If you’re an author planning to market your own book, the first thing I would suggest is to take advantage of social media. If you don’t already have experience with social media, it can be a little daunting, but there are usually plenty of people who are willing to help you get the hang of it—family friends, colleagues, and grown children are often happy to help you set up your accounts and give you some pointers.
Social media have become the quickest and most affordable way to reach a broad audience of potential readers. For example, imagine you have a Facebook page with two hundred or three hundred Facebook friends. That’s a built-in audience, and you can take advantage of that audience without even asking them to buy your book. All you have to do is ask them to support your endeavor by copying a link to your book’s Amazon page in a Facebook status update. Then their Facebook friends may copy the link as well, and then the friends of their friends, and before you know it, you’ve managed to get the word out to a massive group of potential readers.
One of the great things about the explosion of social media in recent years is that it has put marketing control back into the hands of the author. It used to be that traditional media acted as gatekeepers; they determined which books were relevant, which books the public heard about. Today, with social media, the traditional gatekeepers are gone. Authors have the ability to communicate directly with a target audience, and then the audience can decide for themselves whether a book is relevant.
So, in addition to Facebook, what kinds of social media should you use? Blogging can be a great way to develop a readership, especially if you have the time to update your blog regularly. Twitter is another great option, but because it’s limited to 280 characters, it doesn’t give you the same scope as a blog. On a blog you can add links and graphics and develop what you want to say in a bit more detail. If you’re new to blogging and Twitter, you’ll be surprised at how easy they are.
There are a lot of resources out there that can help you get started—books and online tutorials that will help you set up a blog and figure out how to make the look and feel of it match your message. You can also use the blogs of other people you respect as examples. For example, I read the blog of Michael Hyatt almost daily. He’s a CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing. His blog addresses a wide range of topics, and I learn a lot from the way he communicates. Go find the blog or a Twitter page of someone you’re interested in and see if they’re employing any strategies you could use.
Using social media is one of the cheapest, most effective ways of marketing your book, and you should definitely take advantage of it. And don’t be intimidated! There are plenty of people and resources that can help you get started.