You’re an indie author. You heard someone talking about building a reader base and raking in those likes, so off you go and create your author page on Facebook. Facebook, by the way, barely even has a page category for authors. “Writer” and “Author” are there, but there is no way to let people know what genre you write, or even that you write novels and not cookbooks, or road signs.

Anyway.

There you are with your author page, you’ve picked a nice mug shot and, I’m guessing, the cover art from your latest book for page background. A couple memes and a dozen Amazon links.

And of course you invite all your friends and family. And then you sit and stare at your page stats. 38 page likes in one day.

And the number stays the same the next day and the day after that. Damn relatives and friends, betraying you and not inviting the thousands you deserve. So you look at the competition, and see they have followers in the tens of thousands. What do they do that you don’t? Well money, of course! They must be spending shazillions in Facebook ads. You timidly check the promotion options and hey, that’s not so bad…Facebook promises to get your page out to the world and only charges you a few pennies for each actual like!

Ready to start your first page campaign?

Stop.

Don’t even start down that path. I am not saying it won’t work. Believe me it will. I tried it on my first author page and it worked wonders. In a week I had three thousand likes. I felt so famous. Now my posts and especially my Amazon links would reach my trusted readers.

I went on for a few months like that, thinking I would be getting incredible sales anytime now. I didn’t.

None of my posts were getting much engagement. Not even my absolutely hilarious memes. (I have a very high opinion of my sense of humor. The mere thought makes me laugh every time.)

Three thousand followers and maybe five thumbs up for my awesome posts. Not a single link click on “buy my book” posts. Not even when I had a freebie giveaway.

What was happening was that I was not targeting people interested in me as an author or in my books. Despite spending hours refining my audience and reach, I was not reaching the people who click on something they like.

I was reaching a lot of click farms. Click farms are batches of accounts which, through affiliate marketing, get a small portion of money back for liking paid links.

When I realized that, I deleted my page and started from scratch. This time I vowed to never use Facebook page ads again. Instead, I created a second page dedicated to people who like famous authors and genres close to my own writing style. A page dedicated not to buyers, but to fans. I write sci-fi and fantasy humor, so I made a page called “The BookLover’s Guide to the Galaxy” or “BLG2G”. I dedicated some time to that page and watched it grow quickly, from a few dozen to nearly two thousand followers. I never spent a single cent on it.

Oh, and I never invited any of my family members in there either. Those who liked the page simply discovered it because I shared some of the stuff on my personal page.

In the meantime I created my new page, and started sharing some of my material (never buy-me links) to BLG2G. Some followers trickled from there to my author page, where they were able to “discover” my writing style. Just a few dozen, that’s true, but their response to my posts was amazing. Their shares brought a few more likes. I looked at the profiles and saw they were active in many groups dedicated to sci-fi, fantasy and funny stuff.

And here’s the next move: I joined those groups. As my author page where possible.

Whenever I posted something which was in line with the topic of one of those groups, I shared it there. If you are careful and pick the right content, usually a meme, a quote or an interesting link, you have a 99% chance of getting your post approved.

What happens next is better than any Facebook boost: I got likes, hundreds of likes, and next to them, a little button saying “invite”.

That’s right. If you share as your page and someone likes the post, you can invite them to like your page. About 20% – 30% of the people who liked your post will be inclined to accept the invitation. You usually retain 80% of those likes.

I now have about 1,800 page likes on facebook.com/authorlahey, about half of what I originally had with paid likes. But the response is absolutely incredible. Each one of my posts gets hundreds of likes and tens of shares. My average post reach easily hits the thousand mark, and I’ve had a few posts go viral and exceed 300’000 views.

In exchange for this, as a sign of respect for my tribe, I don’t flood them with “buy my book” Amazon links, also because good ‘ole Facebook catches those posts and throttles their visibility. Instead I give insights on my writing, share my absolutely outrageous sense of humor hahahaha, and, of course, some of my free short stories from my author website. As a result, when I’m not reaping invites from the groups I get a steady flow of new followers every day.

In conclusion, fewer is better, get engaged followers, not paid clicks, but make sure your content is worth their attention. Your tribe will reward by liking, sharing and, yes, actually buying your books.

If, while doing all this, you actually remembered to write some.

hahahahahaha.

The basis for this article comes from the Rule 300 concept. You can find more about Rule 300 here.

Don’t forget you can get a free short story just by signing up to my newsletter. You will also be invited to virtual book fairs and get the opportunity to promote your book for FREE and even win a $25 Amazon gift card.

Views: 979

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There’s no beating about the bush. COVID-19 has affected the sales of pretty much everything, from cleaning products to crude oil. Some go up, and some go down. What people believe to be essential goods go up, including, rice, water, hand sanitizer and, for some goofball reason, toilet paper, while all that is thought to be non-essential is left on the shelf.

