How do I get my book featured on AALBC.com (for free)?
“How do I get my book featured on AALBC.com?” is a question often posed to me by authors, publishers and publicists.
Of course the best and fastest way to obtain prominent placement on AALBC.com is to purchase advertising. However when the above question is posed, subsequent follow up sometimes reveals the inquirer does not have a budget for advertising. This is fine, because there are many ways one can promote their work on AALBC.com for free.
While AALBC.com has funded the creation of 1,000’s of pages of content featuring profiles and interviews with authors, critical book reviews, book club reading and bestseller lists, we simply can not cover every author. In an environment where 3 million (see note) new titles are published annually, no entity can — nor would they want to. If one is unable to purchase an AALBC.com ad, how does one get their book featured on AALBC.com at no cost? Here are three simple ways:
1 – Introduce Your Book on Our Discussion Forum
Visit our African-American Literature Discussion Forum (better known as Thumper’s corner); http://aalbc.it/bookdiscussion.
Over at Thumper’s Corner we have been discussing books on-line since 1997. This is the perfect place to post information about your book.
You can post your book’s cover, and a brief description of your book, post a link back to you website, insert a YouTube video and more. Creating an account is simple; if you have a Facebook or Twitter account you can use those accounts to get started sharing information about your book, your work and yourself.
One of the best ways to take advantage of this platform is to post information about your book in direct response to a related post. For example, if someone says that are looking a good children’s book. If you’ve written a children’s book please feel free to reply with information about your book.
There is also an events calendar http://aalbc.it/BookEvents. You are encouraged to post your events there as well. I actively review the discussion boards to discover information on new or interesting books, authors and events to include in my eNewsletter and for my own reading pleasure.
What Not to Do on Our Discussion Boards
Please do not post information about your book on our discussion board every single day. Do not post information about your book in response to an unrelated conversation. This is spam and will result in your access being terminated. More importantly it will turn off potential readers and irritate the discussion boards moderator (read: me)
2 – Introduce Your Book on AALBC.com’s Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/aalbcfanpage/
AALBC.com Facebook’s fan page was not only created to notify “fans” about AALBC.com content, but it was also created to provide another platform for readers and authors/publishers to directly engage AALBC.com and our fans. Authors are encouraged to introduce themselves and their work. As with the discussion boards; I always review the AALBC.com Facebook fan page for information about authors and books.
I read everything that is posted on the fan page. I visit every link and watch every video posted. Time does not always permit me to respond to every post but I do look at everything.
What Not to Do
Again do not post information about yourself or your book every day. Once every few months is plenty, unless you are responding to a related post or question posted on the Facebook page.
Additional What Not to Do on Facebook
- Do not post information about your book on someone else’s personal Facebook wall. Use your own wall for this activity
- Do not tag others on photos, comments or videos that are promotional material for your book or yourself
- Do not add people to Facebook groups without their permission (invite them to join)
While Facebook allows you to do all of the above it is considered spam. One might think it is clever, to expand their reach by posting on other Facebook friends walls, in reality this just irritates those friends.
3 – Send Us A Photo With an AALBC.com Branded Product
- Award winning author Wahida Clark – Send us a photo and get your “mug” on AALBC.com too!
This is really a very simple way to obtain free placement of AALBC.com. This ad appears at the bottom of every AALBC.com page. These ads get hundreds of thousands of impressions a month. Just order an AALBC.com mug or any branded merchandise, email a photograph of you with the produc and send us a short blurb with a link to your site. We will setup the rest. You can also hold a copy of your book or anything else to promote your brand. This free AALBC.com advertisement will be limited to the first 10 published authors Click here to learn more.
These Techniques are Universal
The techniques listed above (with the exception of the AALBC.com branded product), can be used on other discussion boards, blogs and social media. In fact these are some of the techniques I utilize to promote AALBC.com.
Remember not to spam other websites when posting comments or information. Ask yourself are you moving the conversation forward or contributing in a meaningful way or are you merely engaging in shameless self promotion?
With the increase in the number of books published, I get more requests to be featured on AALBC.com than ever before. As a result, the techniques described are even more valuable in an increasingly competitive environment.
For more information about getting your book on AALBC.com, and AALBC.com in general, please visit: http://aalbc.com/faq.htm
Notes
In 2010 more than 300,000 new books (or new editions) are published via traditional means. If we factor in print on demand and other non-traditional titles published in 2010 that number exceeds 3 million (read more about these figures).
