Discovering Goodreads

www.Goodreads.com
logo used with permission

If you haven't discovered Goodreads yet, you're missing out on a golden opportunity. Whether you're an author with books to promote or a reader who loves to read, Goodreads is the premier place for book lovers to gather and discuss the books they are reading, writing, reviewing, and loving.

Goodreads currently has 20 million members. They have added 570 million books to their site and members have generated 24 million book reviews. Its a book-lover's paradise.

Goodreads used to be privately owned but in a surprise move it was bought by Amazon.com on March 28, 2013. The acquisition of Goodreads by Amazon shocked many business people who had previously seen Goodreads as giving some competition to Amazon's Shelfari (and winning that competition. Seriously, is anybody on Shelfari?). Perhaps some also saw it as a conflict of interest with Amazon getting rid of the competition by buying them out. But that's a fair move in business. Either way, Goodreads is alive and thriving.

I've been a Goodreads member for a few years now, but honestly I'm still learning a lot about it and how to use it. For example, just a few weeks ago, via their newsletter, I learned I could send a "status update" to all my followers and fans. Who knew?! I sure didn't know I could do that.

Whether you've been on Goodreads for a while yourself or you're new to Goodreads, let me share what I've learned and discovered about what we can do there. There is so much, surely there's something here that's new for you.

www.Goodreads.com
logo used with permission

Join for free

Goodreads is free to join, and you can sign in with your Facebook which makes it easy.

Connect with Friends

Similar to Facebook, you send Friend Requests and the person on the other end can accept your request or not. I found a lot of friends by reviewing the Friend lists of others and sending requests from there. But beware, Goodreads frowns on sending mass Friend requests and you can reach a daily limit.

Since I joined in January 2008, I had accumulated 466 friends...until a few weeks ago when I realized I had never used their link to send Friend invitations to my Twitter Followers. I clicked that and the Friends started coming! In less than two weeks, I added over 200 new Friends to my list.

I have yet to send invitations to my Facebook friends or e-mail lists, although those options are there, too. Find them on your Friends page. (Click the little people icon at the top right by your photo and you'll see it on the right: "Find Friends From.")

 

What you can do as a Reader

Here are just some of the activities Readers find and can take part in on Goodreads that I've discovered. But I don't think I've listed everything:

Friend others.

Follow people and get followers.
The difference between Friends and Followers is that you send or receive a Friend request and accept it or not. It's a two-way relationship. A Follower doesn't need your permission to follow you and read your reviews. (I think I got that right. It's confusing.) You can be Friend, a Follower, or both.

See which books our Friends are reading.

Read reviews. Write reviews.

Challenge yourself to read a certain number of books and keep track.

Shelve books, including books you want to read, books you are reading, books you own, and more.

Track the books you are reading, want to read, etc.

Enter a Goodreads Giveaway. There are tons of them and you might win a free book. These are often newly released books. If you win a giveaway, a review is appreciated but not required.

Join a group. There are tons of these too -- for every genre you can think of, for reviewers, for Christian books, and so much more. There are discussions and networking opportunities and more.

Get book recommendations. Based on what you've read and reviewed, Goodreads will recommend other books you might like.

What you can do as an Author

Sign up for the free Author Program Goodreads has an author program where you can set up your own Author Page. You can add a photo, a bio, links to your other sites, and more. Fans can follow you.

Goodreads says, "The Goodreads Author Program is a completely free feature designed to help authors reach their target audience — passionate readers. This is the perfect place for new and established authors to promote their books."

There are guidelines for authors you should read when you set up your page. If you don't find your book(s) already on their site, they will add them for you. Self-published books are welcome here. (Although I think they need to be available online somewhere, not just from your garage. But if that's your situation, check it out.)

Connect your blog, so it appears on your author page.

Add a video or trailer for your book.

