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does twitter help you sell your books?
I advertised that my books were both free to read on #kindleunlimited the other day and ended up "selling" several books' worth of page reads over the next 3 days. So it does help. But you have to be interactive, and post more than just sale posts. It seems to help more as you get better at using hashtags properly and working them into your post rather than info-dumping them at the end.
I use Twitter sparingly to sell books. My tweets are mainly about writing and maybe some funny stuff I've come across. I'd like potential readers to get to know me as a person, not as a salesperson. Never occurred to me to include a link to my blog. I'll have to do that.
I'm loving Twitter more and more. I'm not sure if I've sold any books from Twitter yet, but I know that a few have marked it on their TBR (which I know is by no means a guarantee). But, I have found so many other avenues of promotion, support, and fun as a result of Twitter.I think it was Assaph Mehr who put it right -- as long as you're interacting with people you'll get there. It's about discoverability.
Twitter is becoming more effective for me as a marketing tool. I joined a tweet group with 20 -30 other authors a few months ago and we tweet each other daily, expanding reach around the world massively. Sales have been steadily picking up during this time. I've been busy for quite a while with my 'real job,' so this is pretty much all the promoting I've been doing.I vary my book posts, usually employing humor and/or arresting photos, and also post links to my blog, my short films and retweet anything from followers or random items I come across which I think might interest people. It's fun and seems to be working well.
Victor wrote: "I'm with Micah on this one. Self-promotion can be a full time job. Too bad I already have a full time job. I'm not sure if a hermit writer of the past can be successful nowadays. Any thoughts?"
We pretty much fit the description of hermit writers, and we do consider ourselves successful. So, yes, it happens.
I would caution against assuming anything is "essential" or "necessary" or even "important" in this business, except for writing to the best of your ability.
E.J. wrote: "Owen wrote: "We pretty much fit the description of hermit writers, and we do consider ourselves successful. So, yes, it happens. I would caution against assuming anything is "essential" or "neces..."
The key to many things - including writing and marketing - is balance.
One has to write as a writer, yes.
At the same time, it's hard to sell your books to someone who doesn't know your book exists.
The most basic definition of "marketing" is communicating to potential buyers that you have something that could be of interest and/or value to them.
Think about it from the opposite side of the table. When you are buying books, do you buy books that you've never heard of from authors you've never heard of?
Whatever "gets you to the buyer counter" can be likewise applied in reaching the potential readers who you'd like to reach for your books. Looking at it this way might make marketing feel more palatable. From this perspective, you're actually helping potential readers since you've made the effort to write a book that they'll want to read but don't yet know about. :)
Twitter offers writers a lot of benefits:- It builds name recognition
- It contributes to author brand
- It helps you build and/or join a community (helps you make friends (both other authors and nonauthors)
- In Twitter, don't just peddle your book. Share, participate, reciprocate, etc... Post frequently and regularly. You don't have to post every day, but try to get on and post a few times a week.
I'm on there daily and really enjoy the writing/creative community and value the many friends I've made there.
Bekka wrote: "The key to many things - including writing and marketing - is balance.One has to write as a writer, yes.
At the same time, it's hard to sell your books to someone who doesn't know your book exists...."
The point about balance is a good one. And visibility is obviously key, because it is certainly thru people need to know our books exist. But it should not be overlooked that people find book in different ways.
When I say my coauthor and I don't market, that does not mean our books aren't being marketed. It means that we found Amazon (primarily) and readers, do a vastly better job of marketing than we do. So we let them. Marketing, for us, is not time well spent. We are no good at and we don't enjoy it. So we don't do it. We let Amazon market and our readers for us. They do an excellent job, in our case. After all, Amazon also wants to sell books, and they know a great deal about it. (We think of it as delegating.)
Clearly everyone has different experiences, and each author needs to find their own balance. What works for us doesn't work for others. And we authors do tend to feel isolated at times, and like it "all on us". The list of things we are responsible for as independent authors is daunting, and it can kill the joy we have in writing. It is critical not to let that happen.
So I would caution new authors, especially, against falling into the "me against the world" trap. It isn't us against the world. But it can tale a long time for all those hidden factors that support us --which we most often cannot see -- to build and reinforce. But because they are hidden doesn't mean they aren't there, and they might take years before they become fully evident.
So, I agree about finding a comfortable balance, but keep those other, hidden factors in mind, because the only thing no one can do for us is write.
It suddenly occurred to me yesterday (sitting in the hospital bored to tears) to start posting about the book reviews I've done for other indie authors on Twitter. If you do the same, post it to Twitter! Help others and it'll come back around.
E.J. wrote: "Owen wrote: "So I would caution new authors, especially, against falling into the "me against the world" trap."You are constant source of encouragement, Owen. And very appreciated by this new aut..."
