This may feel obvious, but the most important thing for you to do first as an author is write a great book! Rest easy knowing that the time you are taking to perfect your writing is an important step before tackling book marketing and social media.
Once you reach the book promotion step of your author journey, you can consider if social media is the right tool for you specifically to promote your book. While there are ways to leverage your author brand and book on various social media platforms, it can also be a time consuming and daunting process. There are so many ways to promote and market your book, so don’t assume social media is the only route to being a successful author!
When social media is right for you
If you enjoy posting to social media and have a particular platform or two that you find inspiring and fun, then utilizing that platform as a tool could be beneficial to you! First, consider which platform genuinely inspires you — and which you have time for.
Three of the biggest platforms right now are Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, and each platform has its own unique audience and content. (Read more about other social media platforms here).
If you are going to tackle Instagram as an author, you should keep in mind what people are coming to the platform for, and what they would be coming to your specific profile for. It is full of users who share about their daily lives — whether that be a grocery store, clothing or book haul, a day in the life on Instagram stories or just feed posts of beautiful photos from around their community, home or travels. Instagram is all about the aesthetic!
Within Instagram is a community rife with book knowledge, booklists and pretty bookstacks called “Bookstagram.” Bookstagrammers post reels and photos of books artfully arranged lying in flowers or set out on a desk with a coffee, booklists of their favorite reads of the year, TBR stacks, you name it. Each one of these individual accounts has specific books and genres that interest them that they share with their followers. This is a wonderful target audience that you can tap directly into if you have the time and interest in doing so!
Tips for success on Instagram:
- Posting aesthetically pleasing reels and photos of your life as an author: Posting things to your feed or stories such as a book unboxing, a launch day post, a photo of your writing desk, your favorite indie bookstores, your favorite Bookstagram accounts to follow, books you are currently reading, reels about your writing process as you make your morning coffee or type away at your computer, book giveaways or local events you are attending are all content ideas that Instagram users would likely enjoy!
- Following and engaging with your target audience: Go follow fellow authors in your book’s genre and see who is following them or engaging with their content. Give those accounts a follow and engage with their content as well! Check out various Bookstagram accounts and follow the ones who post about your book’s genre. Engage with posts, and respond to anyone who engages with your posts!
- Shouting out fellow authors, bookstores and Bookstagrammers: Making a post of what you’re currently reading and tagging the author of the book in the post, resharing photos to your story or feed that Bookstagrammers posted of your book, tagging the bookstores you frequent in posts about their store and why you love it. Spread the love, and maybe they will return the favor!
Also keep in mind that the audience on Instagram ranges from 18-34. Make sure the target audience for your book is within that age range!
Facebook is a family-oriented and business-driven site. Facebook posts that see the most success include links to blog posts, guest articles and review coverage, while also sprinkling in family photos and personal posts. The platform sees more success with business-related books such as self-help, nonfiction and lifestyle, but you can also find an audience as a romance, historical fiction or mystery/thriller writer on the site.
This is just a general rule of thumb, and there are plenty of other genres that can find success! For example, there may be moms on the platform looking for children’s books for their kids or adults searching for interior design ideas that would love to come across a Facebook video of your design tips. The options are endless, and it boils down to what feels authentic to you and on which platform.
Tips for success on Facebook:
- Create an author page: You can find instructions for creating a business page here. This is essentially a public Facebook profile so you can reach a wider audience outside of your friends and family on your Facebook profile.
- Post about the book coverage you receive: Like mentioned above, Facebook is a great place to include actual links to the coverage you are getting. Post about the various guest articles you are writing for outlets and the reviews you are getting across various websites and platforms!
- Join Facebook groups: Facebook groups are a large part of the platform, and they range anywhere from specific groups with author tips, author groups who share each other’s work, various conferences or writers’ guilds within your local area, specific book genre Facebook groups, etc. These can be a great way to get in with your target audience on a smaller scale.
The age range on Facebook is largely millennials but also an older demographic of 40-60.
TikTok
TikTok is one of the fastest growing social media platforms, but finding success on TikTok can be tricky and everchanging. TikTok is all about trends and humor, and there are ways to put your own spin on those as an author, if it feels authentic to you!
TikTok has an extremely large and engaged community called “Booktok.” This is essentially a subculture within TikTok where users discuss all things books, and like Instagram, it can be a great place to tap into if you go about it the right way and have the right book for their audience!
Tips for success on TikTok:
- Recreate the trends: There are new trends every single day on the app, so we don’t recommend hopping on every single one. But if a trend comes across your For You Page that you find interesting and can put your own spin on, try it out! You never know who it may reach.
- Follow and engage with your target audience: Like Instagram, this is a key for TikTok as well. Go through authors and Booktokers within your genre and follow and engage with their content!
- Post frequently and consistently: This is the caveat of TikTok; you have to be consistent and frequent on the app. The algorithm will serve you if they see you are on the app often, engaging with other users but also posting on your own profile. If you don’t have the time for TikTok, maybe skip this platform!
Around 50% of TikTok users are under the age of 34, and the majority of them are teens.
When social media may not be for you
Did reading all of that feel extremely daunting for you? Does reading “social media is not a necessity” feel like a breath of fresh air? If so, getting on social media is likely not for you! And guess what? That is totally OK. You do not need to run yourself dry trying to force something that doesn’t feel authentic. The worst thing you can do is fake a presence on social media because all that will do is overwhelm you, waste your resources and time, and your followers will probably be able to sniff out that you are not truly invested in it! There are plenty of other useful tactics you can utilize to market your book.
Ways to market your book if social media is not for you
Create an author website
This is a great place for you to start if you want to market yourself but social media is not your cup of tea and you do not have time for it. You can read more about author websites and tips for building them here and here.
Get coverage through other outlets
There are plenty of other avenues you can go down to create buzz around your book. Work with blogs to feature or review your book, set up a Goodreads giveaway to engage with their active reader audience, work with bigger outlets on guest articles or reach out to podcasts to schedule interviews for their audiences. Again, the options are endless!
Work with social media influencers to review your book
This is within the realm of social media technically, but would not involve you having to actively post on the platforms. Find some Bookstagrammers or Booktokers who would be interested in your genre and reach out to them! A lot of accounts have paid sponsorship posts, which can get pretty pricy (not a necessity if it’s out of your budget), but some smaller accounts with loyal, engaged followers will post about your book for free in exchange for a book copy!
Set up local events
Reach out to local independent bookstores, libraries or even restaurants in your area to see if they’d be interested in stocking your book or setting up a launch or in-conversation event with you! This can be a great way to get the word out about your book within your local community.
If you decide to do social media, you can of course post about all of the above ideas to your platforms. But that is definitely not a necessity! Just getting the word out there organically through these other tactics can be a successful way to spread the word about your book and find your key demographic.
And just remember the purpose for all of this — to get your story out there. The goal is to reach your target audience, connect with your readers, and get your book in their hands. But social media is not the only way to do so.
