Facebook for Authors: Like Your Way to a Bestseller

Are you looking for the best ways to market your literary work? Do you have an ebook all finished and ready to publish? Do you lack the audience? Don’t worry! Social media can help you gain thousands of readers within months! That is, if you know how to use it.

This post will show you how to use social media to boost book sales before you’ve even published it, establish yourself as a respectable author, and network with literary authority figures!

Get Readers & Earn Your Author Reputation on Facebook

Facebook is the #1 platform for both personal and professional representation. It is a curious blend of the two where you can both showcase your book title(s) and promote yourself as an author.

Why Is Facebook Important for eBook Authors?

Facebook as a marketing platform is important for several reasons:

• Personability Authors have always influenced public views, including attitudes, morals, and philosophies. Your word is a tool that influences what people will think and how they will act. But, this is only possible if they trust you and value you as a person.

A personable author is present both in character and artistic expression, and what better way to achieve this than by sharing images, quotes, and discussions on your personal platform?

• Future work. You may have a book or a couple of articles to promote now, but you’ll surely want your reader base to stay with you and get updates on your future work.

Your audience connects with you via likes and following, creating a tie in the network’s algorithm that ensures your future work appears in their news feed as well.

• Branding. As an author, your personality is a brand. Your Facebook page is a place to share various types of content that shows what inspires you and what you stand for. The social media platform helps connect you with readers who think alike.

Why Does Your Book Need Its Own Page?

Aside from creating a personal author’s page, it would be wise to establish pages for each of your book titles as well. This is important for the following reasons:

Fan Base

People who read your book will want to discuss it with other readers. Why not give them a profitable panel to do it?

When your audience gathers to discuss the book on your page, they also increase the size and value of the page. This increases your chances of further book deals and even sponsorship and endorsement offers!

Tagging

Taking a shot of an inspiring paragraph and publishing it, along with a tag of the book they’re reading is one of the top favorite readers’ ways of expressing their love for literature.

If you set up a page for your title, anyone who reads your reader’s post will be able to click on the tag and visit your book’s page. There, they might find a purchase link and even browse more of your titles! This is a great way to boost your book sales for free.

Updates

Connecting with your Facebook followers ensures they will be notified about your future work as well.

One of the ways to do this is simply post about a pending book publishing, and the other is to take advantage of the platform’s algorithm, which will display and suggest any pages you create in the future to users who are already following you.

Facebook Marketing for Authors Guide: 3 Steps to Engage Readers

Now, let’s get to the fun part and go over the essential steps of promoting your content on Facebook:

Step #1: Create Your Social Media Page

Before signing up either paid or organic advertising, you first need to create a polished, compelling platform for your page. Your page can have your name, the book title, or both, but it needs to include the following, which will make for your digital inventory:

• Before publishing your Facebook page, it would be wise to first fill it with your unique content. Snippets from your book, passages, quotes, and even topic-related thoughts that plague your mind all have a place on your page.
• Make sure to supply enough content snippets to be used in weekly posts, added to images as quotes or even posted as polls or discussion boards.
• Adding suitable images to your book’s page will help set a scene in the audience’s mind and visualize your book’s landscape, whether it’s a fantasy world or a lab studying the effects of antibiotics on hyperactive rats.
• Multimedia posts, such as videos, are a great way to share your writing journey, your inspiration, and the tone of your book. You can choose between posting royalty-free videos, making your own videos, or having someone craft a neat, trailer-like advertisement for your title.
• For the sake of keeping you page goal-oriented, you should have a posting schedule for the posts you’ll publish weekly and monthly. Most often, page management is broken down into pre-publishing, publishing, and post-publishing sequences to stay on top of the sales dynamics.

Step #2: Get Organic Post Engagement

Paid advertising is a great way to get an audience, likes, and sales quickly, but organic (natural, spontaneous) engagement is longer lasting. You will get organic engagement (likes, comments, shares, purchases) by doing the following:

• Posting inspiring quotes from your book that spark discussions and make readers want to interact and learn more.
• Emphasizing the important questions that can be answered using your book.
• Promoting everything your book has to give. Whether it’s an adrenaline rush of a crime-thriller, a heartbreaking journey through a romance, a life-changing set of habits to form, or sets of useful tests and checklists, your book is your offering.

Promote that offering in a way that appeals to your niche audience, and they’ll gladly purchase and share with anyone who thinks alike.

Step #3: Get Paid Advertising

Paid advertising is a great way to kick-start your sales before, during, and after publishing. Posting an ad for your book is simple: You need an image of your cover, an appealing quote, and of course, a link to your landing page.

But, don’t forget to promote the book before publishing! Before your book is up for grabs, sponsored posts that announce the publishing date and offer freebies, or even pre-orders, are a great way to have your audience at the ready for some book shopping.

Facebook & Social Media for Authors: The Power of Networking

Facebook is the most popular platform for promoting literary publications, as it can be of great help for getting the title and the blurb out there.

Why Authors Use Facebook and Other Social Media for Networking?

The same way you need social media to reach the readers, you also need it to establish yourself as a reputable author. As you know by now, getting to the reader requires more than just quality writing. It takes reviews and mentions by other reputable reviewers and authority figures from your niche.

Social media platforms, particularly Facebook, are a great way to connect with reviewers, niche professionals, and even other publishers who might want to feature your book. Furthermore, you can also connect with anyone who would offer a partnership deal, whether it’s a sponsorship or an endorsement.

Facebook for Niche Influence

Facebook is a great place to connect with niche influencers, such as other authors, publishers, editors, and reviewers. It gives you the opportunity to not only promote your book but also participate in discussions and podcasts, further establishing your good reputation.

Facebook for Profitable Audience Engagement

Social media platforms, like Facebook, are mainly visual platforms. They are a great place to share images, announcements, quotes, etc., which your followers will then share on their profiles. When a reader tags your book title, anyone who views their posts will not only hear about your book, but also be able to access your page.

Facebook is also great for sharing video content. You can post videos of yourself discussing interesting topics, sharing your writing routines and inspiration, and perhaps even post audio narrations of some of your work. The viewers will get your work for free, but you’ll be paid by other sponsors who might only want you to mention their brand in exchange for a fee.

Conclusion

Social networks, like Facebook, perform four important roles for you as an author. They:

1. Promote your work
2. Connect you with your readers, both existing and potential
3. Establish your reputation among niche authorities
4. Offer further profitable opportunities, like sponsorships and ad revenue.

Promoting your work on social media doesn’t only expose your book titles. It ensures that your name becomes a marketable, esteemed brand and that your fan base is there to devour your future work.

But, to leverage the power of Facebook, you need your best work at the ready. Content snippets, audio recordings, images, videos, etc., all need to be top-quality and goal-oriented to do their part. If you need help with content editing, visuals, or formatting, let us know!

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