Gladiator's Pen: Getting visible for authors and their books

The hardest part of being an author isn’t writing the novel or even publishing. The hardest part is getting visible. In the not really so distant past authors had to depend on road trips to different bookstores and venues to grab attention. If they were really lucky, someone would land a TV or radio spot. Possibly get reviews from newspapers and magazines.

Those venues are still there and can be successful in reaching readers, but they can also be expensive and possibly limited to local areas. In today’s digital age authors can reach not just one city but the entire globe. All from their computer and often in their pajamas.

Why yes, I am wearing my comfiest jams right now, complete with fuzzy slippers. So don’t judge. ;o) Now let’s get back on topic…

The problem with this global reach is… well, it’s global, global is huge. The ways to reach out and grab your audience in that vast sea of readers is huge too. So how does one author and their books become visible? Create your internet platform with two kinds of sites. Listings/Profiles and Social Media.

We all know about social media like G+, Facebook, Twitter, etc.… Those sites take constant checking and maintaining in order for them to work properly for the author. All that checking, posting and commenting can take a lot of time.

That’s where listing sites come in. There are many sites out there that allow you to sign in and list your profile and books then leave. You just have to come back every so often to make sure your page is updated and working properly. Just dropping off a profile doesn’t sound very effective, but there are more of these sites than there are social media.

There are sites for every kind of genre, niche or just general book and author listings. People browse these

sites to find something new or interesting that goes with their interests, making it very easy to stumble upon your author page. Giving you the chance to snare a new reader, they may even share your page on their social sites brining more possible readers.

I know, I know your social media takes up so much time, how can you add one more place? The most time you’ll spend on a listing pages is the first time you sign up and create your profile. After that five minutes max now and then to update your page is worth the possibility of hooking five maybe ten more readers isn’t it?

Almost every niche you can think of has at least one listing site where you can put up a profile and gain more exposure. There’s another benefit to an author spreading themselves around the web, it adds more chances of the author’s name or book title being picked up by search engines. We all know that’s a plus.

Here are a few good listing sites to get started.

And many more, so go find your niche and get visible.

Do you use any other listing sites you would like to share?