Key Business Partners, LLC

I would like to share with you about a website that helps authors and writers promote their work: BookBuzzr.

Below is an interview I did with them and I hope you enjoy learning more about their site.

1) Please tell my readers what is BookBuzzr?
BookBuzzr (www.bookbuzzr.com) is a new online book marketing technology that helps authors promote their books on their websites, blogs and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn. Even at its simplest, the BookBuzzr flippable book cover replaces the old, static, book cover images that authors use on their websites, with a dynamic,page-flipping book format that will pique the curiosity of readers. Further, readers can read an excerpt of the book right there and then. You can see a sample of BookBuzzr below.

As a bonus, when you sign-up, you also get listed on fReado.com where readers can interact with you and with other readers. Further, you can link from fReado to your own author-site or blog thus helping your search engine rankings. Because fReado.com is optimized for search engines and because fReado.com is regularly crawled all over by the major search engines, the information about your book will soon be noticed and your pages should be listed in response to web searches.

2) I like the idea of Book Buzzr as a great marketing additional tool for authors. How easy is BookBuzzr to use?
If you can manage your Facebook page or Twitter account, then you can easily use BookBuzzr. It’s really easy and intuitive. Most users are able to get started in about 15 minutes.

3) Please share one or two tips for beginning writers.
The author is as important as the book and it’s important for the author to spread the story behind the book. It’s also important for authors to remember that they are (in the words of Seth Godin) “idea-merchants” who are in the business of selling ideas and not books. The more authors can spread their ideas, the greater the chance of selling their books. People can get much of the information contained in books online for free. People buy books because they are “souvenirs” and they have formed an emotional bond with the author’s idea. Marketing is about having conversations and the more avenues that authors can find for these conversations (Twitter, Facebook, Blogs), the better.

4) Please share with us a few of the writers you have showcased on BookBuzzr?
There are so many books uploaded onto BookBuzzr that it is very difficult to make a call. Some of my personal favorites include:
- Free to Eat by Fiber Girl – a diet book releasing in January 2010 but available for preview on BookBuzzr – http://www.freado.com/book/3771/Free-to-Eat-the-Proven-Recipe-for-Permanent-Weight-Loss
- Uncommon Sense – a controversial poetry book by Chad Lilly – http://www.freado.com/book/4196/uncommon-sense
- Something to Think About – an inspirational collection of short essays, quotations and poetry by Pat Ballard (the Queen of Rubenesque Romances) – http://www.freado.com/book/4429/Something-to-Think-About-Reflections-on-Life-Family-Body-Image-Other-Weighty-Matters-by-the-Queen-of-Rubenesque-Romances
- Cook from Your Heart – a beautiful, coffee-table book on intuitive cooking and eating – http://www.freado.com/book/1352/Cook-from-Your-Heart-Recipes-for-Transformation
- Alternative Poetry – an easy to read book of poetry from Michele Brent – http://www.freado.com/book/4041/Alternative-Poetry-Books-Yellow-edition-Lite
- America’s Dumbest Doctors – a hilarious book by a medical professional recounting acts of doctors doing crazy things – http://www.freado.com/book/4440/Americas-Dumbest-Doctors-Ever-Wonder-About-Yours

5) What is your favorite success story about bookbuzzr?

There are several success stories with authors mentioning higher visibility, more interest in their books and of course, higher book-sales. A few days ago, we received a message from Philip Nork – Author of ‘Sensitivity 101 for the Heterosexual Male’ in which he says, (after using BookBuzzr) “I have had many e-mails from people who have gotten an e-mail from me asking about
the product. I love it and I am sure it has helped me sell many copies of my book Sensitivity 101 for the Heterosexual Male. Thanks for helping us llittle guys get started.”

Another success story is of Chetan Dhruve (Author of “Why Your Boss is Programmed to Be a Dictator.”) Chetan has received several positive comments on his book from distinguished academics and business leaders after they discovered his work on BookBuzzr. His book has also been receiving a surge in sales on Amazon UK and Amazon US as a result of the interest created
by BookBuzzr.

And finally, we’ve had poet, author and publisher Chad Lilly who wrote in to say, “In just over a month of using BookBuzzr, my books, ‘A Day in the Mind’ and ‘uncommon sense’ both climbed to record sales rankings on Amazon”

6) What things are coming up for Book Buzzr for the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010?

We’re lucky since our first version of the BookBuzzr Flippable Book Cover has been so very well received. Now our focus is on refining it and making it even more attractive for end-readers.

We’ve recently introduced a “Related Books” feature that present other books to reader when they complete reading a particular book-extract. This has dramatically improved the potential for new authors to get discovered on BookBuzzr. We’re now working on improving this important feature.

We’re also adding the capability into BookBuzzr to have the text on the pages of the book sample get indexed by Google. This means that users searching on Google will find results from within the book. This can help in book discovery for people who are searching for information on search engines.

7) Do you have any thoughts on using Twitter effectively?
We see Twitter as an excellent place to initiate relationships and build goodwill. Towards this end, we focus on giving useful information related to book-marketing to our followers on Twitter. The strategy has proven successful. We have over 8,000 followers and Twitter is one of our biggest sources of traffic. My colleague – Freya (@bookbuzzr) – manages much of our activity on Twitter.