By Florence Osmund
The iconic soliloquy “To be, or not to be,” spoken by Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Act 3, Scene 1, is essentially about life and death. Do I live, or do I die? Is life worth living, or is it so painful that death might be a better option?
Okay, so that premise is a tad dramatic when it comes to an author’s decision whether to use social media as part of his or her platform, but it’s kind of the same. Given all the nuances of and work involved in being on social media, is it worthwhile or a waste of time?
What is the net gain for authors being on social media?
Never have I ever heard an author say they use social media to sell books. Their book marketing campaigns may include social media, but it’s not from a social media page that readers click on a “buy” button. So why should authors spend their valuable time on social media sites when they could be spending their time on something that would result in direct sales?
Why Do It?
Let me start with some scenarios under which you shouldn’t waste your time on social media.
- You hate using it in your personal life. Don’t subject yourself to something you know beforehand you are going to stress over every time you use it. If you do, your posts will reflect this attitude and ultimately work against you.
- Creating relevant, engaging posts doesn’t come easily for you. If you find yourself struggling for content with each post, you are better off doing something that comes more naturally for you, is a better use of your time, and is more satisfying.
- You plan to depend on social media for sales. You will not sell many (if any) books from a social media site, so if this is your whole marketing plan, you might want to rethink it.
- The only time you devote to social media is when you can squeeze it in. If you cannot commit to a regular posting routine, do not squander your time on social media.
- You get so obsessed with and hooked on social media that it starts to consume your author life. Major distractions will interfere with your life as an author. If you are spending more than an hour a day on social media posting “authorly” things, you may be missing out on other, more lucrative opportunities.
Now that we have the possible hazards of being on social media out of the way, let’s look at its more positive side.
Social media can be a useful part of an author’s platform by helping to connect with readers, fellow writers, and the publishing community. In the hands of the right audience, this kind of exposure can lead to increased:
- brand awareness
- valuable connections
- e-mail sign-ups
- relationships
- raising your profile
- eventual sales
Social media allows us to become more involved in the community, a huge benefit especially for those writers who have fallen into a reclusive lifestyle.
Another benefit of being present on social media is that it can serve to humanize you—after all, it’s called social media for a reason. Instead of having just a name and a stock headshot to go by, the right posts on social media can show readers a bit more of what you’re about—your personality, writing environment, challenges, and views on things. When readers can sense an actual human behind the name—someone with whom they can interact and relate to—a relationship is more likely to form, and relationships generate sales.
Many authors will argue they do not have time to spend on social media—they prefer to spend their time writing. That’s all fine and good, but there’s no denying the power of social media in today’s society, and readers who spend hours a day on social media sites may never learn of your existence if you’re not on it.
Lastly, readers expect serious authors to have an online presence. When they Google ‘historical fiction authors,’ for example, they will gravitate toward authors whose names pop up in multiple places—Amazon, social media sites, website pages, and the like. If your only online presence is Amazon, you may get overlooked. While not necessarily fair, the higher number of results appearing from an Internet search on your name, the more successful you will appear to be to some readers, many of whom prefer to read books written by successful authors.
Where to Post
Even if you follow all the rules on creating meaningful content in your social media posts, if you do not reach your target audience, your efforts will be in vain. For example, if you write romance novels, and you post the Amazon link to one of your books on your Twitter page, you cannot expect anything to come of it. But posting an excerpt from your romance novel on the Hot Reads Facebook page could have a completely different outcome.
No two social media platforms are exactly alike. They each have unique features, ones that will not yield the same outcome for every author. So, before committing yourself to one or more of them, it is befitting to do some prep work by examining the characteristics of each platform to make sure it is right for you and your books. And don’t overlook checking out which ones the best-selling authors in your genre are using. They are “best-selling” for a reason.
Each social media platform has its inherent pros and cons.
Most social media platforms have indicators of success—numbers of click-throughs, followers, likes, shares/re-posts, and reader comments—and you can use these indicators to gauge how well your posts are doing. If after a reasonable timeframe, say ninety days or so, you have received no activity on your posts, you might want to consider another platform.
The list of social media sites is long—too long to include here in any detail. So, I’ll briefly describe what I believe to be the top five sites for authors. I say ‘briefly’ because there is a lot to know about each of these sites if you want to use them to their fullest extent. (See the end of this post for links to other articles specific to each social media site.)