Host a Goodreads Giveaway. You set it up and choose the dates it will run (maximum 90 days),  how many books to give away, and where in the world the giveaway will be available. You'll add a description of the book. People can enter to win a copy of your book. Goodreads will randomly choose the winners and send you the list with addresses. You are responsible for getting the book to the winners in a timely manner. (If you choose to make your giveaway available outside the U.S., such as in Canada and the U.K., you can deliver the book by buying it as a gift and having it delivered through Amazon.) Goodreads Giveaway are for print books only, not e-books.

Goodreads Giveaways generate fantastic exposure for your book. Not only can members enter to win, many more of them mark it as "want to read," which generates more exposure for you, getting your book title and cover in front of more potential readers and book buyers.

List your Events. Similar to Facebook, Goodreads has an "Events” function. I use it to list every upcoming author event and appearance I'm planning. To list an Event, click on the “Explore” menu, then on “Events,” then on “Add an Event.”

List some Quotes. On my Author Page I can add both "Dianne's Quotes" and "Quotes from Dianne." I guess the first would be my favorites from other sources and the latter from myself? I want to find some interesting quotes from my books and add them here.

Click "quotes" on the Explore menu, then click "Add A Quote."

Send a General Update. I just learned about this! As an author, I'm now trying to send an update about once a week. Here's quoting from the Goodreads newsletter:

Want to let people know that giveaway winners have been selected or that you're in the process of reviewing the edits on your manuscript? Tell them in a status update!

Status updates are a quick way to broadcast a short message -- up to 420 characters -- to your followers on Goodreads. Updates appear in the news feed, where you friends and followers can like them and comment on them.

Create a status update from the "Currently Reading" section of your home page when logged into Goodreads.

You'll find it in the upper right corner of the "Currently Reading" box. It's a link called "add a general update."

Put a Goodreads widget on your blogs and sites. They give you the code to copy and paste into your html so people can Friend you or enter your Goodreads Giveaway. To see mine, look in the right hand column (you may have to scroll up to see it), or click this link: "Giveaway" or click on the "Giveaway" tab at the top of this page. But come right back because we're not quite done!

What Authors and Readers can do

At least I think both Authors and general members can do these next three things. It's hard for me to tell because as a Goodreads Author, certain things show up on my pages that general members don't see and I can't tell whether some of these things are available to general members or not. If you discover they're not available to everyone, please leave a comment and let us all know.

Find these next three under the Explore menu.

I've also seen links to these next three on other pages, but I can't tell you where because I can't find them again! (Which is one of the drawbacks of Goodreads. I've seen interesting things but then later have no idea how to find them again. But I'm learning...)

Listopia. Great fun for general members.But Authors can also make good use of these to add their own books, so make a list of your favorite books or genre then include your own books!

Trivia. If you're a general member (meaning not a Goodreads Author), can you see this one? I'm working on finding some interesting trivia in my Prophecies Fulfilled books to post here. 

Click "trivia" on the Explore menu, then click "Add a question" on the Trivia Question bar.

Quizzes.  Again, if you're a general member I believe you can see this one. I'm working to figure out some good but challenging questions from both the Christmas story in the Bible and the Easter story. It will be fun to see if my quizzes bring more attention to my Prophecies Fulfilled books.

Click "quizzes" on the Explore menu, then click "create a quiz." Also take a few of the quizzes. They are fun and they'll spark some ideas for creating your own.

Please enter my Goodreads Giveaway

If you're already a member of Goodreads, you're all set to enter my Goodreads Giveaway. You can click to enter from this page.

If you're not yet a Goodreads member, now that you're familiar with it, why not give it a go? Once you join or login, look me up here: https://www.goodreads.com/DianneEButts

Send me a Friend request and I'll be your first friend. Or Follow my author page as a Fan if you want.

After you join, don't forget to enter my Goodreads Giveaway. You can come back here to enter, or you can find my Giveaway in the many other Giveaways. Go to the Giveaways from the Explore menu. Then find "Browse by Tag" on the right-hand side. Click "More..." at the bottom and then choose "Christian" and you'll find my book in there somewhere. I think they put the newest on top, so you'll have to scroll down to find mine and maybe even go to the next page. I hope you win!

