Book Marketing for Authors discussion

Hey everyone. I hope I won't come across as out of line with this post.

I'm with www.bookmarketingservices.org; I'm not an author myself. (well, not yet ...) I come here from time to time because I'd like to be able to help my authors with their book marketing but I find it nearly impossible. Maybe I'm just not going to the right groups, I don't know.

I have an author going on a virtual book blog tour starting tomorrow and he is an author with a GoodReads account, but his newest book hasn't been added. So, when I try to submit a notice about his virtual book blog tour or his giveaway, his post won't go through. In fact, on this very post, I used one of my other author's books because I knew it was listed here so my post would get posted.

I just don't get why you have to list a book to post.

Please - what am I missing here?

Heather Murray

Hi Heather,
I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than me will jump in at some point. I'm not sure what you mean about not being able to post unless you have a book listed- do you mean in this group or all over goodreads? I used goodreads before I published anything and was able to post to groups, although I did have books on my shelves (the currently reading/to read/read shelves I mean). Your author can list his book even if it isn't published yet. He can even post an excerpt to get people excited for the release. I think there is a way to add all of his blog posts from the blog tour on his author page too (but I'm not technically handy at that).

As far as interacting, I was struggling too, but I just tried to join the groups where I was genuinely interested in the books they were reading, whether or not they had to do with mine or not. That's helped me jump in to some conversations. I've also joined more author oriented groups like this one or the Making Connections one, which helps, but might not be as easy to jump into. What I would do is add all of your clients' books and popular books that YOU enjoy to your shelves and then click on the groups tab. It will give you a list of groups that are talking about books on your list. That way you can dip your toe in and have some great conversations about books you love. That's what I've been doing anyway, I figure the promotion will come when I'm more comfortable. :) I hope some of that helps.

Thanks for your response Deirdre!

I'm not sure why in the past it seems that, if I don't fill in the book or author part, I get an error message when I try to write a post on GR.

I'll try to add the books. Again, thanks!

Heather