Authors should not disregard Facebook marketing as it is a valuable resource that occurs naturally.
As an author, it can be overwhelming to determine the best ways to engage with readers on Facebook due to the abundance of options available, such as book updates, event pages, and promotional content. How can you ensure that you are maximizing the potential of your Facebook page?
Authors can benefit from Facebook’s assortment of advantageous instruments to establish connections with their readers, distribute details regarding their literary works, and interact with their followers in a personalized manner.
Making effective use of these tools is crucial for capturing attention for your book on this commonly used platform. Therefore, let us examine how to utilize them successfully.
1. Create an author page
To promote your book effectively, it is essential to establish an author page on Facebook. This facilitates direct interaction with your audience, leading to improved engagement.
By creating an author page on Facebook, you can utilize a designated area to showcase your creations and keep your followers informed with the latest developments and news about your book. With its vast user pool, Facebook provides an effortless way to reach out to a wider audience and increase your fan base.
A guide to making a Facebook page specifically for authors.
To initiate the creation of an author page, the first requirement is to possess a personal Facebook account. Subsequently, you can proceed as follows:
- Click the “Create” button at the top right of the homepage and select “Page.”
- Enter the name of your page, and select the Author category.
- Add a profile photo and a cover photo. It is best to use a headshot for your profile photo and a photo of your book for the cover photo.
- Fill out the other necessary information when directed to your page, such as providing information about yourself, your book, and links to your website and other social media channels.
To gain some motivation during the process of crafting your author page, you can examine the pages of accomplished authors such as Audrey Carlan. On her author page, she opted for a suitable headshot as her profile picture.
Regarding the cover photo, she opted for an attractive layout to showcase her books that complements the hues of her profile picture. Additionally, she regularly shares information about her book and interacts with her followers in a smart and captivating manner. Consider this particular post as an illustration:
2. Create a content calendar
Establishing an author page is distinct from devising a remarkable social media marketing plan to maximize the potential of this page.
Creating a content calendar is the first step to effectively implementing a marketing strategy that boosts readership and increases book sales.
Organizing your content and creating a schedule can be simplified with a content calendar. It should encompass various aspects, including scheduling your upcoming live sessions, determining the frequency of your pre-recorded videos, featuring interviews and extracts from your forthcoming book, and more.
3. Create Facebook ads
There are different purposes and formats in which you can create Facebook ads.
You have the option to create ads that aim to boost your website, book, Facebook page, or previous posts featured on your author page. These ad formats can include images, videos, slideshows, or Instant Experience.
If you want to make a Facebook advertisement, follow these steps:
Go to your Ads Manager and click the green “Create” button located on the left-hand side. The Ads Manager presents a performance dashboard that allows you to view, modify, and analyze the outcomes of your ads, campaigns, and ad sets. Consequently, this dashboard will appear blank if it’s your initial ad development.
One should select an aim. Ads Manager presents a variety of objectives to choose from, such as brand awareness, reaching a wider audience, generating leads, app installations, increasing traffic engagement, and obtaining video views. Upon selecting an objective, it assists Facebook in providing an ad option that is tailored to accomplishing your chosen goal.
Select the audience you want to reach. Facebook provides several targeting choices that enable you to personalize your audience according to their locality, age, gender, education, conduct, interests, and other criteria.
By creating a new Custom Audience, you can opt to aim for individuals who have engaged with your brand in some form in the past. It might take trying out multiple targeting choices before discovering the perfect audience for your advertisement.
You can establish your budget by choosing from two options provided by Facebook for your ad campaign: daily or lifetime.
By selecting a daily budget, Facebook will exhibit your ads consistently until the budget is exhausted. On the other hand, with a lifetime budget, you can establish the full budget for the ad campaign and decide how long it’ll last.
After you have published your advertisement, it will be displayed on the Facebook feeds of your audience (and on Instagram if you’ve opted for that platform). However, don’t consider that the end-all solution. Use the ads manager dashboard to keep track of your ad’s success and be prepared to improve and modify it as necessary.
After submission, your ads will be displayed to your audience on Facebook feeds, yet it is crucial to monitor their performance and make adjustments as needed.
4. Organize giveaways
Hosting contests is a great method of catching the attention of your audience and encouraging them to interact with your social media or subscribe to your newsletter, should you have one.
The act of participating in a giveaway must be uncomplicated and direct, such as sharing, commenting, or liking an article. The giveaway item could be a complimentary book or even gift vouchers.
Another option to consider is partnering with other writers to host a collective giveaway event. In the case that your book serves as the prize, it may be wise to create an electronic version that the victor can easily obtain by downloading it from your site, eliminating the need to physically ship it to them.
5. Share excerpts to build excitement
Facebook is an excellent platform to generate excitement among your audience during the prerelease phase of your book marketing campaign.
As your book launch date approaches, think about sharing excerpts of your chapters using Facebook Notes, a technique utilized by acclaimed writer Debbie Macomber.
An alternative mode of sharing an excerpt of her upcoming book, Royal Holiday, was adopted by Jasmine Guillory. She provided a link to a post on Hello Sunshine’s blog, which presented the revealed cover, a preview, and a preorder solicitation.
Posting an excerpt on your Facebook Author Page not only creates an impression of abundant exclusive content but also lures readers into purchasing the entire book to conclude the tale.
6. Share updates and news
Keeping your readers informed is essential! Keeping them engaged and informed can be achieved by sharing a recent interview, a positive review of one of your books, touring details, or simply updates on your writing progress.
