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Social media marketing for authors

Social media marketing for authors

Social media marketing for authors is extremely important. Do it right, and you can reach an unlimited number of potential readers and get your book out into the world.

Contents

1. Why is social media good to use an an author?
2. What is the best social media platform to use as an author?
3. What defines a good author social media account?
4. How do I make a social media account?
5. What should I post on my author social media accounts?
6. How do I create content as an author?

1. Why is social media good to use as an author?

Authors use social media marketing to spread awareness and news, events, and projects. Social media is often used to:

    • Promote work: Authors use social media platforms as they are platforms that house a large audience. This makes it easier to share work and reach new readers.
    • Connect with readers: Authors interact with reader on social media to build a community. Personal connections with readers helps the author to know their audience better.
    • Professional networking: Social media connects authors with professionals in their field, like other authors, editors, publishers, and industry professionals. As an author, expanding your professional network is important.
    • Keep up to date: Social media allows authors to keep track of trends and industry news. Using a social media platform also enables authors to find out about events and opportunities.

2. What is the best social media platform to use as an author?

There is no right or wrong platform to use when social media marketing as an author. Instead, choosing a platform which suits best is dependant on the authors goals and target audiences. Having said that, there are a number of popular platforms which can be used, so we have narrowed down a list below of the key platforms to take advantage of:

    1. Twitter is a platform which is good to network, connect with readers and promoting work.
    2. Instagram is a visual based platform where users can share images and videos. As an author using Instagram, the writing journey can be documented, cover designs posted, and behind the scenes content shared.
    3. Facebook is a good platform to connect with fans and also get in touch with the writing community. On Facebook groups can be made, and authors can join groups to network with other people in the industry.
    4. Goodreads is a social media platform which was created specifically for readers and authors. It is a reviewing based platforms where readers can network and also add books to virtual bookshelves. To find out more about Goodreads, read our dedicated Goodreads blog post.
    5. TikTok is a social media platform where users create and share short videos. An author who uses TikTok typically will use the platform to promote their work, and share their opinions on popular topics. There is a big trend on the platform called BookTok where users post content such as reviews, hauls and memes related to books.

Using more than one platform is a good way to make the most out of marketing your book. Green Hill offers marketing services and can help you with social media marketing.

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3. What defines a good author social media account?

Having a good social media account can be defined by the following factors:

    • Engagement: A good social media account needs to be active and the author must regularly engage with their followers by replying to comments, posting content, asking questions, and opening up discussions.
    • Consistency: Posting regularly and consistently is a good step. It is important to have content to post.
    • Relevance: The content posted should be relevant to the intended target audience. Authors may give updates on how their writing is travelling along, promote their work, and keep their followers updated.
    • Visual Appeal: A good social media account should have visually engaging content such as high quality images and videos to make the account appealing to followers.
    • Personality: Authors should show off their personality and make their readers familiar with their voice.

By using this criteria, social media can help an author boost sales, promote their name, make a connection with their readers and have a strong and unique online presence.

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4. How do I make a social media account?

There are different steps to follow depending on which social media account is being signed up to. Below are the instructions on how to sign up to the previously mentioned social media platforms.

Please note, it is important to keep your privacy safe. Do not give out too much of your personal information on online platforms.

4.1 Marketing through Twitter

To create a Twitter account, follow the steps below:

    1. Open up the Twitter website (twitter.com).
    2. Click on the Create Account button on the top right hand corner of the homepage.
    3. Fill out the required information as requested. You will need to include your full name, phone number or email address, and a password to proceed.
    4. Create a unique username.
    5. Verify your email address or phone number via the confirmation code sent to your preferred sign-up method.
    6. Log in to Twitter to start to customise your profile. You will need a profile picture and header image and can choose to write a bio about yourself.
    7. You are ready to start tweeting!

