How To Promote Your Book with a Free Doodle App

By Dianna Dilworth 

Looking for new ways to find readers? Here’s an idea: host an online drawing contest using Doodle.ly, a free website and iPad app that lets you draw and share sketches.

Here’s how it can work. Use your social networking pages to invite loyal readers to make sketches about your book for the chance to win prizes (Free books, free eBooks, t-shirts, the chance to design your next book cover? You decide).

For a work of fiction, this can be a character from the book. For a cookbook, this can be a meal. For a work of poetry, it can be a location. Make it up based on whatever makes the most sense for your book. Then ask these fans to share their drawings on Facebook, adding a hashtag that ties into your book. The promotion can get your readers excited and help spread the word about your work to their friends.

AppNewser has more about how a television station is doing this kind of promotion: “TLC is using the platform to help promote its television show ‘Cake Boss.’ Fans of the show are invited to use the app to draw their dream cake and then submit their drawings to the Cake Boss Facebook page for the chance to win branded merchandise from the show.”