OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
There have always been various methods used to advertise and sell books. Social is just one of the latest incarnations.
It is still about hand-selling to individuals, but this time on a global scale. The first job of an author is to write great books, but these days, the second job is to market them, especially as a new author with no backlist. This is true for traditionally published as well as self-published authors. [Note: This post was originally published on TheBookseller's FutureBook blog]
The old adage goes that “50% of marketing works. We just don't know which 50%”. It is indeed an inexact science but here’s how the marketing principle AIDA works.
(1) Attention
Attention is hard to get in this speedy online world. Millions of books compete for it as well as perhaps the more powerful media of video and gaming. Social networks are a way to grab attention for a moment in order to draw people into the funnel as above. Pieces of content are breadcrumbs leading to your door.
(2) Interest
Social is pointless on its own as a marketing mechanism (although of course it can be enjoyed for its own sake). The aim is to get people to notice you and be interested enough to follow you or click through to your website.
Social networks rise and fall. You don’t own that real estate, you only borrow it for a while so be sure to capture the interest. This means that you need a website and a list mechanism so that people can sign up for your newsletter or updates. This is permission marketing – people have given you permission to email them which is a more personal form of communication and can develop the relationship further.
(3) Desire
Social is about people knowing you, liking you and trusting you enough to let you have a slice of their time and attention. Authenticity over the long term is therefore important so you can sustain it. Marketing, like writing, is a long term activity.
(4) Action
How the 80:20 rule works with social
The 80:20 rule has nothing to do with the amount of time spent on social networks. It is about the percentage you spend on promoting others vs. yourself. One of the biggest mistakes of social is to make it all about you. The focus should be on being useful, inspiring or entertaining with occasional tweets that promote your own material or talk about personal things. This also brings about social karma, a generosity that comes when you promote others and results in enhanced word of mouth.
Social means social
Social doesn’t work if you don’t enjoy it or if you are unrelentingly negative. Networks are collective energy expressed in one place. If you exude negativity or hype or spam, then that’s what you will experience in return. It is about enjoying yourself, joining a conversation, learning from people, sharing something interesting and making connections. Yes, it’s actually fun!
Some people think that online relationships are somehow shallow or unreal, but for introvert authors, the online social world is far preferable to live networking events or parties. Friendships formed on Twitter can spill into Skype conversations, meeting up in person and support networks, as well as mutual promotion.
Of course social isn’t a magic bullet to sell millions of books. It’s just one tool in the arsenal of marketing activities that some people enjoy. But from my personal experience, it can definitely result in book sales, and it's a lot of fun!
What's your experience of social media? Do you enjoy it for its own sake? Is it successful for book marketing?
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1 2 3 … 5 Next »Thanks, Joanna! I especially like #1, and not just because of the tequila. :) Good idea to use photos to draw interest to your characters, novel, etc.
I'm loving Pinterest - I totally see why it's the fastest growing social network. I especially love playing in the visual as we spend so much time in the verbal space.
Great post, Joanna! I am very interested (and often blog about) ways in which social media can be effectively utilised to market a book.
I think the '80:20' rule is spot on. So often do I read tweet after tweet of self-promotion. The sad thing is, I don't think a lot of the self-promoters consciously realise that what they are doing is damaging - it's simply through a lack of research and knowledge that they think it is the only option!
I'd advise every one of them to check out your site as one of the great blogs for marketing advice. :)
Brilliantly clear. I advocate 90/10, myself, but I won't quibble!
I created a website and Facebook fan page for my persona I developed. Through it I garner interest and fans that will (hopefully) result in more book sales.
It is true, people are less interested in ourselves than with how something can immediately help them. Great blog post too, I loved the image and how you truly captured how the market worked. I do think that the publishing industry these days is so interesting. We are all truly lucky to be our own publishers these days. :-)
I'm so glad this blog attracts 'glass-half-full' people! Thanks Maria.
This is sooo true! Love the diagram...it really spoke to me. I think I need to be more social. I only tweet 4x/day...so 2x to tweet someone else's post/ideas/books, etc...that I find interesting or helpful, 1x to write encouraging words and 1x to post my blog. I think I need to add more of the 'social' in social media. I guess I don't want to be excessive in tweeting etc. How do you know when it's too much or just enough?
Lorna, I think it comes down to your focus and how much you enjoy it. I like Twitter and I meet my cyber friends there so I duck in a couple of times a day and see what's happening. If you try to view it more like the watercooler, you'll enjoy it more and then you'll have different questions :)
I need to engage more in social media. Other wise nobody know my book "The Last One".
Life is too short. We've been given the opportunity through social media to reach out and connect with others, thereby making the world a smaller place, and a friendlier one. There's just no way that spreading the positivity and paying it forward could possibly be a bad thing. So, dig in, and enjoy :)
I just read your blog on "How to sell books with social media" (from the "Book Baby" facebook page). It is the best info on using social media to sell -- anything including a dental practice -- I have read. I would like to re-publish it on my web site for dentists. If you substitute dental practice for books in this blog, it applies 100%. With attribution to you and your web site of course. And as a writer/author of books and articles for dentists, I look forward to learning from your blogs and web site.
Hi Lynn, yes, of course, please do use the article and tweak as you like and please link back here as the original source - that would be great. I totally agree that the principle is the same whether you're selling books or services or anything, so I'm glad it's useful for you.
Thanks for sharing :)
I completely agree with AIDA, but have honed in this approach to be specific to book marketing. I wrote a blog on this process earlier this year called Making it Stick: The 4 Steps to Turning Book Marketing from a Science into an Art: http://bit.ly/xX9Kjj
Hope this helps!
I have been following your articles for some time now, but never thought I would be brave enough to leave a comment. Your words are so true, and strike at the heart of a problem that many of us aspiring writers are facing. Your advice is spot on, and I thank you for it. I would also like to share with you a way three of my writing friends and I have done to work around this seeming insurmountable problem. I grew up in the age of believing in traditional publishing, but in this day and age--as you said--it is nearly impossible to get your worked looked at by the houses. I knew I had to somehow join the social media bandwagon, but I didn't want to do it like everyone else. So, being the out of the box person I am, I got together with three wonderful, budding authors and created Novel Odysseys through which we share not the post-published promotion of our books, but the journey of actually creating them. The highs, the lows, the lessons learned. We hope that by sharing the creation of our work it will inspire others to let go their fear of failing their dreams and just dig right in and do it. There is a lot of things that can go wrong with this, but there is also a lot of things that can go right. Like you said, it is the tool we have on hand to use. We would love to have your input on this idea.
Thanks for commenting Penna, I love to hear from people as we journey together on this path of being a writer. I think author collectives who support each other are brilliant, I really like this approach, so all the best with your site and your books.