writer | Social Media Aspirin™

You have a new book coming and you want the world to know. If you don’t build up excitement and get people talking, that release may fail to reach your expectations. Never fear! We have some great tips for building excitement for your work and creating that buzz you’re wishing for.

Get Creative!

Your book is unique to your audience. It’s easy to fall back on standard promotional tactics, but that’s not going to get your audience pumped for your next book. Instead, figure out what’s unique about your book and try to showcase it in some way.

Let’s say you wrote a time management guide to launching a home business when you’re already working full-time. You could provide free printables or digital templates to guide readers through the process.

Fiction books have many options of their own. What if you wrote a thriller that took place in an abandoned theme park? Try to take a tour of one and bring your readers along via vlogs, Instagram stories, and more. These personal touches change the scope of promotion from salesy to inspiring.

Social Media

Sharing on social media is a wonderful way to build excitement, but don’t forget to make your content easy to share! Embedding a retweet button that automatically populates a precrafted tweet is a wonderful example. Social Media Examiner shows you how to do this for PDF documents. This is perfect for any printables, chapter excerpts, or other downloadable content you create in your promotion package.

Social share buttons are also important! It provides instant social proof to first-time visitors of your page. You want people to share your work. The more shares a post receives, the more you’ll pique the curiosity of your potential readers.

Ads

Build targeted ads is a great way to gain a readership. This may take time and effort, but social media and ad analytics can help guide you in the right direction.

Press Release and Launch Pages

Create a launch page that provides ways for others to get the word out about your book. It should contain your book cover, title, blurb, links to any free content you offer (first chapter, outline, printables, workbooks, etc.), promotional images, preset retweet links, Facebook presets, and links to all other books in the series. It should be easy on the eyes and mobile friendly.

Get Your Readers Involved

Your readers want to get the word out, so give them incentive to do so! Contests, swag, and recognition can work wonders at getting people excited about your book. After release, hold contests where people share images of them holding your book.

Behind the Scenes Content

Everyone loves to see what goes on behind the scenes. Show your research notes, snippets of interviews, favorite non-fiction books and documentaries that helped you along the way.

Create a Discount Run with Another Book

If your book is part of a series, discount the first book. If it’s in a similar niche, do the same.

Videos

Finally, don’t underestimate the power of videos. Whether you vlog about your book, interview people to share research, record testimonials, create book trailers, or just make teasers, video is an exceptional way to reach a wide audience.

These were just some tips to get you started. Which one will you tackle first?

Writing is the heart of your business, but so is developing a community for your readers. Self-promotion is a necessity in today’s modern author world. If you’re tempted to run away, don’t. Hear me out. It takes days, weeks, months, and sometimes years to develop a book. A reading community can’t be built in a day. It takes time and effort.

Do you have ten minutes in your day that you can spare for those who support your work? Of course, you do!

Here are some quick tips to cultivating your readers that take ten minutes or less:

Set up Google Alerts to track where you’re mentioned. You need to know what they’re saying about you! You can set up an alert for your name, book title, Twitter handle, Instagram handle, site URL, and more. When you find people who have mentioned you and your work, stop by and give them a thank you and show your appreciation for their support of your work. It’s an excellent way to connect with new readers.
Use polls to connect with your readers. You don’t have to create book-only polls. If you’re having trouble with Photoshop, or struggling to figure out which font to use in Canva, set up a poll and ask for help. If you do choose to go with a particular person’s (or group’s) choice, make sure you give them credit.
Surround yourself with those you admire. This doesn’t mean you should look down on anyone, but your reputation is important. If you hang around with someone (especially online) who is shady or shifty, their behavior will reflect on you as well. By that same token, if you only associate with national and international bestsellers, you may come off as snobby and unapproachable. Stay true to yourself and only recommend and support those you would in real life.
Update your bios on all platforms. You should have a bio that says who you are, what you write, and list all your important links, titles, and awards. A long bio will also list the books you’ve published. Develop four sizes of bios. One should be a tagline (perfect for Twitter, and for starting your other bios), the next should be two sentences max (great for Instagram, and Facebook’s short bio), the third should be two paragraphs (Facebook long bio, Author pages, summary information for article writing, and more), and the final should be a page long. That page should be a template you pull your other bios from, and it should, at a minimum, be on your website. The page long should list your books, all social media links, and any bonus content you offer for them signing up to your newsletter.
Do you look at pictures of your favorite authors? Chances are you’ve sneaked a peek at one or two behind-the-scenes photos. Whether it’s book- or life-related, showing that extra insight into your world can help bring your readers with you.
Go for interaction! Create a prompt event. Use a theme, image, riddle, or whatever you like to create a place for your readers to connect with you. Ask a single question and use a single call to action to cut down on confusion. It’s a great way to interact with your community, and it doesn’t take very much time. If you’re looking for a great way to host a contest, this is a fantastic place to start. For everyone who leaves a comment (with the correct answer, if you’re asking trivia or riddles), enter their names into a contest for a drawing. That way you reward those who interact while still giving back to your community.
Reply to comments! Thank anyone who has used your free content or downloaded your book during a quick sale. If you spend time being grateful to your readers, they will show their support in ways you won’t expect.

Cultivating a community takes time, but it’s worth it. You want to take potential readers and turn them into loyal fans. Choose one tip to work on at a time. Your book wasn’t written in one day and neither will the development of your reader community. Which of these will you try first?