Writers: Use Social Media to Promote Your Books

Arlene Miller, a Redwood Writers Board Vice President and author of The Best Little Grammar Book Ever, uses social media to get the word out about her book and to encourage sales. I had a chance to interview her recently in hopes that she might share some of her secrets with us.

Arlene began using Facebook in 2008 simply because she wanted to keep up with her daughter who tours with Disney On Ice. After she wrote and published her book 2 years ago, she found Facebook to be an important tool in getting the word out about her grammar book. Today, she maintains both a profile (631 friends) and a fan page (249 page likes).

"Through Facebook, I got hooked up with people from elementary and high school. It all started with an invitation to a reunion and even though I didn't attend it, former schoolmates bought multiple copies of my book," she said.

It was through Facebook as well that Apple users found her and soon the entire group was ordering her book.

"I have a lot of Facebook friends – some I know and others I don't know. In general, it gets the word out about what you're doing."

LinkedIn is often overlooked by writers but again Arlene has had success in using this social media channel to buy her book. She joined several groups, asked members for their advice on an upcoming book she is writing, and contributed to the groups by answering questions and offering advice.

When I asked Arlene for her best tips, she offered some great advice. "The best thing is don't try to sell; try to help people. Don't say I have a book to sell and you should buy it. Instead answer questions and try to help others."

The network she favors the most is the Yahoo listserv. "When I was first thinking of publishing my book, I joined a Yahoo self-publishing group. I wouldn't ever have been able to publish my book without that listserv. It's really very good. I found my book designer and interior designer, and I don't know how I would have done that book without that group. That group taught me almost everything I know about self-publishing."

Seven tips on how to promote your Facebook fan page:

1.       Put your Facebook page URL in your email signature.

2.       Write a blog post about your new Facebook page.

3.       Tag other people’s high-traffic Facebook pages in your updates.

4.       Ask your Twitter followers to like your Facebook page.

5.       Consider buying Facebook advertising.

6.       Customize your URL. For example, mine is: www.facebook.com/fcaballo

7.       Put your Facebook page URL on your Twitter profile description.

About the Author: Sonoma County social media consultant Frances Caballo owns ACT Communications and has 22 years of communications and resource development experience. Presently, she is the Social Media Editor and Board Vice President for Redwood Writers. She specializes in helping writers, businesses and nonprofits with their social media marketing, external communications, and fund development needs. Frances is bilingual in English and Spanish. Find her on Facebook: www.facebook.com/fcaballo, Twitter (@CaballoFrances), and LinkedIn.

How to Use Lists to Navigate Privacy on Facebook

I was helping a writer setup a Facebook fan page recently and found the experience a tad frustrating. What I don’t like about Facebook is how interlinked profiles and fan pages are.

This particular client wanted to keep her privacy settings as secure as possible on her profile. However, on her business page, she wanted the world to find her.

Well, that’s impossible on Facebook. The king of all social media won’t let you tailor your settings within one account.

If you’re thinking, “I’ll just set up a separate account” forget it. Facebook doesn’t allow users to have more than one account.

So what’s a person to do? Use the lists feature.

You can liberalize your settings and protect your posts from specific audiences by categorizing your friends, family members, colleagues, and fans into lists. Once you establish lists, each time you post an update you can select how public or how private you’d like the information to be.

Lists are easy to create.

}  Go to your Facebook profile. Click the Home link (along the top-right of the page)

}  Go to the left-hand column and click on More next to Lists. 

}  Select the list you want to edit or click Create a List and give it a name.

}  A Friends prompt will appear, click it, then select which of your Facebook friends should be in this list.

}  Once you create your lists, you can manage them by clicking on the target list, then clicking on Manage List. A window will appear offering options to delete the list, add/remove friends, and choose update types.

}  Now this is cool: You can hide your lists from public view on your news feed by hovering over the pencil next to your list and clicking on Hide.

}  From now on, when you type a status update you can select which list will view your post.

Incorporating the list features allows you to liberalize your privacy settings and rest assured that only your friends will see what you want to share – and no one else!

Writer's Guide to Marketing

The Art of Fielding a Publishing Contract

Did you read the October issue of Vogue magazine? There was a fabulous article in it titled “The Book on Publishing” by Graydon Carter and Keith Gessen. In case you missed it, you can purchase the article for $1.99 from Amazon.

It’s an engrossing tale and a good read.

The article chronicles the life of Chad Harbach, author of the novel The Art of Fielding, from his undergraduate studies to an MFA program as he pursues his passion of writing. Like too many writers, he wades through the morass of low-paying jobs while committing himself to the one novel he keeps rewriting.

 With the support of friends who believe in his talent, Harbach meets literary agent Chris Parris-Lamb of the Gernert Company in Manhattan. The agent loves Harbach’s novel and forwards copies to publishers.

After an initial offer of $175,000, which Harbach turns down, Parris-Lamb calls for an auction. Bidding starts at $100,000 and eventually ends with Scribner’s successful bid – of $750,000 and an opportunity to work with the editor of David Foster Wallace.

