Posts Tagged Facebook

Creating an Author Facebook Page

Posted by Sally Jenkins in Computers & Technical, Promotion, Resources on November 20, 2017

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’.

Canva, Facebook, Facebook Author Page, The Book Guild

17 Comments

Sell Your Books! Part 2

Posted by Sally Jenkins in Books, Promotion, Resources, Self-publishing on October 24, 2012

In my last post I introduced you to Debbie Young – book promotion guru. And this post concludes her sage advice:

Many writers worry about the time-consuming nature of maintaining a presence on social media. What is the best platform (blog, Twitter, Facebook etc.) to concentrate on?

All of these do different things, so it’s hard to say that one is better than the other.

With a blog, you are totally in control. Running a blog on your website will increase its standing before search engines, so I’d recommend it to all authors – and writing blog posts is a great exercise for honing your writing skills, too.

Twitter allows you to reach people you’d never meet in real life, who share your interests and passions – so select the right people to follow and they’ll be naturally predisposed to liking your book.

Facebook is good at keeping your progress before those you know, and for getting friends to “share” your posts with their friends – a kind of pyramid selling! You can also create a Facebook page specifically for your book, rather than putting it on your personal Facebook page.

GoodReads is a great way of networking with people who are, by definition, all avid readers (and a lot of writers too).

But social media can be hugely time-consuming! It’s a question of discipline, self-knowledge and honesty. Be firm about what you want to get out of these things, and only use them to help you reach those goals.

How can a self-published author gain national publicity for their book – local papers and radio stations may be willing to promote a writer from their region but how does a writer move outside his own geographical area?

Social media is the biggest opportunity, because you can make contacts with people from all over the world. But there are other, more traditional opportunities too. I’d recommend not touting your book to get national recognition, but coming up with interesting comment and valuable expertise to gain you coverage as a person – as a commentator or programme contributor – from which more awareness of your book will follow. I’ve often listened to an interesting discussion on the radio between anonymous voices and heard at the end the names of the people and the books they wrote. I’ve gone off and bought the book on the strength of it.

On Radio 4 alone there are plenty of magazine shows that need topical, expert material for their programmes – Woman’s Hour, Money Box, the Today Programme, PM. Your book and the knowledge or experience that enabled you to write it might give you viable ideas for an article, or an engaging comment to follow up a programme.

Approach your target programme’s production office with a well-thought out idea, backed up by your credentials as the author of a book on the subject, and you may get lucky. (Other national outlets can also be approached in this spirit – the nature of your book will dictate what should be your priority, e.g. a special interest national magazine in your field.)

Whichever media you approach, always have the media coverage you’ve had to date, your sales figures, and your reviews at your fingertips. When you put it all together, you might surprise yourself with what an impressive portfolio your book has.

Keep track of current public debate relevant to your genre. Get involved in national discussion via old-fashioned letters to the editor, comments on blogs or radio phone-ins. Always quote your credentials as the author of a relevant book, this will make it clear that you are an expert with something interesting to say about the subject.

Be opportunist. Manufacture your own luck. If you want to win the lottery, as the old joke goes, you have to buy a ticket…

Thank you for the advice, Debbie and there’s lots more great information in Debbie’s book and on her blog.

Debbie Young, Facebook, GoodReads, Off The Shelf Book Promotions, Sell Your Books!, Twitter

12 Comments

Quotes About Writing

Posted by Sally Jenkins in Resources on April 16, 2012

In the last week I’ve come across a couple of quotes posted on Facebook about writing and I thought you might like them as much as I did.

Jackie Sayle posted the first one, by the German novelist and short story writer, Thomas Mann, in the Bring Back Fiction to Women’s Magazines! group. I related to it instantly – what do you think?