Practical Tips for Marketing Your Books on the Social Web
Whenever I first talk with a writer who’s considering hiring me, I always ask the same questions:
I always enjoy hearing about an authors’ books. There’s such a wide range of creative endeavors. Books vary in subject matter from science fiction to nonfiction to women’s fiction. The diversity is luscious.
Each week in the Indie Author Weekly Update I try to vary the sources of information I bring you. New this week are Dave Chesson and his guest blogger Paul Kilpatrick. Be sure you don’t miss Reedsy’s list of the best book review blogs. And of course, Jane Friedman’s insights are also such a treat.
Can you feel summer coming to a close? I hope you enjoy the days that remain.
Best Book Review Blogs of 2017 by Reedsy: “Discover the best book review blogs in your preferred genre. From general fiction to YA paranormal romance, our search bar connects you to a vetted catalog of active book blogs and thoughtful, quality book reviewers.”
I remember when I joined Twitter six years ago. Within the first day, I had four followers, and I recall running out of my office and into the kitchen so I could tell my husband that four people were following me. “Me!” I said.
I was stoked.
I didn’t know back then that to gain followers you had to follow people, so I did nothing, aside from posting a few tweets every day.
Then I did the worst thing possible. (I made other mistakes in those days but, hey, I was still learning.) I signed up for an application like TrueTwit. It might even have been TrueTwit I just can’t recall right now. Basically, the application “verifies” that someone who follows you isn’t a bot or a spammer by making new followers click a link. If they don’t click the link, you can’t follow them back, assuming they’re worth following.
The focus for this week’s Indie Author Weekly Update is on social media networks. You’ll find tips about Facebook Groups, Snapchat and YouTube. I hope you like this week’s selection.
What is Facebook Stories and how does it work? from Pocket Lint: “Facebook could jumpstart its Snapchat clone by letting social media stars and public figures post Stories publicly. When Facebook Stories launched globally in March, you could only share to all your friends or a subset of them. Now if you allow public followers, you can post your Story publicly so anyone can watch.”
Last week I wrote about several social media changes, namely to Facebook and Twitter. Today I continue the discussion.
Let’s start the discussion with Twitter Moments.
Initially a feature for news organizations, Twitter Moments are now available for everyone to use.
This is how to get started:
Go to your Moments tab, located between Home and Notifications on the taskbar. (Look for the lightning symbol.) Give your Moment a title by clicking Title your Moment. Then add a description, and upload an image to set the cover. Then, select some tweets you’ve sent, liked, or retweeted. Once you’ve completed your moment, click Publish in the top left-hand corner. (Note: Be sure to crop your photos right on Twitter for mobile navigation.)
I created a simple moment that includes a tweet about book patches, the Hay Festival in Segovia, Spain, news about the Pulitzer Prize winning The Underground Railroad (read it and loved it!), and two more tweets.
This week’s Indie Author Update includes posts from Chris Well, Penny Sansevieri, Buffer, Social Media Examiner, Book Riot, and Authority Pub. Topics range from email lists to using Facebook as a substitute for a book club to Amazon ads. The topics are diverse this week.
Meanwhile, I hope you’re enjoying the summer and finding pockets of inspiration wherever you are.
18 Experts: Why Every Author Needs an Email by Chris Well: “Despite all the tools available for promoting your books and building your author presence online, it would be a mistake to discount the value of a healthy email list. Building a list of email subscribers allows you to engage with your readers, drive new book sales, and insure your author platform against inevitable changes in search engines and social networks. Don’t believe me? Here are 18 influencers–including authors, bloggers, podcasters, and other online teachers–who explain why you need an email list.”
Social media is always evolving. It changes, retracts, expands, and moves on.
The only constant about social media is that it never stays the same. New features are added and redesigns occur. Keep reading to find out what’s new on Facebook and Twitter.
Remember when Facebook didn’t have a timeline? Instead it had five small images across what it now known as a timeline and small avatar off to the left. Before that, Facebook was known as Thefacebook and other than the brand color, the early version of Facebook is virtually unrecognizable.
This week’s Indie Author Weekly Update includes posts from Helen Sedwick, Jane Friedman, Penny Sansevieri, Joel Friedman, and Orna Ross. You’ll find posts about piracy, resources for authors, marketing, and top blog posts for the first half of 2017.
Why the picture of the Labrador retriever pup above? We’re now in the dog days of summer. How are you spending them? (I’m just trying to stay cool!)
Digital Piracy & Illegal Downloads: Author Options by Helen Sedwick from BookWorks: “Sooner or later, every author suffers that dreadful experience of finding websites offering free illegal downloads of her book. For most of us, our first reaction to such digital piracy is to send a nasty email or better yet, hire an attorney to write one for us. After all, someone is stealing our work! Wait! Before you pay hard-earned money to an attorney, let’s look at less expensive options.”
I have a client who wasn’t on Facebook and wanted a Facebook author page.
As you know, before you can create a Facebook page you first need a Facebook profile. So I created a Facebook profile first and then the page. When my client logged in, he only saw the profile and assumed that the profile was his page.
I think part of the problem stems from the fact that people tend to use the term “Facebook page” loosely. A Facebook profile isn’t a Facebook page, and vice versa. And, yes, you need a somewhat informal profile before you can create a page.
Just to continue the comparison a bit further, on a Facebook profile you have friends and you can send and accept or deny friend requests.
Today’s Indie Author Weekly Update is packed with posts from across the internet, including from Dave Chesson, Joel Friedlander, Sabrina Ricci, and others. Learn about book marketing, creating a website, and so much more!
CreateSpace vs KDP Print from Dave Chesson: “If you ever published a Kindle book on Amazon, chances are you also created (or contemplated) a print version of your Kindle book and published via CreateSpace, Amazon’s print-on-demand (POD) platform. In the summer of 2016, Amazon launched a 2nd POD platform – “KDP Print” – right in the KDP backend that most authors use to publish Kindle books. At that time, only a limited number of authors were invited, but on February 15, 2017, KDP Print – still in Beta testing – was opened to the public.”
