I truly love the posts in today’s Book Marketing Update.

If you only have time to read one or two posts, you must read Jane Friedman’s article on Amazon’s importance to book sales and online book events.

I hope you enjoy your weekend and stay safe and healthy.

Book Marketing

Audiobook Narration, Production and Marketing Tips with Derek Doeker and by Joanna Penn: “Derek Doepker gives some tips on why audiobooks are so important as a format, self-narration, working with a narrator, plus, production and marketing ideas.”

Amazon’s Importance to Book Sales Keeps Increasing—for Better or Worse by Jane Friedman: This is a phenomenal post about Amazon and publishing. There is no way I can paraphrase the content of this article so please just read it.

Pinterest Launches New Holiday Hub and Marketing Guide to Assist with Holiday Campaigns from Social Media Today: Boost the sales of your books this holiday by taking advantage of Pinterest’s holiday hub. Are you new to Pinterest or want to get more out of this platform? Be sure to buy my ebook, “Pinterest Just for Writers.”

Online Book Events (Book Marketing)

Online Book Events: A Necessary Pivot in 2020, But How Do You Compete? by Jane Friedman: Jane Friedman’s knowledge of the publishing and book marketing industries is so extensive. She continues to surprise me with the depth and breadth of her knowledge. This is another must-read!

Social Media

The new Facebook features every author should know about from SproutSocial: There are quite a few new features at Facebook so be sure to check out this blog post.

Why Goodreads is bad for books from New Statesman: This is the subtitle to this headline: “After years of complaints from users, Goodreads’ reign over the world of book talk might be coming to an end.” Definitely take time to read this article.

The Best Times to Post on Social Media in 2020 [Infographic] from Social Media Today: Take a look at this chart but also look at your analytics to determine the best posting times for you and your readers.

Of Note

The Ultimate Guide to NaNoWriMo Planning by Savannah Gilbo: This post includes ten tips on preparing for NaNoWriMo.

Introducing the 2020 National Book Award Longlists from BookRiot: Looking for a great read? Check out this post.

Quote of the Week

My weekly Book Marketing Updates have been lengthy of late, haven’t they?

It’s that there is so much great content out there for authors and I want to present you with a variety of topics. That way, you can select the blog posts that are most meaningful to you.

Under the book marketing heading, I loved the post about author bios. Don’t consider this post a repetition of what you’ve seen elsewhere. I adopted many of the suggestions and I’m so glad I found this information.

I think it’s important for authors to know about Twitter’s new Holiday Hub. Use this website to your advantage this holiday season to improve your book sales.

Check out the rest of the posts and determine which strategies best suit your needs right now.

And stay safe and healthy.

Book Marketing

Bestselling Author Jenny Milchman on The Keys to Success by Jenny Milchman and from Rachel Thompson: The advice by the USA Today bestselling author is stellar. Be sure to read read her take on success.

How to write an author bio by Anna Sproul, a literary agent: There have been several author bio blog posts lately. Here’s another one that you should consider reading. I just updated my bio based on Anna Sproul’s advice. Check it out here.

How Authors Can Make an Income from 1,000 True Fans, With Orna Ross and Joanna Penn: Whether you call your collection of dedicated readers a street team, super fans, or true fans, every author needs a corps of readers who read every book you publish and promote them.

Social Media News

How to Conduct a Social Media Audit (Includes a Free Template) from HootSuite: If you want instructions for a DIY social media audit, read this post. If you’d like a professional to handle it, check out what people think of my social media audits.

How to manage multiple Twitter accounts easily from SproutSocial: Believe it or not, I know authors who have multiple Twitter accounts. Joanna Penn is one example and Susanne Lakin is another. Joanna separates her dark thriller author Twitter account from her marketing/publishing Twitter account. Susanne has three Twitter accounts, including one for her romance novels. If you think you need a second Twitter account, be sure to read this post.

Twitter Launches ‘Holiday Hub’ to Help Marketers Prepare for the Holiday Season from Social Media Today: This is so cool! Twitter launched a new “Holiday Hub” mini-website to help its users make the most of the upcoming holiday season. Be sure to check this out.

Publishing

Publishing Wide For The Win with Erin Wright and via Joanna Penn: This discussion explains what ‘going wide’ means, why libraries are so important, and tips for publishing wide wherever you are on the author journey.

