Leave a Comment:
(50) comments
Excellent post! Well put and right on. I especially agree with the mass self-promos. Oh, I’m so sick of seeing them on my wall. I’d block some of the folks, but there are times they have things that aren’t promo and have value- either thought-provoking or useful. I have an author page for the majority of my promos. My personal page is rarely used; that’s my fun page. And self-publishing is anything but easy! I do the majority of everything on my books: writing, editing, formatting, covers, promos. Yes, I have an editor and occasionally a cover artist, but for the most part, it’s just lonely little me. It takes time to build up a fan base- 4 years on and I’m finally enjoying real sales numbers each month. This occupation is not for the faint of heart!
Reply
thank you, Kathy. So true — it’s a lot of work and it’s constant. Not just the writing but the marketing and connection, which I happen to enjoy. Some folks don’t want to do any marketing because they think it’s supposed to be all self-promo — and it’s not! It’s about interaction and creating our fan base.
thanks for reading, commenting, and sharing
Reply
I couldn’t agree with you more. Nothing is more annoying than to come online and see nothing but “Buy my book” posts and tweets. I always try mixing mine up a bit, and keep it interesting. Now I’m not saying that I haven’t been guilty of slamming people with promos, but now I try to keep it to a minimum. I feel that once you let your social media friends and followers know what you have to offer, you don’t need to keep beating them over the head with it. LOL
Reply Some self-promo is fine — people DO want to know what’s new with their favorite authors. But that relationship takes time. That’s what many people miss COMPLETELY. You can’t follow someone and then start bugging them to buy or review or share or whatever.
It’s a marathon, right?
hugs.
Reply
First of all, I’d just like to apologise for being a pain in the arse this week as I have a book on Kindle Countdown – I’ve found by experience and observation that Kindle Countdown works best if you really stick it out there for the first few days, then once it’s sold a fair few it goes into KC’s ‘shop window’ and sells anyway – sorry, too much irrelevant info there!
I think a great deal of the problem with Twitter at the moment is that 50% of writers are using these ghastly auto-tweeting things now – there’s Auto Tweet, Round Team and Begware. It means they’re rarely, if ever, on Twitter; these apps just pump out tweets and, worse, pump out retweets – they RT your conversation, too…. grrrr!!! A few of the people who use these horrible things appear on the site in person to answer messages, but more just leave it doing its stuff and forget about it, I believe, under the misapprehension that they are promoting their work. New for them – I don’t RT you back, suckers!!!! They also forget to refresh – I’m still seeing tweets about mulled wine and ‘this Christmas’…!
I do agree with you 95%, but I think you do have to tweet your books a certain amount; I’ve found virtually all my regular readers via Twit and I wouldn’t have done if I was posting cute cat videos. Sometimes, too, you can almost see the writer thinking, right, now I will post an inspirational quote and now an article about a newsworthy item, in order to keep my content interesting. You can tell by the way they tweet it!! I think it’s not as much posting other stuff, as INTERACTING with people. I follow people back if I think we have something in common or they do something that interests me – then I probably want to know more about it! Alas, I think you are probably preaching to the converted alot of the time – the people who should be reading your blog posts are never actually ON TWITTER!!!!
Reply Hi Terry! You rock.
I do agree that we shouldn’t be posting only cat videos lol (unless your book is about cats, maybe?). I do also promote my books but in a softer sell kind of way — sharing a quote, referring people to the bio for link, etc. I don’t mean to say never discuss your books — our reader base wants to know what’s up with us and many are happy to share — I just meant not in an ‘every tweet’ kind of way.
I know you know :).
Twitter actually is my #1 source of traffic, then Facebook, then Google+ or Google Search. There’s no question it’s a wonderful tool to connect with our readership.
be well and good luck on your promo!
Reply PS, I do realise that your blog doesn’t only get read via Twitter, of course, and the penultimate sentence of the 2nd para should have said ‘NewS for them:” !!!!!!
Reply
Good article Rachel, thanks for sharing it. On one of my Twitter accounts I’ve now posted over 130,000 tweets. I’ve worked out that 88% of those are retweets, so that leaves my tweets at 12%. I think that is a fair way of doing things. Like Terry Tyler I don’t think auto tweeting is the way to go, I’ve never used it and never will, you’ve got to have the personal touch and I’ve made quite a few friends on Twitter, we have a laugh and that is good. One last thing, Terry, stop beating about the bush and say what you mean. LOL.
