With the explosion of social media, promoting a new book has become both easier and more complicated. There are thousands of blogs and websites for readers to visit as they look for recommendations for summer reading. Whether you find that great book on a blog review, blog tour, Amazon ad, Goodreads review, or by word of mouth from a friend, that author would appreciate your support.

Most authors are responsible for promoting their own books. They want to know which of their efforts are working. You, the reader, can help with that. Here are some suggestions for what you can do:

1. Buy the book. Duh. This is a no brainer.

2. ‘Like’ the book on Amazon.

3. Check Facebook for the author and a fan page. ‘Like’ both.

4. Look for the author and the book on other sites like YouTube, Goodreads, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter. ‘Like’ and ‘Follow’ wherever you can.

5. After you read the book, leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads.

6. Talk about it to your friends, tweet it, pin it, blog about it. Your enthusiasm spreads!

7. On Amazon, click the tags. Tags are phrases that buyers use to browse for books online, like: fantasy, young adult, winged horses, etc. The number of clicks on each tag controls how high up on the list the book appears when the search results come up. It’s much better to be on page one of those results than page 126! To find the tags, go to the book’s Amazon page and scroll down past the summary, past the reviews, to ‘Tags Customers Associate With This Product.’ Next to each tag is a little box. Click the box.

Can you think of anything I missed? How do you share books you like with your fellow readers?

♥

On my Kindle: In Polyester Pajamas by Catherine Dougherty