5 Ways to Give a #Book a Boost

The best compliment you can give an author, regardless of his or her prominence in the industry, is to help spread the news about a book.

Here are five ways you can give a book a boost (beyond buying multiple copies) ...

1: ONLINE REVIEW

Online reviews have gained significant value in recent years. When you’ve finished reading a book by an author that you love, take five minutes to go online and type up a review. It doesn’t have to be eloquent or long, but it does need to honest and thoughtful. If you know the author personally, do not say so in the review, because other people will often discount the value of your words because they believe you’re biased. Once you’ve written a review, you can then copy and paste that review to multiple sites such as Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, and others. Furthermore, take a minute to scroll through the other reviews and click “like” or “helpful” on the positive ones. Doing so will bump those reviews up to the top of the list. Once you’ve finished posting your review, link to it on your social media channels.

2: PUBLIC LIBRARY

Visit your local public library. Talk to the librarian about the book and ask if they already carry it. If not, place a purchase request. Most libraries will add books to their collections based on patron requests. You can also suggest the book for their next book club selection.

3: BOOKSTORE

Stop in at your local bookstore and ask an employee where the book is located in the store. This will bring awareness of the book to the staff. If they don’t already carry the book, let them know why they should. Tell them what you loved about it. If they do carry the book, still rave about it. Once you see the book on the shelf, turn it face out, and snap a picture. Then upload the picture to social media, tag the author, and let him or her know where you spotted the book. Authors love this.

4: SOCIAL MEDIA

Follow your favorite author on social media channels, and when he or she posts good news, share it. You can also click on the social media buttons featured on many sites that allow you to tell the world you just bought a great book or read a great book or reviewed a great book.

5: WORD OF MOUTH

Honestly, all of the tips mentioned so far are based on utilizing the word of mouth concept, which has a huge impact. But here are few more ideas … the most basic being: tell a friend about the book. Then take a friend with you to the author’s book signing event. Tell your book club members about it. Read the book in a public place so others can take notice of the book. And if you know a person of influence who would be interested in some aspect of the book, then by all means, tell that person to read the book and explain why. Then encourage that person to connect with the author.


Finally, yes, buying a book is a great way to support your favorite author. Heck, buying ten books is an even better way, but if you want to do a little bit more, any of these tips above will help give your favorite author’s book a boost. You certainly don’t have to do them all. Pick just one to do today, because the best compliment you can give to an author, regardless of his or her prominence in the industry, is to help spread the news about the book. And that will benefit you in the long run, because your author will be able to continue writing more books for you to read and enjoy for many years to come.

copyright Margo Kelly

Do you have a tip to add to this list? Share it in the comments below!



[You're welcome to borrow these tips and images as long as you link back to this post or give appropriate credit to me as the source. Thank you.]