It takes a village

Everyone knows that it takes an entire community of people interacting with children, supporting and encouraging them, in order for them to thrive. Well, the same principle applies to books. It takes a village to effectively promote a book. But what exactly does that mean?

There are over two million books published every year. Over 300,000 in the U.S. alone. Stop to think about that for a minute. Of course, that includes fiction and non-fiction and I don’t have the statistics by genre. Still, imagine how many mystery novels are released in a twelve month period. Now, picture one book lost in that sea of books. The bottom line: an author can’t successfully promote his or her book alone. We need your help.

So, as a reader, what can you do? Here are a few suggestions: 

1. If you read a book and love it, spread the word. Tell everyone you know about it. Because the most effective means of promotion is word of mouth.
2. Write a positive review on amazon and Goodreads. I know this sounds like a lot of work but, believe me, once you do it, you’ll see how easy it is. A lot of readers have the mistaken impression that writing a review is similar to writing a book report. It isn’t. One or two sentences telling what you enjoyed most about the book can make all the difference in the world.
3. Purchase a paper copy of the book you enjoyed and give it to a reader on your shopping list. An avid reader will love nothing more than receiving a book for Christmas or their birthday.
4. Follow your favorite authors on amazon and Goodreads. That way, you’ll get a notification whenever they publish a new book.
5. Take a chance on a new (to you) author. It’s fine to read the novels by Big Name authors but you’re missing out if you don’t give small press and self-published authors a chance. Not all writers can be a Mary Higgins Clark or a James Patterson but we all have stories to tell that you just might love.