In this ebook, we discuss how to effectively use social media channels to promote your book and your brand. Twitter, for example, is by far the largest social bookmarking site on the Internet today, with over 500 million registered users in 2012, over 340 million tweets and over 1.6 billion search queries per day. It enables users to read and reply to short text-based messages, and helps users generate a following. It is a useful viral marketing tool, especially when linked to other social media channels, such as Pinterest, for example, which we also cover. We tell you how to become a prolific Twitter user, including the dos and don’ts of tweeting relevant, book-related content.

We also discuss social cataloguing site Shelfari, which enables you to create virtual bookshelves for your books to keep track and catalogue what you have read. It also includes book clubs and forums to discuss your favourite books with others and see what they are currently reading. Other online cataloguing and personal library-style websites we consider in this ebook include weRead, My Library, Anobii and Library Thing.

Finally, we discuss how to successfully use Goodreads, a book recommendation and review site founded ‘to help people find and share books they love’. It allows literary aficionados to search an extensive database of books, annotations and reviews, register books and generate personal libraries and reading lists, and rate and review books. You can also see what your friends are reading, participate in discussion boards and groups on a variety of topics, and get suggestions for future reading choices. We explain how this, and other social media channels, can help you and your book to reach its intended market.

Darin Jewell is a professional literary agent and author of ‘How to Sell and Market Your Book’.  He is a regular speaker in writing seminars and writing groups, and represents bestselling authors Fergus O’Connell, Michael G. R. Tolkien, Mark Leigh and Simon Brown.

Conrad Jones is a bestselling ebook author, and has been interviewed on the BBC and radio as an ebook specialist.  His ‘Soft Target’ thrillers were in the top 40 for nearly 12 months, with ‘The Child Taker’ reaching #1 in thriller law books, and ‘Tank’ reaching #1 in thriller war books.

IN A DAY Series

Best Social Media Websites for Books; Set up a Twitter Account; 50 Ways to Build your Author Profile using Pinterest; Building Your Author Profile on Reddit; Set up a Goodreads Account and Join their Author Program; Other Useful Book Cataloguing Websites.