I second that!
Joe wrote: "It suddenly occurred to me yesterday (sitting in the hospital bored to tears) to start posting about the book reviews I've done for other indie authors on Twitter. If you do the same, post it to Tw..." That is a great idea -- it helps everyone. I hope you get better and get out of the hospital soon!
Steve wrote: "Twitter is becoming more effective for me as a marketing tool. I joined a tweet group with 20 -30 other authors a few months ago and we tweet each other daily, expanding reach around the world mass..." Hi Steve, what is the tweet group? I'd like to maybe check that out. thanks
Jennifer wrote: "Steve wrote: "Twitter is becoming more effective for me as a marketing tool. I joined a tweet group with 20 -30 other authors a few months ago and we tweet each other daily, expanding reach around ..."I'm part of a group of about 30 historical novelists and we have a Facebook page. The person who runs the page starts a daily thread where you can post a link to a promotional tweet on that day. If you do, you then have to click on any other links in that thread and retweet each tweet. I don't join in every day (I do most days), but there are at least 15 people each day who do. And as we are all over the world, it means our tweets are going out around the clock.
Sales have increased, not dramatically, but I am also picking up 5 - 10 new followers every day and the numbers of views for each tweet is growing. Long term, I'm not sure it will make much difference, but for an investment of maybe 10 minutes a day, I like it!
I really need to get over myself and start doing these types of promotions.
A word of caution before we all jump on the retweeting wagon. I don't know how well this strategy works, but I'm on a receiving end of these "group tweets" promoting the same book over and over. It does get repetitive and annoying, especially if I didn't care about the book in the first place. There are hordes of those promotions and promoters on Tweeter, and it becomes an outright spam if overdone. I have to mute and defriend a lot of authors just to keep my timeline readable.
Owen wrote: "Bekka wrote: "The key to many things - including writing and marketing - is balance.One has to write as a writer, yes.
At the same time, it's hard to sell your books to someone who doesn't know yo..."
Thanks for that darling.
It's also been my experience, that one can spend far too much time, money and effort into marketing your book and not enough time writing the darned things.
This year I'm certainly hoping to do more writing and less blathering on on social media trying to get 'noticed'.
I did want to ask one thing though please (if I may):
You say you let Amazon do your marketing. Is that as in, you upload the book and let it sell itself? (as opposed to specific Amazon promo services)?
Victor wrote: "A word of caution before we all jump on the retweeting wagon. I don't know how well this strategy works, but I'm on a receiving end of these "group tweets" promoting the same book over and over. It..."Do you use lists to categorise/segregate accounts, and therefore tweets, and make your timeline more manageable?
Victor wrote: "A word of caution before we all jump on the retweeting wagon. I don't know how well this strategy works, but I'm on a receiving end of these "group tweets" promoting the same book over and over. It..."That's a good point and this is often discussed by my group. A couple of members run the same tweet over and over again, but most of us vary our tweets so that they (hopefully) don't become boring and counter-productive. It seems to be working at the moment, so I'll keep going :)
Steve wrote: "Victor wrote: "A word of caution before we all jump on the retweeting wagon. I don't know how well this strategy works, but I'm on a receiving end of these "group tweets" promoting the same book ov..."Yes. Recipients want to see new content. I take the time to create Tweets that are going to be engaging and interesting. If I can't generate new and interesting tweets in 140 characters or less, my Tweet recipients probably won't expect anything more from my books that are longer than 140 characters. :)
I appreciate the tip about Tweet Jukebox! I deleted half the jukebox tweets and put in tweets which have gotten good engagement in the past. Twitter is nice for getting the word out about special free/discount days, which is good when you're a new author looking for readers. I use it to search for others who like the same things as I do which relate to my novel. They are more likely to be interested in my blog and join my email list.
Alp wrote: "Victor wrote: "A word of caution before we all jump on the retweeting wagon. I don't know how well this strategy works, but I'm on a receiving end of these "group tweets" promoting the same book ov..."No, I don't. I try to keep it simple, but maybe I should follow your advice and segregate certain accounts. :)
I sell the odd book through Twitter, via the link in my bio. When I have a new release I'll send one (maybe two in order to take time zones into account) tweets to promote it, and get maybe three or four sales. When I self-pubbed my first book, links were tweeted by Granta Books (35,000 followers now, but far fewer then, to be fair), and Kate Long (4,000 followers). The tweets in question were picked up and retweeted by quite a few people, and I prepared myself for a deluge of sales.Yup, not a sausage.
I have unremarkable numbers on my Twitter account, currently following 254 accounts, with 331 following me. I mostly use it to have geeky/silly conversations with writers I know personally.
