In a digital world gone mad, book discovery tools are all the rage, sites and apps that bring readers to your book who may have not yet found you from your website or social media platforms. There are many tools out there; finding the right one(s) for your book can be a bit of trial and error.
Unfortunately, many authors feel as if they could just find the right “tool” all their marketing problems would be solved. It doesn’t work that way, though you’re in great company with thousands of publishers and millions of others looking for that same holy grail.
At the end of the day, how many people you get to your site and your book pages, and if you impress them with your content when they DO, will be up to you. However, we encourage you to try out a few tools along the way to help you get there…
Here, a dozen free and paid options, ready to help you get your words out to their ever-expanding audiences!
Content Delivery and Crowdsourcing Your Words
- Wattpad: Test your words on 13 million readers; read more HERE.
- TowerBabel: Online platform for authors to write, collaborate and publish electronically, and reader discovery. Read more HERE.
These may be better options for those who haven’t yet published (since weighing in on authors’ words is a big part, and might discourage you if you’re already in print). But these may be ways for you to test your newer words on readers and in the process help them discover other work you’ve already published.
And with National Novel Writing Month kicking off November 1st (Visit NaNoWriMo for details) these sites might prove useful for that newest project, too!
Discoverability: Sites Where Readers Can Find Your Books
- Bookarma: Social sharing site lets authors load their own book info, then gain points for sharing other books on the site with their own social networks. Each time you share someone else’s book, you earn karma. The more you share, the more your book appears within Bookarma’s community.
- Bublish: Social book discovery; read more HERE. There’s both a free (one book only) and paid option ($9.99 monthly).
- Aerio: Established as a direct-to-consumer solution for publishers, this allows self-publishing writers to offer their eBooks and printed books to purchasers direct from their own websites.
- Hometown Reads: Like supporting local food growers, Hometown Reads has been created to support local authors. It’s not huge yet, but it’s free to get signed up as an author, and the site promotes you, your page and your city to others in that city. It only takes moments to sign up; go for it!
y giving away the initial copies of the book for free, in exchange for a mention on social media and a star rating, we quickly get your book into the hands of readers. – See more at: http://www.screwpulp.com/?about#sthash.3t813x7a.dpuf
FEE BASED SITES
The following are sites that charge advertising/user fees but have the potential to put your book in front of a LOT of your readers. NOTE: We ONLY recommend a fee-based site if we’ve seen actually evidence of their positive effect on authors and book sales.
- BookBub: This advertorial newsletter goes out to hundreds of thousands of readers in dozens of genres, advertising special book deals/discounts. Advertising cost is based both on genre and the price you’re willing to discount your book to. You must be able to show some traction and reviews before they’ll accept your book, but every author we’ve had use this platform has seen a positive return on their investment!
- FreeBooksy.com and BargainBooksy.com: Like Bookbub, an advertising medium that sends news of your free or discounted book to an extensive list of readers. Lots of features and we’re hearing great things about them from other authors.
- NetGalley: They provide secure, digital versions of publishers’ titles to thousands of professional readers, and they now offer this service to indie authors as well. A great way to “one-stop-shop” a bunch of reviews over a short period of time. Discovering your book here isn’t easy, but what IS useful is being able to tell those reviewers you’re pitching from the Winner Circle that your book is available for easy download at NetGalley. Most professional reviewers are already members and they know the drill.
- The Fussy Librarian: Social book discovery along the lines of BookBub and BargainBooksy. Their genres and prices (very economical) are shown HERE and worth investigating!
- BookGrabbr: At $25 a month, this is a pricier option for many new authors. The theory is that you sign up and allow your social media contacts to “grab” your book or an excerpt, and they share, and so on. It boasts extensive analytics to show how often your book has been grabbed and by whom.
Have a cool tool to share with the tribe? Tell us about it with your comment below. Have you used any of the tools above? Tell us about the experience, good or bad!