“I wish I had known that before I self-published.” 25 authors share what they’ve learned by Sandra Beckwith: If you are thinking about self-publishing your first book, be sure to read this blog post first.

Of Note

Looking for a great read? Check out this shortlist of Book Prize finalists.

Where Novelists Get Stuck: 3 Common Issues with Early Drafts from Jane Friedman’s blog and by Susan DeFreitas: Susan DeFreitas has written a number of guest blog posts for Jane Friedman. In this post, she discusses character arc, plot structure, and pacing and tension.

Quote of the Week

A social media expert for authors (something I never dreamed of becoming), I build author platforms to enhance book sales. I also use my industry connections to promote authors and their books. What else can I do for you? I’m a writer so I provide content writing and email marketing services. Let’s chat! And don’t forget to download my free Twitter ebook.

Today’s Book Marketing Update is chock-full of super blog posts from the past week. Here are some highlights:

If you enjoy using book promotion websites, David Gaughran published a comprehensive list for you to review.

On Sabrina Ricci’s blog, there’s a post about increasing sales through “lean publishing.” This was a new term for me.

Finally, I adored the podcast with Orna Ross. They interviewed Kevin Kelly, who maintains you don’t need to be an influencer to make a living as an author. I’m all for that!

On a personal note, I live in Northern California where fires besiege the area. Please keep our firefighters in mind as well as the families who are evacuated and the forest animals.

Book Marketing

Best Book Promo Sites in 2020 by David Gaughran: David Gaughran is a masterful book marketer. Be sure to check out this post to discover current sites that can help you sell more books.

How to Change Your Kindle Keywords from Anne R. Allen’s blog and by Dave Chesson: “Many authors don’t know that Kindle keywords aren’t something you should set and forget.” I would say that this is especially true for traditionally published authors. Make sure your publisher is adjusting your categories and keywords as needed.

Orna Ross and Joanna Penn consider Kevin Kelly’s 2008 idea that you don’t need to be an influencer with a million followers to make a living from your work: Check out this video to learn what you do need to do to make your success happen.

How to Market Your Books with Social Media: New to social media? No problem! I describe my adoption of social media and how I did it gradually. Check it out; it will encourage you.

Publishing

15 Steps to Self-Publish Your Book from KM Weiland: If you want to have more control over your publishing and Amazon categories and keywords, then self-publishing is the choice for you. Plus, you will earn more money. Be sure to read the post before self-publishing your next books.

Lean Book Publishing: How to Drastically Increase Success Rates by Publishing Books the Lean Way by Albert Griesmayr and from Sabrina Ricci’s blog: “Its core idea of lean publishing is to publish books that readers like, love, and want. And you do that by quickly and cost-effectively finding out what works and what doesn’t, all based on your target readers’ feedback.”

Indie Publishers Ride the Pandemic Roller Coaster from Publishers Weekly: Publishers weekly surveyed six independent publishers. Their responses were mixed. Three of them said that business was up while three said sales had dropped. Find out which genres are doing better and what the outlook is.

Social Media News

15 Social Media Marketing Fails from Social Media Today: I’ll point to three tips. First, don’t wing it. Always provide the best content you can, including images. And don’t ignore your followers. Pay attention to them by liking their content and leaving positive comments.

Pinterest Outlines Recent Improvements to Feed Ranking, and Focus on Video Content by Andrew Hutchinson: “… Pinterest is on the rise, with the platform seeing significant increases in overall users (now up to 416 million MAU) and engagement ….”

Blogging

8 Blogging Tips for Writers to Find Success by Robert Lee Brewer and from Writers Digest: Blogging is an integral aspect of a writer’s platform. This post includes eight essential tips for writers who blog.

Email Marketing for Authors

The Ultimate Guide to Mailing Lists for Authors Part 3: Maintaining a Mailing List from the Alliance of Independent Authors: Self-Publishing Advice Center: “Once you have a mailing list, it’s important you optimize it. That means even if your autoresponders are evergreen, they may need a touch up.”

Of Note

6 Organizations or Groups Promoting Latinx Literature from Book Riot:  Hispanic Heritage Month is from September 15 to October 15. This post lists organizations that promote Latinx literature.

Creativity, Business, and Ambition with Emily Kimelman and from Joanna Penn: This podcast/blog post covers so many topics. They include the pros and cons of having to pen names, being a dyslexic writers, the blurred line between fact and fiction and so much more!