Occasionally I get a glimpse of how powerful it could be - I was once retweeted by Neil Gaiman, and my phone almost exploded with notifications. More recently, I was at a Red Dwarf recording and tweeted a photo of my wife and I with two of the stars. And weirdly, a Follow Friday post from a librarian friend of mine went viral just over the weekend (though again, no one actually followed me as a result). But all three of those examples prove the same point: other users determine what they find interesting, not you.
And random book links are just not interesting.
T.L. wrote: "I did want to ask one thing though please (if I may):You say you let Amazon do your marketing. Is that as in, you upload the book and let it sell itself? (as opposed to specific Amazon promo services)?"
Basically, yes. In our case, we have found that readers find our book primarily thru Amazon's "Also Bought" lists and the new-release pages. We do use the countdown deals (one per enrollment period per book for KDP Select), which have been decent for us, and we do have a blog. But the overall sales contribution of these two latter sources is dwarfed by the former.
(As before, I'll stress this is our genre. In other genres, the situation may be different.)
Victor wrote: "Alp wrote: "Victor wrote: "A word of caution before we all jump on the retweeting wagon. I don't know how well this strategy works, but I'm on a receiving end of these "group tweets" promoting the ..."Lists have certainly worked for me to keep the account tidy and efficient - I'll dip in and out of various lists throughout the week, reserving the key accounts that I follow closely segregated in a private list. Public lists might also get subscribers, which is also a fruitful process ... in time.
Alp
Alp wrote: "Victor wrote: "Alp wrote: "Victor wrote: "A word of caution before we all jump on the retweeting wagon. I don't know how well this strategy works, but I'm on a receiving end of these "group tweets"..."Your list you shared on the 1st page was great, thanks for that!
I've been on Twitter a lot more than usual lately and the other day I asked myself, why? Is it because I want to market and promote and reach potential buyers and readers? Not at all. Lately I go on simply to interact and share and post general content and oddly enough when I do I get likes, feedback and follows. I've found that going on Twitter and acting natural and being casual usually peeks someones interest. I'm not saying I get a ton of follows, likes and what not but at least one or two people a day will comment or like something and it makes me feel like I must be doing something right.So when I see that I've made a small impact on there I try to push it a bit and post a small promo or make a status on something relevant to what I'm currently promoting.
Just using a Twitter account to promote one's book or 'shove' it in the face is a turn off. Better to explore the subject the book deals with or about writing on the subject and take it from there.
No. Twitter doesn't help me sell more books at all and I have 1,143 followers and counting. I find people have been following me due to mutual interests. If someone was to peddle their books etc to me, which happens very often I delete their direct messages to me and anything else they hashtag about or send to me about their books and unfollow them. If it comes through my Twitter feed I ignore it. I don't care if their books are free on kindle unlimited or not. That irritates me.
Do not put that books are free when they are not. With Kindle Unlimited it costs you to subscribe so realistically they will be paying anyway, or they have to pay full price for regular Kindle ebook. I have had so many say if you click you can get it for free. I am a book reader, not an author (so I am not sure whether I should be in this group), but amongst other tweets I started reviewing books. Some authors retweet other authors books. I have found some interesting books in those. Some just post the same books (their own) all day every day. I have never bought those, they were the ones that lied about being free and were overpriced. That is just what I have found.
David wrote: "Just using a Twitter account to promote one's book or 'shove' it in the face is a turn off. Better to explore the subject the book deals with or about writing on the subject and take it from there."That will appropriately get a few people interested in your books. :)
As an update, I will say that advertising my books as "#free #ebooks for #kindleunlimited" has seen a slight uptick in the number of downloads and KENP read.
Great discussion! I've been using Twitter for a month or two and do find that, at times, I feel a little lost. One aspect I'm unsure of is following back followers. I've noticed at times I'll pick up followers and if I don't follow them back within a day or two then they unfollow me. Is it the norm on Twitter to only follow those who follow you back? I was trying to limit the accounts I follow to content that was writing/marketing/book relevant or personally interesting. But I'm not sure if this is the best approach (I do always try to follow authors back though). Also, is the general environment on Twitter more formal than FB? Meaning do most of you limit tweets to writing related content or do you also tweet humorous content, etc.?
Nicole wrote: "Great discussion! I've been using Twitter for a month or two and do find that, at times, I feel a little lost. One aspect I'm unsure of is following back followers. I've noticed at times I'll pick ..."It does seem to be the general - though not always - trend to follow each other. I follow back if I see a clear link between me and the other person, but don't follow back if I see no clear link (may just be a spammer).
