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Marketing and networking, networking, networking

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This entry is part 1 of 7 in the series Marketing: social media

Building a Tribe

Which would you sooner believe: Jimmy shouting about how great his book is, or John shouting about how great Jimmy’s book is? I think we’d all value the opinion of someone other than the author of a book or a blog. That’s why we read book reviews, right?

There’s something we can do to help start this buzz or word of mouth. It can be genuine and real and most of all effective—with a little help from your friends.

I hope you already have writing friends. That’s the best part of the online writing community, right? Making friends, finding people who feel like you do. So how do you take those friendships and build a “tribe”?

And wait, what’s a tribe?

A tribe, a clan, a team, a rose

(You know, by any other name . . . ?)

No matter what you call it, a group of like-minded bloggers or Tweeters or Facebookers (or all of the above) can become a valuable resource for all of you. Odds are 100:1 that if you get 4-5 author-bloggers together, even if they write the same genre, their blog audiences won’t overlap.

So what does that mean? If you’re in this group and you write something truly fantastic—a book, a book review, a blog post, etc.—the other members of the group can share that with their audiences.

Looking at it from a mercenary point of view, building a tribe is a great way to increase your audience! But it isn’t purely mercenary: your fellow bloggers (and you!) are always looking for great content and good books to satisfy their audiences.

So, this group you speak of?

Your tribe might be totally informal—just a group of bloggers who happen to hang out together—or you might go so far as to “formalize” your relationship, sending out invitations, setting up ground rules, or even using some sort of social networking site to set yourselves up.

In my opinion, one of the ground rules of a successful tribe is to be sincere. If your friend’s content isn’t right for your audience, no matter how great it is, then you shouldn’t feel pressured to share it. That’s why I don’t particularly care for a program or ground rules that require group members to Tweet/blog/share absolutely everything the other people in the group write.

Because above all, you must be sincere.

It must be sincere!

If a tribe just turns into a retweet machine, and all you ever do is regurgitate and promote one another’s material in an echo chamber, it starts to lose value for the audience—and it starts to ring hollow.

Personally, I would be very careful about what I want to promote through my tribe. Because all blog audiences are different, you have to know what would suit yours. My friend Julie Coulter Bellon has created a fantastic blog and community, and one of her big features (during the season) is responses and reviews of her favorite crime TV shows (and she writes romantic suspense, so that fits well too). Many members of her blog audience also watch the shows, and it attracts new eyes all the time.

But I don’t watch the same shows as Julie, and I don’t really know if you guys would enjoy that. (Want to see me blog about old Law & Orders?!) It doesn’t turn me off her blog at all, but it’s also not the kind of thing that I would envision sharing in a tribe.

On the other hand, I do think another of her weekly features, First Page Fridays, is totally right for my blog audience. She has high-caliber professional editors—Angela Eschler and “Ms Shreditor,” an editor at a publishers—take a look at volunteer submission of the first page. The feedback there is always something to learn from!

Okay, in this context, this endorsement might not sound as true as I really do intend it to be (because FPF truly is great), but I think First Page Fridays is something that would add value to my blog readers, so I’m sharing it here. Sometimes I tweet about it. Because: 1. I like Julie AND 2. I think my readers would like to see things like FPF AND 3. I can be sincere (maybe?) in what I say about FPF.

It’s all about supporting one another

A tribe doesn’t have to just be about retweeting one another’s posts. It’s about supporting one another in whatever way you can: commenting on blog posts, attending or promoting book signings, helping with book launches, brainstorming, answering questions—whatever the group decides you want to cover.

It may not be easy

I kinda made this up as I went along, and I find it hard. Writers are legendarily introverted, and even putting ourselves out there to make friends online can be hard, let alone the subsequent efforts inside a tribe.

One thing I’ve tried from time to time is to set goals for myself in the area of interaction. “Comment on X number of new blogs this week” or “Check on my tribe’s blogs at 2 PM each day” work well, because they give you something concrete to strive for.

What do you think? How do you reach out? Would you use a tribe, or interaction goals? How would you show your support?

Photo credits: Team Spirit—JF Schmitz; Sincere Bank—Chris; Sincere sign—Sam Howzit

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Marketing

Marketing: finding new readers online

This entry is part 2 of 7 in the series Marketing: social media

The Internet has become a great place to find new readers and potential book customers. A lot of the time, we think about marketing messages that we get to send out on our own platforms: our blogs, our Twitter accounts, our Facebook pages. And that’s a great way to interact with your readers and keep them engaged, but it probably won’t do much to help you find new readers.

Say what? Aren’t new readers supposed to see how awesome we are on the Interwebz and then come to us?

When is the last time that you, as a reader, came to an author’s books through his/her website, blog, Facebook or Twitter? It happens, but it’s extremely rare. So how do you go hunting for these elusive new readers?

