You’re a writer scrolling through the web, running internet errands, trolling social media, and you decide to play music in the background. You click over to YouTube and pull up your favorite playlist when that pesky ad pops up before your favorite playlist begins. Great, another writer wants me to click their link and download their ‘free’ stuff, of course, not without a subscription.
Lame, if you really want to help writers, just share your experience without the gimmick. Below, I will share which 4 social media sites I have found the most value in, and also 9 tips to get started on those platforms.
Forget the Traditional Publishers
You wrote that book, that blog, or that collection of non-fiction that you think people need to hear about. But you just don’t have the platform to get the word out, and you have also heard about how difficult it is to get published by a major brand, or, published traditionally. You are stuck between going the traditional route, versus the modern route.
I’m here to tell you to Forget those major publishers, don’t you want to own your own work? All this grit, sweat, and brain exhaustion from wordplay, just to pray that your sales pitch catches the attention of some literary nerd.
Well, I’m here to tell you that the writer now has more power than the publisher.
With the advent of social media, the writer is the heavier influencer. For the past three years, I have been following all the major publications and writers within the horror genre and there is no doubt that the writer has more clout than the traditional publisher. Yet, this didn’t happen overnight. These writers spent time building their social media platforms, engaging with followers, and growing their fan base. And you can too. I will help you establish your social media presence and grow your brand. Today I’ll talk about 4 social media apps that will boost your value: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Good Reads – have you heard of them?
If you are enjoying this article, we have similar content studying communication from discourse theory, here.
Prior to establishing these 4 accounts, you are going to have to hammer out a couple of details. As a writer, you will have to write up a short bio and choose a couple of photos to use across your media accounts. This will solidify your brand and promote continuity across platforms. The last thing you want to do is to confuse your potential followers with mixed messaging and random photos. Same name, same bio, same voice, and objectives.
Speaking of objectives; set some goals. I know your goal is to have leverage over publishers and to be able to launch your own books, but within social media accounts, you need to measure what you want to do in numbers.
Why do I know all of this? Because I too was rejected by publishers and my very own professors. I had to learn the hard and independent way. Before I share with you 9 special tips
- Create Author Page
- Join Pages or create a page
- Use Groups
- Use analytics to find the best time to post
- Link account to blog writing
- Most aesthetic needs – eye-catching posts
- This is where you show off your material and beauty – let’s see that glamour and be overly confident about it, or use your confidence to inspire and help others
- Post 2 to 3 times a week but use stories to share more often
- This is where you get to share your cat pics, your breakfast, your quarantine haircut
- Post up to 5 times a day
- Remember to constantly engage with other writers – despite the character limit of 240 characters, I have found this to be the most resourceful when engaging with other writers and learning about their releasing experiences and tips
- Most friendly use of Hashtags
Goodreads
- Nerdy literature app used by avid readers – KNOW your audience!
- Must have an author account so that others can link to your books
- Post reviews about what you are reading and share with your fans, or respond to other reviews
- This is the most specific app you can use as a writer as it’s just for READERS!
- You can also join reading clubs to see what the community within your genre is reading
Keep Scrolling for Nine more tips below …
If you are enjoying this article, we have similar content studying communication from discourse theory, here.
Here are 9 Social Media Tips For Your New Adventure:
I have 9 essential tips for you to know when developing your social media presence, but first – remember, we no longer live in a world where Nike tells us what to do, we get to tell the big companies what we want them to do.
- Use the 80/20 rule, meaning, you should provide your audience with 80% entertainment, and only 20% of sales or content marketing your product.
- Identify your audience, their age, their location, their budget, and their gender.
- Host contests to grow an audience.
- Focus on helping over selling. People want to feel good about their purchase, so try to solve their problem, or offer them relief to the entertainment (literature) they are wanting to read.
- Use visuals with every post.
- Share more and more videos.
- Respond to your community. You must engage and converse with your fans. This is crucial!
- Use hashtags to get found.
If you liked this article, we have similar content studying communication from discourse theory, here.
I hope this article has been of some value to you or has at least provided you with a general overview of what is to be expected in marketing yourselves as writers and promoting your self-published books.
Good luck, I genuinely wish you the best at building your own lives! If you ever want to chat, shoot me an email at martinez@mindonfirebooks.com, and I would be happy to help. My name is Willy Martinez by the way 🙂
Mind on Fire Books 