Related Goodreads Article

Thinking you don't need one more social network to keep up with? This article by literary agent Janet Kobobel Grant gives great advice for authors to make the most of Goodreads in only one visit per week: 5 Ways To Increase Visibility Through Goodreads

Here's a short video with Otis Chandler, CEO and Co-founder of Goodreads:

 

December: Something fun and different coming next month

For December, we're going to do something a little different. Call it a special Christmas treat, my Christmas gift to you.

You're going to get treated to a free sample of my fiction ... as well as free chapters by other Pix-N-Pens / Write Integrity Press authors. Then we're going to put all these chapters together to make one e-book and, if you're paying attention, you'll be able to get the whole e-book for free for a limited time. So please tune in on the first of December for all the details. You'll know:

• where to find the free chapters
• when and where my chapter will appear
• and when and how to get the whole book for free (and later for a great discount)

It's going to be fun. Instead of being all business, we're going to take some time to relax and enjoy the holiday season. It will be a great way to kick off your Christmas season. We hope you'll be blessed!

Tweetables:

Discovering #Goodreads http://ow.ly/qcQm7 @DianneEButts   Click to Tweet

How to promote your #book through Goodreads http://ow.ly/qcQm7   @DianneEButts   Click to Tweet

#Authors discover all the ways to #promoteyourbook at #Goodreads! http://ow.ly/qcQm7  @DianneEButts Click to Tweet

Pin It

7 Keys to (SEO-Successful) Blog Posts

from www.Morguefiles.com

I had a feeling if I put "SEO" in the title of this month's post your eyes would glaze over and I wouldn't see your lovely face here reading my post. I tried to sneak it past you by putting "SEO-Successful" in parentheses. It seems like many writers I know don't want to deal with SEO. But really, if you're blogging or if you're the guest on someone else's blog talking about your book or if you're writing online, don't you want people to find your post and read your stuff? That's what SEO is all about. So let's talk about 7 Keys to making your blog posts more SEO-successful so you can draw more readers.

I don't claim to be an expert on SEO. But I've learned some and, as usual, this e-zine-turned-blog is all about sharing what I've learned in the hope it will help you in your own writing journey.

Probably, nowadays, most writers know what SEO is. But I can see some of you still have glazed-over eyes, so let's talk about what SEO is. SEO doesn't have to be complicated. There's a boon of books written on the subject, but those are for people who are interested or who do marketing or publicity for a living. Writers need to know some about SEO to promote their own writing and make the most of every opportunity for their online writing, but we don't have to get overly complicated. Let's keep it simple: SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimization" and that phrase doesn't have to be intimidating. It simply means there are simple things you can do to optimize (make the most of) search engines and help them find you and your writing. That brings more readers to whatever you write. And that's a good thing. After all, that's what we're in it for, right?

So, let's get started and look at 7 Keys to making your blog post more search-engine friendly (also known as search engine optimized):

Key 1: Write Only One Topic Per Post

Seriously, only one topic per post. This sounds easy, doesn't it. But I find it's harder than it looks. Take today for example. I have so much I want to tell you! Besides writing on the topic of the month, I also want to:

1. Tell you that I have a new book out. How exciting is that?!
2. Encourage you to attend the Colorado Christian Writers Conference coming up later this month.

Now see? While I'm dying to tell you all this stuff in my once-a-month post, those are really two different besides the writing topic of SEO for blogs. If I include these other two thoughts in my post, the search engines won't know where to "file" this post. And you know what happens when something gets filed when nobody really knows where it should be filed: it's never seen by anyone again.

So what should I do? Answer: Stick to ONE topic per post so the search engines can figure out where to file this and then when someone comes asking for it, those lovely engines will know right where to send them.

