Social Networking on Amazon with Your Digital Book

Hi, my name is D’vorah Lansky and I am excited to share this blog post, on the topic of Digital Publishing, with you. I’d like to thank Jim for hosting me during this virtual tour, in honor of Digital Publishing Virtual Summit, where we feature 20 world-renowned book marketing experts.

Today I’d like to talk to you about the marketing and social networking opportunities on Amazon. Amazon is the power house of online book stores and the #1 place that authors need to be. It’s where you’ll get the most recognition and potentially where you’ll sell the most books. If you are an author, wanting to promote and sell more books, Amazon provides you with some powerful tools, as well as access to online social networking opportunities.

Amazon Author Central

Once you have a book published to Amazon, you can set up an author page on Amazon Author Central. Each author can create their own author page on Amazon Author Central. Not only can you list your author bio and your bibliography of published works, you can pull in the RSS feed from your blog, post videos, and add images. This provides you with an ‘online resume’ if you will, as well as a powerful place for people to come to find out more about you and your books.

Author Central is, a free service provided by Amazon to allow authors to reach more readers, promote books, and interact with the social community.

Having a published digital book makes your message accessible to more people while positioning you as an expert in your field. It could be that you are a published author with a manuscript ready to be converted into an eBook format or it could be that you have not even thought about writing a book but are intrigued by the idea. Regardless of where you are in this process you have much to gain by having a book published in a digital format.

Gathering Book Reviews as a Social Networking Experience

When my new book became available on Amazon, I was prepared. For weeks before my publication date I began putting out the word and interacting with other authors interested in book marketing. Being that my book (Book Marketing Made Easy) is on the topic of ‘online book marketing’ I put out an irresistible offer to create a win/win situation.

I let it be known that I was looking for book reviewers interested in online book marketing. My offer was that by participating in an online survey, and agreeing to provide a brief review of my book on Amazon, I would send them a digital review copy of my book.

I had 97 people take me up on the offer and to date have over 50 reviews of my book listed on Amazon! The results are actually much higher than I anticipated as I expected that 1 out of every 4 people who requested a copy of my book would turn in a book review. This also built the foundation towards the momentum of my 21-day virtual book tour and my book becoming an Amazon bestseller in three categories.

Ok, so you may be asking at this point, ”What does this have to do with social networking on Amazon?” Here’s the scoop:

• By requesting answers to a few brief survey questions along with book reviews (to be posted on Amazon) in exchange for a review copy of my book, this allowed me to build relationships with people in my target audience and provide them with opportunities to network with one another.
• Each person who submitted a review to Amazon, was also featured on my book blog, publicly recognized, and featured in my book marketing eZine along with the name of their book and link to their website. This encouraged interaction between the reviewers and the rest of our author community.
• Spotlighting the Amazon review process not only helped to promote my book, it provided a guided tour for other authors to discover the power of Amazon reviews for their books and for themselves as an author.
• Being that there is the option of creating video reviews on Amazon, this provided an opportunity for my reviewers to be in the spotlight and grow their own following as video is a powerful relationship building, marketing tool.
• And, the customer discussion section and tagging communities on Amazon Author Central provide a place for your audience to both share their ideas and interact with one another.

Have you benefitted by marketing your book on Amazon? Scroll down to share your thoughts, experiences and ideas in the comment section below. Here’s to your book marketing success!
D’vorah

If you’d like to learn more about digital publishing; how it’s grown and where it’s going, join us for the Digital Publishing Virtual Summit where Jim presents a workshop entitled: 5 Ways To Have Your eBook Done By Next Friday.

In this session you’ll have access to several different options for creating your eBook content quickly, discover many methods of creating ebooks other than straight ‘writing’, along with specific? tips, tricks, and resources

from Jim’s direct experience in publishing dozens of eBooks for over a decade.

~.~.~.~.~.~.

Enjoy this Digital Publishing Virtual Tour! May the gems gleaned aid you on your path as you share your message with audiences across the globe!

If you are interested in the topic of Digital Publishing, consider joining us for the Digital Publishing Virtual Summit! Check out this impressive group of world-renowned experts at: Digital Publishing Virtual Summit

D’vorah Lansky, M.Ed., has been marketing online and mentoring leaders since 1994. She is the bestselling author of Book Marketing Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Selling Your Nonfiction Book Online.

She is the producer of the annual Book Marketing Conference Online and this year’s Digital Publishing Virtual Summit, as well as the founder of the Book Marketing Alliance and the Book Marketing Made Easy Academy. D’vorah coaches and trains authors around the globe, in online book marketing practices.

Join us for the Digital Publishing Virtual Summit! Listen as 20 world-renowned experts share their wisdom.
http://www.bookmarketingmadeeasy.com/center/idevaffiliate.php?id=196