Next Monday, Dead End Follies will celebrate its 6th anniversary *. The last two years, I've been working at a killer web marketing agency, managing social media pages for various businesses and I've become quite apt at my job. Engineer growth and generate sales through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, you name it. This is what I do. Needless to say, it became a hobby of mine to apply the things I've learned from my day job to book publishing and the time has come for me to drop some knowledge. This stuff doesn't cost money, too.
These tips should help you create some buzz around your brand, maximize your potential book sales and fortunately, make social media a better place for authors, publishers and critics alike.
Marketing is not about getting what you want, it's about giving your audience what they want and nobody wants to buy your book. Not right away. You need to add value to your audience's social media experience if you want to get their attention. How does a writer do that? Everybody's got their own angle: Chuck Wendig shares idiosyncratic and foul-mouthed writing advice, J. David Osborne and the Broken River Books crew make you feel like you're a part of the gang, even an established genre author like Joe R. Lansdale figured out an angle that works for him.
Find your thing. What makes you unique and interesting and use it to stand out from the pack. People need to remember your name if you want them to buy your novel. Books are a dime a dozen on the marketplace. Social media are not a direct sales channel, but they are great at helping artists find audiences and audiences need to be entertained.
Inbound, not Outbound
What I've described above is called inbound marketing. It's what's contemporary audiences respond to. It means that you have to let them find you. Stand out, be awesome and easy to find, but don't chase them with your offer. What does it means? DON'T BEG PEOPLE TO BUY YOUR BOOK. It's white noise at best and most times it'll alienate potential readers. Think about it, would you buy a sealed box on the promise that what's inside is awesome and life-changing? No, so stop doing it to others.
Editor of Thuglit magazine Todd Robinson found an interesting inbound strategy to avoid begging for sales. I've bought a freakin' issue of the magazine based on one of these sneak peaks. It works. You know what doesn't work? Begging, so stop doing it.
Use Loyal Readers to Recruit New Readers
I've read somewhere that author J.A Konrath handed out over 35,000 review copies of his first novel. I don't know if this is true or not, but I can appreciate the maniacal drive if it is. Every successful person is a maniac, somewhere deep down. Point is, you gotta get the word out there if you want to generate sales. Feed the flame as much as possible. As a book blogger, asking for a review copy has been like pulling a fucking tooth too many times. You don't want my 150,000 yearly unique visitors to know what I think about your book? Even if only 0,1% of them buy (worst case scenario), it's still 150 sales. It's a lot of money.
Growth is not about the reader you know, it's about the reader you don't know yet. If someone you know is going to leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon, just fucking give him a copy. I'm extremely pick with the books I buy with my own money, but if you send me a review copy of your book, I'm going to read it. Use your loyal readers to recruit new ones. They will feel rewarded with the review copy and be more inclined to buy subsequent releases AND they will spread the word to another circle of like-minded people. Review Copies are an investment, not a lost sale.
Amazon and Goodreads Over Bloggers
I'm a book blogger, so what I'm going to tell you technically goes against my interest, but I think it's something you need to know. We can be a handful. Some of us are unprofessional. Some of us are as moody as writers. Why do you care so much about getting reviewed on a blog anyway? Your direct sales channels are Amazon and Goodreads, so start targeting readers instead of bloggers. Goodreads in particular is filled with some of the smartest, most driven readers I know. These guys are an untapped resource, get them to review your stuff. Stop worrying about bloggers, those of us who are worth your time are on Goodreads anyway.
It's all about gaming the algorithm. The more reviews you can get for your novel, the more these two sites will suggest your novel to complete strangers. Eliminate a degree of separation. Blog reviews are nice and elaborate, but they should not be your priority. Goodreads and Amazon generate direct sales, so take care of these first.
Strategize
I often hear people whining about social media not working for book promotion, but I don't see a coherent sales strategy. Don't use social media as your toilet for existential, political and emotional backflow. Have a fucking plan. Set goals for yourself. Let's say: every day you make two status updates and make ten comments on people's convos. Make your words count. Try to keep it on subject (books, publishing, etc.), but don't be afraid to stray and mingle with the crowd and don't follow every comment by a link to buy your book. Drive people to your page and have a link set up there instead. Make sure every updates and comments you make is on point and reflects the image you want to project.
Make social media work for you. Use it to sell what you're about, don't let it use you.
Facebook is Complicated (and quite useful)
Facebook is a great social media platform. It's by far the most popular one. It offers you no direct way to calculate a return on investment (book sales), but it has a few interesting wrinkles you should know about.
a) Targeted Media Investment
I lose hair whenever someone tells me targeted media investment doesn't work. You can target new potential readers by interests for a minimal fee, but it's not because you spend $50 on getting new likes for your page that your sales will magically grow. YOU STILL NEED TO ADD VALUE FOR THIS NEW AUDIENCE, WIN THEM OVER. It's not because someone's into James Ellroy that he will magically buy your book. Buying new Facebook likes is great, but it's only part of the battle, it won't lead anywhere if you're not interesting.
b) Understanding the Newsfeed Algorithm
More than ever, users are king on Facebook. They decide what they want to see, so the name of the game is engagement (likes, comments, shares). I think 97% of the people who like a page will never visit it again afterwards, but will get your updates through their newsfeed. It's a non-stop freight train of information, so you need to catch people's attention quick with concise and highly visual content (ban the ugly square thumbnail from your practice). See that Mr. T header? You'll recognize his face and it'll get you to stop for a second.
The more engagement your posts get, the more it will appear in the users' newsfeed because Facebook will start identifying it as quality content.
c) Facebook Insights
Every page that has 30 likes and more has access to Facebook Insights, which is a stats hub that keeps tabs on which posts worked, how many new people like your page and most important, what kind of people like your page (gender, age, location). Use it. Data tells the truth about what you're doing. If you call your readers ''bro'' and your main audience is women between 35 and 55, maybe it's why you don't get any traction on social media. Feel my drift?
Anyway, hope it helps you figure out a better angle for your book sales. I'll be taking question in the comments section and on my Facebook page if you have any. Remember, social media marketing is not going change your life overnight. You're only going to get back the time and effort you put in and if your book sucks, it's not going to work very well, but reviews will tell you that :)
* It was launched on September 7th 2009. As you can see, my English has improved since then.