Make it Easy to Share Your Book News - Tips for Authors

Book promotion is a necessary part of the writing life. Here are some ideas of ways that you can make it easier for others to share your information.

Facebook - Use your author page as your hub for your Facebook book news. If you do share announcements on your personal page, make sure to check the security settings so that they are sharable. You want to get the word out, and you want folks to post the information on their pages. Security and privacy settings are good protections, but if you’re trying to promote something, it doesn’t work if it’s locked down.

Email Signature - Put a few of your key links (e.g. website, blog, social media) in your email signature. This helps identify you, and it’s an easy way to share your author website with all of your email connections.

Links - If you’re promoting links to an event, make sure that you add comments to the original post or you post multiple times to keep it at the top of your feed. If it’s not an event that people subscribe to, it’s often difficult to find the link again. Some Facebook parties are held on pages, while others are events with their own location. Make it easy for people to find you and attend your event.

Graphics - Posts with graphics, videos, or movement tend to get more attention. Take a minute to create a graphic for your announcement. Posts that are all text are often overlooked.

Be Succinct - Do not include lots of text in your announcement posts. Remember, people are scrolling through a newsfeed of lots of stuff. It needs to be like a newspaper headline. Catch their attention and give them the important information up front. Facebook will also truncate longer posts, and you never can predict where they’ll add the “read more” link.

People Need Reminders - While, we don’t need hourly updates, a gentle reminder of an event is often helpful. You could post a reminder the day before. Then the morning of, you could do another type of post where you talk about how you’re looking forward to attending the event, and you can tag people you know are going. Then afterwards, post pictures. Don’t forget to tag people. People like to feel connected and involved.

Don’t Forget to Comment - Likes are nice on social media sites, but shares and comments are better. Each site has its own algorithm, and posts with more activity get shown to more people. So, when you get comments, respond to them. Conversations lead to more comments. You can also tag people in your comments, and that often is a way to continue the conversation.

Always Celebrate - If you have contest or give-away winners, create a graphic and a post to celebrate. If you’re donating a gift basket or a prize to something else, make sure to add a picture and let people know if they can contribute to the cause or participate.

It’s like Staples’s old advertising campaigns with the “Easy” button. People are more apt to share your information when it’s crisp, clean, interesting, and easy.