If you're like more than one billion other inhabitants of the Earth, you have a Facebook profile. And if you're like many of the authors I talk to, you flinch at the very idea of using your personal connections to market a product- even if that product is a book that you wrote.
I'm here to say that marketing is not a dirty word; there are just lots of ways to be dirty when you're marketing. But if you're a self-published author, the fact of the matter is that you are probably long on passion for what you've written and short on money to hire a marketing agency, pay a consultant or a contractor, or even give a stipend to an intern.
Self-published authors are pretty much on their own for marketing.
Luckily, books are something people talk about anyway, which opens them up to one of the greatest forms of marketing: Word-of-mouth marketing. And Facebook is a social network that people use to talk about and share things they love.
For a self-publisher, it's a perfect first step to getting the word out about your book without feeling like a sleazy marketer and without spending money. Here are three top tips culled from my own work advising authors.
1. Ask people to post, not buy: When your book shows up in the Amazon store, announce it on your Facebook wall, yes, but more importantly, send a lot of private messages. Your Wall was good for likes and comments, but private messages are personal and go beyond your own network. Message 10-20 people a day in the morning and ask them to help you spread the word about your book launch by posting a quick message (you write it and send it to them, less work for them) on their Wall. Most people will do it, and it gets the word out to 50+ networks beyond your own.
2. Post quotes: Facebook has no character limit, which is awesome for pulling out great quotes or a medium passage from your book. Link that quote to your Amazon page and it will pull more traffic than just posting an "About the book" summary.
3. Video: On YouTube or Vimeo, video has to be slick to get noticed. On Facebook, though, it's more personal, and people respond to a quick video where you can show your true excitement about the momentous event.
Image courtesy of Thos003 via flickr
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