This post is about the marketing site Bookbuzzr. I was introduced to this site by another author and blogger Shelly Hitz, the Self Publishing Coach. If you are interested you can click on the link and/or find her on my Resources Page.
What Is Bookbuzzr?
Bookbuzzr is a book marketing site that helps automate some of the book marketing campaign for authors. It also helps with visibility on major book selling sites like Amazon and social media (Twitter and Facebook). They offer a great deal of technologies and fun ways to add exposure to books and connect authors to readers. They offer three different plans, but for additional general information go to their site Bookbuzzr.com.
With the Pro and Pro Plus plans, the book is listed in the gaming site fReado.com. The author and the listed books are improved in search engine ranking and are search engine optimized (SEO) which helps with visibility on Google for example. The purpose of this article is to describe the technologies that are offered on Bookbuzzr in general detail. Bookbuzzr works for you while you are writing, doing other promotional stuff, or sleeping since it is automated after you set it up.
The Widgets
Bookbuzzr offers a variety of widgets to use at your disposal. Each of them gives people access to read samples of your book, author information, buying information, etc on your Facebook Page and your website and/or blog.
Facebook Fanpage Widget: When Facebook had the “Wall Setup” this would display as a wall tab in the left hand side. Now since we have moved to the timeline setup this is now an app. It basically works the same way as the Goodreads Tab, but people can access you games, read samples, etc.
Bookbuzzr Book Widget: This widget can be put on your website or blog. It appears as an animated flipping book with your cover art fully visible. People click on the “read sample” button to read the snippet that you uploaded at signup. On the “dashboard” click on the “Bookbuzzr Book Widget” copy and paste the code provided and embed it on the blog or website. This works the same way as the Goodreads widgets.
Bookbuzzr Mini Widget: This is a smaller cousin of the Book Widget. It does the same thing as the larger widget, but it can go where the Book Widget can’t go due to its compact size. Installation is the same as the Book Widget. Note: WordPress blogs only allow you to put the mini widget on the page. I know this for a fact since I use WordPress. Blogger allows you to use the larger widget.
Email signature: This also displays an animated flipping book, book title,a link to read your sample, and your Twitter link. Installation depends on how your email service works. The code is provided for you for a choice between a broader or narrower version. Copy and paste the code in the signature creation prompts for your email provider.
fReado Giveaway Badge: If you are giving away books on the gaming site FReado, then you can choose your style of badge and put it on your website or blog just like a widget. Visitors to your website or blog can click on it and it takes them to the giveaway. There is a countdown clock ticking away until the giveaway ends and the winners are announced.
Hangman game (for more information see hangman below): Put your hangman game on your website or blog for visitors to access and play to learn more about your book in a fun way.
The Other Stuff
Bookbuzzr Amazon Alerts: You can get hourly or daily alerts for your Amazon rank. You must put your Amazon Identification Product number (ASIN) for it to work. The alerts come to you email inbox.
Bookbuzzr Book Tweeter: A tweet automater which you set up with a variety of settings. Automated tweets post daily or weekly to check out the book on Bookbuzzr with link. The daily tweets are set up to not annoy your followers. When a designated number of readers reads your book, a tweet will go up. Milestone tweets for 100 or more readers for your book will go up when that is met. Links to the book are included.
Bookbuzzr Goodwill Builder: You can share a link or embed a code on you blog or website. The person will receive 1000 points to use on fReado, the gaming site. Points are used to bid for prizes. If the person has never been there before, then they will be given instructions to follow.
Reports and Analytics: This give you your statistics for reads, widget views, cover memorizations (mentioned below), and cover views. Some of these alerts come to your email as well. This works much like web analytics unique to Bookbuzzr
fReado: the Gaming Site
This has been acclaimed as the world’s largest gaming site for book lovers. Points earned are used to bid for books, kindles, Amazon gift certificates, and other prizes. Bookbuzzr allows you to offer your book in a variety of formats: Mass paperback (traditional paperback), paperback, signed copy, pdf, or kindle. You are notified by Bookbuzzr staff via email of the winner(s). If there are no winners, your giveaway automatically resets for 10 day increments. Authors also choose the number of books given away and the points required for the minimum bid for the book. In other words, it functions like an auction. People also have the option to by or read the free sample on the prize listing. So it works much like the Librarything Member Giveaway program.
Bookbuzzr Book Giveaway: This appears on the “dashboard”. This is where you set up the giveaway details. Type of book, points required, number of copies, and so forth. You are responsible for getting the book to the winner(s). When setting up to deliver physical copies, you must choose which country(s) you will send books. Ebooks are not limited to the countries you serve.
