Social media for authors – Tips to build your online presence

Social media for authors is critical! The size of your social media presence of an author, especially if you are self published, can make a huge difference in your book promotion. Using it effectively to connect and engage your readers, fellow writers and and the publishing community as a whole, can go a long way in your marketing campaign.

Let us talk about a few things to remind yourself to make social media for authors and writers more successful.

Social media for authors

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Don’t make it all about you!

Unlike your personal social media accounts, your author profile accounts shouldn’t revolve around you and your personal tastes. Sharing current writing/reading updates aside, try to share content from other sources, not just Amazon links to your books.

Talking about the causes that are passionate to you is great on social media but try to keep your author pages professional and to the point.

Host giveaways

Another great way to increase your followers and keep them hooked is host awesome giveaways. There is a huge market for bookish merchandise like bookmark, pins and posters. And of course signed copy is truly cherished.

Instagram and Twitter are great choices to run giveaways due to the presence of a large number of readers.

Be smart about social media usage

Ensure you are not spending too much time over social media – time that you can be using for writing or editing your next book. Scheduling posts for a week can reduce your work load by half.

For example, Twitter lists help you to curate similar accounts into group and organize your followers better. You can even subscribe to someone else’s public list.

Interesting and useful bio

Your bio is the first thing that a new or potential follower would be looking at. It often acts as a resume and an ad for yourself. It should provide a glimpse of who you are as a person and why they should follow/subscribe to your account or channel.

Do not try too hard to be funny or smart. It more often than not, backfires.

Don’t read reviews

Call this as a word of caution or request from a book blogger/ reviewer, but do yourself (and others, too) a favor and avoid reading reviews of your own book.

While it is nice and essential to engage with reviewers and bloggers during your book promotion, it is not fair when authors read the reviews and discuss about it to the reviewer. The reviews are usually written for the readers and other bloggers – not authors!

Pitch wars

Another exciting step towards getting your book published is getting noticed by literary agents and publishing companies. And pitching events on social media, especially on Twitter, could make your chance.

Basically, these events are like “the Voice” but for authors. If your manuscript get selected, you get mentored by experienced authors and agents. #PitMad, #Pitchwar, #DVPit, are all good places to start!

Get involved Community

Social media is a platform for you to finally get involved with your own peers and readers. And that can happen only when you stop lurking and put yourself out there.

Give writing tips and advice. Answer questions and polls, even AMAs (Ask Me Anything). Engage with peers and fans. Share interesting articles and follow your favorites.

#WritingCommunity and #indieauthor are great places to meet your fellow writers. Maybe you will find next best friend right there.

Consistency

Last but not the least, try to be consistent in your goal and content plan. Posting for a few days and then disappearing for the next few weeks is not going to help anyone.

Consider this as a groundwork for your book promotion and more importantly, for the emotional connections you will need. It is a time taking project and will sometime eat too much of your time. But it is indispensable!

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Let’s chat

Which social media platforms you can’t do without? What do you think are the biggest pain points when it comes to social media for authors? What do you do to increase your following? Let us talk.