Reply Oh, auto tweeting- I hate those things! I forgot to address that in my reply to Terry (sorry, Terry). I signed up for one just to see what it was all about and within 30 seconds they sent out 10 or 15 RTs that aren’t at all branded to what I do. I cancelled right away. The whole process from sign up to quitting took 15 minutes. I was horrified! (probably because I’m so protective of my branding but … no.)
What I love about about social media is the interaction. Without that, connection doesn’t happen. What’s the point?
Phebe — you’re doing a great job on social. I see your books but it’s not like it’s constant self promo. Keep it up!
Reply Oh yes, the awful auto retweeting! A friend of mine signed up to Begware and actually READ what it does (as opposed to just thinking, ‘oh this is great, I can ‘do’ Twitter with no effort!’), and the thing that put her off was the fact that you have no control over what it RTs. HOnestly, if I leave a bit of conversation at the top of my page for more than an hour, it gets about 30 RTs! I don’t know if people are either too stupid to see that their REAL potential reader-followers (ie the ones who look at their news feed!) don’t want to see 200 random RTs in it every day (and, thus, will unfollow them), or don’t even understand what they’re doing. Probably a bit of both.
You’ll like this. One RoundTeam user who will remain nameless left a ‘real’ tweet the other day. It said ‘To those of you who took advantage of my free book offer last week, PLEASE REVIEW after you’ve read’. That’ll find him lots of new readers and friends, won’t it???!!!
Reply
You always give the best advice. Your tips about tweeting have increased my Twitter followers by about 200.
Love,
Janie
Great post! I totally agree. I have learned so much of how NOT to do things (mostly from my own mistakes), and am hoping to do things the right way come book number two.
And as for constantly posting/advertising your book…holy cow, one of my FB friends belongs to many of the same groups I do, and she’ll post the same ad for her book on ten+ sites all at one time. Blows up my newsfeed and notifications. Highly annoying, to the point I’m considering unfriending.
Reply
Hi Rachel,
You are a very wise woman Rachel. And you made me feel lots better about the fact that I find it easy to promote others and difficult to promote myself and my Four Seasons of Roses Garden Planner. Thank-you for always making so much sense. I love your posts. Also thanks for being so supportive.
A big fan,
Susan Fox
I drop in when I can and just love the insights, keep it up. There has to be an algorithm out there that will instantly connect you to a million readers who desperately want your stories, whoever comes up with it can retire, add me to the list. Price is no object. And yes I sing the praises of other writers when I can, we need all profs we can get.
Reply ha, thanks Greg. There are sites like StumbleUpon, Reddit, and Digg (as well as FB) that allows millions to see our posts…but like anything, we have to build up a following on those platforms as well, following and sharing others’ content.
Paid ads help move us up higher (ie, on Facebook or sponsored tweets) but that’s not really organic — if that’s what you’re going for.
Thanks for the kind words 🙂
Reply Mia, can I just jump in?
A good way to connect with people you don’t know via Twitter is to follow and read their blogs, and comment on them as necessary. You don’t have to be terribly witty and interesting, just interesTED!!! Or if you see a tweet that amuses or interest you, comment back – again, doesn’t have to be anything dead clever, but everyone likes to know that their tweets are being read! Alot of people are posting lovely pictures now – if you really like them, you can tell them. Good luck!
absolutely agree, Terry. Great advice. It’s a combo of providing good content and interacting that seems to work the best!
Reply
Great post Rachel,
I totally agree–this whole self-publishing thing is butt-hard. But if we do it right it’s a blast, right? I love the people I’ve met through social media. When I first jumped into the social game I hated it, but after a while it became addicting (I have to time myself, or else)–not just wasting time–but meeting others who have personalities, quirks, and stories. I never would have guessed I’d have a friend in Egypt, but I do now.