To join Twitter, you must be 13 years old or over and agree to their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

4.2 Marketing through Instagram

To create an Instagram account:

    1. Either use a browser (instagram.com), or download the Instagram app from your devices store (such as App Store or Google Play Store).
    2. Open up the app, or browser tab and choose the Sign Up
    3. Add your email address, phone number, or username and password to the given fields.
    4. Once your account is created, fill out your profile information such as profile picture and bio.
    5. Start exploring the platform by searching for friends, like and comment on phones and start sharing your own content.

To have an Instagram account you must be 13 years old and agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

4.3 Marketing through Facebook

To join Facebook:

    1. Go to the Facebook website (facebook.com).
    2. Click on the Create New Account
    3. Enter your given name, mobile number, email address, birthday and also password.
    4. Click Sign Up.
    5. Verify your email address or mobile phone number with the code sent to you.
    6. Fill out your profile information. This includes setting a profile picture and cover photo, and adding your personal details such as where you work and education history.
    7. Start connecting with people. You can add friends, join or make groups and pages and also share your content.

To use Facebook you must be at least 13 years old and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

4.4 Marketing through Goodreads

To create a free Goodreads account, follow these steps:

    1. Go to the Goodreads website (www.goodreads.com) and click the Join button located on the  homepage.
    2. Fill out the registration form by entering your name, email address, and password.
    3. Click on the Sign Up button.
    4. Verify your email address by following the instructions that are sent to your email address.
    5. Once you’ve verified your email address, you can log into your Goodreads account, you can start building your virtual bookshelves, follow authors, and join groups.

It’s also possible to create an account by signing in with your Google or Facebook account, which can be faster and more convenient. You need to be 13 years or older to use Goodreads and you must accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

4.5 Marketing through TikTok

To create a TikTok account, follow the steps below:

    1. Download the TikTok app or visit the website (tiktok.com).
    2. Open the app or the website.
    3. Click up on the Sign Up
    4. Choose a sign up method. You can choose to use your phone number, email address, or an account such as Facebook or Google.
    5. Fill in the needed information such as full name, phone number, email and password.
    6. Verify your account via the sign up method chosen. You may get a link emailed to you, texted to you, or a third party account like Facebook or Google will open up a confirmation link.
    7. Complete your profile by adding a profile picture, bio, and display name.
    8. Start creating, sharing videos and exploring the app.

The minimum age requirement to create a TikTok account is 13 years old and you must accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

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5. What should I post on my social media accounts?

When marketing your book and yourself as an author on social media, your platforms should promote your work, and your content must be engaging. Below are some post ideas to consider posting:

    • Previews of upcoming work.
    • Updates on current works.
    • Behind the scenes of the writing process.
    • Reviews of books that you’ve enjoyed.
    • Reflections that are related to your work/writing.
    • Information for readers about upcoming events and book launches.
    • Polls, discussions, and Q&A sessions.
    • Industry insights and topics related to your work.
    • Re-posts of fan content (artwork, reviews, recommendations, book photos, etc.)

As a professional, it is important to be respectful on social media. However, it is also good to be authentic and yourself!

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6. How do I create social media marketing content as an author?

Sometimes creating content for social media can be challenging, but we have put together some tips for you to follow.

    1. Make sure you know your audience and what content they would be interested.
    2. Plan your content and post regularly (consider a schedule).
    3. Vary the content posted (text, images, videos, live streams, etc.).
    4. Use visuals.
    5. Keep your message short and sweet.
    6. Ask questions, respond to comments, run polls, and encourage interaction.
    7. Make sure your content aligns with your brand.
    8. Use hashtags to reach a bigger audience. This also helps people find your content.
    9. Make use of analytics features to track your performance.

Social media marketing your book and author persona takes effort, but it can be valuable in the long run.