That includes, of course, fun stuff. In moments of perceived crisis people will lay off the entertainment and focus on the essential needs. They will not buy new entertainment, and focus on what they already have, which includes Netflix and other streaming services, which are going crazy with views. Reading is of course a popular form of entertainment and you’d think that, what with Prime Video and other useful products that get delivered at home, Amazon would also prove to be the go-to place for books. Apparently though, that is not always the case.

Some indie authors are definitely feeling the wind of change regarding the current situation, although it too seems to be blowing in different directions. Some have noticed little change, some have reported dramatic drops and others have tried to make hay while the sun shines and quickly patched up guidebooks on how to survive coronavirus, which were so roguish Amazon decided to restrict their sales.

So what can you do if your book isn’t selling well right now? Surprisingly, the answer is “What does ‘now’ have to do with it?” – wait that’s not an answer, that’s another question. The answer to THAT question is: nothing. Book sales are not a fixed point, they change with the market, with the taste of the readers, with what’s trending in movies or in media. The way Amazon had to actually stop people from throwing their money away on virus survival guidebooks made from copied articles found on the web is a lesson on how fluid the situation can get. So what you CAN do, to answer the original question, is dedicate some time to develop a more solid and constant asset: your brand.

Your brand is what defines you as author. Not just your name or your genre. It is your overall literary footprint. Who do you think about if I say “elves and dwarves?” Tolkien. His fantasy creatures have become the blueprint for all other such characters in fantasy novels. Also, Tolkien actually tweaked the correct plural form “dwarfs” into “dwarves” which is now an acceptable alternative, so he injected his brand in the English language, the sly devil.

What is your brand? A fictional place where all your stories take place, like Pratchett’s Discworld? A strong character which identifies your entire genre, like Sherlock Holmes? A niche genre only you write, such as fantasci-fi fortuitous humor? (Sorry, that one’s taken). If you are not sure about this, your readers will not know how to reach you, they will be drawn to more identifiable brands.

Once your brand is clear, look at your social media. Are you presenting yourself in a way that is coherent with your brand? Will someone who lands on your webpage or your Facebook page know it’s the same author?

Will they just find a long list of posts with Amazon links slapped on to them? Do you know how many indie authors share the “Amazon Link Spammer” brand?

In moments like this, where you’re stuck at home and the grimness of the situation is eroding at creativity and writing moves along slowly, and you look at the sales and (some of you) suddenly wish you hadn’t, dedicate your time to polishing your social brand. Unify your presence on the Internet and make your voice, not your links, be heard. Social networking is more for you, and less for your books, that’s more of a job for websites and newsletters. Once you have defined your identity and made your literary footprint, readers will come to your website and subscribe to your newsletter.

P.S. If you need a little incentive for your writer’s block, check out my article about authors and their egos.

Thanks to author Slaven Vujic for the inspiration.

Views: 713

The post Has Coronavirus Affected my Book Sales? appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.

Being an author is not just about writing books. I mean, it should be, and you should dedicate as much time as you can to the wonderful art of worldforging. In the real world, though, an author must also connect with the reading public.

If you think about it, one of the fathers of the novel himself, Daniel Defoe, relied heavily on his readers before writing the next episode of Robinson Crusoe. (It was published in instalments on a newspaper, and Defoe connected with his readers regularly).

“I already do that!” I hear you say, “I have over [insert impressive number here] followers on Twitter, Facebook and-“
“Of course you do,” I reply, cutting you short because I don’t like hearing other people’s voices in my head. “But who controls those platforms?”

Silence.

An author website allows you to build and sustain a reader base on your terms. Furthermore, any money you spend on promotion, puts your name in front, and not Facebook or Twitter.

That said, I knew I couldn’t go out and build my website presence all alone. I mean yeah I can play around with WordPress settings and I even managed to set up a pretty neat site on the free WordPress plan.

But I knew I had to get my own domain and blog platform. Why? Well I don’t want to advertise for WordPress either, that’s why.

Choosing the best hosting and domain solution was the first issue, and this is where social media sites shine. Author groups on Facebook are the best place to get advice, some groups are designed for that. I went to Pen Warriors, which is a group that has a special focus on helping authors with the tech infrastructure and dos and don’ts of self promotion.

The hosting service recommended to me was BlueHost. But it was not just a name pulled out of a bag. I explained what I needed and Pen Warriors went in, checked the plans that were offered and what was included. Double checked for hidden costs before giving me the thumbs up and offering extra help even after I’d signed up. I love the solution. Same WordPress interface but it’s hosted within my own site, so no ads. That means I still was able to set myself up and get to blogging right away, with a little help from my friends, who also provided invaluable feedback for the overall look and feel.

To any other fellow author taking this step. Use Facebook for what it does best: connect with amazing people and find support for your project, so that you can focus on what you do best.

Drinking coffee, taking glamour shots of your pet, hoarding books.

Also writing.

To know more, head over to the Pen Warriors website and tell them you read my article.

Please check my other posts at ilahey.com and feel free to comment or share. Thank you for reading.

Views: 1031

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