Big Bad Weekly Tip: National Reading Group Month is Here!
Monday, October 5th, 2009
October is designated as National Reading Group Month by the Women’s National Book Association. The mission of National Reading Group Month is to increase public awareness of the joy and value of shared reading. Special events are being held throughout the month in each of the association’s 10 chapter cities: Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Seattle, and Charlotte, N.C. These events are open to the public, so you might consider doing some mingling with reading group members if you live in one of these cities. If you do attend, consider preparing and bringing a discussion guide for your book, as well as some free copies of the book, to hand out.
As we’ve mentioned before, reading groups can be an effective way for authors to find a readership and build word of mouth. Reading groups love author contact and will be more inclined to select your book if you offer to participate in discussions in person or via audio/video conferencing.
If you can’t attend the National Reading Group Month events, here are a few other places to find and connect with reading groups:
- bookclub.meetup.com
- readerscircle.org
- your local bookstores
The submission deadline for the third annual 
Publishers Weekly has announced the date of their first annual 
If you’ve started to use social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) for book promotion, which we recommend for most authors in varying degrees, you may find yourself wondering how you’re going to keep all of your profiles updated. As you start to add additional networks, posting the same thing in multiple places can begin to feel tedious and burdensome. Not to worry—there are, of course, online tools that can help you manage your online tools. Here are some free tools that allow you to easily post a single message to multiple social media accounts all at once: