Publishing E-Books For Dummies

Getting the Word Out About Your E-Book Without Stepping on Toes

Obviously, you shouldn’t spam all your new friends with constant promotional messages about your e-book — but you do need to be able to let people know that you have an e-book available.

To encourage a Goodreads friend to check out your e-book, you can send a direct message to let the friend know about your e-book. You may want to take a look at a friend’s bookshelves first, to see whether that person has read any similar titles. That way, you can mention that you noticed they enjoyed a certain book or books and that you think they’ll like your e-book, too.

To send a direct message to a Goodreads friend, follow these steps:

1. On your profile page, click the name of your friend in your Friends list.

Your friend’s profile page opens.

2. Click the Send Message link near the top of the page, on the left side.

The Compose New Message page appears.

3. Fill in a subject, type a message, and click Send.

You can’t use the Goodreads Recommendation feature to recommend your own book — though you can use it to recommend other books. It’s a nice way to offer value to your reader friends and to help promote authors whose work you’ve enjoyed. Good karma never goes amiss!

Crafting your message to a group

One simple way to spread the word about your e-book is to join a relevant group and write a message there.

Many Goodreads ...