I have been an author for almost twenty years. During that time I have met numerous authors and the one thing that I am amazed at is the sheer number of them that do not know how to market themselves. Especially in this age of indie authors, you must know how to market your books, as well as write them. Successful authors know that they need Facebook author pages, but social media for authors is a slippery slope, especially if you publish fiction, because it isharder to market. Here are three questions I get asked on a frequent basis:
What's The One Thing I Need To Do To Sell Books?
This may seem obvious, but first and foremost, you need to write a good book, or better yet, a great book. I see so many indie authors who have not honed their craft yet, and their writing shows this. They don't understand sentence structure, how to build engaging scenes, and so on. So first, take some time to study other authors, attend writing conferences or a creative writing class.
Create a great cover. You want something that is going to attract your fans, who will be your potential readers. How is this important to Facebook author pages? Because your Facebook fans will see your cover because you will post it on your site, and they will see samples of your writing, because you will post it on your site.
Do I Really Need A Facebook Author Page?
Yes, absolutely! Facebook has over 700 million fans and counting. This is advertizing for you that is totally free, so you cannot afford to pass this up. Successful authors know this, especially indie authors that are trying to build a fan following. Again, social media for authors is not easy, but with a little time devoted to your page, you can build a great following. And this following will spread the word about you and your books.
What Tools For Authors Do You Recommend?
Since we're focusing on gathering fans, you want to use Facebook for marketing. As authors, we spend money on editing our books (or you should), creating a cover (again, if you don't, you should), but we don't think about a marketing budget. Big publishing houses take care of that for you (at least some of it), but indie authors have to do all of their marketing. You should have a budget for this, and it should include education on how to use Twitter, Facebook, and othersocial media sites for marketing. One of the biggest mistakes indie authors make is to either not create a Facebook fan page, or to not use Facebook for marketing.
Final Thoughts
In order to sell books, you need to have a Facebook fan page, but it needs to be a great page that focuses on marketing. If you would like to receive more tips on how to set up a Facebook fan page, AND how to use your page to market your books, visit here for more tips. Remember, you CAN have a great Facebook fan page!
If you enjoyed this article and would like several more FREE tips, go to fanpagemagic
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