Welcome to Writers Talkback. If you are a new user, your account will have to be approved manually to prevent spam. Please bear with us in the meantime
This may have been discussed before, but I can't remember where!
I have a FB author page, as do several of you, and FB keeps offering me a 'Bonus to reach 350 more people' and the like. It's probably a hook to get me to pay, but does anyone do this? If so, does it increase sales?
If not, how else can I reach more people? Nobody's bought one of my books this month
Comments
https://selfpublishingadvice.org/facebook-advertising-for-self-published-books-by-indie-authors/?affid=2339
I doubt that Facebook alone will be enough, Lizy. Twitter can work. I've just written something about that but I'm not sure when it will be live.
If you like your post as 'you', rather than as 'you, the author', that will show up on your normal FB page. You can also share a post from your Author Page on your other page.
Does that make sense?
I'd recommend you begin sharing info about the inspiration of the book. Also, do that on Twitter.
Publicity is a pain - I'd much rather be writing - but I also want people to read it.
Thanks for the link, Baggy, and the advice, TN.
FB (plus groups)
Twitter (remember hashtags)
LinkedIn
Goodreads (more groups)
iAuthor (Liz mentioned it recently)
The Book Bazaar
Blogs
Websites...
It is incredibly time-consuming with little payback unfortunately.
I have only sold a couple (as per usual) this month.
The ACTUAL secret is:
'
'
'
'
'
take your book into schools/libraries and read it (something I have yet to do!!!).
The trouble with getting 'interest' is you have to have people who have followed you retweet your tweets. That happens less than you'd think - I have brilliant stats for instance on Twitter for the Poetry Summit but when you go into their statistics page, which can be reached here when logged in: https://analytics.twitter.com/ you find that actually your reach isn't as far as you'd think.
I think if you have a service which people are interested (ie. editing, proof reading) in it is VERY different to having a product that people have to buy which is not something that they must have.
Engage>Entertain>Exploit.
You can apply that to Facebook and Twitter. But - big but - it doesn't happen overnight. One tweet a month isn't going to engage or entertain anyone. Having said that, I do have a list on TweetDeck for authors who do that. They entertain me for the wrong reason.
Posts with an image have a better reach. Use images associated with the inspiration behind the book.
Generally though, lots of retweets seem to indicate either someone who doesn't have anything to say themselves, so fills their feed with other people's stuff, or someone who is enthusiastically retweeting all their followers in the hope that these people will do the same for them. It seems nice to retweet your friends' stuff, but if most of what you're sharing isn't what your followers want to see then you're not helping anyone.
I have Googled 'How to use twitter' in the hope of learning enough to get it right. :-B
I find that I think I've worked out some promotions, but then I learn differently. 8-|
It's when people constantly retweet stuff apparently at random that I think there's a real problem. I've had people retweet me halfway through a conversation (not with them) so it makes no sense. When I've checked their feed it's a mish mash of totally different retweets - erotica books, childrens's birthday cakes, politics, kittens ... No one will be following their tweets in the hope of seeing all that (even if it does appear they have loads of followers).
Why are you using Twitter? To get retweets, likes and new followers? Getting tweets read should be everyone's goal. The stats are irrelevant.
I know we're all ordinary in one sense, what I mean is engaging people who heretofore have not been interested in poetry. Or who didn't realise just how important it is to children to get them reading, enjoying language. Piquing interest. Inspiring enthusiasm. Spreading the word. A 'read' is great news, someone knows what you have said. A retweet is making sure someone else reads that news. New FOLLOWERS are people who have been interested enough in what you are saying to follow - so they are massively important, because that way others will get to hear of what you are saying. How on earth can you say that isn't important?
Of course I tweet to get followers and retweets. Of course they are important. And the stats are just one way to check how you are doing.
You asked if spending an extended period retweeting was a good idea. As I said earlier, if someone is following an event with a hashtag they will already have the original tweet in their timeline. That's why some people filter out all retweets.
You asked if spending an extended period retweeting was a good idea. As I said earlier, if someone is following an event with a hashtag they will already have the original tweet in their timeline. That's why some people filter out all retweets.
But then again I don’t have a book or anything to sell, so I’m not really making any effort.