6.1 Platforms for Social Media Content Creation

    • Canva: Canva is a graphic design tool with lots of templates, stock images and design options to help people create great graphics for social media.
    • VistaCreate: VistaCreate is a tool which is very similar to Canva. Offering heaps of templates for social media content creation.
    • Hashtagify.app: Hashtagify.me is a tool to help search for hashtags related to your content. It also shows you the popularity and the way to use it.
    • Adobe Express: Adobe Express is a platform which helps you create graphics, videos for social media and web pages.
    • Unsplash: Unplash is a website which has a large selection of free stock photography that can be utilised to use on social media.
    • Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a platform which allows your to manage you social media accounts by scheduling, publishing and analysing how your posts track.
    • Later: Later is another platform to help you schedule and publish content specifically for Instagram.
    • Buffer: Buffer is a tool which allows you to schedule, publish and analyse posts on social media.

There are hundreds and thousands of other online tools and platforms that can be used to help with social media content creation. The most important thing is to find platforms that are easy to use and help enhance your social media page.

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CALL US 1300 810 131

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The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Interested in publishing your book but unsure where to start or what is even involved? Tell us about your project and we will post you a copy of our:

 

The Little Book of
Big Publishing Tips.

 

In just a quick 8,000 words, this little book will equip you with the knowledge you need to successfully publish your book.

The Little Book of Big Publishing tips goes into the essentials of self-publishing a book, outlining the business and financial side of publishing, legal issues, design, editing, sales and marketing. There's even a section on how to identify a vanity-publishing scam.

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Does my title need a book index?

Does my title need a book index?

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Contents

1. What type of books require indexes?
2. Benefits of indexing a book
3. What are the different types of indexes?
4. What is an indexer’s role?
5. Green Hill’s book indexing methodology

Book indexing is a hot topic in the world of self-published books. Whether your book needs indexing is often dependant on factors like the genre and form, but there are other things to consider as well. Do you want to make your book look not self-published? If the answer to this question is yes, then indexing is likely for you.

Indexing takes effort. But it doesn’t have to be excessively expensive or time-consuming. The value an index will add to a book should not be underestimated. It should be considerd an investment in producing a good quality book.

1. What type of books require indexes?

The first question you need to ask yourself is what sort of book are you planning to publish and do those books usually have indexes?

If your book is fiction, then you won’t need an index. That’s because indexes are, at their most basic, navigation devices. While a work of fiction is read from front to back, non-fiction are often used as reference works where the reader will be wanting to find a specific piece of information on a specific topic.

Sometimes if a reference piece is only short, like Green Hill’s The Little Book of Big Publishing Tips, an index isn’t a requirement. Our book is just 8,000 words spread across eight chapters. The chapter names are unambiguous, so the contents page which includes sub-sections seems more than adequate.

These sorts of publications don’t need an index, but as a publication’s complexity increases with more detailed and complex content, an index becomes necessary. For long reference works with perhaps thousands of topics, an index is indispensable.

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2. Benefits of book indexing

Indexing a book is useful. A quality index provides readers, publishers, and authors many benefits:

  1. Professionalism: An indexed book is seen as more professional and more authoritative. The information will be perceived as being put together with a structure.
  2. Improved Navigation: A well-indexed book allows readers to quickly find the information they need without having to search through the entire text. This can be especially helpful for readers who are using the book as a reference piece or are studying a specific topic. Indexes are like a maps, providing coordinates of how a reader can travel to the information they need.
    Indexing a book helps readers navigate to information - its like a map

    Indexing a book helps readers navigate to information – it’s like a map

  3. Increased Accessibility: An index can make a book more accessible to a wider audience by allowing readers to quickly and easily find the information they need.
  4. Marketing: An indexed book may be more appealing to potential readers and can help increase sales.

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3. What are the different types of indexes?

There are many sorts of indexes used across the information sphere. For example, a library will have a catalogue which is ever-growing to accommodate new content.

A ‘back-of-book’ index deals with a single published work rather than the corpus or the total of all produced/written works. A ‘back-of-the-book’ index identifies all significant major and minor topics.