Well, the answer is, sort of, you don’t. You have to approach it from a different mindset. You’re not hunting for victims to wrest away their dollars on your book—you’d probably have more luck picking pockets! Instead, we’re building relationships with people who love the same kinds of books we do. If you’re going to go into a community of readers with the attitude of burn and conquer, you’ll crash and burn, and quick.

It’s that darn sincerity thing again

People can see a shill a mile off, and they won’t stand for it. If we come into a reader community looking to take advantage of the people there, it will come through in every post you make, and you’ll be making the opposite of friends.

Please say it with me: don’t join a readers’ community to push your books. Don’t join a readers’ community to push your books. Don’t join a readers’ community to push your books.

But . . . you said . . .

Yes, I know, I said you can find new readers in readers’ communities. But that doesn’t mean you should respond to every “What should I read next?” post with “MY BOOK HEREAREEIGHTY-SEVENPURCHASELINKSHAVEACOUPON!!!!”

Social media—like readers’ communities—is about being social. It’s built on relationships—and not the buyer/seller relationship. Like I also said before, when we approach a readers’ community, it’s with the attitude of building relationships with people who love the same kinds of books we do.

You do read in your genre, don’t you? Your genre is one of your favorites, right? Then you’ve got all the credentials you need to hang out with other people who read in your genre.

Not. Being. Pushy.

In case I haven’t hammered this home yet, let me reiterate that aggressively pushing your book will not sell it. This is true in all media—just like constantly blogging or Tweeting or Facebooking “BUY MY BOOK HEREAREEIGHTY-SEVENPURCHASELINKSHAVEACOUPON!!!!“, attacking a readers’ community and carpetbombing it with coupons is not an effective marketing strategy.

So, then, what can you do?

  • Look around to see how other authors interact. Figure out if you want to mimic their styles, see what works for them, figure out the best way to interact with people here.
  • Mention your book in your post signature—but again, don’t be pushy. The title, the tagline, the cover image, and genre, maybe.
  • Do reply to and acknowledge people who ask you about your book directly.

You might also consider offering a coupon to members of the community (if you have that capability, such as via self-publishing on Smashwords) or other incentive—but only after you’ve made a good, consistent effort to build those genuine relationships and get to know the community.

Reader Community Etiquette

Again, the best first step is to observe the community first. If there are any other authors there, pay special attention to them, how they mention their books, how they approach relationships there. They might not be good examples, but you might learn even more effectively from bad examples.

A few blanket caveats:

  • Do not engage with trolls (belligerent and abusive people) at any time or any place.
  • Choose your battles—and better yet, walk away.
  • Do NOT argue with people who didn’t like your book. Publishing is subjective. You haven’t loved everything you’ve ever read, have you?
  • Even if they get the facts wrong, DO NOT ARGUE WITH PEOPLE ABOUT YOUR BOOK.
  • Never, never, never attack someone for disagreeing with you—especially not about your book.
  • In fact, if there’s a discussion on your book, unless you’re invited to join, it might be best to stay away.

I’ve had this post written for over a month, but I’ve been sick and tired. Sorry about the delay! I hope we’ll be getting back to a more regular posting schedule as I pull out my “gearing up for NaNoWriMo” posts, as well as inspirational posts to help us through everyone’s favorite month!

So, what do you think? Where do you hang out as a reader? What kind of online behaviors from an author have you seen that you like or don’t like? Are you doing Nano?

Photo credits: salesman—Pete Simon; Salesmen seen by appointment only—John

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Marketing

Book trailers: 19 ways to make them effective

This entry is part 3 of 7 in the series Marketing: social media

So, you’ve decided you want to do a book trailer. Awesome! Here are nineteen ways to make your book trailer the best it can be.

Watch other trailers first

Yes, yes, yes. You can go straight to YouTube to search, or you can just Google [book trailers] to find sites that showcase them.

See what you like, and what you don’t like, what works and doesn’t. See what professional-level book trailers look like, and decide what you want to do.

It probably won’t hurt to watch some movie trailers, too, to see how the big folks do it.

Learn how to do it yourself or hire it out

Most computers come with a movie making program these days, whether it’s iMovie or Windows Live Movie Maker. Surprisingly, these free programs are fairly adept, with dozens of included transitions and shot effects. If you have a free afternoon and aren’t totally tech backwards, I think you should be able to figure them out for a short book trailer.

And on that note:

Keep it short

Please, please. Remember that attention spans on the Internet—even for readers!—are very short. The absolute maximum I would recommend for a book trailer would be 90 seconds. Personally, I’ll spend all day reading a book but I won’t click on a 60 second video unless I already want to buy the book. A lot. But 30 seconds? Sure, why not?

