to shop at their store. A bit of good will mean they will think of you and your book the next time a customer comes looking for suggestions for a good read.
7. Write letters to your fans! Yes, real letters that you put a stamp on and send on their merry way. One enthusiastic fan can do amazing things. The closer your fans are to you the better and bigger your chance of eventual success will be. A short, simple letter of appreciation that takes you five or ten minutes might brighten up their day for a long time.
If you’re an author and feel stuck in your book marketing, get a jump start by learning about the best and latest book marketing strategies in the Authors Academy.
9 places to share a business card about your book
A low-cost way to promote your new book is with a business card. You can print them yourselves at home or professionally for as little as $10.00 for a hundred or more cards.
Most typical business cards are about two by three inches. These are small enough to slip a couple into a pocket, wallet, or bag. Because they’re so small it is easy to have one with you at all times whereas carrying a hard copy of your book is definitely not.
1. If your book is available digitally, you can share download information on your card. Include a sentence or two about the book, awards won and even a winning testimony about your book.
2. You can share your cards with family and friends and ask them to help you in getting the word out.
3. You can leave a business card in a magazine at the doctor’s office like a bookmark. Nothing like having a bored audience to give your little advertisement a quick look. Perhaps you can offer a free chapter or download on your card.
4. You can pin a card to bulletin boards in stores and other locations with community boards. Make sure your offer on your card is clearly visible and attractive.
5. Share a card with your barber or beautician. These people have lots of local contacts! Perhaps they know one or two of their customers who would be interested in your book.
6. Include a card with all print correspondence you send out. Some authors even include them in envelopes when paying bills.
7. Any public waiting room is a prime place for leaving a couple of cards. Bus stations, train, and even airline waiting areas. True, the chances your card will be picked up and trashed is high, but there is also a chance that someone will be intrigued to pick it up, read it, and carry it off with them.
8. Author cards are a “must have” for attending book events, expos, etc. Not only can you pass them out to other book attendees, you can use them to connect with publishers, book store vendors, and other authors and illustrators.
9. Leave your author card with bookstores that carry your book and ask if you can leave a few on the counter or with your book.
Unlike carrying around an actual physical book, it’s easy to give away author business cards whenever you start up a conversation with someone. You may strike up a conversation while waiting in line with other customers or talking to the retail clerk while he or she rings up your order. This works especially well if your book is relevant to the shopping outlet that matches your book’s audience.
At Wheatmark, our work with authors does not stop once their books are published. In fact that is just the beginning. That is why we place an emphasis on educating our authors about book marketing.
21 perfectly practical reasons to procrastinate from writing
1. Realize that you’re not in the mood for writing … Better wait till you feel like it.
2. Remember how stupid your last writing was … Better wait till you can do better.
3. Start comparing your writing to someone else’s … and sink into discouragement.
4. Need something to drink … Go get a drink.
5. Need something to eat … Get a snack.
6. Too tired to write … Take a nap.
7. Can’t think of anything to write … play a game of solitaire.
8. Can’t think of the perfect sentence? Stop until it comes to you. This may take weeks.
9. Realize you don’t have enough information … Stop and spend more time researching.
10. Notice how hot it is. Too hot to write. Better wait till it is cooler.
11. Hmmm, seems to be too cold to write. Better leave it for now till it warms up.
12. A blank screen is taunting you. Don’t you take it … Turn off the computer and show it who’s boss.
13. The blank screen is whining that you don’t stick to anything. Agree with it. Why not? Who cares. Play another game of solitaire.
14. The deadline is getting closer. This makes you nervous. Go find something to do to calm your nerves. How about a movie?
15. Panic is starting to build. This is ridiculous. Get some help. What happened in your past to make you this way?
16. Look at the clock. Time to do something else. Console yourself that you’ll do better tomorrow.
17. A friend asks how your writing is coming. Spend twenty minutes explaining.
18. Not sure what to do next. Stuck. Play a game of sudoku. This should fix it.
19. Realize you don’t really like writing anyway. How did you get yourself talked into this? Time for a snack. Maybe a movie. Maybe one more game of solitaire.
20. Start writing. Realize it is the worst piece of writing you’ve ever done. Hit the delete button.
21. Deadline is so close you can feel its breath on your neck. Scream. Tear out hair. Weep. Wail. Moan.
At Wheatmark, we believe in helping authors with every step of the writing and publishing process. Whether your book is is in the beginning or final stages to tell us about your project, tell us about it.
Ten ways to find top markets for your book
Finding the best market for a book is a challenge for every author. Below is a list of ten ways to find markets for your book.
1. Identify three categories of book genre for your book. For instance, fiction books can be broken down into age group, type, such as romance, mystery, thriller, audience, location, etc. Nonfiction books can be categorized as business, finance, science, history, etc. Each of these categories will have subcategories that will narrow your audience and offer best marketing positioning.