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4. What is an indexer’s role?

An indexer is a publishing professional who specialises in producing indexes for books. Indexing can be technical, so employing a professional indexer is the best way to produce a quality outcome.

The indexer’s task is to analyse concepts, principles, events, and people in the text of a book and to produce a series of headings with referenced page numbers.

These headings should:

  • group like-information together that is often dispersed through the book
  • establish relationships between concepts

Books that have complicated information might need both a main entry and subentries. But even for the most complicated books, subentries within subentries should be avoided as they create cognitive difficulty for readers.

Green Hill has two highly proficient indexers. They are incredible and their fees may be quite a bit less than you think. Enquire with us today to get a quote on your indexing project.

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5. Green Hill’s book indexing methodology

Green Hill is a technologically agile new-breed publishing company. This means we are committed to automation. We often describe Green Hill as a book factory staffed by artisans. This means if we can automate any process without a reduction in quality we will.  Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla is famous for saying “first I see if we can automate, second I see if we can eliminate” (paraphrase) any process.

Often automated indexing is an increase in quality because it removes potential for human error.

While totally ‘automatic’ generation of an index is still a little way off (see artificial intelligence) – it still needs human judgement, part automation has long been a reality.

When you publish a book through Green Hill we can show you how to implement embedded indexing (EI). This technique is where hidden text is input into a document identifying concepts, terms, people and places to be included in an index.

As a self-published author this is an ideal way to generate a powerful index without the expense of using an indexer.

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SUBMIT YOUR BOOK DETAILS
CALL US 1300 810 131

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Featured Blog Posts

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Interested in publishing your book but unsure where to start or what is even involved? Tell us about your project and we will post you a copy of our:

 

The Little Book of
Big Publishing Tips.

 

In just a quick 8,000 words, this little book will equip you with the knowledge you need to successfully publish your book.

The Little Book of Big Publishing tips goes into the essentials of self-publishing a book, outlining the business and financial side of publishing, legal issues, design, editing, sales and marketing. There's even a section on how to identify a vanity-publishing scam.

submit your project details

Frankfurt Book Fair – numbers are way down, but still mind-blowing!

Frankfurt Book Fair – numbers are way down, but still mind-blowing!

clock - estimated reading time  Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Spain's elite book designers in conversationIt’s by far the world’s largest book fair and it’s back after the easing of the Covid pandemic. The event is still huge but only 50% of its normal size. Still there are 93,000 trade delegates and its suffice to say it’s a melting pot of nationalities, ideologies, creative talent and business acumen.

The first thing anyone coming to “Frankfurter Buchmesse” is the sheer size of this industry in terms of both cultural and intellectual importance and financial clout.

Spain's pavilion book industryGreen Hill Director David and Production Manager Gina are here getting a select cohort of our authors in front of foreign publishing companies. The fair is the world’s premium rights market where the right to publish books in defined territories/languages are bought and sold. We are representing just 5 of our authors.

The world’s top-tier publishing professionals have energetically reconvened with force. There are experts in every area imaginable from metadata/findability, production automation, marketing, rights, writing, design and technology (including new audio book technologies).

One thing is for sure – there are very few self-publishing companies interacting in this space. We have not seen another Australian self-publishing company here. We wonder where they are.

We have been complimented on Green Hill’s book design prowess and the quality of content. This bodes well for Green Hill’s future (and our faithful and valued authors).

David and Gina from Frankfurt I Germany

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The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Interested in publishing your book but unsure where to start or what is even involved? Tell us about your project and we will post you a copy of our:

 

The Little Book of
Big Publishing Tips.

 

In just a quick 8,000 words, this little book will equip you with the knowledge you need to successfully publish your book.

The Little Book of Big Publishing tips goes into the essentials of self-publishing a book, outlining the business and financial side of publishing, legal issues, design, editing, sales and marketing. There's even a section on how to identify a vanity-publishing scam.

submit your project details