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Although I am not a writer, I know book blogs have become popular over the past few years. The use of Twitter for authors to promote their books is mentioned in Scott's book. I am curious - is Twitter a better way for an author to promote their book vs. marketing a book by contacting book bloggers with a large following?

I'm only starting to use Twitter seriously within the past couple of months (though I've had it for years now). In my experience, it's good for finding and connecting with your target audience. I think also gives people more encouragement to buy your book when they see you have a sizable following of real people (I don't, but speaking about other authors I've seen) and when they see other people talking about your book. Having your book reviewed by blogs is never going to hurt you (unless, I guess, it's a bad review) but because there are so many authors (including traditionally published authors) connecting with their readers online, Twitter is pretty necessary.

Hmm, it's interesting that you suggest contacting another, well established blogger to to promote your book. As a blogger and an author, I would first promote my book on my own blog, then use twitter, and then try to guest blog on someone else's site. so i guess my answer is yes to all the choices!

I think twitter is a great tool, and i've just started exploring marketing via twitter and instagram. i have to say, twitter is turning out to be an amazing platform to get my work out into the world.

I've just started marketing on Twitter and I would say it's been pretty useful. Blogs are good I think because people visiting them are already interested in finding good books, but Twitter can be a great way to connect with your target audience.

I hope I made myself clear in my initial post. I am not a writer or author. I didn't know that it's common for auhtors to have a blog. Even if they do, I was referring to book blogs that have a large following.

I don't have Twitter, so can't answer that.

As a reviewer and a Blogger I prefer book blogs by reviewers.

I think Twitter is probably better because there is the potential to reach more people, as opposed to with a blog. Because tweets are so short, you can read them quickly, as opposed to a blog where you might have to click on another link to be taken to another page to read the full article... and people today just don't have the time, patience, or attention spans to be bothered with that.

ALynnPowers wrote:I think Twitter is probably better because there is the potential to reach more people, as opposed to with a blog. Because tweets are so short, you can read them quickly, as opposed to a blog where you might have to click on another link to be taken to another page to read the full article... and people today just don't have the time, patience, or attention spans to be bothered with that.

A good point, though people who love reading shouldn't have problem with that.

I think they're both pretty useful, you just have to know your audience. For instance, if most of your readers are oldschool and prefer reading longer blogs, or having a more content-rich experience with a writer, then blogging is probably the better way to go. but if your audience likes shorter posts and just "thoughts" or blurbs thrown out for them to think about, then it's definitely twitter's game.

Again, I think using both is the best approach.

Well said. Using both would ensure the author is reaching a wider audience.

I barely started using Twitter with mixed results. I also see some authors use services to "Tweet" on their behalf, which I imagine would bring mediocre results at best.
Most readers of books don't play around with Facebook/Twitter all day, so you have to catch them at the right time. I stayed active through the Thanksgiving/Christmas weeks promoting away, because most people were stuck in airport terminals checking flight times, and fiddling with their tablets...That's when to hit them.

I'm not much of a twitter person, but I think the purpose of both would be quite different, right?

Twitter feels like a way to connect with fans, while book blogs seem like a way to get reviews (especially if the bloggers crosspost to goodreads or amazon), with the connecting with fans being a secondary concern. If anything, book blogs would be about the bloggers connecting with the readers, and the authors connected with bloggers, rather than a direct connection.

But I could be completely wrong. I'm not a very savvy SNS person.

I had a blog type website through Wordpress, which I may start up again. My new one through GoDaddy doesn't allow comments, or any interaction at all to potential readers other than what I post on the site. Twitter is actually working out okay for me too, especially following and commenting on interests and people similar to my books subjects. It'll probably take a bit to get any substantial amount of followers, but I'd rather do that than pay someone with 4 million (fake/robot/international) followers to tweet my book to fake/uninterested followers. Quality>Quantity

I've also had mixed results with Twitter. I imagine that book blogs that have a large number of readers is much better for book promotion because an honest opinion is worth thousands of tweets.

I think both have their negatives and their positives but ultimately any social media is useful when you are trying to promote your book. It's all about building a good fan base. As I haven't published my first book yet that is just purely my opinion.