Goodreads
Boasting more than 20 million members, Goodreads is a social media platform designed specifically for readers and writers—its sole purpose being to help readers find books—an author’s dream!
As an author on Goodreads, you are able to create:
- a profile
- develop a bookshelf for the books you have written
- promote your book
- communicate with readers
- join in on discussion groups
Readers on Goodreads can check out:
- up-to-date information on you and your books
- see what you look like
- browse the books you have written
- join discussion groups
- read the book reviews
Goodreads also has several paid advertising options for authors.
Facebook claims to be the largest of all social media platforms and (in addition to paid advertising) offers three avenues for authors to gain exposure for themselves and their books.
- Personal profile page
- Author page
- Discussion groups
Facebook is all about creating relationships—once you make connections with people and earn their trust, any resulting sales will come as a side benefit.
Twitter provides a fast-paced platform ideal for short messages and visual images—perfect for authors to promote their books. Some of its best features include:
- ease of building a following
- use of hashtags to get messages to a select group of people
- authors supporting each other by retweeting messages
- the “Who to Follow” feature
J. K. Rowling is known for her dynamic Twitter account where she regularly assumes the persona of one or more of her unforgettable characters, luring people in to read her books.
Goodreads also offers paid advertising options.
Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Instagram focuses on photos and videos. The reason for its popularity is because people—the younger generation in particular—seem to be obsessed with images over words.
What you post in your Instagram news feed will appear in your followers’ own feeds, therefore grabbing someone’s attention with an image and then delivering the message directly to a fan—a strategy that certainly has its advantages.
Like other social media platforms, Instagram offers paid advertising options.
Pinterest is a quasi social media site that distinguishes itself from others in that it is more of a buyer/seller market than a platform where you seek “likes” and “follows.” It works for authors because people use it like a search engine to find items to buy. But like other social media sites, Pinterest allows you to interact with other Pinterest users and build a community, which can add value to your overall platform.
Once you determine which social media sites are going to work best for you, I suggest focusing on just one or two of them. If you choose more than that, you run the risk of spreading yourself too thin, spending more time on it than you had planned, or worse yet, not spending enough time on any of them, defeating the whole purpose of being on social media in the first place. Think like your biggest fans, and then go with whatever platform(s) you think will do the best job of appealing to their interests.
What to Post
I think most of us would agree that writing social media posts is quite different from writing an 80,000-word novel. So, if social media content does not come naturally for you, know that you are not alone—many authors find it difficult to switch from one writing mode to another.
The good news is that writers have an advantage over other “posters” in that they know the basic rules of writing, how to grab one’s attention with words, and the concepts of voice, tone, and mood. And I would argue that’s a big leg up.
A common mistake authors often make is hopping onto a social media site and begin sharing whatever comes to mind. Or they insert the Amazon link to their latest book and expect something to happen. It takes considerably more than that to engage with the right people, especially with those who have limited time to spend on social media. Creating consistent, relevant content is key.
Every post should have a purpose; every post must count.
Posting consistent, relevant content for your target audience is fundamental to becoming a successful social media participant. Creating anything less is likely going to be a waste of your time and/or a lesson in futility.
To engage with your target audience, it is important to think like them. Put yourself in their shoes, and then give them what they want. While each author will have to determine what constitutes the right content, I can at a minimum offer this list as a place to start.
Connecting with Other Authors
- Acknowledge other authors who have helped you in your career
- Conduct a Q&A session
- Create relevant, sharable content about the craft of writing
- Disclose important milestones you have reached
- Post cover reveals and new releases
- Promote service providers you can recommend
- Provide a behind-the-scenes look at your writing process
- Re-post links to interesting articles
- Share latest industry news
- Talk about upcoming events (conferences, webinars, workshops, etc.)