Michelle Weidenbenner
Thank whatever is sacred for a voice of reason. I have been through the mill over the past year trying to meet the trends – twitter – unused as I don’t understand its attraction other than to self absorbed people and no clear avenue to book promotion.- FB page – other than friends and relations (thank you all!) not going anywhere – author blog – again no book sales but, without your advice, posts diverse and varied outside of the book turned into a great amount of fun and self satisfaction. So where now? My first novel is on Kindle, Smashwords, Createspace et al with moderate success but mainly due to personal endeavor through book cards and word of mouth. The only way forward is to write more and more until the books become undeniably in the face of the public. Thanks again for the sage advice which I have unconsciously been following to date!
Reply
Very well put. I remember avoiding social Twitter because I wasn’t interested in hearing about strangers’–or constantly telling stories about my own–lunches. But when I finally gave in, I noticed that the people I was most interested in following were the ones who hooked me into being interested about what they were saying, who drew me into conversation. And so I decided to take that notion and adapt in a way that had me engaging with people who could somehow have an interest or need for my kind of work, book design.
One of the of-shoots of this is that I very consciously sought writers, self-publishers, possible self-publishers, folks who work for traditional publishers and in various book arts capacities to follow. And for quite a while I would occasionally rant about what I called “the marketers of marketing,” the ones who are so busy selling the idea of selling that they never really seem to connect with what people might actually be looking to sell. And now it’s just a little disconcerting that many writers can only seem to tweet, “Buy my book” kinds of things. I get that it’s a tough gamle–I’ve been a freelance book designer for over 22 years. But there’s got to be a way to be a little more genuine, a whole human, not just a marketing robot, no?
Reply I’ve never been able to work out this myth that people on Twitter tell everyone what they’ve had for lunch!!! My sister’s boyfriend says that, too – he’s never actually been ON the site so I don’t know how he knows, but I really don’t think that in all the millions of tweets I’ve read over the past 3 years, I’ve seen more than 10 describing someone’s lunch! Though I do know what you mean – I don’t get the constant need to update people with what you’re doing on a day to day basis. However, we (I, I mean!) have gone rather off-topic, so shall end now 🙂
Reply Yes, lots of ways to be genuine, simply by interacting and having real conversations.
As for the lunch thing, a client said that yesterday. He feels it’s stupid and a waste of time. I can tell you that it’s not but if you think it is, it is. Twitter is a wonderful source of referrals for me (both for book sales and my business) via word of mouth and also as networking.
It’s all about discovering your demographic and finding common bonds. You’re audience would be authors who need book covers, so you’d want to follow authors. Joe the Truck Driver may be a nice guy, but will he need a book cover anytime soon? Maybe, maybe not (and I knew truck drivers who are authors, so hey, you never know). The point is using the tools available to connect with those targeted people.
Reply Oh, I certainly don’t feel Twitter’s a waste now. I learned pretty quickly, in fact, that it was pretty cool beans. I’ve actually gotten a modest amount of followers, in and out of my professional interests, been able to connect in ways that have gotten me paid book design projects, and developed some online friendships that keep me sane when I’m working my odd into-the-night hours with a due date looming. It’s been a source of amusement, too. But one serious observation I made is that, unlike LinkedIn–which admittedly has recently started to be of value to me for some of it’s focused forums–Twitter was the social media tool that taught me it can’t just be what Norman Mailer called “advertisements for myself.” You have to engage.
Reply
Another excellent article, Rachel.
I am definitely guilty of holding the last misconception, but this article (and similar ones I have read) has made me rethink that entirely. I’m getting to release another book, but I will definitely try to come up with some ways to do some pre-splash promotion.
Thanks,
KC
Thanks, Mia. That’s why ‘branding’ is so important. You want to start discussing topics across your platform (blog, FB, Twitter, etc) to build an audience of people who are interested in them. Finding readers, bloggers, reviewers, etc are essential — not spamming them but interacting, reading their blogs, etc.
Finding common bonds is helpful — read what people write about and if you’re interested in the same topics, there’s a great way to connect. Little things, but they matter.
Reply
Great instruction here! I once tried to self publish, and I can share my experience that you didn’t include here. First of all I can say that for creating the book I used Microsoft Publisher 2010 that is available here http://softwarepuppy.com/search/microsoft-publisher.html 2013 version didn’t work for me, it was to complicated so I opted for an older version. Then I got ISBN and place book on Amazon and Lulu. And then about making the link popular – that is the most complicated part. I got links on all the social pages possible! I used https://ifttt.com/ to connect all my account together, so that when I posted something on one – there were links on all the rest ones. I also used all sorts of ezine articles and press release publishing resources. In the beginning when all the links appeared, it felt like a huge success, then of course it got slower.
