Social media marketing for authors
Make friends, sell books, don’t be annoying
This is the preface to my revised book marketing guide, you can find the whole series on Medium or download the free PDF.
Because I operate in self-publishing circles, I have a lot of authors and author services on my Twitter feed. Depressingly, I’d say about 90% of authors I come in contact with come off as spammy self-promoters. Even more depressingly, the author marketing services, author networks and self-published book promoters come off the same way. (And these are the people that are taking authors’ money to do promoting for them.)
There’s a very simple rule: 90% of your content should not be about yourself or your book. You should be sharing other people’s posts, researching and finding useful information online, helping people solve problems, and making positive relationships by providing value.
I know authors who tweet about their book 20 times a day, each time trying to use a clever new twist, sale, giveaway, prize or description.
Advertising takes repetition: if you are paying to advertise, people may see your ad 25 times before finally wondering what it’s all about and clicking the link.