Make it professional

This doesn’t mean you have to hire a book trailer company to make yours, but it does mean you need to put a high level of polish on anything you do. You can make a professional looking trailer yourself, absolutely—and see that you do. This goes double on hiring it out, whether that’s to your best friend’s second cousin or a book trailer company.

The professionalism of your book trailer should be reflected in all aspects: the images, the video, the shots and the sound. Yes, the sound. If you’re doing voiceovers, spring for a decent mic and test multiple “studios,” okay??

Use visual storytelling

Film/video gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “show, don’t tell.” It’s a totally different medium than the written word. I loved this analysis of visual storytelling by Miriam Paschal on Mystery Man on Film. It retells the opening shots of Back to the Future, showing just how deeply the images—no dialogue!—characterize Doc Brown and begin to set up his problem.

It starts with clocks: hundreds of clocks. There are vintage clocks and modern clocks. There is a Harold Lloyd clock with the man hanging off the arms of the clock, so we get some foreshadowing right away. We see the newspaper articles of how the old Brown mansion was destroyed, which we will learn later happened when Doc sank all his money into building the time machine.

We see the pictures of Thomas Edison and Ben Franklin, Doc's heroes.

Then we see the Rube Goldberg machine that Doc has built to streamline his morning routine. Well, it's not a classic Rube Goldberg machine, but it's inspired by one. However, something is wrong. The coffee pot pours hot water onto the hot plate in the absence of the pot…and coffee. Strange. . . . [Read the rest]

Writers work very hard to tell their stories in words, but trailers’ real strength is to tell the story in images. Play to the strengths of the medium—and still tell a story!

Write a script

You may be a pantser for your books, but you need to be a plotter when it comes to your book trailer. Think about those images and scenes from the visual story. (Before you run off and write it, keep reading, please.) You can absolutely use words, but you need to think about how you’ll handle those words in a primarily visual medium: live action dialogue? Floating text? Disembodied space voice?

Edit!

You wouldn’t send your first draft out to agents and publishers (I hope). Why do that with your book trailer script? Look for places where you can tighten the wording, focus on the visual storytelling, and create other effects. Polish it until it gleams—before you start shooting.

Remember, video is like decorating in that much of the time, it’s more about what you take away that makes the story strong.

Focus on the emotion

People read for emotions, and each genre has a different basket of expected emotions. You probably already know what those emotions are, especially if you read in your genre (which you do, right?). For example, in romance, we read to experience the heady feeling of falling in love, the uncertainty of the relationship in peril, and the happily ever after. Or we read thrillers to be, well, thrilled, to feel the uncertainty of the world tumbling down around us, and to execute justice in the end.

You don’t have to give away the ending, of course, but brainstorm some emotions that your readers want to feel, and will feel when reading your book.

Focus on the hook: attention grabber

Just like you open your book with a hook, open your trailer with a hook (possibly the same, maybe not). Grab the viewer’s attention right off the bat, whether that’s through something unexpected, or focusing on a major problem, or displaying the inciting incident.

Play to the audience

Like with the emotions, remember that your audience has certain expectations when they pick up a book. You genre has conventions, whether that’s a hard-boiled detective or magic or a plucky heroine. If your book has those, play them up (in an original way, of course, just like you do in your novel!)

Match it to the book

Your book itself sets expectations, with its cover (you really need to use the cover in the video), back cover copy, and even where it’s shelved. Try to dovetail your trailer with those elements, so that people can easily make the connection between your trailer and your book. Can you imagine watching a book trailer, then reading the back cover of what sounds like a totally different book?

Make it interesting

I hope this goes without saying, but a book trailer really, really, really needs to be interesting. One way to do this is to showcase what sets your book apart. You have magic, but it’s different because of X. You have a plucky heroine, but she stands out from the 10,000 plucky heroines out there because she’s Y. (And remember, show don’t tell!)

Short blurbs

If you have endorsements that will be used on your cover, your back cover, your inner material, or your website, include one to three of the most compelling examples—but make them very short and punchy. One word might not be bad. (Include attribution1)

Call to action

End with a call to action. The best book trailer in the world won’t be nearly as effective if you don’t end by telling the audience you’ve hooked what to do next. You might put a link at the end of the video, but be sure to include some text saying, “Go here to buy my book” or “Add my book on Goodreads” or “Like me on Facebook for deleted scenes.” Feature the cover prominently, too.

Use Creative Commons-commercial or public domain material, or buy the commercial license

If you use video, images or music made by someone else, this is an absolute must. You can find Creative Commons-licensed images on Flickr, for example, but be sure they are cleared for commercial use (yes, this is) AND derivative works (yep again). Alternatively, you can often buy the license for a photo, through Getty Images on Flickr, or through a stock photography site.