Connecting with Readers and Fans
- Answer frequently asked questions
- Ask for reader opinions
- Conduct a Q&A session
- Disclose important milestones you have reached
- Discuss things that are specific to your genre
- Engage fans in games and/or contests
- Host giveaways
- Include a quote or excerpt from your book
- Invite people to name a character in your next book
- Let people see your personal side
- Post cover reveals
- Post photos of your workspace
- Promote other authors’ works
- Provide a behind-the-scenes look at your writing process
- Re-post particularly good reviews
- Reveal your love of books
- Share a chapter from your book
- Show off your pets (a little cheesy, but it works)
- Solicit feedback as to what readers like and dislike
- Talk about your new releases
- Tell others what you are reading
- Update fans on your writing progress
Connecting with Influencers and Industry Professionals
- Disclose important milestones you have reached
- Let people know who is talking about you
- Make known your involvement in the writing world (speaking engagements, interviews, articles written, press coverage, book fairs attended, etc.)
- Post cover reveals and new releases
- Promote yourself (books published, awards achieved, honors received, etc.)
- Share a quote or excerpt from your book
- Thank others for their help in your career
The important thing is to stay consistent with both the content and timing of your posts, so your audience knows what to expect. It is often a slow process to find the right combination, but this is how you build a solid reader/follower base.
How Often to Post
Posting on social media will not work well for you if you only post when something pops into your head, when you have a free minute, or when you feel like it. Your posts need to be more strategic than that, and a good place to start is with a schedule.
I like using an annual posting calendar for each of the three social media sites that I have found to work best for me and my books. Once a year, I create a six-month schedule of posts and then reuse them for the second half of the year.
I try to post on Twitter twice daily, on my Facebook author page weekly, and on my Facebook personal page as needed. I alternate posts with the following core topics:
- Industry news
- Invitation to visit my website
- Links to relevant articles of interest
- My new book releases
- My upcoming events
- Promotion of my books
- Promotion of someone else’s book
I will periodically substitute a post with some other subject matter when appropriate, but I find these core topics to be most effective for my “routine” posts.
It takes a while to prepare an annual calendar, but I find it is much more efficient in the long run than trying to come up with posts daily. Another benefit of creating a mass of posts at one time is it reduces repetition. And having an annual calendar makes posting on social media each day a breeze, as most of the posts are just a matter of “cut and paste.”
In Summary
Using social media to get your books out into the world can be an amazing opportunity by helping you to gain valuable exposure, but it takes time and effort. Don’t be surprised if you have to try many different strategies before you find what works, as this is how you learn what resonates with your audience and what does not. Creating an effective social media presence is something that evolves over time.
“Social media is about the people, not about your business.
Provide for the people, and the people will provide for you.”
—Matt Goulart, founder of Ignite Digital
Used effectively, I think you will find that social media has the ability to play an important role in your author platform. And who knows, you might even stop thinking of it as a “necessary evil” and start to like it!
Related Articles
10 Instagram Tips for Writers
How to Create a Facebook Author Page (and Tips for Using It Wisely)
The Ultimate Guide to Goodreads for Authors
How Writers Can Use Pinterest
Twitter for Writers 101
Click here for more articles by Florence Osmund.
Photo: BigStockPhoto
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Excellent post. Really good info and suggestions.
Thank you, Sharon. I’m glad it was of some help. It’s hard to know how much time to devote to social media these days, and what works for one author won’t necessarily work for others. Lots of trial and error I think.
I must say that this is a very well written article about marketing books on social media — likely the best that I have read and I have read a lot of articles. It should help a lot of authors.
Even so, I like to avoid social media except when I post jokes and other twisted material to get a laugh from friends and acquaintances.
Problem is, like any marketing tool or strategy, social media content lacks power when so many people saturate the Internet with it.
As an author whose books (mainly self-published in the English editions) recently reached over 1,000,000 copies sold, and have been published in 22 languages in 29 countries, I will stick to my techniques for writing books and marketing them. I have come up with 75 to 100 of my own unique marketing techniques. I have used similar unique marketing techniques to get over 117 books deals with various foreign publishers around the world without the help of a North American foreign rights agent. (In fact, I just did two more book deals with a Vietnamese publisher since the pandemic began.) These techniques involve what my competitors are NOT doing — instead of what my competitors are doing. These techniques have absolutely nothing to do with using paid advertising or social media.
These words of wisdom have always resonated with me and inspired me to roll the way I roll and get the results that I get.
“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.”
— Christopher Morley
Thank you for your feedback, Ernie. I agree with you that a problem with social media is the saturation of it on the Internet–our posts tend to get lost in the throws of it. You are obviously a successful author, and I would love to hear more about your marketing strategies.