The short answer is “Yes!” Goodreads—the popular social reading site—is a free promotional tool for authors, so there’s really no reason not to be. And with eleven million readers on the site, reaching out to them is well worth your time.

A Goodreads author account allows you to add photos, blog posts, videos, and a biography, and allows you to share info about upcoming events directly with readers.

The amount of time it takes to maintain a Goodreads author profile varies. But, like all social media efforts, the more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it. The more you update, post, and interact on Goodreads, the more you’ll get followers of your page, contestants in your giveaways, and contributors to your discussion board. You can even sync your current blog with your Goodreads page—that way, the time and effort you put into blogging will go twice as far.

If you’re really interested in fleshing out your profile you can add groups or host a Q&A session. Goodreads features several of these Q&As in its monthly newsletter, and you can request that yours be included. GoodReads is also a great place to host book giveaways, which lead to increased interest in your book and, hopefully, positive reviews. On average, Goodreads gets 650 entries per giveaway—that’s 650 new people aware of your title. The only thing you have to pay is the cost of shipping the books out to winners (and you specify the number of winners before the giveaway goes live).

Goodreads also sells ads, which they recommend but do not require you to use in conjunction with giveaways. Their ads use one of the billing formats offered by Facebook—cost per click. Their default per-click price is $0.50, but you can bid higher or lower than that. Just keep in mind that the amount you bid affects how often your ad is shown. Goodreads also factors in the duration of your ad campaign. So if you’re accepting entries for a giveaway for thirty days and want to run an ad that whole time with a $90 budget, GoodReads will show your ad each day until it gets clicked on six times and then take it down until the next day.

The goal of all this is greater name and brand recognition and more fans, reviews, and sales. Unfortunately, because Goodreads doesn’t sell books themselves, they can’t give statistics on sales. But they can introduce your brand and book to a broad range of readers and give you data on ratings, reviews, shelves you’ve been added to (“to read” being by far the most common), and the number of new fans added. All this data will help you determine whether your effort is paying off.

So, go get a Goodreads author account! (Or, if you’re already on the Goodreads bandwagon, upgrade your account from regular person to author.)

More questions? See the FAQ page or ask us below.

We’ve written a great deal about building your platform and especially about the benefits of blogging and writing articles to demonstrate your expertise to your audience. Still, you’re always looking for more ways to drive traffic back to your online presence, and ultimately to the bookstore to buy your book.  Another excellent way to achieve this is by serving as a guest blogger.

A guest blogger is someone who does a single post for another individual or group’s blog. This can be a one-time deal or a recurring column, but either case allows you to tap into someone else’s audience. There are many great blogs out there for you to choose from. You can locate blogs related to your platform in a number of ways:

1. Go to the top magazines or associations in your topic. Chances are the editors of the magazine or leaders of the association have at least one blog (sometimes they have several—each one for a different beat).
2. Ask for referrals. Find out from your network what other blogs your audience is following.
3. Check out the competition. Other authors and experts in your field already have a line in with your audience. Grease the wheels by offering to swap guest posts.
4. Look at the blogroll of your favorite sites. Most times bloggers feature the blogs they follow on their tool bar. This is a great (and fast) way to locate additional blogs. You can use sites like Technorati (link) and Alexa (link) to evaluate which blogs have the most traffic so you can develop your strategy and start by focusing your time on the blogs with the largest audiences.

Once you’ve identified blogs related to your topic, you will want to craft a pitch. Before you contact the blogger, check to see if they have posted writer’s guidelines. If so, follow them to the letter. If not, send them a short pitch that includes a specific idea for a post topic and identifies exactly why that post would be of interest to their audience. Close with a short paragraph about your qualifications. Here’s an example of a typical pitch letter:

Dear blogger,

The world of publishing is changing fast. Many of your readers are trying to navigate this evolving landscape, but it can be overwhelming. I propose a post that looks at the pros and cons of each book publishing option available to authors, complete with a short checklist readers can use to identify which route is best for them.

I work at an independent publisher and write articles and white papers related to publishing. You can view samples of my work at www.bigbadbookblog.com.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Author

There are a few other things to consider when pitching a guest blog post:

1. Research the outlet beforehand to make sure it’s appropriate. Bloggers don’t want to get pitched by writers who are outside of their subject area and who don’t have anything to offer their readers.
2. Read some of the posts and make sure that you are providing something unique. If they’ve already done a post on the subject, craft a new angle or choose a different topic.
3. Be considerate of the blogger’s brand. They are building their platform and readership too. Don’t try to hone in on their turf.
4. Keep the self-promotion out of your post. Often you are allowed a short bio and a link back to your website or blog, so focus on creating value and leave the promotion out.

Above all, don’t be afraid to ask. Most bloggers work hard to fill their editorial calendar and are happy to have someone fill in (as long as the topic is relevant). Also, don’t be afraid to consider having someone guest post on your blog as well. They will bring their readers with them and will often add you to their own blogroll. In the realm of social media and blogging, paying it forward really does pay off.