A book trailer is a direct piece of promotion for your book, and as such, is commercial. (I mean, hey, it’s a commercial for your book.) If you use someone else’s copyrighted work in your video, you could be construed as misrepresenting their work as an endorsement of yours. Let’s just say, “Big lawsuit,” mmkay?

Get feedback first

Before you throw your trailer up on the Internet, just like you would with your book, bring it to people whose judgment you trust—both people who’ve read your book, and those who haven’t. If they’re not used to giving feedback, be sure to prepare some pointed questions, especially “When did it confuse you?” (or “When did it lose you?”) and “When did it bore you?” You can also ask for positive feedback, too, of course 😉 .

Gather analytics

Just like I recommend using analytics on your blog or website, I think it’s vital to gather data on your video. If you use YouTube, for example, they automatically collect a good amount and variety of data on your video, including:

  • Number of views
  • Location of viewers
  • New YouTube subscriptions from the video
  • Viewer gender (no joke)
  • Sharing events, and the views that each of these generated!

This last one is incredibly valuable. You can see where your video was posted, and how many people watched it there.

Do you want other people posting your video? Um, yes. More on that now:

Make it shareable

Another reason I really like YouTube for book trailers is that it has some pretty easy-to-use embedding capabilities. People who like your trailer enough—or people who will be part of your book tour, or writing friends—can add YouTube’s automatically generated code to their blog and automatically increase your trailer’s potential audience.

Be sure to allow embedding of your videos!

Realistic expectations

Finally, after all your wonderful work, keep your expectations realistic. A book trailer probably will not automatically generate a bajillion sales. But if you remember our theory of marketing approach to book trailers, that every time someone is exposed to your book, they get closer and closer to potentially buying it.

Whew! Now you’re either pumped and ready to go, or completely paralyzed by fear.

Sorry.

More resources on book trailers
5 Tips for Making a Good Book Trailer from Abel Keogh
How to Make a Book Trailer, a guest post on Nathan Bransford’s blog
Kate Noble’s How I Made a Book Trailer for $5
Joanna Penn’s 11 Steps to Make Your Own Book Trailer
What key elements make an effective book trailer? from 30 Day Books
Michael Pryor’s 10 tips for book trailer makers
Top 5 book trailer tips from Book Baby
Literary Agent Rachelle Gardner: Should you have a book trailer?
A comprehensive guide to book trailers (list of links)

What do you think? What’s the best book trailer advice you’ve seen?

Photo credits:
watching movies—Q family; editing—Joanna Penn; books—Emily Carlin;
Creative Commons logo—Peter Leth; Sharing YouTube videos—Anne Adrian

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Marketing

Facebook for Authors!

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This entry is part 4 of 7 in the series Marketing: social media

Facebook! It’s so shiny! Okay, perhaps less so after that IPO debacle, but when you’ve got hundreds of millions of active monthly users, you’ve got the attention of a lot of marketers. Which includes, of course, authors.

There are many, many step by step guides out there to help you set up and prettify your Facebook page. This isn’t one of them. Here, we’ll cover the basics of why you want a Facebook Page, and what to do with it.

The most important tip: Get an eyepatch a Page

Odds are pretty dang good you already have a Facebook account. However, your personal Facebook profile is NOT your best option to connect with your blog- and book readers. Nope, nope, nope. I don’t post a lot of pictures on Facebook, but the simple fact that strangers I don’t actually know who are only friends with me because of my blog might see them does give me pause. Now imagine how it would be with hundreds or thousands of fans as your friends.

Facebook offers a great alternative—and it’s not setting up an account for your pseudonym (that’s against the ToS, as I understand it).

Nope, Facebook offers a feature called Pages for authors, artists, blogs, businesses, public figures, etc. etc. etc. And this is absolutely the safer option to connect with fans of your blog or work on Facebook, and to help them connect with one another.

So, it comes to how. To quote Nathan Bransford’s fantastic guide, Facebook for Authors – How to Get Started,

How to create [a Facebook Page]? It’s a piece of cake. Go here, click “Artist, Band, Public Figure,” choose Author and follow the easy instructions. There you have it.

Degree of difficulty: Extremely easy

When to do this: You know, I feel like there’s no time like the present. The earlier you start building up those likes the bigger your head start when prime time arrives.

If you’re given an option—and you should be, though occasionally they make you wait until you have 25 fans (that’s the rule, but I didn’t need no steenking rules when I made mine)—be sure to pick a “username” that is as easy to remember and short as possible. It will be part of your URL. Mine is JordanMcCollumAuthor, for example.

So, uh, on that note, I kind of have a Facebook Page, and I totally wouldn’t object to a Like.

Okay . . . now what?

Once you’ve created your Page and prettified it with pictures and perhaps linked it to your blog with a Facebook app like Networked Blogs, you’re reading to start using it to connect with your fans.

The question is, of course, how?

