Okay, first week of summer break here, and I apologize for the day’s delay on my quest to publish a new post for the Book Launch Checklist every day. Teachers are rejoicing I’m sure, but I, a mom, am now back in the grind of summer: shorts bursts of writing, interrupted about 18 times per day by requests for taxi services and “Mom, what’s there to eat?”

Oh, to be a kid again. My 12-year old daughter told me on the last day of school that she was planning to re-read all 7 Harry Potters this summer. She came home at noon that day, dumped her backpack, and proceeded to her room. The next morning at 10 AM, she informed me that she was done with book one. What? She may have to learn a thing or two about pacing, or otherwise this might be a long summer for her!

Anyway, where was I? Oh, Facebook book lovers. I promise I’ll move on from Facebook soon, but this is one to take seriously if you have self-published a book and are looking for ways to promote it.

A recap of our Book Launch Checklist until now:

1. Pick a launch date
2. Announce Launch Date on Your Blog
3. Share Launch Date on Facebook Page
4. Join a Book Lovers Facebook Page

I’m guessing you’re already spending more time on Facebook than you should, and this won’t help, but it’ll be time well spent. There are plenty of “Kindle Lovers” and “free eBooks” type Facebook pages, anything having to do with reading and/or writing really, and I suggest you browse through a few of them. Some are groups you can just join at the click of a button, and many of these have tons of members. Typically they will let you post whatever you want, and it sounds enticing to be able to advertise your book there for free. Even better when you have a promotion going, like a Kindle Countdown Deal or KDP Select giveaway (more on those later), so that you can post something about that. Who won’t want to download your book for free or 99 cents?

It doesn’t hurt to join as many of such groups as you can, but the ones without much moderation won’t do you that much good. If you can advertise for free, lots of people will get wind of it, trust me, and while your post may be up there for a few seconds for the world to see (or, rather, for whom Facebook determines will see it, which is a whole nefarious algorithm onto itself), it will soon enough get bumped down by someone else advertising their next 50 Shades of Grey.

Therefore, even if it sounds counterintuitive, the more restrictive a Facebook book lovers group you can find, the better. One where new members have to be approved and where postings are regulated and moderated. I am lucky to have found just such a group, called We Love Memoirs (WLM), which bills itself “the friendliest group of Facebook,” a label I’ve found to be true. It was created by two authors of memoirs (fellow expat Victoria Twead of Chickens, Mules, and Two Old Fools fame, whose writing I stumbled upon a while back and have greatly enjoyed, is one of them) who were looking for a way to promote and share their work, and it has grown to over 2,200 members. It’s a wonderful group, but not because it’s a place to promote your book. In fact, promoting your own book or writing is strictly forbidden. And that is precisely why it works. It’s a warm, funny, and quirky place to exchange your thoughts about your favorite books and authors, or really anything that crosses your mind, a little bit like the book club you might go to on Thursdays once a month. The moderators on WLM are a bunch of awesome people who will promote your book FOR you if you have a promotion going, and because it is moderated, there is never any spam. Therefore, people take it seriously. An introduction to your book by one of the moderators is much more credible than if you self-promoted it. They’ve got some cool actions going, like Spotlight Sunday where an author can be asked any question for an entire day, a great way to get exposure. Since everyone in this group is a lover of memoirs and does quite a bit of reading, chances are you will find a good number of new readers (and, by extension, followers and perhaps reviewers) there.

Enough said, go check out We Love Memoirs for yourself. If you’ve written a memoir, you will have found a new home, but even if not, you’ll enjoy becoming a member.

Next up tomorrow:

5. Amazon’s Author Central

View the entire Book Launch Checklist here.