Any successful book marketing plan is one that includes both offline and online efforts. In-person events and speaking engagements can strengthen your connection with the readers you meet, but your reach is more limited. Online communications and efforts can give you access to a much larger pool of potential readers from around the world, greatly broadening your reach. With a strong digital presence potential readers can discover your work, follow you if they like what they see, and ultimately become super fans. You can also forge connections with fellow writers, publishers, agents, and industry influencers, leading to new opportunities.
Having a strong digital presence includes being active on social media, which does require planning, time, and commitment. Building a meaningful following long-term can be challenging for authors; especially for those that are less tech savvy or those that don’t enjoy sharing personal or professional information in a public forum. There are steps authors can take, however, to make the process more enjoyable, more manageable, and more effective.
When it comes to social media, many writers make the mistake of attempting to be present on ALL of the major platforms. This often leads to extreme overwhelm, because each platform has different post requirements, audiences, and algorithms to ascertain. The best approach with social media is to choose just one or two platforms where you know your target readers like to hang out. By researching the various platforms and reviewing the user demographics, you can get an understanding of the types of users present, which can greatly inform which platforms you choose to focus on. Seeing where other authors in your genre are communicating with their followers can also be a great way to determine the best platforms for you and your work.
If you already have a personal presence on a platform that you are comfortable with using, you can start there. Facebook is still one of the most popular and user-friendly social media sites with the broadest audience. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok tend to draw younger audiences, while LinkedIn is geared more toward professionals, and Pinterest is geared more toward a female audience. Along with varying audiences, these platforms also have different content expectations and format requirements, which adds another layer of complexity.
You can learn more about the various social media platforms and their demographics in the Social Media section of our website.
The second mistake many writers make with social media is using it to only promote their work, and not to form connections with potential followers using the “3 Es” of social media content – 1) Engage, 2) Educate, and 3) Entertain. Every piece of content should be created with intention and offer some sort of value to your followers. Your goal with each post should be to engage them in a conversation, educate or inform them, or provide entertainment.
Once you’ve chosen the one or two platforms on which to focus your efforts, you’ll want to research and understand the type of content that is going to be most effective. How you approach a platform like X (formerly Twitter), will be vastly different from how you approach a platform like Instagram due to the content expectations.
Here are the most popular social media platforms for authors, and the type of content that appeals to each user group:
Facebook: Content can range from long-form posts to live videos. Facebook posts can include text, photos, videos, memes, links, and more, providing authors with a lot of flexibility and room for creativity. The platform has additional features for engaging with readers through private groups, newsletter sign-ups, events, and forums. Instagram: Uses visual storytelling and high-quality images through Reels, Stories and individual posts. Ideal for aesthetically pleasing book photos and inspirational quotes, and connecting with the “Bookstagram” community. X (Twitter): Posts are limited to 280 characters or less, keeping content short and to the point. Good for live engagement, sharing quick updates, and participating in literary discussions or other trending topics. LinkedIn: Known as a professional network, it’s useful for authors trying to establish professional credibility, network with publishers and other authors, and share articles related to the writing craft or book industry. TikTok: Uses short, engaging videos to capture attention within seconds. Great for reaching younger audiences with short videos, participating in viral challenges, and leveraging the “BookTok” community to boost visibility. Pinterest: Content is highly visual and is meant to drive traffic to websites, blogs or book sales pages. Can be used to brainstorm and create vision and mood boards. YouTube: Uses long-form video content like book readings, writing advice, and author vlogs. There is a subset of the YouTube community called "BookTube” with videos on book reviews, bookshelf tours, bookstore hauls, discussions, and more.
Facebook: Content can range from long-form posts to live videos. Facebook posts can include text, photos, videos, memes, links, and more, providing authors with a lot of flexibility and room for creativity. The platform has additional features for engaging with readers through private groups, newsletter sign-ups, events, and forums.
Instagram: Uses visual storytelling and high-quality images through Reels, Stories and individual posts. Ideal for aesthetically pleasing book photos and inspirational quotes, and connecting with the “Bookstagram” community.
X (Twitter): Posts are limited to 280 characters or less, keeping content short and to the point. Good for live engagement, sharing quick updates, and participating in literary discussions or other trending topics.
LinkedIn: Known as a professional network, it’s useful for authors trying to establish professional credibility, network with publishers and other authors, and share articles related to the writing craft or book industry.
TikTok: Uses short, engaging videos to capture attention within seconds. Great for reaching younger audiences with short videos, participating in viral challenges, and leveraging the “BookTok” community to boost visibility.
Pinterest: Content is highly visual and is meant to drive traffic to websites, blogs or book sales pages. Can be used to brainstorm and create vision and mood boards.
YouTube: Uses long-form video content like book readings, writing advice, and author vlogs. There is a subset of the YouTube community called "BookTube” with videos on book reviews, bookshelf tours, bookstore hauls, discussions, and more.