What about those other topics? I have some options so I'll need to make some decisions. I could:

1. Write them in separate posts. They would each need to be in their owns post because they are different topics. The drawback here is that I've agreed with my subscribers, when this was an e-zine, to only put something in their in boxes once a month unless it's really, really important and couldn't wait til the next month's post. I don't want to raise the ire of my subscribers by sending two more posts in the next few days. Still, when this blog was in the form of a newsletter, I could put this "extra" information in a sidebar and deliver all this information to in one newsletter. I can't do that so well in a blog since it will scramble the brains of the search engines.
2. I could write about my new book and CCWC on other Pages on this blog (the tabs at the top). The drawback here is that I don't know if you'll see it.

So which decision should I make? I'll admit it's a tough one. Right now I'm thinking I will send additional posts, one on each topic, in a few days. My thinking here is that those who read this blog, and who read the e-zine this used to be, know me (or have gotten to know me). And when we get to know someone, aren't we interested in what's going on with them? So wouldn't you be interested in knowing I have a new book out? I'll give myself some time to get my pages updated to reflect the new book, and then I'll send a post to tell you all about it.

Also, because the Colorado Christian Writers Conference is coming up in only a couple of weeks, if I'm going to encourage you to go I need to do it soon.

If my subscribers aren't interested in these topics, that's what the delete key is for.

Another advantage of writing only one topic per post:  busy readers can see at a glance if they're interested and they don't miss important announcements because it's one topic per post. On the other hand, if they're not interested, they can simply press delete.

Key 2: Discover Your Key Words

Now that you know what your one topic for your post is, determine what  your key words are. Key words are important. If you want to increase your readership, if you want to reach more people with your message, then you need to pay attention to key words.

Your key words are those words your potential reader is going to type in to a search engine when he or she is trying to find the very information you're writing.

In other words, imagine your future reader: that person who needs what you're writing about. But they don't know you are writing just what they need. How are they going to find you? Here's how: They are going to access a search engine (Google, Bing, or other) and then type in some words. What words are they typing in? Whatever those words are, they are your Key Words.

Make a note of them. Write them down. Type them somewhere. Learn to choose really good key words. You're going to need them.

Now, how can you know if you picked good Key Words? Or do you have that feeling that you haven't quite nailed down your key words and you wished you had some suggestions for alternate words or phrases? You can get some help with your Key Words at the free Google's AdWord: Keyword Tool. With this tool you can put in your key words and get a whole list of related words and phrases.

Google's AdWord Keyword Tool also tells you how many searches were done for those key words or phrases and the level of competition for those words. In other words, are you competing with a lot of other blogs that are also using those key words? A high rating might mean a popular topic but a lot of competition. Medium competition might mean a significant number of people are searching for that topic but not that many people are writing about it, which might be very good for you.

Considering number of searches and the competition, write down the most promising words and phrases for your blog post topic.

Key 3: Use Your Key Words in Your Blog Post Title

Now that you know your key words, use them in your blog post title. For example, this blog post is about helping you create your own blog posts that attract new readers through SEO, it's about helping you create successful blog posts, and it gives you 7 keys. All of those thoughts are reflected in this post's title.

Since I have learned this much about SEO, and since good SEO techniques have started to become familiar enough to me that I recognize them or, better yet, I recognize when they are missing, I have to tell you that sometimes I see blog post titles that make me cringe. Honestly, I'm not trying to pick on anyone here. I'm only trying to help. So if you see yourself in what I'm about to say, please know I'm not picking on you personally. I see these things a lot, and I just wanted to call your attention to it so you can do better in the future. I cringe only because I know it's a lost opportunity.

I've seen (and actually I've been guilty of this myself) blog titles like:

• Great News!
• Announcing...
• Exciting Stuff!

Ah hem. Blog post titles like that tell us NOTHING. If you think people will click on that post title to see what it's about, think again. They won't. And the search engines will only bring people to your blog post who are searching for "great news," "announcing...," or "exciting stuff." Can you see how that doesn't work?