First of all, you need to get fans. Kind of the point, right? You can use Facebook’s provided widgets or buttons to create links in your sidebar to your Page and promote it on your blog or website. It wouldn’t hurt to post—maybe once—to ask your loyal readers to Like.

Ah, but here’s the catch: often, the best way to get fans is to build the community with fans on your page. It’s a little like money: sometimes, you have to have some to make some.

How am I supposed to use a Facebook Page?

The best uses of a Facebook page are not, in my opinion, constant self-promotion. They’re a great place to mention things like contests, sales and events, but they’re not an excuse to turn your page into a 24/7 infomercial about your book.

Instead, as with all marketing, observe what others do well (and not so well) and think about what your audience wants. It’s highly likely that your audience wants more than just seeing your blog posts echoed, especially if they already subscribe to your blog. So what do you do?

A few ideas:

  • Run Facebook-only contests—pages where entries are on your Facebook Page wall, adding photos, etc.
  • Post content of interest to your readers. What do your readers like? Books! Gemma Halliday, for example, posts links to free ebooks every Friday—not books that she wrote, but books she thinks her readers will like. I love this idea!

  • Connect with your author friends by liking their pages from your author page.
  • Ask your fans questions and engage with their answers. Again, the most likely questions that will engage your audience are probably reading- and writing-related. What are you reading now, how is Nano going, read any good books lately—all good examples. But the key is to interact with your readers and encourage them to interact with one another, too.
  • Feel free to share successes, progress updates, research, fun facts, promotions, events, sales and the like about your writing—but again, this isn’t a 24-hour infomercial channel. Keep it fresh and interesting.
  • Be sure to post regularly. Nothing else boosts your reach like regularly updating your Facebook page.

And a couple pet peeves

Facebook can be a great way to connect with your readers and perhaps find new ones. However, remember that gimmicks and tricks are NOT long term marketing strategies.

Personally, I’m very turned off by author Pages that require you to like the Page before you get to see the juicy information, such as a cover reveal, etc. If I feel like my Like is being coerced, I’ll either browse away to go FB stalk someone or Like you only long enough to see that precious content, then unLike you.

Like I mentioned above, a Facebook page that’s only echoing your blog isn’t much of a Facebook page. I’m still struggling with what to put on there, but I know for certain I don’t want to echo my Twitter feed, either. Twitter is a different medium and a different audience, but the biggest drawback is that there’s no incentive for people who follow you on Twitter to Like your Page, and vice versa.

It seems like even professional marketers are still feeling Facebook out, so it might be the perfect time to jump in and try it yourself.

What do you think? What kind of things do you like to see on an author’s page? Come join the conversation!

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Marketing

Twitter for Authors

This entry is part 5 of 7 in the series Marketing: social media

Ah, The Twitter. Maybe you’re there with hundreds of followers, or maybe you’re not sure you want to “tweet,” but the micro-blogging site is definitely a popular Internet hangout. And it could be a great way to connect with your readers, too!

In other news, how’s your Nano going? Come tell me, I want to hear!

How to jump into Twitter

Although I’ve been on Twitter for four or five years (I used to work in Internet marketing, and Twitter was shiny and new back then, so I had to do it!), I don’t really feel like enough of an expert to offer an intro to Twitter. I’ve also always been the type who wants to figure things out for herself. However, if you need a basic introduction to Twitter shorthand and etiquette, here’s a good place to start.

Now, once you’re familiar with how Twitter works, you’ll need to figure out how it will work for you—because if it doesn’t work for you, you’re not going to want to use it, right?

We’ve talked about this pattern before, but the first thing you’ll want to do is observe. Watch how people use Twitter, both for marketing purposes and for personal purposes. You’ll note that on Twitter—as on many other platforms (and in person)—constantly talking about yourself and your book is generally considered bad form, and it’s a turn off for many people.

You’ll also see how people form friendships and connections on the site, and hopefully jump in and form them as well, moving into a connect phase. With social media, it’s usually the personal connections that count the most—something I hope you’ll see if you observe 😉 . These personal connections can be the most important part of your strategy. Look for people who are part of your audience, whom you would actually like to talk/Tweet to. Their Tweet streams look interesting, and they’re having conversations you’re interested in. You can also use site features like Lists (or groups on other sites) to look for people with similar interests, and watch how they converse with one another, then connect with them as well.

Remember: we’re talking about building real connections, not just saying, “I’m going to target you because you are in my audience! Now I will address you as an audience but will never actually respond if you happen to acknowledge me! Prepare to be spammed!”

Ahem.

Putting Twitter to good use

Once you’ve observed and connected, you’ll want to implement your observations. Maybe you saw someone with clever Tweets about their characters, or who retweeted good reviews in an interesting way, or whose site you checked out just because s/he was so friendly and helpful.

