Can Social Media Really Help to Promote your Book?

Three Questions That Can Change Your Love-Hate Relationship with Social Media

By

Beth Jusino

 

 I'm delighted to welcome Beth Jusino to MB4. Beth is the book marketing guru over at The Editorial Department. Her new book, The Author’s Guide to Marketing: Make a Plan That Attracts More Readers and Sells More Books (You May Even Enjoy It), is a must read for any author trying to promote a book in today's changing environment. Today she talks about Social Media and the writer. Can it really help to promote your book?

Enjoy!

D.

*****

“I signed up for Twitter because everyone says I have to do it to market my book. But I hate it.”

Sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone. As a marketing consultant, I spend more time talking with writers about social media than any other channel. Too often, Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest has become nothing but a black hole of dread that seems to suck time away from their writing, without giving anything back.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Social media works only when it’s social—when there’s a comfortable give-and-take between real people. Think of it like a very big cocktail party—if you hover silently in a corner and don’t talk to anyone, you probably won’t get much out of the experience. It’s a waste of time. And if you stand in the doorway and accost every person who passes you with a sales pitch, you’ll do more harm for your cause than good.

But if you walk into the room with a smile and the attitude that people here are worth engaging with, and if you’re prepared with a few conversation topics to break the ice, you might make a new friend or two. You might even enjoy yourself.

Changing your perspective on social media starts with asking three questions:

1.      Who do I WANT to meet?

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the depth of the social media pools. There are millions of people here, usually talking about every conceivable silliness. So let go of the idea that you will talk to everyone—and get proactive about finding people who share your interests and passions.

That means your existing readers, of course, but also those people who should read your books.

Don’t wait for those people to find you; go looking for them. Start by identifying three or four general interests that you might share with your audience. For instance, if you write thrillers about a former rodeo cowboy who now solves crimes in Montana, search for people who are already talking about reading* thrillers, OR about rodeos, OR about Wyoming. These are your people. Follow them. Comment on what they share. Be friendly. (But don’t be pushy. Don’t try to sell anything to a stranger.)

* Look for readers rather than writers. I see a lot of authors who use social media to follow and chat with other authors—their coworkers, essentially—instead of their readers and fans.

2.      What can I offer?

No one remembers the wallflower at the cocktail party. For Twitter or Vine or whatever to work as a platform-building tool, you need to say something that others want to hear. Don’t approach social media asking “how can I sell more books?” Ask:

What can I do to help my audience right now?

Think about the way you engage acquaintances and readers in real life, and spin that into your online persona. What do people respond to? (Follow the links for Twitter examples)

·         Information. If your brand is based on knowledge (you’re an expert of some kind), share tips, facts, and links to relevant articles on your blog.

·         Humor. If there’s humor in your writing, bring it to your social presence. If we’ve learned anything from all of those cat videos on YouTube, it’s that people love to laugh.

·         Encouragement. Break through the noise of social media with a quote, a verse, a thought, or a wish that will brighten someone’s day.

·         Links. Become a curator of relevant, interesting content. If you write historical fiction, share photos and stories about the era. If your work has an environmental angle, link to the latest research. If you write romance, share happily-ever-after stories (or pictures of hot men, connecting both humor and links). 

·         News about yourself. Providing value also means sharing what’s happening with your books and your writing. Share links to interviews on other sites, sales, major milestones (did you finish a manuscript, or even a chapter?). This isn’t a channel for hard sales pitches or “buy my book” messages.

And remind yourself to engage. Social media isn’t a one-way communication channel. It won’t work if you broadcast what you have to say and then disappear. Treat social media as a conversation, and the people who are there as individuals who are worth your time and energy. Ask questions, and engage when people answer you. Follow and comment (or share, or like) what other people are posting. This is the chance for you to listen to your readers, and learn more about them—which in turn can help you write better books for them.

3.      What do I want to get?

There’s a lot more to Instagram or Tumblr than people selling books. Venture out and look around; social media might meet some of your needs, too.  

Whether it’s sustainable gardening or spiritual development, encouragement as a parent or research about the Tudors, it’s there. If you’re researching Yosemite National Park for your Work in Progress (or for the next family vacation), you can find people who are curating information about the park. Or if you need to know what the traffic is like at midnight in a particular Seattle neighborhood, there’s someone online who can tell you.

Piece by piece, social media will start to feel less like a chore and more like an extension of a conversation with people you know and care about—your readers.

*****

About Beth Jusino:

Beth Jusino talks more about social media and all kinds of author marketing techniques in her new book The Author’s Guide to Marketing: Make a Plan That Attracts More Readers and Sells More Books (You May Even Enjoy It). A former literary agent, Beth is now a freelance consultant and the Director of Book and Author Marketing for The Editorial Department, guiding traditionally- and self-publishing authors through the modern maze of opportunities. She teaches a Guide to Getting Published class every quarter in Seattle. Visit her at http://bethjusino.com or on Twitter @bethjusino. 

About Dora Machado

Dora Machado is the award-winning author of the epic fantasy Stonewiser series and her newest novel, The Curse Giver, available from Twilight Times Books. She is one only a few Hispanic women writing fantasy in the United States today. She grew up in the Dominican Republic, where she developed a fascination for writing and a taste for Merengue. After a lifetime of straddling such compelling but different worlds, fantasy is a natural fit to her stories.

When she is not writing fiction, Dora also writes features for the award-winning blog Murder By Four and Savvy Authors, where writers help writers. She lives in Florida with her indulgent husband and two very opinionated cats.

