BookMarketingBuzzBlog: Will Authors See Social Media Differently?

Increasingly, authors who lack a decent social media platform are left out in the cold. They have a hard time landing a literary agent or generating book sales. Authors need to take a hard look at their social media footprint now.

Authors hate social media because:

* Many don’t know how to use it

* They really don’t understand it

* Most just do not see its relevance

* Plenty are overwhelmed with keeping up

* It is all about me, me, me

* They see too many negative posts

* Too many posts are about nonsense activities

* Each platform is unique and requires times

* Social media owners like Zuckerberg and Musk are big babies

* Most just don’t know what to say

* Many do not know how to make connections

* They fail to see a book sales correlation to activity

* They simply believe it is just a playground for celebrities, politicians, haters, and fraudsters

However, most of the above is just excuses, ignorance, and a failure to deal with reality. Yes, marketing is a necessary chore and social media is particularly annoying and befuddling.

You need to deal with it. So deal.

Social media, when done well, can help you:

* Get traffic to your website

* Sell more books

* Raise your public profile and brand

* Provide a megaphone to help or inform others

* Lead to selling other products and services

* Land a literary agent or book deal

Make it work for you:

* First, understand the technical basics so you can function on a platform.

* Next, learn strategies that help you target and grow your connections.

* Third, develop a disciplined strategy for posting and for seeking out new connections.

You do have options:

Do it half-heartedly, half-assed. Sound familiar? That won’t get you anywhere.

Just avoid it. You can, but at your own peril. It is not impossible to succeed without social media, but it puts a much greater burden on all of the other tools that you have available to you.

Hire someone to be your surrogate. This is a better option but it can get expensive and has potential pitfalls. You risk identity theft when you hand this over to another. Further, many people who say they will grow your connections will just buy followers or get you connections that are not necessarily relevant. Additionally, the voice of the person who posts for you needs to be guided on what to say or not say so that they accurately reflect your wishes and don’t embarrass you.

You do it. Get better at it. Be coached on it. Maybe use a high school kid, a college student, or a stay-at-home mom to assist you on some tasks, but you don’t have to completely hand over your social media soul to someone else.

What will you do?

Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

Read This!

Roald Dahl Censored By Weak-Minded PC Police

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/04/roald-dahl-classics-censored-by-weak.html

Writers Should Edit Others To Become Better Writers

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/04/writers-should-edit-others-to-become.html

Will Chat GPT Help Or Hurt Writers?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/03/will-chat-gpt-help-or-replace-writers.html

The Book Marketplace Universe for Authors and Publishers

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/03/book-marketplace-universe-opportunities.html

What The Media Wants From Authors

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/03/what-media-wants-from-authors.html

How To Get Others To Sell Your Book

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/03/how-to-get-others-to-sell-your-book.html

Newspapers That Authors Should Contact

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/03/newspapers-authors-should-contact.html

Messages That Sell Books

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-messages-that-sell-books.html

An Author’s Attitude Is Their Biggest Asset

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/03/authors-attitude-is-biggest-asset.html

Sell Your Books Here & Now

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/03/sell-your-books-here-now.html

How Can Writers Be Smooth Talkers?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/03/how-writers-can-be-smooth-talkers.html

About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on Twitter @theprexpert. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2023. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent. This award-winning blog has generated over 3.3 million pageviews. With 4,400+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.