Now Harbach is not only a successfully published novelist but also a publishing story that Vogue and other media outlets can’t resist.

By the way, his book is doing great too. On GoodReads, the book has generated 1,242 ratings and 389 reviews. On Facebook, the book has nearly 500 “likes.”  

This kind of story gives me hope. None of us will know the outcome of our passion for writing unless we stick with it, make time to write, work on our revisions – and never sell ourselves to the lowest bidder.  

Let me know what you think of the Vogue article, this blog, or any other thoughts you’d like to share. Thanks!

 ©Frances Caballo 2011 – This post cannot be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author.

Writer’s Guide to Marketing

By Frances Caballo

You’ve published your book (or made it available as an e-book), signed up for Facebook and Twitter, and you have a website.

Ah. At last you can do a few readings, ask your Redwood Writers colleagues to buy a copy, and relax. Right? 

Wrong! 

You need a blog. Search engines love websites that continually add new content and blogs are an easy way to achieve that objective. 

How often should you blog? Some people blog daily while others blog once a month. If you can blog twice a week, that would be best.  

If you can only blog once a month that’s okay. Just start one and keep it going. And don’t forget to use this platform to promote your book. 

How to Use Your Blog to Promote Your Book 

Here are a few topics that you can use when your brain clouds over and you can’t come up with a new post. 

·       Discuss how you researched the background for your book. Which libraries or resources were most helpful? What did you learn from the experience?

·       Assume the voice of one of your characters and have them talk about the book.

·       Create a vlog (a video blog) now and then and interview some of your readers.

·       Write a blog for an upcoming book reading/signing or write a post about something humorous or marvelous that occurred at your last reading.

·       Talk about the setting in your book.

·       Feature an excerpt and explain why you like it (aside from the fact that you wrote it!).

·       Write about your rejection letters.

·       Prepare a post about your marketing challenges.

·       Explain why you wrote this book.

·       Is your book topical? Tell people why you chose to write it now.

·       Is your book for young adults? Explain why you targeted that audience.

·       Are you thrilled with the jacket cover? Tell your readers how you found your designer and how you worked together. 

I could continue but by now I’m certain you have your own ideas so please share them here so we can learn from each other. Thanks!

 ©Frances Caballo 2011 – This post cannot be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author.

A Writer’s Guide to Marketing

Michael Martine is the mastermind behind Remarkablogger, which he describes as “No-Bullshit Blogging for Bitchin’ Businesses.” It's immediately obvious that he has found his blogging voice – a unique one that rises to the top of search engines out there on the Internet. 

This guy has personality and he really knows his stuff.  

He wrote a 65-page e-book titled How to Write an E-Book That Doesn't Suck. This is a great little book for bloggers to pick up because it will show you how to plan your blogs ahead of time and then compile them into a "how-to" e-book.

Do you cringe at the thought of writing pitches to sell your book? Michael sums up his advice with this comment: “Nowhere … does it say, ‘Sound like an overhyped snake oil salesman and bleed yellow highlighter all over your text.’” 

In other words, don't push your book. If it’s a “how-to” book, promote it as containing solutions to the buyer's problems or questions. 

Remarkablogger’s Suggestions for Writing Successful Sales Copy   

Whether you’ve written a novel, poetry, memoir, or a how-to tome, here are some pithy insights that make sense and work.

·       Determine who your audience is, learn about your audience, and then tailor the tone, wording and formatting to their needs. 

·       Write short sentences and paragraphs – just like you do in your blogs.

·       Use bullets and subheadings. People love these because they enable readers to breeze through a book and quickly find the nuggets of information they’re searching.

·       Be personable and friendly.

·       If you give anyone advance copies of your book to review, ask them to post a comment supporting your book.

·       Create a website just for your book.

·       Use social media to promote your book.

·       Don't forget to ask people to order the book.

·       Use your blog to promote your book.

An important message that he reiterates is: Don't try to sell your book. Instead, identify the value of what you've written, describe the book in terms of meeting a need the buyer has (want to relax with a good thriller tonight?), and help the buyer to feel comfortable about the purchase.  

Create A Book Cover that Rocks 

Of course, great covers also help to sell books. He has some great suggestions on how to create "a killer e-book cover, ninja-style." 

·       Get a good piece of stock art from iStockPhoto or a similar site. Personally, I prefer to use Google Images because all of the photos are free.

·       Use Picasa or PowerPoint to etch text over the photo. (I’ve tried it and it’s easy to do!)

·       Save your book eCover as a JPEG file.

·       Insert the picture you created on your document cover page and adjust the text wrapping settings to "underneath" so the page margins won't interfere with the cover you just designed.

·       Resize the picture as necessary.

 If those instructions seem burdensome, go to MyeCoverMaker.com and for $3.95 you can make a one-time purchase of an eCover download. You can also subscribe at $9/month for unlimited use of this application. 

In a nutshell, that’s how you get your e-book out there in the marketplace. I’d love to hear your comments!