The Case For Twitter For Authors
Merriam-Webster defines publicity as an act or device designed to attract public interest; specifically : information with news value issued as a means of gaining public attention or support.
This is important to remember when using Twitter to promote your books because publicity done well is a soft sell. As you may know by now, the soft sell is actually pretty hard. Yes , the ideas relationship building and sharing useful information are simple in concept. But the daily routines of meeting new people, following up, and compiling useful information all take time and effort to consistently do.
As an author though, the opportunities on Twitter abound for you to easily succeed. Very easily, you are able to reach out and communicate with all sort of people who would be interest to know you, if only they knew just how cool and useful you are.
Here are some ways you can use Twitter.
Involve your Fans:
When you're in the process of writing your book, you can seek direct feedback from your fans. I often ask topical questions about relationships, race relations and other random news. I do it to be entertaining and engaging to the people who follow me and buy my books. What I get is valuable insight in to what ideas strike chords with my readers, ideas that I can then use when writing.
Share Your Life
Again remembering this is a soft sell, you can always keep your followers updated with the latest information about. If your latest book gets a good review, tweet about it with a link to that review. If your appearing as a guest on radio talk show, share that. If you get married, have a baby, have an insight about a current event then share, share share.
What Not to Do
In a soft sell environment, it's important to remember that Twitter is not an advertisement tool so don't treat it as such. That means it's never good to auto-tweet "Buy my new Book" every hour. Remember people search Twitter to find people with relevant information. Instead, why not pose a question that relates to a theme in your book and start a conversation.
As easy as it is to do, don't contact to publishers asking them to read your manuscript. Instead, why not follow their tweets and engage them in a relevant fashion. For example, if you learn from her tweets that a publisher you follow has a passion for banana bread, maybe you can share a link to an interesting recipe.
These indirect approaches are what effective Twitter use is all about. If done well, you will be publicized as an author who connects fans not only with relevant information, but also with all the great literary works you've written.
