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2 Basic Rules To Follow for Your Books Success

25 Feb

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fail

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… on Social Media
Are you promoting your book like crazy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook … but nothing seems to happen, no book sales? Are you competing with other writers in “buy my book, buy my book, buy my book… Are you choosing to follow other writers, hoping they will buy your book?

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1. Choose your following very carefully: You want to interact mainly with READERS, NOT writers. The question is: How to find readers?

All Social Media sites have a search function on top of the page. Type in: book bloggers, read, reading, book lovers, book club, love reading, book worm, love to read, mystery book reader, science fiction reader, YA readers, YA book blogger, readers, word nerd, non-fiction book blogger, reading books, reviewing book… and even librarian. Click on “people” or scroll down a lot, as the first names that appear are often publishers and other commercial accounts.

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Another method is to type in the name of a very successful book in your genre and find readers there, talking about this book. Follow those readers that you feel belong to your book genre, based on what they say in their tweets. Re-tweet their posts, engage in meaningful conversation, be funny or refer to blog posts you wrote, but don’t mention your book. They will find out about it soon enough.

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2. Understand the meaning of Social Media – being SOCIAL and STOP talking constantly about your book!
I noticed one writer on Twitter who writes 100% only and only about his book. He seems to use automatic tweets, as he never, ever engaged in any conversation with others. Kind of autistic .. For sure, I was not the only one who un-followed him. Write about interesting things that are happening, give valuable advice or engage in a humerus way with your readers. No one goes on Twitter, FB, Google+ or Pinterest to read constantly about your book. That’s not entertaining or interesting. Many writers don’t buy books from other writers, they want to sell their own. If ALL writers are doing on Twitter, Google+ or FB is self-promoting they are not only NOT attracting readers, but turning them away.

Yes, famous writers may attract attention for what they have to say – not normally related to their books – but rather to their writer’s life or ideas – and they are often interesting or funny. It’s called social networks not selling pages…
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Authors should rather focus their promotional efforts on trying to get people to talk about their books (review them, read and recommend them, give them awards, take them to their book groups, write articles or blog posts about them) instead of trying to get people to buy them. A much better place to do this is on reader forums, such as Goodreads, Shelfari, Bibliophil, Biblio Connection, BookTalk and the like.

So, following these two basic rules: Finding the right followers “readers” and be “social” on Social Media is key to successful promoting your books.

To get more book marketing help, see what we can do for you in individual sessions.

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Don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks  http://about.me/ebookPR

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5 responses to “2 Basic Rules To Follow for Your Books Success

  1. Peter Saye

    February 25, 2013 at 4:49 pm

    Nice snippet of information, thank you. A constant battle; where are the readers? Any and all advice welcome… 🙂

     
  2. jollof

    February 25, 2013 at 5:15 pm

    I agree with your two basic rules. I wrote an article earlier this morning on my blogging tips and one follower not only ‘liked’ it he even re-posted it on his blog. We exchanged comments and somehow started conversing about smartphones. Later in the evening he told me he had bought a copy of my e-book for his Kindle! – I never promoted my book during our conversation. This is proof that the social element is so important. Thanks 🙂

     
  3. Margaret Kell Virany

    February 25, 2013 at 8:53 pm

    I shared this with the Indie Authors Group and the Ottawa Independent Writers Group on Facebook. I love the FAIL approach. Hard work never hurts.

     
  4. Lonna Lisa Williams

    March 5, 2013 at 8:05 am

    Great advice! Thanks. I’m writing a “Walk with Me” eBook through Turkey: http://lonnalisawilliams.wordpress.com/

    I have 5 published books on amazon and found myself making my Facebook page look like one big advertisement. When I started being more social, I started getting more followers. I think we writers need to slow down, take a breath, and focus. We should connect with our readers in a real way, not like a used car salesman.

     
  5. Kim 24/7 in France

    March 6, 2013 at 5:00 am

    Hadn’t really thought about your first point in looking for readers vs. authors, whose sites we usually post our books on – will try this in my marketing plan for my book (Solitary Desire-One Woman’s Journey to France) – thanks!

     

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