So, I've written the book...where do I find readers?

I think marketing is, without a doubt, the hardest part of writing a book. I made it through the first-draft woes, survived Revision Hell, made it through all the subsequent edits, formatting, and finally submitting it for sale. One would think that would be the tough part, but my head is spinning from trying to learn marketing strategies.

The biggest marketing problem soon became clear to me. There are plenty of places to connect with other authors...finding readers is trickier. 

I started out by joining some tweet teams through http://www.worldliterarycafe.com. That seems to help, but I'm not connecting with people and there is no way to know if anyone is buying my book based on seeing it on Twitter. I knew I needed another method to reach potential readers. 

Enter Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com. This is where a lot of readers hang out, and so far has seemed the most helpful. The deal is, though, just putting your book up on Goodreads isn't enough. You have to help people find you. I was amazed at how easy this was to do. For free, Goodreads will let you do a giveaway on their website. It's very simple. 

In the bar across the top of the page at Goodreads you click on the drop-down menu next to EXPLORE. In the list that appears, click where it says 'giveaways' and in the next screen off to the right is a link that says 'List a Giveaway." From there you just fill out the information you want to include and submit it.  Once reviewed, your giveaway will be listed. 

I thought only people I invited could enter the giveaway, so I wasn't sure how successful this would be. However, people actually search out these giveaways and enter, even people who don't already know you. I submitted a giveaway for Always & Forever and scheduled it for one month. It will end October 14th, and Goodreads will pick the winner and give me their address. I'll then mail the signed copy of my book to the lucky winner.  I can also list another giveaway if I choose to, having the potential to reach even more people. 

Out of the people I invited, only about ten entered. At the time I'm writing this blog, 403 people have entered the giveaway in total. Pretty cool, since I wouldn't have reached these people otherwise. Also, 195 of those entrants added my book to their "to-be-read" piles. Maybe in the future, when they are looking for something to read, my book will come to their attention yet again and they will consider buying it. As far as free advertising (well, besides the cost of a book and postage) it doesn't get easier than this. 

One thing though, your giveaway has to be a physical book, not an ebook. If you only have ebooks currently, I would recommend checking into Amazon's on-demand publishing service, https://www.createspace.com/. The quality is very nice and you only have to pay for the books you actually buy (you can order one at a time). They take care of everything (orders, shipping, returns, customer complaints, etc.) once you've set your book up and put it on sale. I've also heard that https://www.lulu.com has on-demand printing services, but I've never used them so can't attest to the quality. 

If you haven't entered my giveaway yet, it's ending soon. You better hurry! You can enter here.

So, what methods do you all use to connect with readers? I sure could use some more ideas!

Have a fabulous day! Happy writing and marketing ;-)
eeeChantelfff