Plugging your book into social-networking sites

Here’s a follow-up recent posts about tags, MySpace, and Amazon’s Web 2.0 features like book recommendations and Search Inside the Book.

Everyone knows these fancy features help people discover your book on Amazon. But these features can help people find your book outside Amazon, too.

Here’s an example from my experience:

A few months ago I noticed that my new title Plug Your Book! began surfacing on dozens and dozens (perhaps hundreds or thousands) of Squidoo lenses pertaining to MySpace. Here are three examples — if you scroll down to the bottom of the page you’ll see Amazon Associates links for my book:

Are you utilizing MySpace traffic?

MySpace.com Blogging – How To Do It RIGHT

Explosively Powerful Blog Marketing For Business Owners

I had nothing to do with these Squidoo pages, so I was surprised to see my new book being featured there. (Squidoo pages are written by independent experts and entrepreneurs, here’s more information.)

So, how did my book show up on all these Squidoo pages? I knew darned well that most of these people didn’t know about my book. MySpace isn’t in the title or subtitle of my book, although it does figure prominently in one chapter.

An intriguing point: I had submitted “MySpace” as an Amazon Search Suggestion for my book but Amazon rejected the term with no explanation.

It was only after my book was indexed for Search Inside the Book that my book surfaced on these Squidoo pages. I doubt any of these people writing these Squidoo pages knew about my book. In other words, it’s not a personal recommendation from them, it’s just a feed from Amazon based on their keywords.

Having said all this, I’d be surprised if this exposure on Squidoo has generated more than a handful of sales. But I guess every little bit helps.

Related posts:

1. Q&A: Which social network is best for plugging my book?
2. Amazon cuts social-networking features for authors, customers