Reply Hi Robert. It IS complicated and a lot of work. Many don’t realize.
I personally won’t format my own books — I’m a writer, yo 🙂 — so I do mention and link to Toni Rakestraw who has formatted (and proofed) all my self-pub’d books. I have worked with others as well, and always come back to Toni. She’s a pro — smart, affordable, works fast.
I’ve always said that we’re drawn intuitively to the social media or book sites that appeal most to us. There are some great guidelines, but ultimately we have to do what we enjoy the most to connect with readers. Thanks for sharing your experience and suggestions!
Reply
Great article and information. For someone that is in the process of writing a book, this is timely and helpful! I have actually begun to implement some of these ideas with my target launch being in the July/August time frame!
Reply excellent! It’s always helpful to research and learn as much as we can prior to the event itself — pre-launch is as critical as launch (or release) itself. Lots of articles here. Hope you find more info you can use. Thanks, Ces!
Reply
Great post! I would like to point out something alot of people seem to miss about social media…that 80/20 rule you mentioned DOES NOT mean posting 100 posts an hour so they can still get their personal spam in my inbox and yet follow the rule. Relax! They will be better served to spend some of that time writing the next book. Just a thought.
Reply yes, great point! Thanks for mentioning that, Renee.
I have a post coming up about posting frequency (aka social timing) — but if anyone is looking for specifics, here’s some great data from Media Bistro that suggest 4-5 times per day brings the most RTs, follows, etc. Granted, this is for businesses and doesn’t include conversations or replies. Good info tho.
thanks so much for sharing that.
Reply
[…] authors, heed these 4 common misconceptions about self-publishing authors need to shake, and bookmark these 5 sites every self-publishing writer should follow. Or, join forces with other […]
Reply
Greetings Ms. Badredhead Media Person (aka: Rachel),
Thanks for the post. I’m signed up and looking for future flashes of brilliance. 🙂 I support your points completely. As a “future” new author, I agree, publishing is not easy, promotion needs to begin on day one of the writing process (not on release day) and geez, what’s up with the social media/auto-pilot/post-repeat-repeat/BUY MY BOOK process?
Does anyone really think that posting the same announcement several times daily on multiple sites is the best way to win friends and influence people? In my year long quest to understand the process, I have joined 75 authors groups, in an attempt to learn from the experts. What I have found is that in all 75 groups, I find the same active members, who post hourly in all 75 groups.
As a result, my FaceBook page’s comment section reflects hundreds of BUY MY BOOK posts by the same (fill in the blank) authors, every day. Having been fairly warned, I now have an Excel Spreadsheet list of my favorite 75 groups, with 400,000 members of anyone would like a copy. 🙂
One thing I did do, believe it or not, was to start ANOTHER group (definitely the definition of insanity), but with the sole purpose of promoting OTHER authors and in return, gaining support from them in the future. By supporting, Promoting, Liking, Sharing, Downloading and of course, Reviewing select authors in my genre, I hope to share in their public reach and offer (and gain) continued support in the future.
Back to the basic idea, my version of your message:
AUTHORS PAY IT FORWARD PROJECT!
We acknowledge that we will surely find success,
Once we have helped enough others find theirs.
WE ARE AUTHORS HELPING AUTHORS ……….That’s the kind of group effort that has potential.
Thanks, Rachel, looking forward to the next posting.
Regards,
Dave Freeman
author.david.freeman@gmail.com
Smart man, calling me brilliant LOL. Thank you so much. Honestly, I just research and share my own experiences and those of others I know. Happy to help.
Author groups are a mixed bag. I started out in a ‘collective’ and boy, what a disaster that was. It was like a full-time job with no benefits. Like you, I learned what NOT to do. I’m part of one very active group, Bestselling Reads — it works because we’re all committed and helping in some way. Does it help me sell more books? Who knows? But the community part of it is invaluable and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Paying it forward is commendable — in helping others we help ourselves — it can’t be said enough. Wonderful to ‘meet’ you, Dave. I look forward to further interactions.