Quote of the Week

Today’s quote is by Charles Bukowski.

I am an author and social media consultant for writers. My emphasis is on building author platforms. I also provide content writing and email marketing services. Be sure to download my free Twitter ebook.

Are you in a slump with your Twitter account, unsure about what to tweet? 

Or maybe you’ve never been entirely sure how to use this platform. Is that it?

No worries. Authors often complain to me that they don’t know what to say. 

The truth is, when you’re starting out on Twitter, it can be challenging to know what to do, and at times, what not to say.

5 Steps to Better Tweets

If you’re stumped as you prepare your social media posts for the day (or week), follow these steps:

1. Scan your Twitter lists. These are lists that you curate of people you want to keep track of.
2. Look at your newsfeed. Your newsfeed contains tweets from everyone you follow.
3. Check your notifications at least once daily. 
4. Review the profiles of experts in publishing and writing and colleagues who write in your genre.
5. Sign up for Google Alerts and Mix to receive regular updates of interest to your followers.

What to Tweet? Check out These Examples

If you’re still perplexed, keep this list of 44 tweets nearby and refer to it every day. This list will always keep your tweets fresh.

1. Quotes from authors you know
2. Quotes from authors you admire
3. Quote from authors about writing
4. Quotes about reading
5. Quotes about how reading is closely tied to writing
6. Images of book covers from your favorite authors
7. Images of libraries
8. Images of bookstores
9. Pictures of unusual bookshelves
10. Books you like by other authors
11. Tweets about your new blog posts
12. Tweets about blog posts from colleagues
13. Tweets about blog posts from experts in book marketing, writing, publishing, and social media
14. Tweets that lead readers to specific landing pages on your website
15. Tweets that lead readers to a popular Facebook post you wrote
16. Vacation images
17. Holiday images
18. Images of your writing desk
19. Pictures of an outdoor café where you like to write
20. Photos of your backyard where you enjoy writing
21. Images of your dog or cat
22. Quotes from your book
23. Questions
24. Answers
25. Expressions of gratitude
26. Quotes from positive reviews of your books on Amazon
27. Tweet quotes about writing tips and use the #WriterWednesday hashtag
28. Tweet an inspirational quote on Mondays and include the hashtag #MotivationMonday
29. Use the hashtags #1LineWednesday and #1LineFriday to tweet a great line from a book you’ve read or are reading
30. Send a tweet and use the hashtag #FridayReads to tell your audience what you’re reading now
31. Links to podcasts you’ve enjoyed
32. Links to your podcast episodes
33. Include links to a freebie you offer on your website
34. Send a tweet for an email list signup on your website that includes an “ethical bribe,” a free gift
35. Tweet a link so that people can download a free copy of the first chapter of your book or the first book in a series you wrote
36. Information about book fairs and events of interest to your readers
37. Ask for introductions
38. Announcements of a Twitter contest you’re hosting
39. Notify your readers when one of your books is available for free
40. Occasionally tweet about your book but never ask people to buy it or fill your tweet with hashtags your readers won’t understand
41. Announce the nominees and then the winner of the Man Booker Prize
42. Share news about new nominees for the Pulitzer Prize and then share the winner’s name and the book that he or she wrote
43. Share the good news about the world’s new Nobel Laureate in Literature
44. Let your readers know about new books being released soon within your genre
45. Tell your readers about the nominees for this year’s National Book Award and then announce the winners
46. Share the news when you’ve won an award for one of your books
47. Tweet quotes about your genres, such as what makes a good mystery or thriller novel
48. Talk about new publications from famous authors who write in your genre
49. Tweet fun/humorous images about books and reading
50. Talk about the importance of literacy
51. Tweet about developments that may be news-related that are pertinent to your genre
52. Share a link to your Goodreads account, so your readers will know what you’ve read and what you’re reading
53. Let your readers know when you’ve reviewed a book on Goodreads
54. Share your reviews about your books that are on Goodreads
55. Check trending issues and incorporate trending hashtags into tweets when it makes sense for your genre, novel, and brand

So, now you have 55 suggestions for tweets. By the way, you can use these examples for all of your social media updates, including Instagram and Facebook.

If you have additional questions about what you should talk about on social media, please contact me.

I am an author and social media consultant for writers. My emphasis is on building author platforms. I also provide content writing and email marketing services. Be sure to download my free Twitter ebook.