Self Publishing & Book Marketing
We recommend this article from Goodreads.
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2898-goodreads-tips-for-authors
Topics covered:
Connecting with Readers on Goodreads
Info on running a Goodreads Giveaway
Getting help from Goodreads
While you’re at it, visit MWSA’s page on Goodreads! You’ll find lists of MWSA authors’ books going back to our 2015 season.
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/69843339-military-writers-society-of-america-mwsa
Click to visit MWSA’s Goodreads page
Goodreads, often referred to as the Facebook or Internet Movie Data Base (IMDb) for readers and authors, is more than just a platform. It's a vibrant community boasting an impressive user base. With over 150 million members, 200,000 registered authors, and a staggering 3.5 billion books on file, it's clear that Goodreads is the go-to platform for readers and book recommendations. Let’s delve into why you should consider joining this thriving community.
Goodreads offers a unique opportunity for authors to connect with their readers on a deeper level. Imagine your book, like the 2024’s most popular book, The Women, being reviewed by a whopping 361,609 readers, who have collectively posted 44,801 reviews, giving it an impressive overall score of 4.66 out of 5.0. These reviews are not just numbers; they are your readers' voices, shaping your work's perception.[i]
This should signal to us that a large audience of users of this database routinely access book listings and express their opinions. Participation is also a straightforward way to keep track of what you have read in the past, much like you can do with movies on IMDb. The more books you enter that you want to, are, or have read, the better the software can recommend books for you to read based on your preferences. Amazon.com does the same thing based on your purchases and browsing history.
As an author, you can post an author profile with links to any work for sale on Amazon.com and attract fans and followers for you and your books. Goodreads will automatically import any book from Amazon.com that lists you as a contributor. A posting of your books affords you the prospect of adding an enticing description that might convince someone to purchase your work (helpful links to sites are included). It also allows you to introduce searchable metadata on your book by readers looking for various subjects and keywords. When readers have read one of your books, they click on a link to your author page and follow you. You can see what friends are reading and how they rank any book. Private messaging and group discussions are allowed between members of groups and friends.
As a publisher, and anyone that is an indie or self-publisher this means you, you will undoubtedly want to take advantage of a highly robust and free author page available to anyone Goodreads qualifies as a Goodreads Author. Generally, this is anyone with a published book who is listed as a contributor – thus including chapter authors for anthologies. As a Goodreads Author, you can post your photo, a bio, answers to questions the site or you provide, a video of perhaps you reading a portion of your work, a list with links to your books, a blog, lists of books you are reading, quotes by you, quotes by others that you like, results of polls, and authors that you like. This is in addition to groups you can join, friends you can collect, and announcements of events sent automatically to your friends, like on Facebook. There is a separate page for giveaways. You can enter some data initially, go back, and fill in the rest later. The author’s page alone should be sufficient reason to get involved.
Goodreads, like Amazon.com, now require separate author pages for each name under which you are published.[ii] Amazon.com owns Goodreads, and books listed on Amazon should routinely appear in it. A librarian group helps fix metadata problems. A Goodreads app is available on most smartphones, permitting access from your mobile device.
MWSA has an active Goodreads profile, where we post reviews of books submitted by members for our annual writing contest.[iii] Each awards season, we add books to a “shelf” for that season’s year. For example, here’s a link to our 2024 season page.[iv] As of now, we have posted over 800 of our MWSA authors’ books. We have forty-nine friends and sixty-two followers. In other words, creating your own author page and having MWSA post your book on our awards season page will help generate sales for your book.
Join your fellow members and take advantage of the opportunities afforded by this excellent and free program designed to support writers like you. Visit our page today… and don’t forget to become a friend and follower of MWSA’s Goodreads page!
[i] https://www.goodreads.com/book/popular_by_date/2024 and https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127305853-the-women
[ii] For example, https://www.goodreads.com/jimtritten contains my more recent publications where I used the pen name Jim Tritten while https://www.goodreads.com/jamestritten generally contains my older and academic publications. There is overlap just as there are on both of my Amazon.com author pages.
[iii] https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/69843339-military-writers-society-of-america-mwsa
[iv] https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/69843339?shelf=2024
Image by Bing Image Creator (see note)
MWSA member Janette Stone gave a presentation on self-publishing at our New London conference.
She graciously offered to share two documents from that presentation with our members.