Practice being specific. If your great news is that your book just won an award, give the title of your book and/or the name of the award. If you're announcing your new book, use the key words of what your book is about to attract people who are searching for information on your book's topic. If your exciting stuff is that you're going to be a guest on TV, say which program.

If you're blogging about writing or publishing, put those key words in your title. If you're writing an online article on a current event, use the key words for that event. If you're teaching on your favorite topic, that topic which is the passion of your heart, put that topic in your post title. You get the idea...

Key 4: Use Your Key Words in Beginning, Middle, and Ending of Your Blog Post

Now take those same key words that you used in your title and use them:

1. in the first sentence of your post, or at least in the first paragraph.
2. in the body of your post, in a way that is natural and organic (not stacking or forcing those words unnaturally). You can use them more than once, but use them at least once.
3. in the last sentence of your post, or at least the last paragraph.

This takes discipline, but it makes a huge difference in your search engine optimization.

Try this: I'm now writing the first and last paragraph of my posts at the same time, and then I fill in the middle. That's helping me more easily get those key words at the bottom of the post without forgetting.

Sometimes this feels awkward and forced. That's okay. Do it the best you can. It will get easier. And it's really, really important for your SEO.

Key 5: Include Links

Two things here:

First, it's very helpful to your SEO to have links in your post that actually link to something helpful that you're talking about. So always, always, always put at least a couple of links in your posts.

Second, you must make the words that form your link count. Another thing that makes me cringe is links that use words like:

• Click here
• More info
• Find it here

Another lost opportunity.

Those words don't count for anything! Make your link titles count by actually stating, using key words, where that link will take you. For example the above link I gave you actually takes you to Google's AdWord: Keyword Tool, so those are the words I used for the title of the link! Not hard. Just do it. It will make you points in the SEO department.

Here's another example. This morning, when I was already planning to write about SEO in blog posts, I saw in a Paper.li I subscribe to a blog post by author and speaker Mary DeMuth titled "25 Best Blog Practices That'll Rock Your Blog!" Though her post isn't about SEO, it is about blogging and I thought her post might help you, too, so I wanted to share it.

Take note that the words I made into the links actually tell where that link is taking you. The Paper.li link takes you to a post I wrote about that Twitter-fed Paper that you can create. Putting words in the link that go with the link score you many more SEO points than a link that says "Click here."

Key 6: Include a Photo

Honestly I don't know if a photo helps out with SEO or not. But I do believe a picture helps your article gain attention, so I included it in this list.

I don't know a thing about Pinterest. I haven't joined that one yet. But I have heard that in order to "pin" an online article in Pinterest there has to be a photo with the article. (If you know Pinterest, you can leave a comment and let us know if I've got that right.)

I do know that sharing a post on Facebook gets a lot more attention if it has a picture with it. So do find a photo to go with your post. You can use one of your own photos if you want to, if you don't mind your face on the internet, or use the image of your book cover or award--whatever goes with your post's topic.

Don't have a photo? I'm sure you know better than to just go take one from somewhere. Photos are copyrighted just like your words, so respect others' copyrights.

There are web sites where you can grab free photos to use in your blog. Google "free stock photos" and you'll find some.

I haven't always put a photo with my blog posts unless I was blogging about something that a photo naturally went with, like my book cover or an event I had a photo from. But I've recently come to believe having a photo is very important and I've been overlooking adding one, so I'm going to try to always include one from here on out. (We'll see if I remember!) Last month I used a free photo from Dreamstime.com. For this post I used a free photo from Morguefile.com. Be sure to read the small print to know whether you need to put a credit line on it. Dreamstime wants you to, and tells you what to put. I used that as the lable for the photo in my computer so the two would be stored together and I'd have it when I needed it. Morguefile doesn't require that, but I put their link on the photo both because I appreciate them providing me a photo and so you would know where it came from.

Key 7: Add a Video

I've learned that adding a video from YouTube really scores you SEO points, too. There are thousands of videos on YouTube so you can find a bit of teaching on your topic or an inspiring song.