Yes, it's good to focus on topics related to what you write about. Some leeway, but the idea on Twitter is to give followers a sense of the themes that you write about. :)
Bekka wrote: "Nicole wrote: "Great discussion! I've been using Twitter for a month or two and do find that, at times, I feel a little lost. One aspect I'm unsure of is following back followers. I've noticed at t..."I follow back writers (I read bios to see.) The only exception is erotica writers, since I'm a YA writer. And I do purge every few weeks or months to get rid of people who both didn't follow me back and I didn't find worthwhile or interesting in their tweets.
E.J. wrote: "Makes me wonder if social media as a whole is not only overrated, but detrimental to an author's productivity. In other words, "the best business card is your next book," and anything that might undermine this mantra should be approached with caution..."I fully agree with the second sentence.
As for the first sentence, social media certainly can be detrimental to productivity. As for the overrated part, that depends on one's goals. But social media is in general a weak sales driver; it acts more as an amplifier that can be beneficial once a book has considerable following, and is dependent of genre. It also seems to be subject to fatigue, even for popular authors. So it is not a panacea, and many of the claims made for it are dubious.
Nicole wrote: "Also, is the general environment on Twitter more formal than FB? Meaning do most of you limit tweets to writing related content or do you also tweet humorous content, etc.?"Twitter is pretty informal. Tweet whatever appeals to you. It doesn't just have to be writing/author related. So, I would say keep it to just that only because that's what you want to do, but not because you think it's expected.
Mod
I spent a long time purging, trying to get to where I could follow those who followed me. That's why I now follow everyone who follows me, I don't want someone else getting stuck like I did for a short time.
I have never even been on twitter until yesterday. I was thinking I might just try it so I went to the sign up page. They asked me for my phone number and couldn't go any further. I would rather keep that private but I cannot sign up without it apparently. I don't have a mobile/cell phone, only a home number. This whole stupid thing sucks!
Joy wrote: "I have never even been on twitter until yesterday. I was thinking I might just try it so I went to the sign up page. They asked me for my phone number and couldn't go any further. I would rather ke..."I'm pretty sure the phone number is optional. It was at least when I signed up. Maybe they've changed it.
Joy wrote: "I have never even been on twitter until yesterday. I was thinking I might just try it so I went to the sign up page. They asked me for my phone number and couldn't go any further. I would rather ke..."
I think it was optional when I signed up, but my policy on giving phone numbers to websites and strangers is to give them a landline number I had about 10 years ago. That seems to satisfy them, and, of course, they can never call me about it.
I think it was optional when I signed up, but my policy on giving phone numbers to websites and strangers is to give them a landline number I had about 10 years ago. That seems to satisfy them, and, of course, they can never call me about it.
No I can't get any further than the first page. It says:
Add a phone number.
Enter the phone number that you would like to associate with your Twitter account.
We will send you an SMS with a verification code. SMS fees may apply.
I'm stuck!
Add a phone number.
Enter the phone number that you would like to associate with your Twitter account.
We will send you an SMS with a verification code. SMS fees may apply.
I'm stuck!
Joy wrote: "No I can't get any further than the first page. It says: Add a phone number.
Enter the phone number that you would like to associate with your Twitter account.
We will send you an SMS with a ver..."
I had to add a phone when I set up a couple months back, but I deleted it after and it saved the change.
Thank you for the responses and recommendations! I'm so glad I stumbled across this thread. Twitter certainly took more getting used to for me than FB. I feel like I have a better grasp of it now though. I have found it helpful to share writing tips, ideas/experiences and retweets when I see an agent or publisher is looking for something specific (in case any of the authors I'm connected with are interested). Overall, it seems like a helpful resource. But I can see how I better limit my time on there so I don't get too distracted reading about writing and not actually writing :)
Nicole,Your right, Twitter has a better grasp and reach than Facebook. The only thing that sucks is trying to say everything you want to in 150 characters or less. Although that's what makes it a good challenge and tests your ability to be able to promote in few words.
Very true. I've been getting creative with my 150 characters :)
Hi Nicloe, you can get around the word restriction by commenting on your own tweets. You can add more verbage that way. I hope that helps.
I've had lots of retweets about my books but haven't had any sales from them, although I think a few have gone to my blog - but still no sales. I do know that I need to ramp up my blog though.
Did anyone else get that feeling of:"Ahhhhhh!!! Oh my gosh, I'm so confused right now!"
when they first started Twitter????
Mod
#QuickTwitterHacks-Hashtags can connect your tweets to similar content.
#QuickTwitterHack2-Pictures are a great way to get around the 140 character limit.
#QuickTwitterHack3-There is a follow limit on twitter, so don't get too far a head following people vs the number that follow you, or you will need to purge your follow list.
I know someone who not only does this but they constantly promote their website which is supposed to be "popular", the site is dormant, the tweets are irrelevant and the person never responds or RT's anything.