". . . begin a blog or Facebook page as soon as you have a well-crafted idea."
—MEIER |
When is the best time to begin a social media campaign for an upcoming book? It depends on the book.
With a nonfiction book, it’s never too early. By that I mean you can take the subject of the book and begin a blog or Facebook page as soon as you have a well-crafted idea.
Say you want to write a book about the various ways in which women served during World War II, both in the war and on the homefront. Once the book proposal is done and ready to go out to agents (or if you are self-publishing either an ebook or print edition), I would begin by setting up a Facebook fan page for the book. You’ll also need to establish a simple website for the book. You can incorporate a blog into that, or create a blog on your personal author page. Either way works. The blog would focus on the content of the book, with each blog post perhaps discussing either a particular job or task, or specific individuals who served. Then you would post the blog on the Facebook fan page and tweet every time you upload a new blog post.
The sooner you begin this process, the better. It takes time to build a following on Facebook or Twitter. Eventually, you want to become known as the go-to authority on the nonfiction topic at hand. Over time, you’ll gain friends on Facebook, followers on Twitter and connections on LinkedIn (if that social network makes sense given the topic of your book).
One of the advantages of starting right away with a nonfiction book is you will generate interest in the book before it’s ready for publication. If you’re going the traditional publishing route, the more followers and fans you have, the more interested a publisher (or agent) will be in your book. And if you are self-publishing, it will help drive sales. It takes time and commitment to build a social media platform, so don’t expect miracles overnight. But a steady and consistent marketing plan – doing something every day on social media – will ultimately pay off.
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"I tell my clients not to worry about social media until their novels are done."
—MEIER |
With a novel, it’s a little more complicated. Most agents and publishers won’t look at a manuscript until it’s finished, and even then the market today for new fiction is a tough one. I tell my clients not to worry about social media until their novels are done. It’s better to focus all your energy on completing the project. Then you can turn attention to social media marketing.
Obviously, if you’re an already established novelist, you have a platform through which you can begin to promote the new book. You can write about the premise of the new novel and keep your fans informed of publication and book signing dates.
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"I love the idea of setting up a blog and writing from the point of view of one of the characters in your novel."
—MEIER |
But new authors have to start from scratch. There are some fun things you can do to generate interest once the book is with a publisher. I love the idea of setting up a blog and writing from the point of view of one of the characters in your novel.
I’ll discuss this and other ideas in my next two columns, which will discuss specific social media techniques for both fiction and nonfiction projects, including links to examples of author sites that do it well. Stay tuned!
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