2. Go to Amazon.com and look up each of these categories and note the most popular books. Go to the website of each author and look for leads that will show you where they are promoting their books. For instance, websites they have featured guest posts on, articles from magazines, newspapers they are reviewed in, etc.
3. Look on their website for places they make public appearances, such as conventions they attend, speaking engagements, book signings, etc. Note these down and see if you can find similar places close to you to that you can attend and speak or offer your books.
4. Google each category and note the leading sites that showcase books. Is there information on the top ten sites that you can use for your book promotion? What keywords are they using? If those words are working for them, chances are if your book is of the same genre and type, they will work for you.
5. Note the reviewers for the leading books and try to contact these reviewers to review your own book.
6. Look at the popular books and see who endorses them. There is a good chance if your book is well written and offers unique content these same people may be open to endorsing your book as well. People who endorse one book are usually open to endorsing others; after all, it is promotion for them as well. Spread the love.
7. Twitter search your book’s category with a #hashtag and note Twitter users who have a large following. Tweet to them and start making a connection. Tweet at least 3 or 4 times with them before sharing your book. Offer to do something for them or simply re-tweet something they are promoting. Once a connection has been made perhaps offer a free book to review or at the very least a free chapter. Ask if they will share your book to their followers.
8. Go to Pinterest and search for books pinned in your category. Follow the users of those pins. Start pinning your book cover and images that relate to your book using the keywords that the books already pinned are using.
9. Facebook users often share what they are reading so find interesting tidbits about your book and do the same. Note keywords that other Facebook users are sharing that relate to your book and add them to your keyword arsenal.
10. Get involved with Goodreads. Now that it is a part of Amazon, it has a bigger outreach than ever. Make friends, review books, and get your book reviewed.
The most important factor in becoming a successful author
Simply getting started might be the most important factor in becoming a great author. I list it as a good second.
The numbers of people who dream about becoming an author but actually never do anything to make that dream come true is probably in the millions. So, I don’t want to neglect the point that to succeed you must first start, but that’s not what’s going to set you apart from the hundreds of thousands of people who do actually set pen to paper and write a few chapters.
The number one factor in becoming successful in writing is persistence.
The best talent in the world is of little value if one doesn’t use it.
The best teachers and instructors in the world can do little for someone who throws down the pen or the tablet and gives up when the going gets tough.
Persistence is a virtue that gets little limelight in most success stories. It’s usually mentioned but it is glossed over as something quite inconsequential and unimportant.
Persistence doesn’t make for a dramatic story or a rags-to-riches headline. The fact that the majority of successful authors spent years getting to the winning circle is casually referred to as “paying one’s dues” or some other soft soap platitude that little describes the frustration, desperation, and agony of staying with writing day in and day out.
Still, persistence is powerful.
It is the determinative glue that takes a writer with mild talent to great. With enough stick-to-it gumption a writer will find a way to become better in his or her writing efforts. Continuing to study, practice, and learn opens the doors to creating a book that is worth the reader’s time to open.
Of course, blind, unthinking persistence is stupid.
Simply doing something over and over that isn’t working is not persistence but stubbornness. But with a dream to become a writer, a great writer, and armed with the persistence to do whatever it takes to get there is the winning ingredient for all success.
5 ways to publicize your book that take 5 minutes or less
Publicity does not have to be big to make an impact on book sales. Something as simple as leaving a comment on a blog post with a link back to your book can be the start of a publicity campaign.
Here are 5 simple ways that you can publicize your book in less than five minutes.
1. Create an email signature that promotes your book. It can be as easy as writing the title of your book with a link to Amazon or your website. You can add a simple statement such as, “Read my new book.”
2. Write a quick comment to a blog post with a link back to a page on your website about your book. If your comment is interesting enough for people to want to know who you are, they will click through and find out about your book(s).
3. Send a fun note about your book to family members and friends. All grassroots marketing should start with those closest at hand and the most open to hearing from you. Ask if they will share with their friends and help you to spread the word.
4. Leave a comment on your Facebook page about something relating to your book. Show off the cover or talk about a book-signing event.
5. Pin the cover of your book on Pinterest. You may want to create a separate board for your book – including photos, maps, cartoons, anything that relates to your book or writing.
Authors sometimes feel that because they don’t have a big budget that they cannot promote their book effectively. In many cases using social media time and work can be more effective than throwing money into advertising or other paid for promotions.
Hand tailor your book promotion to what you can do, can afford and you will still see results. Persistence will pay off.
How to market your memoir
Marketing a memoir is quite different from marketing fiction or even most nonfiction books.
With a memoir, you will need a platform built around you or the topic that you write your memoir about. It’s all about you. Your reader must fall in love with you. Not the character in a novel or a unique business idea in your self-help book, but lovable, likeable, plain old you.