Author Contests: Niche experts, publishers, etc can offer their goods and services to authors only. fReado has both authors and readers registered, but Bookbuzzr knows who is who. Explicit instructions are on the site or in the Twitter feed. Winners are announced and the prizes are delivered in the same way as with readers. Contest entry can be as simple as copy and pasting a tweet on Twitter. I was able to win a contest like this and bagged over $2K in free author stuff!
The Games
Covermatcher: This game starts immediately at signup. It is just like the memory game in that you have to find the match to various book covers. This is a fun way for people to see and remember your book cover. They also win points to use to bid for prizes.
Hangman: You must create the games for hangman by clicking on the “fReado Hangman” link on the dashboard. Authors create games either directly about their book content or something similar to its content. Words or phrases can be the answer, but you must include a clue and a game title; a description of the game title is optional. You have the option to mix up the puzzles under the main heading for added difficulty. Be creative, and make it fun, don’t be ‘salesy’. That’s bor-ring and annoying! When people play you games you get royalty points. Difficulty and popularity increase the amount of points earned. You can post links on Facebook or embed the code for each game on your website or blog. To get the code you must choose the game you want to post and click on the “share” option. Copy and paste the code just like a widget (mentioned above). The result will be a link. When the person clicks on the link, the hangman game will pop up with the first puzzle. Puzzles are tagged by age group, genre(s), and topic with your book.
Quick Quiz: This is fReado’s newest game that connects to Facebook. You make a quiz of questions and people have lifelines to use along the way. It is like a mini version of the game show “Millionaire”. Make the quiz about a topic related to your book or a popular book related to you genre. This is a fun way to engage and educate your readers.
What’s Next? Who knows. Bookbuzzr is always coming up with new, innovative ways to help authors market their books and engage readers. Since I use BookBuzzr and write in this blog I can help share the word. Also BookBuzzr has a blog to give tips and advice on how to use their products and other helpful information.
Signup
You must pick between three plans: one free (the Lite) and two paid ones (Pro and Pro Plus). Only the paid ones give you access to the gaming site and to all the technologies. The only difference between the Pro and Pro Plus is the amount of exposure you get.
If you have more than one title, you must enroll each book under its own separate plan. Since BookBuzzr is low-cost, this isn’t a bad thing.
The Dashboard
This is not an obvious dashboard like on a blog or Goodreads, but it works the same way. It gives you access too all your technologies, forums, fReado games and prizes, and fReado site. You may edit your user/author profile and the details for your book(s).
User/Author Profile
To access, click on your name in the “dashboard” you can add/edit you user information, add a new book, or change your password. Your profile consists of many of the same things as other book sites: age, about me, photo, websites/blog, email, Twitter ID, tags, etc. Tags on your profile will boost your SEO for you, your site(s), and your work, and places you with similar authors.
Book Profile
Click on the book title to add/edit book information. You can add, replace or delete the book excerpt. You may also edit your book details (synopsis, tags, genre, buying information, publisher, copyright, ISBN, media mentions, reviews, etc). You can delete the book from your list, unsubscribe from Bookbuzzr, or edit prize details here as well (giveaway link on dashboard). There is a “Read Now” button. The book profile is a combination of your book and your author information. This is what people will see when they look at your book. When you add books to your profile each book will have its own profile and dashboard underneath the title.
Additional Signup Perks
Inclusion in the fReado Facebook Photo Album based on the book and author of your genre(s). They will alert you when this happens and you can “tag” your photos. Follow fReado and Bookbuzzr on Facebook to keep up with updates.
Follow Bookbuzzr on Twitter (@Bookbuzzr). When you follow them, they will follow you. When you mention them in a tweet to announce your giveaways, they are very good at retweeting, mentions, and favoriting tweets. They have a large following platform so your tweet will be retweeted to 1200+ followers (and counting). You will also receive direct messages (DMs) if you win a prize or other details. Most author contests take place on Twitter.
fReado Technologies forums: for help or communicating with others in general are available after signup. The forums are accessed in the “Dashboard” at the top in orange which says “Bookbuzzr Book Marketing Technologies Forum.”
Bookbuzzr Library: This is pretty much self explanatory. This is a list of all the books that are registered on Bookbuzzr and the authors. The link to this is located above the forums link.
Other Helpful Stuff for Authors
Bookbuzzr Blog: As I mentioned earlier, this blog is very helpful in providing you with helpful tips and information on marketing and Bookbuzzr technologies.
Free Webinars: Bookbuzzr also hosts a variety of free webinars to assist you in marketing, social media, and other marketing stuff
Bookbuzzr offers so much for so little, and that is another reason why they are growing in popularity. They buzz about authors and their books and authors buzz about them in return.
That’s a wrap for this entire series. You don’t have to choose between any of the four. Why, it’s really great for you to combine all four of them together into your platform. They are free and/or low cost—great for a starting author on a shoestring marketing budget. I was and still am no different.