You can also use your book trailer. Don't have a book trailer? Here's a post I wrote on how to make your own 30-second book trailer for free.

Bonus Key: Make Sure Your Posts are Share-Friendly

I didn't count this one as an SEO key because I don't know that it helps in optimizing your post for search engines, but it is a pet peeve of mine. (Mary DeMuth mentioned this in her article, too.) Be sure that every post you write is easy to "Share." That means installing buttons at the bottom that readers can click to share your post on Twitter, Facebook, and a bunch of other sites.

You'll see Share Buttons at the bottom of this post, and I hope you'll Tweet it and Facebook it and Google+ it. You can also use the e-mail and blog post share buttons.

On other blogs I've seen a whole bunch of other options and I'm frustrated that I haven't been able to figure out how to add those to my blog yet. I'm thinking it must be a plug-in that people get from somewhere else because I've looked on Blogspot and the ones I already have are the only ones I can find. Maybe you can do better with your blog.

Use these techniques elsewhere too

By the way, all these SEO keys can be applied to your web site, too. And to online articles you write, guest posts on other people's blogs...anywhere you write online. So start practicing and soon you'll be a natural at it.

I'm planning to make myself a checklist so I don't forget any of these steps in future posts. You might make your own checklist.

If you practice these 7 Keys to SEO-successful blog posts, you should see an increase in people visiting your blog and reading your messages. And that's what it's all about, right? You're writing because you want people to read what you write, right? Let me know if you find these tips easy or hard to implement in the comments section below. If you have other ideas for SEO success, please share it in a comment. Or if you have questions about this topic, put it in a comment and we'll see what answers we can come up with. I wish you all the success in the world in your own writing and posting!

5 Ways to Get the Word Out About Your Author Event

Ready or not, here we are again at the beginning of another year. Amazing, isn't it?! We could talk New Year's resolutions or annual goals, but that's so... so... last year. So why don't we let everyone else talk about that stuff and we'll just ... not. Instead, I hope you're planning some great events this coming year whether it is finally getting that book written or releasing a new one, or maybe writing for a new magazine, more magazines, or simply breaking into publishing for the first time. Once you have something written, you'll soon discover (if you haven't already) writers face a constant problem: getting the word out about our writing.

Let's face it: most of us who write do so with the intention that someone else will read what we write. (If you write just for the pleasure of it, that's fine. But you're not intending to gain readers...or buyers. Professional writers must gain both readers and buyers or we won't stay in business long enough to write the next thing!) As writers, we can write all the projects we want, but if readers don't somehow know they exist, well...they can't read them. Or buy them. Or learn from them. Or enjoy them. Or be helped by them.

Like it or not, writers have to be marketers.

Now before you go off thinking we shouldn't market or promote our writings, let me assure you I've heard a lot over the years I've been in publishing about how we (especially Christians!) shouldn't promote ourselves. That's meadow muffins. Of course we need to promote ourselves, or at least our products. Every business person needs to promote her/his business or products. As stated above, how can anyone benefit from our work if they don't read it? And how can any read it if they don't know where to find it? How can they find it if they don't know where to look? And, most basically, how can they possibly know to look for it if they don't know it exists?

This is a basic mistake beginning writers make: They think they can write a book, stick it on Amazon, and the copies will begin to go out and the money will begin to come in. Uh...nope. There are more than 8,000,000 books on Amazon. Before you make a single sale on Amazon, somebody has to look for your book, find it, and then be willing to take the steps to get it.

The same goes for your book on BarnesandNoble.com, or even in a brick and mortar store. If your book is in a brick and mortar store, someone might happen to see it there on the shelf, pick it up, read the back cover, flip through it, and possibly even buy it. But in the real world you have two chances of that happening: slim and none. Most of the time you're going to have to do some work to let people know your book (or magazine article, blog, or guest post on someone else's blog) exists. Only then will some of them go find it. Then some of those will buy it.

