Each Wednesday morning at 5 a.m. Pacific time, we here at Indies Unlimited host a “like-fest.” Sometimes it will be for Amazon.com author or book pages, Facebook pages, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, Goodreads or other social networking platforms. One thing is certain – every Wednesday a large community of authors, readers and reviewers stop by and a good time is had by all.
This past Wednesday, we ran an Amazon.com like-fest. The turn-out was great and we had lots of new participants and books. An interesting question was posed to me by an author: Maybe you can explain something to me about this amazon.com Building Your Empire-Fest. Why should I care about other writers following me or liking me on Amazon? I’m trying to get readers to read my work, not other writers.
Valid question. It’s debatable what technical purpose “likes” serve. There have been rumors that Amazon.com “pushes” books up in the search results if they have over a certain number of likes. I have not been able to corroborate this from an actual source, so as far as I know, it’s still a rumor.
What I can say is that participating in the like-fest is fun. Getting to communicate with authors I otherwise would have never met, seeing their books’ covers, and discovering new things – while helping them – makes me feel like I’m part of a friendly community.
On a less personal note, clearly writers know people who read – and a lot of the time they’ll purchase a book as a gift for someone they know. I’ve seen it happen many times – an author has a friend who likes baseball, and one of the books in our like-fest has the World Series as a back-drop. “Ooh! I’ve grabbed your book as a birthday present – my friend loves baseball!”
When it comes to likes – just like anything – perception can be crucial. The number of likes may influence someone who is on the fence about making a purchase. If they see zero likes, they may think “Wow, that book really hasn’t gotten any attention. I’ll keep looking.” If they see 50+ likes, then that might sway them into thinking it’s worth their time.
So tune in every Wednesday morning. You never know what you might find, you’ll get some good exposure, and you just might have fun doing it.