Authors looking around to market their books can find dozens of spots that promote fiction of all types, fortunately non-fiction writers also have specialized sites they can promote to their target audience. One the best and easiest to use exists in the form of Slideshare, perfectly positioned to promote your niche expertise and the books you've written because of it.
Readers go to Slideshare for one reason: to read information from experts in their fields. It's a huge worldwide community dedicated to sharing knowledge. This free service allows self published and indie authors to produce a limitless number of slideshows showcasing information on a niche topic. The more viewers you have on the site, the more you'll be seen as a topic expert, which is a great way to increase your non-fiction readership.
The Publicity
Like most social media spots, each user on Slideshare creates a profile, including links to their website, Twitter feed, and any other form of contact they wish. Viewers who view your slideshows can save your profile as a favorite, can post your work on their own social media accounts, or can go directly to your website or sales page from your Slideshare profile. It's a complete page praising your talent in your chosen niche, complete with signposts directing readers to your work.
The Nuts and Bolts
You may be scared of using Slideshare if you don't feel particularly artistic, but most slideshows consist of pages with a small amount of text on them, stock photos, or small memes. The idea is to group together a long string of short thoughts to create a coherent story. With this site, simpler is much better than elaborate, beautiful art. Take your niche topic and break it down into multiple small sections. Create how-to slideshows on baking dog cookies or identifying poison mushrooms. Group together inspirational sayings about getting through graduate school. Whatever the topic of your non-fiction book, take a tiny representative sample of the ideas on your pages and turn them into simple visual bits that will make readers more curious about the topic.
Once is Not Enough
The more "thoughtful" slideshows you create on Slideshare the more authoritative you'll seem. Someone coming upon the site looking for information on your topic will be more impressed with 16 slideshows than with just one or two. Finding or making the graphics are the most time-consuming part of this process; building the slideshows themselves take only a few minutes. After that, it's all about spreading the word on your own social media sites and adding a link to your profile on sites when you comment on blogs. People interested in your subject matter will naturally gravitate to your profile to see what you've produced. In the world of non-fiction writing, it's all about seeming like an expert in your field to convince readers to buy your book. The more evidence, the better, and Slideshare is a great way to help show them what you know.
Keep the Faith and May the Force be with You!