Free promotion for authors

I’m a British author living up a mountain in Spain. I’m supposed to be writing the fourth book in my Two Old Fools series but have got a little sidetracked with this Book Corner project. But I’ll begin at the beginning, and explain how it all began…

I was shocked when I was browsing an Author Forum a couple of months ago. I read the comments in disbelief. Amazon now has five million books for sale? And they are publishing another 10,000 every month? My heart sank. I couldn’t even imagine that many books… How does an author get noticed amongst that lot, and how will anybody ever find my books?

I thought hard about it and put myself in the place of the reader. When I buy books, which is often, it’s either on personal recommendation or because the book has loads of 5-Star reviews.

Then I came up with an idea. I’m very proud of my own 5-Star reviews for ‘Chickens’ (109 in the UK, 95 in the US at the time of writing) so why not flaunt them? And why not invite other authors with heaps of 5-Star reviews to come to my website and feature their books, too? Then readers could come and see a list of excellent books, all in one place. And so the 5-Star Book Corner was born.

I’m astonished at how quickly it’s snowballing. Word is spreading fast, hits to the site increase daily, and it’s already on the top page of Google searches for ‘5 star books’, ‘Five star books to read’, ‘5-Star books only’, ‘5 star book reviews’ and ‘5 star book list’. I’ve also created a Pinterest board, and a Facebook page, both of which are attracting attention. Every day I add a new title to the Book Corner, pin it to the Pinterest board and display it on the Facebook page to keep everything fresh, and the visitors returning. I’ve also started to send out fortnightly newsletters to subscribers, with a list of the Five-Star books featured.

So, if you have at least 25 5-Star reviews and would like me to showcase your book, I’d love to hear from you!  I will:

• Display your book cover
• Put up a short author interview and author photo
• Link your title directly to Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
• Display your book on the Five Star Pinterest board
• Feature your book on the 5-Star Books Only Facebook page
• Include your title in the fortnightly newsletter going out to subscribers

It’s all free of charge. All I ask in return is that you ‘Like’ my own Facebook page, ‘Like’ the 5-Star Books Only Facebook page and carry on spreading the word via Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. Obviously, the more traffic, the better for all of us.

I’ve now set up an online form so authors can leave their details easily, (I’m told it takes about 10 minutes) but if you have any questions, do email me. (TopHen@VictoriaTwead.com)

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Any books that have more than 100 Five-Star reviews will be added here.