Naturally, you’ll also want to highlight your USP, your unique selling proposition, when it’s appropriate—perhaps in a quick reference in your Twitter profile. (Note that there, it’s less obtrusive—you’re kind of supposed to talk about yourself on your profile, after all.) For me, I often blog about writing craft because it’s something I’m passionate about. When I have time, I also like to share great articles on writing craft and marketing through my Twitter. So I mention writing craft in my Twitter profile—trying to highlight a benefit of following me, and show people what to expect.

The best uses of Twitter are to:

  1. build your brand, and
  2. connect with your readers

Twitter can become a part of your overall brand message. My friend Ali Cross has been doing a great series on author branding, which I highly recommend, to help you discover your brand and put it to use in defining your social media presence.

Twitter’s also a great place to connect with your current readers. Maybe they’ll @ you or DM when they read your book, or maybe you’ll discover them by searching for your name or your book’s title. (If you use a client like TweetDeck, you can even set up a whole column devoted to that search, so whenever you check it, you see the latest results.) No matter how you find them, you can use that opportunity to say thank you for reading (not to argue with negative feedback, please!), and hopefully build a relationship, become friends with that person.

I cannot say I’ve ever come across an author on Twitter and decided I simply must read their next novel because they Tweeted about it 16 times or were just so witty I couldn’t help it. On the other hand, I have decided to buy novels by people that I’ve become friends with via Twitter. I’ve also read novels based on recommendations by friends and fellow authors on Twitter.

As always, you’ll want to promote your Twitter profile on your website or blog, since it can be such a great way to connect. An easy way to do this is with a Twitter button.

However, there are also a few things to avoid on Twitter.

Twitter No-nos

Unless it’s an important part of your brand, I strongly advise against saying anything about politics, etc., on Twitter. Remember that it’s public, and it’s archived. I can’t tell you how many people I have unfollowed, decided not to follow, or even thought twice about working with in a professional capacity because of the attitudes on their Twitter feeds. Even if I agree with you, I produce more than enough vitriol to fill my life’s quota all by myself; I don’t want yours. (It’s been a loooong election season.)

Another major turn off is using a program or website to automatically send a Direct Message (DM) to new followers encouraging them to “Check out my book TITLE here amazonlink!” Remember that someone following you on Twitter is an invitation to connect, but not an invitation to spam, and that’s exactly what this feels like. I have unfollowed actual, real-life friends over this. Yep.

As with all forms of marketing, becoming a 24-hour infomerical for you and your books is probably not the best way to attract new readers. In fact, I’m not convinced Twitter is a great way to find new readers, but I do think it’s a great way to find your current readers and connect with them. But they definitely don’t need constant reminders about the book they just read!

What do you think? What authors do you enjoy following on Twitter? Why? How do you think an author can best put Twitter to use? And how’s Nano going? (I hit 50,000 words Saturday!) Come join the conversation!

Image credits: Twitter; connections by Matthew Anderson, Montage Communications

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Marketing

Marketing a book on Goodreads

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This entry is part 6 of 7 in the series Marketing: social media

Goodreads is a great place to find readers where they’re hanging out online. It’s been one of my favorite sites as a reader to scope out books, compare reviews with friends and keep track of what I’ve read (though I’ve seriously slacked on that part this year!).

But in addition to being a fun place as a reader—and a good place to find new readers by becoming a genuine part of the community—Goodreads also offers several ways for authors to market directly to readers.

Marketing on Goodreads

Naturally, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the site if you’re not already a member. As an author, you can “claim” your books and have a centralized profile page for readers to learn more about you and your books, and possibly connect with you. You can connect your blog also, so that you have fresh content on your GR page. (However, I’m totally gun-shy about reviews, positive or negative, so if you’re the same way, remember that as you set up your author page. I wonder if there’s an option to hide the reviews from yourself. . . .)

As with all reader communities, behave well. Goodreads has active forums, but spamming them definitely won’t win you any friends, let alone sales. (We covered more about this last week.)

Use the excerpt feature

Author Elana Johnson blogged earlier this year that Goodreads had added the ability to upload an excerpt from your book, like a free preview for readers. She advises:

I’ve found that a PDF works/looks best, and you can upload the entire book and then choose to only show a certain percentage of it, so it’s probably a 5-minute job to do this.

Then, what I do, is advertise using the word “free” in my ad. Like, “Fans of The Hunger Games and Matched, read the first two chapters of POSSESSION, a dystopian novel, for free.” (Or something more eloquent… But I definitely reference the best-sellers!)

I’ve had over 40,000 views in a single day on an ad like that. And all I did was upload the first two chapters of POSSESSION–which has been free on my website for over a year anyway. But it’s getting it into the hands of READERS in a place where READERS hang out.

Exactly.

Goodreads gives instructions on how to upload your excerpt here.

