goodreads

Welcome to day 17. If you’ve been doing each day’s task, by now you’ll have several social media accounts, which you are hopefully using regularly. You’ll also have set up a Google alert and email signature line, and be blogging about your book regularly. And by now you’re hopefully starting to get some feedback on your book (and also on your social media efforts, in the form of new followers, or shares or retweets). Today’s task gets you to look for – and share – some of that feedback.

5 Minute Promo #17

Find a review of your book and share it on Twitter and your Facebook page, as well as Pinning it on your Pinterest page. Of course, because you’ve set up a Google Alert (haven’t you?) then you might already be aware of a review. If not, use a search engine, or visit your favourite book review websites and blogs. Then, once you’ve read the review and ascertained that it is at least mostly positive, share it.

BUT, I hear you say, what if I can’t find any reviews. Good question – and, I must admit that as I wrote this post I went and checked for reviews of Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape and didn’t find any. SO, here’s what you can do. head over to Goodreads, a site where you will find lots of reviews and rankings of books. Search for your book there. You may find that your book is already there. Great. If not, as I found with my book, you can add a record for it. It took me less than two minutes to create an entry for Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape. You can see it here. Once you’ve got your list on Goodreads, you can either wait for people to review or rank it, or you can use your social media to gently ask people (remember, pushing for reviews will put some people off) who have read it to give it a short review.

Go to it, and use the comment section below to tell me how you go.

When I’m not writing books, I’m usually reading them (other people’s that is). I read books of all sorts – from beautiful picture books, to children’s novels, young adult, literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry. – if it has words, I will read it, though my heart lies most squarely with poetry and books for young people.

Anyway, that’s almost off-topic. What I wanted to talk about today is spreading the word. Because most of the books I read I review, for my review site, Aussiereviews, where I have reviewed thousands of books over the past fifteen or so years. But I can’t review every book there, partly because of time constraints, and also because of my own review policy, which means that my site focusses only on Australian books.

But when I read a book that I love that I can’t review on Aussiereviews, I still do my darndest to tell the world about it in other ways. And I encourage other readers to do the same – because good books deserve to be shouted about – so that they will be read. So, here are some quick things you (and I) can do to spread the joy about a book.

1. Review it on a website or blog. If you haven’t got a blog, think about starting one if you have time.

2. Review it on Goodreads, Amazon, or other bookshop sites.

3. Tell people about it. Tell your friends, your parents, your children, strangers at the supermarket checkout. Anyone who will listen.

4. Tweet about it, with a link to the book or to someone else’s review.

5. Share it on Facebook, again with a link if possible. Make it easy for people to find out more.

6. Pin the cover image on Pinterest. If you are not on Pinterest, consider starting a board for books you love.

7. Give it as a gift. If you have a read a wonderful book, buy another copy to give as a gift.

8. Talk about it. Often when I do author visits, as well as talking about my own books I will also mention other books I have loved. When kids tell me about the books they’ve enjoyed, I usually give them a recommendation of something similar which they may not have come across.

9. Display the book. Put it on your coffee table, or face out on your bookshelf so that it will catch the eye of people around you.

10. Lend it. Instead of leaving your book treasure to gather dust, lend it to someone who you know will love it, too. Good friends do remember to return books, and if they don’t they must love it as much as you did.

How do you spread the words about books YOU love? I’d love to know.

This post was inspired by picking up a book from my review pile which didn’t meet my review policy (because it’s not Australian). The book? Those PeskyRabbits, by Ciara Flood. Published in Australia by Koala Books and in the UK, this is a divine book about getting along with neighbours, and trying new things. It deserves to be shouted about!

sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Love a Book? Tell the World!