I finally went over to the dark side — I joined facebook as an author. And I have to admit it’s worth the extra half hour per day! During an average week, I spend that time posting something personal to my page (often a book review), sharing something from a writing buddy, and commenting on a few posts. Then, during a launch week, I reap the rewards with lots of organic eyes on my launch posts.
I stole the format of my launch post from several much more savvy authors and thought I’d pass it along here in case you’re having trouble getting attention for your posts. Here are my tips:
- Start with an awesome graphic. If you’re doing a big sale like the 99 cent sale I ran on my bundle in August, it’s worth making a different graphic for each day of the week to see which one gets the most likes and shares. Optimal size is 1200X628 pixels
- Prime the pump with a header that asks for likes and shares while also cutting to the chase. Why should people care? Because it’s new? Because it’s cheap? Because it has a thousand 5-star reviews?
- Next, use one short paragraph to sell your book. The tagline from your blurb is a good inclusion here along with perhaps a review or a paraphrased review. Be sure to keep this short enough so your link will be visible without requiring people to click “More”.
- End with your link(s).
- Finally, boost the post (assuming you made the post on a page rather than on a personal profile). It’s worth spending a dollar a day to get a little extra buzz going during launch…although I have to admit that the post above has reached more people organically due to the friendly shares of authors and readers than it has through the paid boost.
As I said, I’m new to facebook, so I’ll bet those of you who are more experienced have other tips to add. What do you do to ensure your new-release facebook posts get shown to your fans rather than hidden in the facebook sea?
(P.S. Yes, I have a new release! I hope you’ll check it out. 🙂 )
The Write Stuff 
Thanks for sharing this good idea Aimee. Good luck! 🙂
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Thanks for reading! 🙂
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🙂
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Ha-ha! Now you can tell “Tales from the Darkside.” I like Facebook as an interactive social media site. Made lots of great author friends and joined some fun groups. I’ll look for your name and like your page. Also, congrats on your new release, which I’ll happily share from your Amazon page. 🙂
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I agree — facebook seems to be an awesome place for networking with other authors! I really should have done it sooner. I’m just so leery of the potential time sink aspect…. 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
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Facebook and I are not friends, but I’m learning. Whenever I pay for a boost or an ad, I’ve had good success. One thing I would add to your most excellent post—FB tends to hold back any post after a boost/pay (thinking that if you’ve done it once you’ll do it again), therefore make your next 1-3 posts after a boost/pay a bit of fluff. Something you’re not pushing for reach. Sad that we have to play these games with FB, but they’re in control.
Good luck with your release. Your graphic is certainly eye-catching and Ioved the post!
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That’s an excellent tip — thank you! Yet another reason to toss in the daily random posts if facebook’s gonna lower my reach after I boost a post.
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I love this! I’ve been seeing author graphics pop up everywhere and wondering how people got them. I do have a question… I see that for your graphic, you used your cover image, but I’ve seen some people use other images. What graphics site would you recommend for images beyond those on you cover?
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Good question! I actually haven’t bought any images beyond my cover images yet, but there are lots of stock photo sites out there like shutterstock. The trouble is, it often takes someone pretty handy to turn a stock photo into something inspiring and eye-catching and I don’t think I’m quite up to that graphics level yet. One alternative is to look for one of the designers on fiverr who will make facebook banners for a small fee. I haven’t hunted good ones down yet, but that might be on my agenda for the future….
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Oh! I’ve never even thought of using Fiverr for ads like that! I’m… OK with graphics, but it’s something that takes me hours to make something halfway decent I don’t mind showing to the public, and… I’m not a patient enough person to do that. I hadn’t really thought about outsourcing that. I don’t know why…
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Aimee, I would say that you are a very quick study. You have nailed how to best use Facebook for new release promotion.
Another thing that I do on FB is post on the promotion groups elated to books in general and to my genre specifically. This is free, takes just a few minutes per day and tends to boost sales.
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Good point! I’ve never seen much return from posting to random groups, but I’ve recently started cultivating an ongoing relationship with a few select groups and got much more enthusiasm from my posts. The Wolf Pack has been a great fit for werewolf fiction.
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Thanks for such an informative and helpful post, Aimee. I have personal and (supposedly) author’s pages on FB, neither of which is more than a mishmash of junk. I don’t care for FB, and haven’t focused on it like I should. One of my shorter term goals is to make a sharp distinction between the personal and the professional pages, and use my author’s page strictly for book-related posts (including those of other authors), and get all book stuff off of my personal page. Your helpful hints here will give me a way to do better on the author’s page, for sure. I love the post you put together, and am heading over to like your page now. Thanks for sharing this with us.
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I suspect it’s tougher to make that delineation if you’ve used facebook socially. I never used it as a real person, so it was pretty easy to start an author profile that’s all business. I guess my footdragging paid off! 🙂
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I set up a personal FB page several years before I started writing. I migrated there from MySpace (who remembers THAT?) But I never really enjoyed it, much. And I HATE how FB looks. At least on MySpace, you could create your own backgrounds and choose colors, etc, to personalize things. (I’ve mentioned many times that I like PURTY!)
So for one reason or another, it hasn’t been a very active personal page. When I started writing, I realized I needed an author’s page, so I set one up, but the two have been muddled, and I suspect at least HALF of my personal page followers are readers who want to keep up with what I’m writing next, etc. So I’m trying to sort things out and differentiate a bit, now. It would have been MUCH easier to set things up right to begin with, as is usually the case. 🙂
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