It is imperative that you are accessible to your reader. Since the power of a memoir is that you are giving an inside look at the inner workings of your life, you must put yourself in the public eye enough that they will want to know more.
Blogging is easily the memoir writer’s best platform tool. With a blog, you build the bridge between your daily writing and your life story. As your posts reveal what is happening with you today you automatically encourage interest about your journey. The closer you can tie your book and your blog together, the more easily will you make book sales.
A blog is something that you can start from the first day of writing your memoir and can continue long after publication. In many ways, the blog is an ongoing memoir of daily happenings, thoughts, and events.
Once your blog is up and running it is quite easy to use your blog as a jump off point to connect to other social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Each post can automatically be sent out on the various social media platforms you select. Images can be pinned to your boards with an intriguing comment to draw Pinterest fans to check out your full post.
So, a blog is definitely a good start but it probably won’t be enough of a traffic builder in the beginning. One selling point of memoirs is that they often can tie in very well with a local market. People naturally are more interested in what is going on in their own neighborhood than something happening hundreds or thousands of miles away. Capitalize on this in your book by including bits of local color in your book when it fits to do so. Include the real names of places and events and you may get those same venues to display and sell your book when it is published.
42 types of memoir writing
A good beginning exercise for writing your memoir is to read the memoirs of others.
Bestselling memoirs might be the place to start for excellence in writing and understanding the different processes. You may be surprised at how differently they can be written and still grab and hold your attention.
Look at some of the less popular memoirs to give you an idea of what doesn’t work. What makes the difference between selling ten copies and ten thousand? It is just as powerful to find out what you don’t like in a memoir as to what you do.
If you have an ebook reader you can often download a chapter or sample of different memoirs to make the search short and affordable.
Finally, check out the memoirs in the area that your story will most likely fit. By reading memoirs in your own genre you can check out if is a popular niche. Going to Amazon and checking the popularity rank will give you a general idea if there is big enough of an audience for good book sales.
The following is a partial list compiled from Goodreads. Not only will it help you to target your own niche, a casual look at the many different areas of memoir writing will show you what popular market memoir writing is today.
1. Memoirs by women
2. Memoirs by men
3. Humorous memoirs
4. Strange and twisted memoirs
5. A day in the life: Work memoirs
6. Drum memoir
7. Food related memoirs
8. Travel memoirs
9. Foreign country memoirs
10. Local and state memoirs
11. Spiritual memoirs
12. Family and relationship memoirs
13. Sporting memoirs
14. Oxbridge memoirs
15. Domestic violence and abuse memoirs
16. Female celebrity
17. Graphic novel memoirs
18. War memoirs
19. Business memoirs
20. Lesbian memoirs
21. Gay memoirs
22. Farming memoirs
23. Old West memoirs
24. People in Peril
25. Kids in crisis
26. Dance memoirs
27. Christian memoirs
28. Yoga memoirs
29. Parenting memoirs
30. Lovers memoirs
31. Adventure Travel memoirs
32. Immigrant memoirs
33. Heartbreaking memoirs
34. A year memoir
35. Fat girl memoirs
36. Mental illness memoirs
37. African American Memoirs
38. Coming of Age memoirs
39. Slavery memoirs
40. Health memoirs
41. OCD memoirs
42. houses memoirs
Rewriting your book after the first draft
Once you have a first draft of your book, it’s time to rewrite it.
Plan to rewrite at least four times before submitting your book to an editor.
The first rewrite will be the deepest and cruelest but also the most necessary one. This is called a structural rewrite. Look at the big picture of the book and ask some serious questions:
What scenes are to stay and which ones are to be deleted?
Are the characters staying true to form throughout the story?
Are they believable, likable, and lovable?
Do the good people have any weaknesses and do the downright nasty, bad folks have any redeemable features?
Does the book flow well? Does it get bogged down in description or in dialogue?
Does the tension build too fast? Too slow?
Are the characters described in one massive word dump or are they gradually introduced through scenes, actions, conversations, and body language?
Step away from your book as the author and try to look at it from the viewpoint of an editor, publisher, and reader.
An editor is looking to see if the book makes sense, if the sentences flow, if the action grabs and the dialogue matches the character.
The publisher is looking to see if the story is new, fresh, or exciting. Does it fit the audience that’s targeted?
Readers, of course, want to love your book! They want to dive in and get wet, come up gasping for air and dive down for another look. They want to be so caught up in your book that everything outside of your story slips away and is forgotten.
In order for this to happen, you need to cut away the chunks that are questionable, debatable, and downright stupid. You need to smooth out the rough spots, fill in the holes, and pump up the weak spots.
Once this structural rewrite is done you can move into the nitpicky sentence-by-sentence rewrite for your third draft.
If you’re looking to make progress in publishing a book, download our free report, The Author’s Guide to Choosing a Publishing Service.