Many authors get hung up on not knowing what to say or what to post, overcomplicating the process. The most important thing when it comes to social media content is to be authentic. In this ALC “Ask Sheila” blog post we share 40 content ideas for social media posts along with some best practices.
How often you decide to post content on your social media accounts really depends on your goals and the amount of time you can dedicate. One of the keys to success is consistency. Whether you post every day or just once a week, you’ll want to maintain some regularity with the frequency. Post too often, and followers might feel inundated by your content. Post sporadically, and your followers might lose interest and forget about you. The easiest way to maintain a consistent posting schedule is to create an editorial calendar you can follow.
An editorial calendar is a visual tool that helps content creators plan and schedule their work. It can be used to organize content ideas and publication schedules on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. The calendar can be as detailed as you need it to be, including specific dates, times, types of content, and platforms on which you plan to post. Google Sheets is a free way to build and track your editorial calendar, and you can find templates online to get you started.
We recommend starting your calendar by filling in any holidays, events, launches, or other special dates when you know you will want to post content to create awareness. You can then begin to fill in around those dates to see what type of content and frequency will work best. Here are some tips as you plan your editorial calendar:
• Commit to a schedule that feels doable for YOU• Plan weekly or monthly themes and ideas and create the content in batches• Remember quality over quantity• Repost your content that receives high engagement• Repost and share the content of others that is relevant to you and your audience
The thought of designing visually appealing graphics and creating catchy copy may seem way outside of your wheelhouse. The great news is there are user-friendly and FREE ways in which creative and professional writers can use software and tools to assist with tasks in the writing, editing, publishing, and marketing journey, and creating posts for social media is one of them.
There are a variety of helpful stock image sites that let you use, modify, and distribute images both commercially (for marketing and promotional purposes and materials) and non-commercially at no cost. These include sites like Unsplash, Pixabay, and Pexels. Canva is an online design tool that offers a library of content to use, including photos, icons, illustrations, video, audio, fonts, and templates for commercial or non-commercial use. It also offers a full suite of design features and resources to assist creators.
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT will allow you to enter prompts asking for help with social media ideas and copy, and Latelyai will automatically turn long-form content into dozens of optimized social media posts. You can use these tools to help you brainstorm and refine your social media posts, saving you a lot of time. Just make sure you use them responsibly, so you can benefit from the support without plagiarizing or infringing on copyrights.
Another way to save time and effort with social media posting is to use a service that allows you to upload and schedule your social media posts ahead of time. For a fee, online services such as MeetEdgar, Hootsuite, and Buffer allow you to build your posts and schedule the date and time that you’d like them to go live on your specific social media platforms. Some platforms, like Facebook, will allow you to build and schedule the posts ahead of time within the platform itself. There are many benefits to setting up your posts ahead of time including:
• Quality control• Consistency• Posting during peak hours• Time management• Reaching audiences in different time zones• Avoiding delays or missed post opportunities
In addition, online scheduling services offer engagement analytics so that you can review the level of engagement with your posts, and determine if your content strategy is effective, or if you should make some adjustments going forward.
If you are present on more than one social media platform, you may be able to save time and effort by cross-posting your content. This means sharing the same content across multiple platforms without having to manually post to each individual platform. Cross-posting allows you to:
• Increase the value of a piece of content• Reach more of your target readers• Save time on content creation• Reinforce your branding and messaging
Depending on the platforms, you may need to tailor the content format a bit to fit the requirements, but there are some cases where a platform will do that work for you. For example, you can set up your Instagram account to automatically cross post to Facebook, and vice-versa if you have a Facebook business page and the two accounts are linked. Some of the scheduling tools discussed above also offer cross-posting features to save you time.
Because the audiences and content expectations differ between social media platforms, cross-posting is best used when the content you are sharing is universally appealing.
If you find that you don’t have the time or skills to successfully execute a social media strategy, you can always hire someone to assist with this channel of your marketing plan. Some resources where you can find help include:
• Your tech-savvy children or grandchildren• High school or college student• Freelancer/contractor• Your publishing service provider
Just be sure you do your due diligence when hiring someone you don’t know, as there are many scammers out there targeting authors with promises of becoming a bestseller for a large investment, and these scammers are either inexperienced or they don’t follow-through.
When combined with other online efforts such as an author website, email marketing, and paid advertising, social media can be a very beneficial layer of building your author platform and executing your book marketing strategy. It allows you to create meaningful connections, gain a loyal following, and reach potential readers from around the world. When used wisely, social media can greatly increase awareness for you and your work, leading to more sales.
Photo credit: Olivier Le Moal via Getty ImagesPhoto credit: grinvalds via Getty ImagesPhoto credit: cnythzl via Getty Images
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