The Author Project discussion

I find twitter to be one of the best marketing tools around. I don't always use it - I get bored and move my focus around. BUT... where else can you reach 5 million people for free with the understanding "I follow you, you follow me?"

Unlike FB, I found a majority of tweeps (people on twitter) expect to and even enjoy following links that take them OUT of Twitter. You just have to give them 40 characters that makes them want to click.

I don't know that it helped me sell books, but it did increase my blog traffic.

How do you use twitter to move books?

Twitter has helped sell a few books. Most of my followers are writers, however, and I've found they're too busy to read. Also, it seems most of my followers are looking for cheap books: free or .99. I'm no longer willing to give books away for free as they do not lead to reviews. A .99 book MAY get a review, but a free one rarely does.

I've also had pretty good luck with Twitter. It has definitely increased my blog readership and I have sold a few books from it, but my favorite part of Twitter is receiving tweets directly from readers.

Everett wrote: "Twitter has helped sell a few books. Most of my followers are writers, however, and I've found they're too busy to read. Also, it seems most of my followers are looking for cheap books: free or .99..."

Everett - I used TweetAdder to target readers in my demographic on twitter instead of writers. I did conclude no sales resulted. But, increased comments on my blog - so that was good enough for the little time I put in on twitter. Although sometimes I lose hours to the little blue bird.

I agree 100% about free books - I'm going to open a new discussion chain on that subject.
Thanks for your input.