Nora St. Laurent runs two book clubs near the Atlanta area and is the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) Book Club Coordinator. She currently writes a Book Club Column for Christian Fiction Online Magazine. You can read author interviews on her Finding Hope Through Fiction blog, located at http://www.psalm516.blogspot.com, and reviews around the web at The Christian Pulse Mag, Title Trakk, Novel Reviews, and Suspense Zone. Nora and her husband run The Book Club Network www.bookfun.org

Book club members and avid readers can get involved with The Book Club Network and all the fun. But how can authors get involved at The Book Club Network? Let me offer ideas that won’t take a lot of time.

First, authors can join the network and set up their pages. It’s amazing to see how creative author pages are. Some have listed all of their books. Others post their Book Trailers and links to their Websites and blogs. That’s all free.

Second, make an event at The Book Club Network and they will be displayed on the Website’s front page at the bottom. Any book signings, book launches, or just plain book fun you are involved with, such as book fairs, teaching opportunities, conferences for writers, are great things to post on TBCN. It’s a great way to connect with readers and book clubs. If they know where you will be, they can connect with you at these events.

Third, authors can get involved in our monthly giveaways. B & H Publisher and Bethany House sponsor us monthly to promote their books. We’ve had great fun and the number of books they give away are significant. We also do more to promote their authors and books.

Authors can give away, books, bookmarks, book club kits, snacks, or gift cards—whatever they choose to provide. Here are a few things I need from authors to put their book covers on the front page of TBCN.

I Need from Authors

1. The title of the books they are giving away and how many copies
2. A copy of the book cover (send as an attachment, please)
3. The authors Bio
4. A head shot (please, send as an attachment)
5. YouTube links of Book Trailers

Once the contest is over, I will e-mail the author the names and address of those who won that month.

I’d Like Authors to:

1. Attend the Live event at TBCN the month their books are being featured
2. Talk about TBCN in some way, put a button of The Book Club Network on their blogs or Websites, or wherever they want (nothing big, just something to help gather book clubs to the network the month their books are featured)

If authors would like to get their publishers involved, we can do even more promotion.

For Sponsoring Publishers’ Featured Books, TCBN Will:

1. Read and review their books to develop questions specific to the book being featured. Send Interview questions to author, unique to the book
2. Post the complete interview on my blog, www.psalm516.blogspot.com, Finding Hope Through Fiction (756 followers as of 10-10-11)

3. Put up a banner of the book being promoted on my blog all month long
4. Announce the Big Giveaway on The Book Club Network Website, www.bookfun.org, before and up to the event, which is usually the third Monday of the month
5. Put part of the interview on the front page of TBCN (we almost have 1,400 members as of 10-20-11) with link to blog with complete interview and a giveaway readers can enter
6. Once the giveaway and interview are posted on my blog and on TBCN front page, I make announcements around the Web

I write book reviews and post them on my blog with author bio and an announcement about the giveaway opportunity at The Book Club Network that month. I also post the review to several sites, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD, Goodreads, Shelfari, Novel Reviews (sister site to Novel Rocket), and publishers’ pages on FB. If the book is suspense, I also post it on Suspense Zone

Right before the contest we post about the live event around the Web, reminding everyone about the giveaway.

After the Contest

We also post on my blog, my FB wall, and TBCN FB page of who won what prizes.

We do several things during the live event. If your publisher is interested in talking with us, I’ll be glad to give them a list of our services!

I love helping spread the word about authors’ books as much as I love talking and helping book clubs. Please e-mail me if you have any questions (norafindinghope@gmail.com). I’d be glad to help you in anyway I can!

Until next time.

Nora St.Laurent