6 Things You Can Do to Help Support Authors

How do you stand out among this crowd??
[Photo by Raysonho@Open Grid Scheduler]

I love my writing friends and want to support them, but I'll be honest, I haven't always known the best way to help them out when they've released their babies into the world ...

Author  Shawna Romkey posted the following blog post about a month ago and it sums up all the things you can do to support your fave authors.  Hope you find it as useful as I did!!  (As a side note, Kobo is the name of an e-reader we use in Canada ... so it might be a new word for you) :)

Do you have an author you love, like, are a fan of or just want to plain old support? These are the six things you can do to help them out.

1. Like their book. Find their book on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads and “like” it. The more “likes” a book has, the more “like”ly it is to sell. If no one has liked it, a potential buyer may not want to try it.

2. Tag the book. On Amazon.com you have the ability to add “tags” to the book. If you scroll down past the reviews, you’ll find “tags.” What tags do is show keywords that the book is about, so someone looking for a book on dogs might type in the word “dogs.” If your friend has written a book on dogs, add the keyword “dogs” to their tags. That makes their book more likely to come up in a search of that word. If your friend has written a romance, add the tag “romance.” If it is about “vampires” you can add that, as well as whatever else comes to mind: “horror,” “paranormal,” “gothic” etc… Add the author’s name. Add any other titles the author has written. Add whatever you can think that’s relevant. The more tags, the more searchable the book will be.

3. Review the book. Reviews sell books, plain and simple. Give the book a read, go to the big 4 sites I mentioned above (Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads) and review it or rate it. The review doesn’t have to be perfect. You aren’t writing it for your high school English teacher. It can just be a few lines about why you liked it. Try to avoid giving spoilers in a review.

4. Share the book on Facebook. Share your review after you’ve written it. I know on Amazon that option pops up for you to post your review on FB. If you can, Share it. If your author friend posts it on FB, share it to your list.

5. Tweet it. Just like sharing above, except for Twitter. You are given the option to tweet your review after you do so. Do it. Tweet it. Retweet your friend’s posting of it.

6. Pin it. The new social media giant on the block is Pinterest. It’s number three, right behind Facebook and Twitter. If you haven’t checked it out yet and are bored and have nothing to do, take a look. If you are a busy person, don’t because you’ll become addicted and never get anything done. Go to one of the big sites mentioned above and Pin your friend’s book. Their book will end up in the massive Pinterest feed for hundreds of thousands of people to see, and those people will be able to Re-pin it.

Those are the 6 things you can do to help out your author friends. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Goodreads are the big 4 sites you can go to for their books and to post ratings and reviews. Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are the big 3 social media outlets out there to help spread the word.