Authors Looking directly for Readers discussion

Post any helpful, effective tools - or website hosts, etc here.

cool...I will check those out

Tumblr is great. Twitter (Hootsuite is a version of it) as is a Facebook Like Page. I also highly recommend blogging. WordPress is great for writers, but if you plan on hosting blog tours use Blogger. WP will shut you down.

I'm learning as I go, but as a new writer, I tend toward those options that don't require a fee or paid subscription.

For promotion/visibility I use
- Wordpress (free website option),
- Facebook
- Twitter
- YouTube (to post book trailers)
- Authorgraph (readers can request an electronic autograph for one of your books)
- BookLaunch.io (to create book pages)
- Pinterest
- Animoto (to create trailers)
- MailChimp (for newsletters)
- DepositPhoto (for images)
- GIMP (to create book covers)
- Draft2Digital (to create .mobi, .epubs, and .pdfs)
- CreateSpace (to create a paperback version)

I've avoided twitter because I don't need the time sink in building a community there. I'm a member of the Book View Cafe, a publishing co-operative, and several people there swear by twitter. They post all the BVC news, including when I have a release through them.

Now I'm reconsidering since my traditionally published books through DAW are getting no help at all.

PhylThe Silent Dragon