Creating an author Facebook page is something I’ve been putting off for a very long time. For two reasons:

• I don’t understand what benefit it will bring me. If my fans (!) are searching for me on the internet, they will find this website/blog, which tells them about me and how to get in touch.
• All the author Facebook pages I’ve looked at have some wonderful header graphics across the top of the page. I’m not artistic and didn’t know how to create one of these.

Back in June, when I had my initial meeting with The Book Guild we briefly discussed how an author can help with book marketing and it was suggested that I create an author Facebook page. Since then it’s been on my ‘to do’ list like a hated piece of school homework. Next week I have another meeting with my publisher to discuss publicity and marketing. So, because I was a bit of a goody-two-shoes at school and always handed my homework in on time, I have finally created my author Facebook page.

A secondary reason for creating the page was that Facebook don’t like people ‘selling’ from personal profiles. Book promotion could possibly be classed as ‘selling’?

Was creating the page as bad as I expected? No!
I’d heard many people mention how great Canva is for creating graphics. So I signed up (it’s free!) and, fairly quickly, managed to create myself a banner (see below). It’s probably not the world’s best promotional graphic but hopefully it will do the job for now. As for creating the actual page, it’s as simple as filling in a form with Facebook holding your hand and making suggestions along the way.

But my sparkling new author page has given me two new problems:

• A page that’s not regularly updated isn’t very inspiring to anyone who stumbles across it. What shall I post on there?
• Is it worth annoying people by asking them to ‘like’ my page? More likes mean better page visibility?

I’d be grateful for any advice from you Facebook pros.

And if you have a page you’d like ‘liked’, please stick it in the comments and we’ll have a mutual ‘like-in’.