When it comes to book marketing, I feel like social media is a frequent dead end. I do have a newsletter and plan on an upcoming in-person event at a local festival, but when it comes to online marketing, what are you guys doing? Facebook is dead for marketing. There’s no engagement and they constantly want you to pay to have your own followers see your posts. Twitter is… well, not the same anymore. I’ve noticed since it became “X” it has started pushing promoted posts as well. TikTok is pretty romance heavy and I write mystery. I’mon Mastodon but I don’t really get it (I’m old )
Is Tumblr still viable place for authors? Or has it passed its prime? Any other ideas? I’m not one of those real charismatic writers who can hustle when it comes to social media. And I’ve never really figured out how to book market, introvert style.
Instagram and Tumblr would be my first places to start advertising when it comes to social media. But I’ve never personally advertised my work. I’m not that far in the process yet.
TikTok and Instagram are pretty good marketing areas.
Is TikTok romance heavy? Yeah, but there are quite a few authors who don’t write romance and do well. You just have to find your audience in it. Personally, I haven’t posted anything in a hot minute but I haven’t had time to do so.
I don’t go on Instagram anymore because I lost interest but I do know it is a good place to market because a lot of people still use it.
Which age bracket and gender are you marketing to? That should sway where you’re focusing your efforts.
In terms of Facebook, whilst paid Facebook advertising is meh, it’s a vital tool in fostering a community… that is if your audience falls into the demographics for Facebook.
Twitter (or X, I guess) is still pretty active, but I reckon it’ll nuke itself soon enough so definitely not really worth bothering unless you have a solid idea of what you want to do on there.
Newsletters are great, but are a later stage of marketing (you’re marketing here to people who’ve already discovered you, and you’re driving engagement, trust, and repeat business VS driving awareness). Not what you’re asking about, but there’s great ways to build a newsletter, including taking part in free book events, newsletter swaps, etc.
TikTok is okay, but again it depends on who you’re writing for. Someone recently tested out paid ads on TT for their books and saw no return - throwing money at TT isn’t worth it.
I am not charismatic or interesting enough to actually post just stuff of myself on TikTok, so I usually post book trailers, book info vids, and that sort of thing there. I feel the same way about Youtube. I know a lot of marketing and content creation is video heavy now, though. I’m simply too introverted to go that route.
How… does one use Snapchat for book marketing? I have never heard of this.
Truth. I have an idea of this, but have no idea who uses what. I know the young generation doesn’t really use Facebook, but I am marketing more towards women in their 30s who love mystery novels on the dark side, probably childfree (as my MCs are women who don’t want kids) and true crime fans as that’s what I also blog about (topics relating to my books).
Facebook is very meh. I tried with my old FB page for over a decade and it did almost nothing even with consistently posting to it. Maybe a group might be better, more community focused? I think pages have fallen to the wayward because of FB’s focus on paid promos, which I only tried a couple times with no results, so I quit.
I’ve low key just decided Twitter isn’t really worth it much anymore. I’ve lost so many followers since it changed ownership because of people leaving the app. Engagement is way down. It’s looking more like FB with all the paid ads and urges to pay to promote stuff. It sucks, I was doing quite well there until then.
Truth. I have one started but it’s a matter of getting people to the newsletter to sign up in order to be able to utilize it. I am trying to learn how to funnel people there from social media.
No, but any advice helps. Thank you!
I don’t really throw money at any social media site. Some people in the FB author groups I’m in swear by it or Amazon ads but they seem to already have the extra cash to throw at it, and I am a broke writer to start, so it isn’t worth it for me to funnel money into that with haphazard results.
I feel like the majority of us are that way, because as most writers are introverts, we’re very camera-shy. I especially am when someone (even family) sees me making videos. It’s partially a reason why I stopped doing TikToks.
But I think that if you tried a couple fake videos, whether of trends like people lip syncing a song or phrase or actually talking about your book or whatnot, you may find a better groove with it and feel more comfortable. It took me a while to get my face on there.
This kind of depends on how many SnapChat followers you have because I personally don’t have much. However, you can create a public profile where you can get people to follow you but not have access to anything else (like actual messaging, etc. though you could get requests).
But you can advertise that you do posts on SnapChat and let people follow your public account, and in doing so, they get to see content you create on there. I pretty much do things like posts videos and photos of me writing, writing spaces, etc. And it could help pull people in eventually, especially if you get published.
Thank you for this, I may give it a try! I have the ring light and mic set up for it, but it’s daunting to get into. Then my boyfriend moved in and it was just weird to do it with someone else in the house. He’s away for work now with the new job, so maybe I’ll attempt it again. I was doing book reviews and stuff too on there, but I may switch it up to my true crime content to accompany my book stuff.
This… blows my mind. I literally thought Snapchat was just a messaging app. I had NO idea one could even have followers on there or a public profile. It really is a whole social media site on its own??? Wild.