To learn more about Dora Machado and her award winning novels, visit her at www.doramachado.com , email her at Dora@doramachado.com, find her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.

 

 

 

 

 

Know thine characters

OK, so I am up really late on a Monday night (I can do that these days and not miss a beat) - and I have this desire to blog about writing characters. There are quite a few things that I could say about that, but some of the highlights will do for this post today.

Here they are: Make your characters different from one another and make them stand out for who they are. No one likes vanilla people on paper. Know their history. Where did they come from? What sorts of things do they detest? Give them a horrible past and tell us every juicy detail by their actions.

No, don't just TELL us, show us how they are affected by it. Share something happy about them with us, and make us smile. Make us laugh, and we will read your book to the very end. Make everything about their past matter, and throw in secrets. Readers LOVE secrets!

When your characters talk, make them all sound different. I know this is a little like making them different from above, but it is still not the exact same thing. We all talk differently. Accents, speech patterns all differ and make us individuals. Do that for the paper people too.

And, I guess that is all for now. I am thinking way too hard for after midnight, but that's how I roll. I just need to roll myself over to the laptop and do more edits on my latest WIP and then everything in my writing life would be on track.

Hope your Thursday flies by (we all know what comes after Thursday and isn't that super!) and if you have time today, go sit alone in a coffeeshop or a cafe and listen to the people who fill our world.

They all make wonderful book characters with their different loves and hates, with their horrible pasts, and their happy stories. If we could create from the world around us, what a magnificient lot of pages we could make!

 

Wise old owl

To Advertise, Promote or Market Your Book?

© Marta Stephens 2011 all rights reserved

For a writer, a key element to success is building relationships and networking with others in the writing/publishing business. It’s what gets us out of that solitary existence and through the various stages of writing/editing. Hard work will eventually lead to publication and, in due course, drive “the buzz” for that exciting new release.

The goal—the end result, of course, is sales, but is it enough to slap a link on our website or blog and direct readers to buy our books? Think again.

Advertising = Information.
It’s what you say about yourself or pay someone to say about you and/or your book. We see advertisements in the local newspapers, on billboards, in phone books, and on the front of paper placemats at a local diner. Think about a recent TV commercial. I’ll use a couple of car insurance companies that are currently competing for customers. Company “A” allows the customer to name their price and the amount of coverage. Company “B” warns that naming your price/coverage may not cover the evil mayhem that could be waiting to happen. If you’re not in the market to buy insurance, would either of these commercials convince you to switch your coverage? Probably not.

A writer advertises (shows their skills) through his or her writings in blog and/newsletters which grants readers an insider’s perspective as to who the author is and what drove him or her to write the book. As enlightening as it may seem, and yes, advertising is a necessary first step, it is only information. At this point, the writer is merely informing readers of the who, what, and how, but it won’t be enough to move readers to part with their hard earned money.

Let’s go back to insurance companies “A” and “B” and assume you’re now looking to switch companies for better coverage. If a someone whose opinion you trust tells you he’s bought policies from both companies and thinks “B” is a better buy, what’s that do to your level of confidence in the product? That friend or neighbor unwittingly did a little public relations for company “B.”

Public Relations = persuasion.
PR is what others say about you or your book to persuade opinion. A publicist will develop a media kit that includes the author’s photo, bio, book cover, blurb, list of awards, details about the book (price, ISBN, release date, name of publisher), quotes from reviews, etc., to persuade interviewers, radio hosts, bloggers, reviewers, and others who are in positions to help expose the publicist’s client in a favorable light.

Book reviews and reader comments/ratings posted about your book may not be the absolute make or break deal to the reader, but chances are reading several good reviews or hearing positive word-of-mouth reader comments may persuade the perspective reader interested in our genre to take the next step. They’ll check out your site, read the blurb and/or excerpt, consider your previous writing experiences/successes/awards, and (glory be) might be moved to buy the book.

Another aspect of public relation is damage control. Okay, so we’re all human, we get tired and cranky, and mistakes happen. But once a writer is published and begins to speak in public and attends book signings and conferences, they are (whether they like it or not) in the public eye. Every word said, written, or posted, every action will be scrutinized by readers. Damage control is what you, the author (or your publicist) will need to do to turn a negative situation around and hopefully regain readers’ confidence.

Marketing = process of delivering information.

It may seem as if there were fine lines between advertising, public relations, and marketing, but each has a separate role to play and authors need to include all three in their promotional plans. According to the American Marketing Association, “… marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

Marketing focuses on the target audience (readers of a particular genre). The book is the product, is it priced appropriately? Is it readily available in bookstores and online and downloadable in various formats? Finally, has it been thoroughly promoted by the author, the publicist, the publisher?

It’s hard to pin-point what will draw a reader’s attention. Will it be the author’s amazing journey, his or her approachability, the great writing, the rave reviews, interesting interview, or awesome cover that pulls them in? In truth, it’ll be a combination of all of the above done in a continuous and consistent matter that will ultimately result in continued sales.

About the author:
Marta Stephens writes mystery/suspense and the author of the Sam Harper Crime Mystery series. Her novels are available in paperback, Kindle, and all electronic formats.. For more information about Stephens and her writing, visit http://www.martastephens-author.com 


THE DEVIL CAN WAIT (2008), Bronze Medal Finalist, 2009 IPPY Awards, Top Ten, 2008 Preditors and Editors Reader Poll (mystery).

SILENCED CRY (2007) Honorable Mention, 2008 New York Book Festival, Top Ten, 2007 Preditors and Editors Reader Poll (mystery).

"Life's too Uncertain, Eat your Dessert First"