Resources to add to your self-pub toolkit — covers author support groups, editorial services, cover design, formatting, awards, promotion, publishing services, marketing, free resources, and recommendations concerning the dreaded “author platform.”
Taking Care of Business — includes tips and resources for editing, cover design, formatting, Bowker, and much more.
Note that the AI we used to generate the image above either had a sense of humor or needed an editor (like all of us writers). SULF Publishing, really? ;-)
Image from the Forbes website (Anna David MIKE CARANO). Click on image to go to article.
I recently read an article on the Forbes website titled, The Biggest 5 Mistakes When Self-Publishing A Book. It provides an interesting take on the pitfalls of self-publishing--especially mistake #4. I'd have put it more "diplomatically," but the concept still applies. In this short article, I’d like to expand on that 4th “mistake” from my perspective as awards director.
Between a third and half of books submitted to MWSA each season are self-published or published via very small publishing houses (who may or may not have a full-time editor on staff or contract). Of those books, quite a few end up scoring rather poorly in our evaluations.
In almost every case, the most noteworthy problems are of a technical nature (grammar, punctuation, capitalization, etc.). We also see glitches in layout--this is especially the case for eBooks. These types of shortfalls can usually be identified and fixed via a round of editing with a pro. But not all self-published or first-time authors are prepared to go that route (financially or emotionally).
Through our Beta Reader Program (https://www.mwsadispatches.com/beta-readers), full members of MWSA can arrange to have another MWSA member-author go over their work. Most of our members are not editors, but having written books themselves, they probably have a different perspective than your run-of-the-mill beta reader. Also, since they don't know you, you're likely to get the honest feedback your family or friends might not want to share with you.
There are several free or low-cost programs out there--Grammarly seems to be one of the most popular. Give them a try and see what works for you.
It's undeniable that self-publishing a book is becoming easier all the time. However, self-publishing a high-quality book still requires work. That's the difficult part, and MWSA would like to help you get there.
John Cathcart
MWSA Awards Director
To increase your book's discoverability on Amazon, you need descriptions and keywords that accurately portray your book's content and use the words customers will use when they search. Along with factors like sales history and Amazon Best Sellers Rank, relevant keywords can boost your placement in search results on Amazon.com.
Best practices with keywords:
Combine keywords in the most logical order: Customers will search for military science fiction but not for fiction science military.
Use up to seven keywords or short phrases. Separate them with commas, and keep an eye on the character limit in the text field.
Experiment. Before you publish, search for your book's title and keywords on Amazon. If you get irrelevant results, or results you dislike, consider making some changes—your book will ultimately appear among similar results. When you search, look at the suggestions that appear in the Search field drop down.
Think like your customer. Think about how you would search for your book if you were a customer, and ask others to suggest keywords they'd search on.
Useful keyword types
● Setting (Colonial America)
● Character types (single dad, veteran)
● Character roles (strong female lead)
● Plot themes (coming of age, forgiveness)
● Story tone (dystopian, feel-good)
For suggestions on search keywords based on browse category, read more here.
Do not include these things in keywords:
● Information covered elsewhere in your book's metadata—title, contributor(s), category, etc.
● Subjective claims about quality (e.g. "best")
● Statements that are only temporarily true ("new," "on sale," "available now")
● Information common to most items in the category ("book")
● Common misspellings
● Variants of spacing, punctuation, capitalization, and pluralization (both "80GB" and "80 GB", "computer" and "computers", etc.). The only exception is for words translated in more than one way, like "Mao Zedong" and "Mao Tse-tung," or "Hanukkah" and "Chanukah."
● Anything misrepresentative, such as the name of an author that is not associated with your book. This type of information can create a confusing customer experience and Kindle Direct Publishing has a zero tolerance policy for metadata that is meant to advertise, promote, or mislead.
Don't use quotation marks in search terms: Single words work better than phrases—and specific words work better than general words. If you enter "complex suspenseful whodunit," only people who type all of those words will find your book. You'll get better results if you enter this: complex suspenseful whodunit. Customers can search on any of those words and find your book.
Other metadata tips
● Customers are more likely to skim past long titles (over 60 characters).
● Focus your book's description on the book's content
● Your keywords can capture useful, relevant information that won't fit in your title and description (setting, character, plot, theme, etc.)
● You can change keywords and descriptions as often as you like
● If your book is available in different formats (physical, audio) keep your keywords and description consistent across formats
● Make sure your book's metadata adheres to KDP's Metadata Guidelines.
[From Booktown]