With so much emphasis placed on Facebook and Twitter, many authors overlook the power of LinkedIn. However, LinkedIn holds greater potential for making platform-building connections offline, especially for those nonfiction authors engaged in speaking, consulting, and other business ventures. To make the most of your profile, make sure you include all of the following steps as you establish a LinkedIn presence.

1. Complete your profile. Fill in your work history, your experience, any awards and recognition related to your book or expertise, and a short bio. Include as much information as possible about who you are as an author, and make sure the information you include will interest the target audience for your book. Also make sure you a have a current, professionally taken photo.
2. Update your status. LinkedIn is all about professional updates, so only share links, events, or media coverage that pertain to your message an author and expert. Keep info about your cat or your last meal for private conversations.
3. Make your profile public. This way people can easily find you, both within LinkedIn and on the web.
4. Add links. You can add up to three links to your profile, including links to your blog and website. Be sure to add at least one link with information about your book (which is usually your website).
5. Make connections. Go through your Outlook address book, Rolodex, or BlackBerry to find potential connections from your existing contacts. LinkedIn’s quick connect feature lets you connect with people already in your Yahoo or Gmail email accounts.
6. Join groups. Find groups that cater to your audience. Make individual connections with members in the group and participate in events and discussions.
7. Get recommendations. Have people who have read your book or whom you have worked with in some way write recommendations for you. Be willing to do the same in return should the occasion call for it.
8. Set up your company profile. If you have a company or your own small press associated with your book or expertise, set up a company profile. If you have employees, you can invite them to update their profiles with their company affiliation.

The above will help you get your profile page up to a par, but LinkedIn has some other fantastic features that you will also want to use to boost your presence.

1. LinkedIn Answers:  Demonstrate your expertise and connect with your audience by answering questions on LinkedIn Answers. You can search open questions by category or date posted to quickly find which questions you have the authority to answer. The key is to be precise and to leave the self-promotion out of your response.
2. Document sharing. Share your articles and presentations with one of the many document-sharing plugins available. Some of the most commonly used include SlideShare, Scribbd, and Box.net. All three allow users to download your materials, are available from LinkedIn free of charge, and help you boost your SEO.
3. Social media plugins. You can add your tweets, blog posts, and Facebook posts to your LinkedIn profile. Just be careful—each platform caters to a different audience, who each want different information. If you are cross-pollinating with repetitive posts, people will turn off.

LinkedIn is always adding more plugins and features. Just check out the application directory on the LinkedIn toolbar for more information. You can also check out LinkedIntelligence, a blog focused on LinkedIn best practices.

Social media is an important facet of your overall marketing strategy. Just as with any social media effort, the key for LinkedIn success is to be consistent and provide value. LinkedIn is more manageable than most platforms, in that the status updates you write should be limited to only those items related directly to your book or profession, so you only need to update once a week or when you add new events, articles, and media coverage. You can set up email alerts to keep you updated on group discussions and LinkedIn Answers as they occur, so you don’t have to constantly check back.

Above all, don’t let LinkedIn or any social media platform consume you. Keep it simple, focused, and constrained to what is realistic for your goals and schedule.

As an author, you’ve probably been told you should be blogging. Blogs are an excellent way to engage your audience and establish yourself as an authority figure. Still, many find the idea of blogging overwhelming and the actual process of writing blog posts almost unbearable. But with a little bit of planning, a few shortcuts, and some tips from the blogosphere, you can be posting and engaging with readers in no time. Here is our five-part series on blogging to help you get started:

Part One: To Blog or Not to Blog (why you should blog)

Part Two: A Blog Without a Cause (what to blog about)

Part Three: Taming the Blog Monster (managing your blog)

Part Four: The Blog Without a Name (promoting your blog)

Part Five: Blog Vital Signs (tracking your progress)

In part three of our series, we show you ways to manage your blog so it doesn’t manage you. If you read our original post on how to develop content for your blog, then you should already have a stockpile of posts to draw on. Next, you want to get them up into the blogosphere.

Some people enjoy blogging on a daily basis, but for most it’s too time consuming and can interfere with other important tasks. Luckily, most blog services such as Wordpress and Blogspot have the option to set a publish date and time, so you can load several posts in one sitting and have them publish automatically in the future. This way you are generating content on the recommended daily basis without the trouble of logging in and posting every day.

As I just mentioned, it is recommended that you blog daily, primarily on weekdays; regular posts positively impact search rankings in search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Still, posting a couple times a week is a good way to generate traffic on a frequent basis. The key word here is consistency. Don’t post five one week and then nothing for the next two weeks. People won’t be interested in what you have to say if they have no idea when you are going to say it. Develop a schedule and stick to it.

Another option to help you manage your blog is to either host guest bloggers or have a co-blogger. This way, the workload is divided among more than one person. Guest blogs are a great way to pull another blogger’s followers into your site (new potential readers) and to provide fresh content. Co-bloggers help take some of the burden off you, and also bring another perspective and new information to the blog. Just remember to choose cohorts who are in line with your author brand so you can keep your message on target and keep your audience engaged.

In our next post we discuss ways to draw readers into your blog.