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.