Goodreads advertising

Goodreads also runs targeted advertising in the right-hand sidebar. I tend to notice the ads most when they’re more dynamic, as opposed to static images. Here’s a static image of a typical dynamic ad in action (the text was moving when I did the screencap):

Personally, I believe these ads are most effective if your “call to action” at the end of the ad is something like “Add [Book] to your To-Read List!” or “Enter the Goodreads giveaway for a free copy” (more on that below)—i.e. they’re fully integrated with Goodreads, and you know that call to action isn’t going to dump you on the Amazon sales page. Plus, adding a book to your digital TBR pile or entering a drawing fora free copy is a lot less of a commitment than even a $0.99 purchase. Finally, when people add books to their To Read list, it shows up in their friends’ news feeds and perhaps email digests of friend activity—more publicity for you.

However, it does seem that few people see a real increase in sales from Goodreads advertising. If you do decide to use their advertising system, I advise making your ads as targeted as possible. Consider targeting people who’ve added (or are currently looking at) books by a similar author, or the like, to truly reach your audience. With such narrow targeting, you’ll reach a smaller audience, but that audience will be more likely to be interested in your book.

Goodreads giveaways

The final aspect of Goodreads that I want to cover is their giveaways. Through Goodreads, you can offer free copies of your book, hard copy or e-book, and people sign up for the giveaway. You set when the contest starts and ends, and all people have to do is click a button in the interim to win one of your free copies. (Want to enter a giveaway? Go to Explore > Giveaways to find the current listings.)

Novel Publicity President Emlyn Chad offers some great advice on maximizing your Goodreads giveaway. Among other points, she says to

  • Offer giveaways in multiple countries
  • Schedule future giveaways
  • Keep the entry period short

She expands on these and eight other interesting tips for more effective giveaways on Goodreads. It seems to be working for her, so if you’re interested in using Goodreads for marketing, definitely check out that article!

What do you think? Are you a member of Goodreads? How do you see it used for marketing, either in a good way or . . . not? Come join in the conversation!

Coming up this week: more last-minute Nano prep, and the starting gun!

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Marketing

Pinterest for authors

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This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series Marketing: social media

Pinterest is the popular new kid in town when it comes to social media. It’s referring a huge amount of traffic to other websites, quickly becoming one of the most popular social media sites and sites to send traffic on to other sites—like, maybe, yours. Since I also write a craft blog, my co-bloggers/sisters and I have been members of Pinterest since spring/summer 2011 (yes, friends, 18 months! An eternity in Internet-dom!). You can see my Pinterest profile here.

What’s Pinterest?

Pinterest is a visual “pin board” of whatever you love, they claim. You can “pin” an image from almost any site, which is like saving it to a public, digital scrapbook (although Pinterest did finally add private boards recently). You can have several boards arranged by topic/genre (many people have dozens). Also, you can create shared boards, where multiple users (your friends, critique group, whomever) can add pins.

You don’t have to discover everything you add to your scrapbook yourself. You can also browse the feeds of friends that you follow (found via Facebook or Twitter—just click on the Pinterest logo at the top of the site) or all Pinterest members (click on the Pinterest logo, then select “Everything”) or by category.

Feel free to “repin” anything that catches your eye. You can also “like” pins and share comments on them. Hover your mouse over any pin, and the buttons for all these options show up.

You can also follow other Pinterest members whose pins you like—or even just a single board of another member, if that’s all that interests you.

Pinterest is a natural fit for anyone who interested in visuals—anything from crafts to cooking to fashion to interior design. But can it work for authors?

How to use Pinterest as an author

Pinterest is interesting among social media sites in that the emphasis is less on the networking and more on the content. Naturally, having more followers can lead to more repins, more views and more clicks, but for me, anyway, I care less about who pinned something as long as it’s awesome.

Use Pinterest like a person

Using Pinterest to try to market your book constantly and exclusively, as with all other social media sites, is a sure way to turn people off.

Instead of focusing on what you’re going to get out of it as someone with a book to sell or a blog to attract visitors, use Pinterest like it was intended. Maybe you’re a knitter or a baker or into home design. Maybe you like inspirational photos or infographics. If there’s something out there with pictures that you like, you can use Pinterest—and guess what? Even writing has pictures.

While the focus on Pinterest is on the content itself, that doesn’t mean you should focus only on pinning your own things. Connect with your friends—make new ones—through following, repinning and commenting.

Well, what do I pin?

We’ve talked before about using Pinterest as an “inspiration” board for a novel. As a reader, I love to see authors’ inspiration images, whether for character, settings or just milieu.