Reply
Rachel, great article! I especially like your respectful comments on your Book Team. In a seminar with Jack Canfield, he also stressed the value of starting your marketing campaign, as soon as you start writing the book, climaxing with the book launch. Rachel, you’re a very intelligent woman, I like your style.
Reply I like Canfield, and he’s right.
Thanks so much for your kind feedback. I’m happy to share what has worked for me and for my clients. It certainly won’t be the same for everyone, but it’s a guideline. And my team is amazing. I was recently signed by Booktrope for print, and they’ve been amazing also. I’m a huge believer in hiring pros — our book should be the absolute best it can possibly be.
thanks again!
Reply Rachel, I’ve been invited to join Bestselling Reads but I haven’t committed yet because it sounds a bit time consuming. The person who has asked me obviously wants me to be in it so has sold it to me, but I’d love to know how time consuming it really is. I really appreciate being asked, but I don’t want to plunge into something that will cost me money and take up my time, unless it’s really of benefit, as I do a fair bit to help other writers anyway and am already committed to one blog site.. Perhaps you might want to delete this reply when you’ve read it; I was looking for your email to send it to, but it’s disappeared!!!!
Reply RachelintheOC at gmail dot com.
It’s reasonably priced for the year and you only volunteer to help if you’re so inclined. We do giveaways like iPad Minis or the top-tier Kindles — something most authors can’t offer on their own.
Really up to you — I do Twitter growth for the group, someone else enters tweets, we all contribute, gets featured on the site, etc. Some have dropped out for similar reasons as you — it really depends on what you feel like doing.
xx
Reply
Many thanks, another guilt trip for authors to start the year? I have self-published two books, both with second editions and used twitter since 2010, but in a different way from most other authors.
I realised long ago that twitter was JUST AN ARTIFICIAL COMPUTER PROGRAM , used and abused by most people, but is a good way to store information. I use twitter as a library to store documents needed to research my next book, which means I tweet many times a day and only support other authors who look interesting??
Sorry, if that sounds selfish, but that’s how social media should be treated by us all – nonsense!
Andrew 🙂
Thanks for reading and commenting, Andrew. I’ve always maintained that Twitter is what you make it — it’s a different experience for everyone. I’ve connected with my entire book team via Twitter, met many IRL, have become great friends. One of my favorite musicians, Jonatha Brooke, connected w/ me the other day and purchased my book — I’m still geeking out over that lol.
Like anything, you get what you give (as I always tell my kids: you give grumpy, you get grumpy :). It is a great source of info and news = absolutely. If I need to find anything, I search Twitter before Google now! Good point there.
Take care and be well 😉
Reply
This is very insightful! I can’t wait to put these steps into action. All of this information can be applied to so many different ventures. Awesome! I’ll most definitely be reading more of your work!
Reply […] 4 Common Misperceptions About Self-Publishing Authors Need To Change NOW […]
Reply […] 4 Common Misperceptions About Self-Publishing Authors Need To Change NOW (badredheadmedia) […]
Reply
I’m a Twitter fan. (Found you there several years ago). I don’t talk about my sandwich from lunch, I connect with writers, historians, people in publishing, the wonderful articles on writing and publishing, info about conferences, live chats, pitch contests, things of interest to me (like gardening), etc. I use Tweetdeck to read the posts but I don’t do any sort of robo posting. Yes, it takes time, but it’s really me there.
Social media has kept me in touch with fellow writers and friends. It has helped me to reach out to book stores and librarians and celebrate their work.
Probably the next thing I”ll be doing is tweeting about the AWP which is coming to Seattle. Getting my work together for that and sharing what other writers and teachers have to say about it.
And now back to writing. Working on a talk for a community read of WILD.
Reply […] 4 Common Misperceptions About Self-Publishing Authors Need To Change NOW […]
Reply
Hi Rachel. Sorry that this is a bit of a short comment but I’m about to finnish my work break. I’m just setting out to promote my book and this has helped a lot and given me some ideas. Thank you very much.
Reply […] 4 Common Misperceptions About Self-Publishing Authors Need To Change NOW […]
Reply