There are lots of ways to let people know about your writings, but let's talk about Author Events this month.
If you follow my other blog at www.DeliverMe.blogspot.com, you already know I did several In-Store Author Events in December with my new Christmas book.

"Author Event" is what I now call what we used to call "book signings." If you tell someone you're having a book signing, in my experience the reaction you'll get is a yawn if you get any reaction at all. Book signings are so last century. Booooring.

An Author Event, on the other hand, gets a bit more attention. And often I'll call mine an "in-store author event." We could talk a lot about how to set one up ad what to do once you get there, but today let's keep it simple and talk about how to get the word out your Author Event that you've got all set up with the manager of a bookstore.

First, list for your event the who (that's you!), what (your event), when (date and times), where (name of the store or other location, address, city, state, zip, web site), why (why should anyone come? What's happening there?), and how (how to get there, how to get more information, etc.). Then let your friends, acquaintances, business associates, and the community know through these 5 ways to get the word out about your author event:

1.  Facebook On your Facebook, create an "Event." Go to your home page and click on "Update Info." Then click on "About." On the screen that comes up you'll seen another "About" drop down menu next to your name. Drop that menu down and you'll see "Events" on the list. Click on that and other events will show. In the upper right corner is a "Create an Event" box. There are other places on Facebook where you'll see "Create an Event" too. Click it and you can then enter the information for your Event. Once it's created you can send notices out and invite your friends. Your Friends can also share your Event.
2. Goodreads   After you've created your Facebook event, you should hop over to Goodreads and create an event there also. If you're not already a member of Goodreads, yes, you need to be. The advantages to being on Goodreads is enough for another month's discussion! When you log onto Goodreads, click the drop down menu called "Explore." At the bottom you'll see "Events." Click that and in the upper right side you'll have the option to "Add an Event." You can invite friends here, too, and Goodreads will send out a reminder before your event.
3. Blog it and of course add the location. After you've written your blog post about the who, what, when, why, and how of your event, add the "where" by finding your event's location on either the store's web site or on Mapquest.com. Grab the "embed" code. Paste that code into the HTML of your blog post. On Blogspot you do that by clicking the HTML box in the upper left next to "Compose." First, put your cursor where you want your map to appear, then click the HTML box and paste in the code right where your cursor was. Click back to "Compose" and your map should appear.
4. Tweet it. Now that you have it on your blog, be sure to Tweet your blog post regularly. I also set up regular Tweets to go out via Hootsuite.com. If you got my tweets in December that said "I'm here at Mardel signing my new book Prophecies Fulfilled in the Birth of Jesus http://delivermebook.blogspot.com/2012/12/in-store-author-event-mardel-in.html " then you can bet I wasn't at my computer (or phone) sending that out. Days earlier I scheduled that Tweet to go out via Hootsuite.com. I set up at least one Tweet to go out every hour I was at the signing...er, um, I mean in-store author event. (You can also schedule posts on Facebook, too.)
5. Newspapers and Radio.  Write one or two sentences with the who, what, when, where, why, and how  of event. Keep it brief. Then search out the web sites of all the newspapers and radio stations in the area of your event. Look for the "contact" page. Some will give e-mail addresses but most will have web forms. Paste your brief notice into an e-mail or their web form and send them the information. You never know when you might get a mention on radio or in newspapers. While you're at it, search for community calendars in your community. I did and got listed on the Colorado Springs' Gazette's events calendar. You can see my brief two sentences there and model yours after them. When you e-mail, always give your contact information so they can get in touch if they'd like more information or wish to interview you in print or on radio. Don't give your contact info on web forms or it might end up on the internet.

You've put a lot of work into your writing, but your work is not done. In order for your writing to accomplish the purpose for which you created it, for it to help the readers you wrote it for, they have to know it exists. So put a little effort into setting up some author events and then get the word out about where you'll be and when people can meet you. It's great fun. It gets you in touch with your readers. And you may even sell a few books.

What are some other ways you've gotten the word out about your Writer's or Author's Events?

What questions do you have about setting up or hosting an Author Event?