Helen Hoang, the author of The Kiss Quotient, had a conversation with The Washington Post about her style of writing romantic fiction.
Author Becky Albertalli posted tour details for her book What If It’s Us on her page, which included tagging co-writer Adam Silvera in her message. Additionally, she shared a link to a two-chapter sample of the book, showing her effective marketing strategies.
7. Count down to your next release
Using countdowns can generate enthusiasm, increase pre-sales, and serve as a recurring reminder of your release date. Several writers develop exclusive graphics that display the remaining time before the launch by utilizing user-friendly tools such as Canva or RelayThat.
To promote his latest book, The Institute, Stephen King utilized a captivating image as a tool to announce its release.
Lisa See, the author of The Island of Sea Women, utilized a variety of effective Facebook strategies in her countdown post. These included producing a captivating video and associating her publisher to enhance her exposure.
8. Host Facebook Live chats
Everyone loves feeling like they’re part of an exclusive group. Utilizing the real-time interaction of Facebook Live is a fantastic method to build a bond with your audience.
Through these videos, you have the opportunity to engage in a live Q&A session, organize an extensive book club discussion, advertise a forthcoming occasion, and so forth.
Some particularly impactful times to host Facebook Live discussions may be when you announce a new book, right before launch, or soon after the book’s release as the discussion will be exciting and full of new information.
At BookExpo last year, Roshani Chokshi, who wrote The Gilded Wolves, conducted a Facebook Live session that allowed her readers to ask her questions and receive responses. Additionally, Chokshi held a book giveaway as a way to encourage participation, which will be discussed further.
Publishers and book groups can find Facebook Live to be quite useful. BookBub organizes Facebook Live discussions on books we’re fond of, and a few of these videos have received more than 65,000 views!
9. Share recorded video content
Prefer to edit your video at your own pace rather than broadcasting it live? Pre-recorded videos also have the potential to captivate viewers. By showcasing interviews, book talks, plot insights, and additional content, you can establish a deeper and more intimate connection with your audience.
By utilizing Facebook’s Featured Video feature, Patricia Cornwell was able to advertise her gripping novel Ripper and amassed more than 19,000 views.
Lauren Blakely, the author, delivers top-notch and diverse material for her audience. Lately, she has been chronicling the process of transforming her romantic literature into audio recordings.
To find additional tips on creating effective videos, refer to our post about getting inspiration for author video content.
10. Foster a community of engaged readers
To keep your readers engaged, it’s crucial to offer them intriguing and entertaining conversations after luring them to your page. You may inquire of them or employ the poll function to solicit their opinions.
A great discussion was ignited when Deborah Harkness, writer of A Discovery of Witches, informally asked her readers to share their preferred opening line from her books.
On her Facebook page, Taylor Jenkins Reid, the author of Daisy Jones and the Six, interacted with her audience by reposting a picture from one of her fans. Such an interaction tends to be more intimate, potentially prompting readers to include the author’s page in their own content.
11. Let your readers get to know you
One of the distinctive aspects of any natural social media platform, such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, is the chance to express your individuality through sharing.
By sharing amusing content, insights related to your profession, and glimpses into your personal life, you enable your audience to familiarize themselves with the genuine version of yourself, as opposed to just the brief author biography on the book’s back cover.
Posting your reading list is an effortless way to talk about yourself. Jeff VanderMeer recommended a lesser-known book, The Hidden World of the Fox, giving his readers something new to chat about besides their admiration for his writing.
In a personal post, Tomi Adeyemi, the writer of Children of Blood and Bone, reflected on her objectives and the valuable experiences she gained from the previous year. By offering insights into one’s private thoughts and experiences, a more intimate connection with readers can be established.
12. Join discussion groups
There are numerous Facebook groups for readers that are worthwhile to join, including “Author/Publisher/Editor/Book Readers,” which is open to authors who want to advertise and exchange their books, in addition to having your own discussions.
Conversely, joining the writing community on Facebook can provide a valuable opportunity to network and seek blurbs/reviews! If you’re uncertain about the worth of connecting with fellow writers, consider this option.
Take a look at our tips for writers on how they can support each other’s promotions, and explore ways to utilize reader groups for generating buzz around books. Additionally, consider joining these Facebook groups:
13. Set up your own book club
In addition to becoming a member of pre-existing Facebook groups, you have the option to create your own! Establishing a reader group or book club incorporates several of these suggestions, such as naturally advertising your own publications, giving your audience a chance to familiarize themselves with you, and encouraging lively conversations, all in one brilliant approach.
Brenda Novak, an author, leads a Book Group that includes almost 15,000 members and features a monthly book club where she showcases her own and guest authors’ books. Additionally, she observes “Member Monday,” recognizing and acknowledging her followers, fostering a community spirit in her group.
Colleen Gleason, the author of The Gardella Vampire Hunters series, has a read-along group called the Gardella Vampire and Colleen Gleason Hang-Out Page. This group runs in a more hands-off manner and is moderated by a few admins. Gleason occasionally comments and interacts with readers in the group.
Side notes
Increasing your book’s visibility and expanding your audience is made possible by promoting it on Facebook. Utilizing Facebook features such as ads, author pages, and reader groups proves to be effective in reaching the appropriate audience and creating a buzz for the book.
In order to progressively attain your marketing objectives, it is important to consistently uphold an online presence, engage with your followers, and regularly provide updates and sneak peeks to sustain their interest.
If you integrate these tactics into your marketing strategy, Facebook can be used to increase your book sales and establish a brand identity for yourself.
