Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

Social Networking - one way to build a following pre release

If you plan to write a book and have it published, you should start social networking now rather than later. Social networking is by all accounts a brilliant way to build your name, your image and anticipation for your upcoming book long before it becomes available. The key is consistency of effort and to give just as much, if not more, than you get. The most common ways to take advantage of social networking are to use sites like Twitter and Facebook to let folks know what's going on throughout the process. All this is free and costs you only time.

Show an interest in others too! If all you do is talk about you and your book, you'll soon find you'll be talking to yourself. Take the time to comment on other authors' blogs, ask questions, get opinions, reply to their Tweets, sign up for newsletters, offer solutions to what's troubling another writer. Be genuinely helpful and you won't be forgotten.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Philip Nork on November 14, 2009 at 9:29am

Thanks Kay,
I use Twitter and Facebook. Actually I was a "facebooker" long before my book came to be. This actually was the reason I got it published. I sent out snipets on my posts and my friends asked where they could read it all...so I published the book. I also added a "book page" and have gathered more fans as the book becomes more popular (and they are not my regular friend) I also try to "friend" other authors, publishers, etc. and comment on their posts. It has helped me get my name and the name of my book out there!

Permalink Reply by michael workman on November 27, 2009 at 7:48am

Well maybe you can help me out. I have had my book published for the past month and I have sold nearly 80 copies but I don't have it in stores or have a website put up or neither do I know the process of getting my name and my book out there beyond just my hometown and my neighborhood.

Permalink Reply by Kay Elizabeth on December 1, 2009 at 4:15am

Michael, I think a website should be the first priority. Then you have somewhere to direct people to when they ask for more information on your book. The simplest thing to do is create a Wordpress blog. You can get a free one at their site that is hosted by them or you can have Wordpress installed on your own domain name. A domain name will cost about $10-12 a year and you can get hosting from under $10 a month upwards. I would advise you to buy your own domain name.

Do you know much about creating sites or blogs? We can all help you more with more information. I don't want to explain things that you may already know. :) I'm no expert but I do my best to share what might help.

You can also follow Philip's example and sign up profiles at Twitter and Facebook.

Have you tried contacting your local press? They might be interested in featuring you and your book. It's worth asking. The Outlaw left you a message about going on her radio show on your profile page too. That's another option if you missed it. :)

Have you contacted local independent bookstores? You could do a signing or poetry reading. You'll get more ideas from the others. That's some to get things moving. Hope that helps!

michael workman said:

Well maybe you can help me out. I have had my book published for the past month and I have sold nearly 80 copies but I don't have it in stores or have a website put up or neither do I know the process of getting my name and my book out there beyond just my hometown and my neighborhood.

Permalink Reply by Philip Nork on December 1, 2009 at 4:57am

Michael

You can get a website set up for under $20 a month. I used www.godaddy.com You can pick templates and add content whenever you want to. Check out my site to see an example www.philipnork.com It is very simple, I am no computer geek and I do it just fine.

I would then set up a free account with facebook and start finding friends...this helped me the most. I found old friends from school, elementary and high school, and they live all over the place. You can do the same on Twitter, although I don't like it as much as facebook.

Also start a google alert for areas of your book, like I have one for self discovery and how children react to divorce. Then when you get an e-mail check out the blog and leave a response with your name and "author of" at the end.

Lastly I would go to www.freado.com and open an account (again free). This will give you the ability to add a flipping book cover to your e-mail signature. You can then upload as many pages as you want to as a sneak preview.

Let me know if I can help in any other way and keep me posted as how things are going!

michael workman said:

Well maybe you can help me out. I have had my book published for the past month and I have sold nearly 80 copies but I don't have it in stores or have a website put up or neither do I know the process of getting my name and my book out there beyond just my hometown and my neighborhood.

Permalink Reply by Kay Elizabeth on December 15, 2009 at 1:00am

Michael, what did you think of the website idea and the other suggestions? It would be nice to get some feedback when we take the time to reply. That way we know if we can help you further. :)

Permalink Reply by Sally Pomeroy on March 6, 2011 at 9:01pm

I really enjoyed this, there are some great suggestions. I did not know about Freado, that will be very useful.

I was wondering, if we have a smashword book page and author page and facebook and twitter, is it really worthwhile to pay for website hosting?

Thanks!