In addition to any other visual interests you might have (yes, PLEASE pin things other than books!), book-related pins are a great fit for an author’s Pinterest account. A few ideas:

  • Books you’ve read and loved—Books Worth Reading is one of the default boards on Pinterest
  • Your to-be-read pile (I have a TBR board here)
  • Informational articles on writing, publishing or marketing (Got it!)
  • Motivational articles, pictures or quotes
  • Inspirational pictures—settings, characters, events, even clothing your characters wear or just the general feeling of your novel (Yep, done that, too)

Beautiful writing spaces, gorgeous home libraries and all more are all great writing-related pins.

How & where to put your books on Pinterest

Although there’s some disagreement on this, I’m of the opinion that you can pin your own books, with the following caveats:

  • Be upfront that this is your book. Don’t pretend like it’s just this book you loved.
  • Consider putting all the books you’ve written onto one pin board. You keep them together and get to put the “I wrote this” disclaimer at the top of the page.
  • Don’t let your account be all and only your books. As above, use Pinterest as a real user would.
  • I recommend pinning the page for the book on your website—as long as your purchase links are easy to find—or perhaps the Amazon listing.

On the other hand, pinning every helpful article you’ve written on your own site is much less okay.

A few good examples

One of my writing friends who does this all well is Chantele Sedgwick. She has a pin board for books she’s written (one currently out), as well as inspiration boards for several of her books/WIPs, and a general writing inspiration board with interesting images, infographics, quotations on writing and more.

Another friend who does this well is Canda Mortensen. She has book related boards that include “In My Library” and “Plot & Book Ideas” (though honestly, I’m most glad I follow her because of her food pins!).

Finally, I love Cathy Witbeck’s organization. Her writing-related boards include:

Note that all of these ladies also have many other boards dedicated to food, crafts, humor, organization and more. Also note that my examples are ladies—the Pinterest audience skews heavily female.

Incorporating Pinterest to your website or blog

If you have social media buttons on your site, be sure to add one for Pinterest. I recently did this up at the top of my blog.

You can also add a “Pin this” button to the individual articles. Personally, I think it’s more useful to put this only on post pages rather than the homepage—I hate clicking through on a pin of a pretty sweater, delicious recipe or other inspiration only to be taken to the blog’s main page to search through the archives to try to find it myself. If you pin from an article (instead of the main blog page), it links back directly to the article, making it easier for you and others to find the material again.

If you have a blog or informational articles on your website, I hope you’re already using pictures in your articles. However, using graphics designed to let people know what your article is about in an engaging way. This can be a cool picture, but should definitely involve engaging text. There’s a big difference between a picture of a dog with “Learn how to make really effective first chapters and introduce all your characters” vs. a picture of a baited hook with “Hook your readers fast!” Jami Gold does this well on her blog, including related, engaging graphics on each article with her web address.

Advanced Pinterest tips and tricks

Want to know what other people are pinning from your site? Check out http://pinterest.com/source/yourURLwithNOwww.com/ (replace “yourURLwithNOwww” with your URL without the www. part). Here’s what it shows for my craft blog:

Repins, likes and comments all help the visibility of a pin, whether that’s something you’ve pinned or a pin from your site. Personally, I think it’s okay to comment on or repin when someone else has pinned something from your site, especially when that person has just put your content in front of a lot of followers.

Rather than following all of a friend’s pins, you can choose to follow only the boards you’re most interested in. Conversely, you can follow a friend, but unfollow any of their individual boards—not interested in interior design or organizational tips, and your friend’s on a pinning spree? Go to their profile page, click on the Boards view and click on the “Unfollow” button below their organization board. (You can also Unfollow All at the top of the page.)

You can customize your own profile page by dragging and dropping your boards into an arrangement you like and setting a picture as the “cover” for each of your boards. You can also customize individual boards by categorizing them (which is usually required when creating a new board these days) and entering a description, which is visible on the board page.

You can “embed” a pin on your blog—click on the pin and look to the right. There’s an Embed <> button.

Set the size of the image and copy the code into the HTML tab of your blog post—voila:

 

You can pin from almost any website easily by adding the Pinterest bookmarklet to your browser’s bookmark bar. Just follow the directions on the Pinterest goodies page. Then just click that bookmark and it gives you a choice of all the “pinnable” pictures on the page (you’ll enter the description in a popup after selecting a picture). The Pinterest goodies page also features Pinterest buttons for your website.

Is Pinterest worth it?

As with most online marketing, it’s going to be pretty tough to definitively tie a sale to any one activity. Pinterest can help you get your books in front of more eyes—but as with all social media, if that’s all you’re looking for, you’re kind of missing the point.

The biggest drawback to Pinterest? If you thought Facebook and Twitter were time drains, look out!

More resources

A few how-tos I enjoyed while researching Pinterest for authors, from:

What do you think? What authors do you see on Pinterest? How do you use Pinterest? Come join the conversation!

Push pin photo by Emilian Robert Vicol

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