“My new book is out! Buy for $2.99 on Amazon! [LINK]”
“Have you read my new novel yet? Get it now! [LINK]”
“ ‘MY BOOK TITLE’ #kindle #bestseller [LINK]”
Do these spam author posts feel familiar? It’s become a common author stereotype on social media networks to constantly post asking people to please, for the love of God, buy my book.
But don’t be this author! Post-spam doesn’t work, and it can actually cause you to lose the followers you already have. Writers, I promise, there’s a better way.
It starts with realizing it’s not about book sales—it’s about building relationships with your readers.
I get it. You’ve poured a ton on of time, effort and quite possibly your soul into your book. Of course you want to do all you can to ensure it finds its way into readers’ hands—and yes, get a few dollars in your pocket to justify all you’ve put into it.
It’s also easy to get addicted to those little jumps in page views or purchases that happen each time you throw your links out there. But don’t mistake those little jumps for success—with 288 million active users on Twitter, you’re bound to get a few click-throughs no matter what you post.
What you have to ask yourself is, what are you building a platform for? Do you want a few extra sales today? Or do you want to grow a following of real relationships with readers who want not just this book, but your next book, and the one after that, and the one after that?
Long-term relationships, right? So stop the post-spam already. If you want build a long-term platform, you’re going to have to use a different playbook.
Start with these five tactics to build a strong, long-term platform:
Share You
Before you can make a genuine connection with a reader, you need to be your genuine self.
That means posting about things in your life beyond your book. More specifically, share your interests, your hobbies, pieces of your life and thoughts (within reasonable bounds of professionalism and privacy, of course).
So go ahead, gush over your cat. If Taylor Swift can do it, so can you.
Post news your audience will find interesting.
It’s called curating, and it’s awesome.
To curate content, follow others who offer content similar or related to yours (for example, if you write erotic novels, look at E.L. James or Cosmopolitan).
When you see them post something interesting, share it with your followers. To get the most from curating, add your own comment about why you found the link share-worthy when you re-post.
It’s that easy, and sharing your spotlight by connecting your readers with other valuable content is a win for everyone.
Engage in Conversations
When your followers mention you or respond to your post, reply to them. That moment of connection is priceless.
Think about it: How would you feel if a writer you admired took the time to respond to your comment? Personally, I’d about die. In fact it’s happened a few times, and really, I just about died. It’s just the coolest.
So be the coolest. Talk to your readers when they take the time to talk to you. Those warm fuzzies your reader gets will stay with them and remain associated with your personal brand.
Be Consistent
There’s few things worse for a growing platform than a flurry of posts within minutes, only to be followed by days of silence.
Try to keep some semblance of a schedule. For example, check your accounts for activity and post about daily. This show your followers you’re engaged and encourage platform growth. Posting more frequently will help you grow faster, depending on the network (Twitter benefits from more frequent posts more than Facebook, for example).
Tools like Hootsuite that let you schedule posts ahead of time can help you maintain this consistency when you need to step away for a bit.
Now Post About Your Book
You don’t have to forego talking about your book completely. The general rule of thumb is the 80/20 principle—80 percent of your posts should be non-promotional, and the other 20 percent can be “Hey, did you know my book is 20% off until Friday?”
That means for roughly every four posts you share that are about your life, sharing cool news from across the web, responding to followers, etc., you may post one that is promotional (but please don’t make this an exact practice of making literally every fifth post a promotional one—readers will sense you are chomping at the bit).
And be mindful of how you ask readers to buy your book, too—no robot sales lines, please. Share information about your books in your natural voice and with an attitude of sharing information, not a car salesman.
It’s natural to feel self-conscious when promoting yourself or anxious about keeping your sales up. But resorting to hyper-promotional post-spamming does little to sell your book in the short run, and a lot to damage your platform in the long run.
Instead, use social media as a way to build genuine relationships with readers, and I assure you that you’ll reap the benefits over the long haul.
Bonus: If you want to see examples of these principles at work, check out the accounts of these 5 awesome author platforms.
By day, Emily Wenstrom, is the editor of short story website wordhaus, author social media coach, and freelance content marketing specialist. By early-early morning, she is E. J. Wenstrom, an award-winning sci-fi and fantasy author whose debut novel Mud was named 2016 Book of the Year by the Florida Writers Association.