Philip Nork said:

Michael

You can get a website set up for under $20 a month. I used www.godaddy.com You can pick templates and add content whenever you want to. Check out my site to see an example www.philipnork.com It is very simple, I am no computer geek and I do it just fine.

I would then set up a free account with facebook and start finding friends...this helped me the most. I found old friends from school, elementary and high school, and they live all over the place. You can do the same on Twitter, although I don't like it as much as facebook.

Also start a google alert for areas of your book, like I have one for self discovery and how children react to divorce. Then when you get an e-mail check out the blog and leave a response with your name and "author of" at the end.

Lastly I would go to www.freado.com and open an account (again free). This will give you the ability to add a flipping book cover to your e-mail signature. You can then upload as many pages as you want to as a sneak preview.

Let me know if I can help in any other way and keep me posted as how things are going!

michael workman said:

Well maybe you can help me out. I have had my book published for the past month and I have sold nearly 80 copies but I don't have it in stores or have a website put up or neither do I know the process of getting my name and my book out there beyond just my hometown and my neighborhood.

Permalink Reply by Sally Pomeroy on March 7, 2011 at 2:48am

I have another question, come to think of it; has anyone tried Facebook Ads? It looks like a controllable way of getting some exposure.

Permalink Reply by Clark M. Zlotchew on June 16, 2011 at 7:02pm

This is good advice, of course. I'm on Facebook, but I don't have a Twitter account. The list I would hve for Twitter would be the same as I have on Facebook. How important is having a Twitter account? (I haven't looked into it, and don't know how much it would cost.)

Permalink Reply by Jason Huddle on June 17, 2011 at 5:59pm

Speaking as a publisher, I can tell you that this is something that we REQUIRE of our authors any more. Social networking is the fastest, easiest and cheapest (frankly) way to begin generating interest in your book. The publishers can't do it all by themselves. They have to have help from the author wherever and whenever possible and this is a great way to do it!

Clark (one of my authors, BTW), Twitter is very important to help build your fan base and it's free! You can even link your facebook and twitter feeds to that when you post on one, it will post on the other! Super easy!

Permalink Reply by Jason Huddle on June 17, 2011 at 6:03pm

We have tried Facebook ads in the past. The nice thing about them is you can control everything from how long they run to your overall budget. So once your budget is reached, the ad will come downa and you don't have to worry about overspending. I think as far as effectiveness, it depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Are you trying to sell books directly or create awareness? From an awareness standpoint, it's great (and facebook will even give you the stats of how many people saw your ad), but if you are expecting to sell 1000 books off of thead, you'll probably be disappointed.

My best suggestions is to create an ad (super easy, BTW), let it run for a small trial period and see how it goes. If you get some good results, you'll know to invest more money into it.

Sally Pomeroy said:

I have another question, come to think of it; has anyone tried Facebook Ads? It looks like a controllable way of getting some exposure.

Permalink Reply by Clark M. Zlotchew on June 21, 2011 at 10:38pm

Philip Nork mentioned signing up with Freado (isn't this the same ads BookBuzzr?). I have signed up with them. One thing puzzles me: If you read the agreement terms, it states basically that any material you let them have can be used by them without any restrictions and forever. I asked about just giving a couple of excerpts and they say, yes, you can do that. Then I read the instructions for doing that, and it says to upload the entire book, and that later they will allow you to reduce it to the excerpts you want. I would say that people should be on their guard. If you supply the whole book, that statement applies about taking anything you give them and using it with no restrictions, for ever. In other words, the copyright is given (a a non-exlusive basis, but still...) Am I wrong?

Permalink Reply by Jason Huddle on June 22, 2011 at 2:47pm

By the letter of the law, you are correct, Clark. Be VERY careful and it's always good to let your publisher take a look at such things first.

Clark M. Zlotchew said:

Philip Nork mentioned signing up with Freado (isn't this the same ads BookBuzzr?). I have signed up with them. One thing puzzles me: If you read the agreement terms, it states basically that any material you let them have can be used by them without any restrictions and forever. I asked about just giving a couple of excerpts and they say, yes, you can do that. Then I read the instructions for doing that, and it says to upload the entire book, and that later they will allow you to reduce it to the excerpts you want. I would say that people should be on their guard. If you supply the whole book, that statement applies about taking anything you give them and using it with no restrictions, for ever. In other words, the copyright is given (a a non-exlusive basis, but still...) Am I wrong?

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