Beth Aldrich Guest Post!

Congratulations, you've garnered a book deal with a major publisher and you've written the book; but that's just half the work. The most challenging work is about to begin. Most writers do just that, they write; but with today's competitive book market, good writing is only half the battle. Nowadays, writers are encouraged to be active in social media and other forms of marketing so they can ramp up their book's presence-to stand out on the bookshelves and increase sales.
When I began my book journey two years ago, little did I know that I'd be embarking on the ride of my life. With 12-hour work days, writing the book and "getting the word out" about my book in any way I could. Knowing that I would be responsible for my own "tour" expenses, I decided to build my presence in social media as a way to reach my target audience of busy moms, so that the sponsorship money I raised would be best spent traveling to book tour events. Knowing that many moms like to connect online through social media, I began making connections and generating useful and trustworthy content to build my following. Nothing good comes easy and it's been a daily challenge to garner followers (legitimately) who appreciate and value my content. Through my networking and connections I decided to partner with, SocialMoms.com, a popular moms online social media community filled with articles, content and great mom networking. With the power of social media, we created a book launch virtual party and contest with over 100 moms bloggers who participated. I acquired book tour sponsors who donated prizes for our contest so that all participants would have incentive to be a part of the fun and excitement. I love to get involved with contests and communities and I wanted to create that for the moms who took the time to be a part of this special project; within weeks of my book's launch, there were thoughtful blog posts about my book, spanning the internet, from real moms-the demographic I was hoping to tap. Word spread like wildfire and on my book's launch day, and the throughout the month that followed, my book was a best seller in two categories on Amazon. The mom bloggers agreed to Tweet, FB and share their blog posts and in exchange, we offered sponsored goodie boxes of book-inspired products (all garnered from months of product partnering sponsorship deals), exposure on our blog and cross promotion through social media. We had a multi-prize drawing the night before the book launched, and announced winners via a private newsletter designated just for the participating bloggers. All-in-all, it was a successful book launch, thanks primarily, to the hard work and support of the mom bloggers in our book tour contest, social media and my tenacity to get the word out.
When people ask me, "How did you know what to do to promote your book?" I always tell them that I networked with other authors, researched what other author have done in the past and trusted my judgement. I know that I love prizes, so I spent weeks and weeks, acquiring products that I knew I'd love to receive as a participation gift goodie box. I also understand the power of communication, so I interacted with the registered participants regularly, sharing all of the steps of my book tour publication, along the way. I often connected with the moms on Twitter, through Twitter parties (where we had, yes, more prizes), and on Facebook. I made sure I was following everyone that was following me on social media and I always tried to re-tweet their tweets, etc. With consideration and on-going communication, relationships were built with new mom friends throughout the process. The folks at SocialMoms.com were so supportive, offering advice and ideas, making the launch everything that I hoped it would be. Some of the mom bloggers even agreed to help me host in-person parties in their cities, making my ground tour a huge success. We used the power of social media to get the word out about our on-location book events, which helped raise attendance and bring more awareness to my book's brand.
Real Moms Love to Eat: How to Conduct a Love Affair with Food, Lose Weight and Feel Fabulous (Penguin Books, NAL, January, 2012), had a fantastic launch and I can certainly say that the power of social media helped contribute to it's kick off success.
To find out more about Beth and her book, visit, RealMomsLovetoEat.com; her book is available where ever books are sold, or online at Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Real-Moms-Love-Eat-Fabulous/dp/0451235584/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1) and BarnesandNoble.com