When I first started, I was working full-time doing a night shift, so I had 3-4 hours of not seeing a single soul. Perfect timing for making random videos. Then I changed jobs to working during the day, so it was rough trying to find time to do it. And it made it worse when my sisters and I had a similar schedule, so we were usually home together. There are times when they’re not home, but I get too tired during those times to do anything.
But I do suggest to do it whenever you’re able to. Like in your car before heading home after work or the 30 minutes before your boyfriend comes home, etc. Knowing the schedule for when you can film definitely helps.
Pretty much.
You do get friend requests like Facebook but I don’t accept any from people I don’t know. I just allow people to follow me. Especially since it gets a little creepy with people texting you. I’ve used it for marketing at work but on my personal profile (because they don’t have Snapchat yet) and I got quite a few people who were like, “Hey beautiful.”
But honestly, I get a few people (friends, family, strangers) who do see my posts, and it helps when you try to connect with other writers and readers. I have a few in my friends list from Wattpad.
Facebook has a high percentage of 30 year old women, TikTok has a fiercely engaging true crime demographic, and Instagram also has a healthy percentage of women as it’s userbase. True crime is great because there’s plenty of marketing avenues not limited to social media
Facebook is DEFINITELY very meh! A decade ago though, it wasn’t quiiiite so bad, I managed to grow a sizeable audience without any marketing on there a few years back - maybe it’s time to look at your marketing strategy? Avoid paid advertising though - since Apple introduced “Ask App Not to Track”, targetting has been awful (which is a good thing for us consumers)
Helll yeah! Offer an incentive! Lots of people do a free book for signing up, people love freebies.
You and me BOTH! I hear you on that front! It may be worth looking at some free, or incredibly cheap ways to improve your book. Obviously a dedicated social media plan, but how about revamping your cover and marketing assets? Are you utilising video in your marketing strategy? Do you have 10USD available to sign up for a promotional mailing list? Because of your genre, you might be able to get a spot on a promotional list for as little 8 dollars, maybe even cheaper.
Good to know. I may try starting a public group for my books just because FB doesn’t seem to limit those posts as much as they do pages. Absolutely no one was seeing anything I posted.
It definitely is. I just need to narrow down which social media sites to use and go hard on those. I’ll stick with Instagram for sure as I’ve had results there. I’ll try to revive my TikTok account with some true crime content, then merge my true crime content with my newsletter to maybe funnel some followers to that.
For sure, I’ll give this some thought. I did write a prequel to my one series, I was considering using it as a newsletter freebie when I have it edited.
I have a new cover coming soon. It’s still in the works.
Not a lot, as I am not comfortable nor confident enough with doing videos quite yet.
I keep signing up for the free promos run by Kobo and Smashwords. I will give the others a try. Any places you recommend I try?
Word of caution - groups are suppressed even more than pages imo. You’ll need to nail in this part of your marketing strategy to get anywhere with a group, but they’re incredibly useful corners of the internet to foster your community.
This is awesome! I know you aren’t comfortable making videos, but if you ever find the confidence, cover reveal videos are incredible. Build up some excitement (example below from one of my premium social media bundles) and then drop a video, which ties in to…
This is definitely understandable as it can be quite difficult! Video is however king on social media, so if you ever feel up to trying it, I’d strongly suggest looking into it. Even knowing how to animate some SUPER basic text over a static background pic or stock video can result in amazing content! That said, if you really want to stay away from making vids, don’t force yourself to make them - only do what you’re comfortable with. Alternatively, I assume some designers would offer videos - I know I do from as low as 20 bucks, so I’m sure others do, too.
I’d definitely say start looking at promotional lists rather than just leaning into free deals - the free deals are great but unless you have a super solid backlist might not really lead to anything. Try here:
Ah, of course. Nothing seems to gain much traction on Facebook these days. I know, though, that I make a point of checking groups I am truly interested in instead of waiting for them to show up in my feed, so I may try it anyway.
I have done this for book quotes, trailers, and character intros and such using stock photos or ones I have taken myself. Photography is something I am great with. They seem to do okay, I just don’t feel comfortable being in front of a camera and talking. I have done voice overs for those vids as well, as I find the automated voiceovers on TikTok incredibly annoying to listen to So I have done that much and it may be all I do.
Yeah, they really are hit and miss. I discount my books (not always to free, the promos are always free to join though), and sometimes they sell more, sometimes not. It’s nice because Kobo will put those discounted books on a specific discount page for readers to browse. But I know it’s not ideal. I will look over the Reedsy list. thank you
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Video is however king on social media, so if you ever feel up to trying it, I’d strongly suggest looking into it. Even knowing how to animate some SUPER basic text over a static background pic or stock video can result in amazing content! 
So I have done that much and it may be all I do.