The Hartsock Agency

In the online world a very important thing to remember, as you get closer to your book’s publishing date is the earlier you can get word out about your book online, the better off you will be in the long run.

If your book is due for release on September 1st  of this year, then outreach to bloggers should have started in June or at the very latest in July. Your publicist should be pitching you to the online world at least two to three months prior to the book’s official release.

Remember, if you have not hired an online publicist to help you or your publisher, or are only working in tandem with a traditional publicist, you can still reach out to bloggers. You’d be amazed at how responsive bloggers can be when pitched with care and respect.  And even if you’re starting now and your book is already out, then don’t lose heart, just find the right places to pitch your book.

Here are some good steps to follow:

1. Look up a comparative book title through Google Blog Search and see what bloggers have reviewed that book.

2. Go to Amazon and do the same there. Look up an actual book and see what reviewers from Amazon have reviewed the book and try to find their contact information online.

3. Build your pitch list from the bloggers on #1 and the Amazon Reviewers on #2.

4. Add in a reviewer from Blogcritics.org to pitch to, and one at TCM Reviews as well.

5. Register your author profile on Filedby.com and Shelfari.com.

6. If you’re really ambitious and on Twitter - then do some searches on “Book Reviewer” and “book reviews” and add some Twitter-pitches to your list too!

I love working on behalf of authors and pitching books to the online world for them, but it’s also very important to remember that you can do all this too!

The most important part of your book being successful online is to start much earlier than you might in traditional publicity. You can interview about your book way before it’s official release, you can drive reviews to your book on Amazon and even bloggers can help build that amazing Web-buzz two or three months prior to your book’s actual release date.

Now go on and pitch away!