Wondering how to start your book marketing journey with social media? I’ve had several questions about that, so let’s look at some tips. The big benefit of using social media to promote your books is that it’s free — except for the time it takes, of course.
Book marketing for introverts: social media can be as “social” as you’d like it to be
What if you’re an introvert, and hate networking? That needn’t be a road block. Your aim is to promote your books to readers who will enjoy them, but social media isn’t all about promotion. It’s about making friends, while building awareness.
So if you feel self-conscious consider that you’re sharing your interests with like-minded people. Your interests can be anything at all. You’re on social media to promote your books, yes, but also to enjoy your time talking about, and sharing, things you enjoy.
These tips can help.
1. Start a blog, if you don’t already have one
You may feel that blogging steals your writing time. However, your blog is your social media hub. All social media networks give you a profile on which you can link to your blog. Your readers can click through to your blog to learn more about you AND can join your mailing list.
So before you do anything else, set up a blog, and a mailing list. If that seems overwhelming, consider that you’re setting up your book marketing efforts for your entire career as an an author.
2. Choose your favorite social media networks: start with one, or two
There are many social media networks: Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram, and more. Which will you choose? Pick one which appeals to you, and join it. I like Twitter and Pinterest. At the moment, that’s all I have time to handle.
If you’re time-poor, choose one network on which to focus.
3. Schedule your book marketing: social media can be a time sink
It’s possible to spend an hour on Twitter or Facebook, just browsing, and retweeting or commenting. It happens to everyone, but to make sure that you get value from social media, create an editorial schedule.
Make a outline of posts for the coming week on Sunday. Then each day, post one item. Making your outline will take 20 minutes. Each day, it should take no longer than ten minutes to post your item.
(By the way, Trello is free and very useful for managing your social media content.)
4. Rome wasn’t built in a day, to coin a cliche: expect that it will take three months to get your first followers
“Social media is a waste of time!” Have you said this? Everyone’s said it at some time or other. 🙂
It takes momentum to build your presence on any network. Expect that it will take around three months of effort to — get visits to your blog, get readers to join your mailing list, and get followers on your social network.
Everyone starts at zero. You’ll see consistent growth after three months.
5. Promote your book when you start writing it, to build interest and expectation
The best time to market your book is when you start writing it. Many bloggers have word count apps in their sidebar. You can do this. You can also post snippets of your novel, or nonfiction book.
Your aim is to engage your audience. Consider that you’re also building relationships with other authors.
When publishing day arrives, your relationships are valuable. You can ask your colleagues to help you to promote by sending a note to their mailing list, and you can reciprocate, of course, when they publish their books.
Your social media accounts are assets — they’re valuable to you, and to others. The time you spend building your assets is always time well spent.
Social media offers easy book marketing: minute by minute, you’re building your readership
When you start book marketing on social media, it seems overwhelming. Just do one small task a day. All those minutes you spend on your blog and on social media add up. As we’ve said, your social media accounts are valuable assets.
Before you know it, you’ll get daily visitors to your blog, and will have built a presence. Your readership will grow, reader by reader — and you’ll sell more books. 🙂
Writing commercial fiction is a challenge for many authors. Have you ever said: "I can't plot...?" If you have, your struggles with plotting your fiction are over.
Good tip – I always think about marketing my book when it’s ready for publishing, not earlier.