Using social media to launch your book
Around six weeks before my book was released, I had a face-to-face meeting with my publisher. In a kind of reverse-psychology, where I think he was trying to motivate me to market my book well, he began to paint a dismal picture of Christian book publishing.
Most Christian bookshops have closed down, he reminded me. People are still buying Christian books - but you have to get your book in front of them in more creative ways. The average Christian book sells just 250 copies, he said.
As a blogger, it was no news to me that I'd have to market my own book - in fact, I was excitedly anticipating being able to start doing so. For over seven years, I'd been writing my blog and building up trust amongst my 'audience'. Now I was about to have a physical product to sell them - I couldn't wait to get going!
So, what did I do?
Before I claim any credit for the ideas which follow, I must stress that they've all come from others! I've had the privilege of being a part of others' book launch teams over the past couple of years - and, aside from getting to read some amazing books, it's been brilliantly useful to watch what others do and pick up ideas.
Since a few people have commented on the effectiveness of my online book launch, I thought I'd share the ideas here. I've simply taken what I've learnt from others and added my own personality. Those who launch books next year, the year after, and so on, can do the same! As we go on, we get stronger and do it better - especially when we learn from others.
Book launch team
As many of you have done, I put together a launch team. Most members were Facebook users, but this was not a prerequisite, as I didn't want to exclude those who had lots of good ideas for face-to-face book-selling and sharing, so I communicated via email as well as the Facebook group I set up especially for the launch team.
I gathered around 30 members to join my team, of whom I estimate around 20 were actively engaged. In return for a free PDF copy of my book, launch team members were invited to submit their reviews on Amazon, Eden, and other online booksellers. This meant that by the day of the book's release, there were already a handful of positive reviews online, which can only encourage sales.
Another helpful aspect of my launch team has been their willingness to share the book informally across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To help people do this, I used Canva to put together a few memes featuring the book cover and a quote. An example is below:
Does it seem over-the-top to encourage so much social media sharing?
In Wendy Jones' useful book Power-Packed Book Marketing, she states that it takes us, on average, six or seven views of a new product before we decide to buy it.
I don't know about you, but I can definitely relate to this. Even if I think something looks good, I'll very rarely buy it the first time I see it. I'll want to have a think about it, sleep on it, see what others are saying first.
And, besides, whilst I am eating, breathing and sleeping this book, others have far more going on in their lives!! It's easy to forget to buy something, even something you've already made up your mind about.
So actually no, it's not OTT to share, and encourage others to share, your book. It was great to see comments popping up like, "This looks good, think I'll order a copy for a friend" - but the best thing was when people started to say, "I've seen this around so much, I'm off to order a copy", because it proved that all the sharing was working!
Facebook Live Book Launch Party
I'd never planned to do one of these, but someone suggested it on the Association of Christian Writers Facebook group, so I thought I'd have a go. It was fun!
I scheduled it a few days after the official book launch (and physical book launch party). I communicated the day and time to my mailing list, as well as across social media and to my launch team.
When the time came, after a few false starts with technology (I am totally inept), I had about half an hour with my audience - it's hard to say how many were watching, as Facebook only tells you how many start watching, not how many leave! But I had around 10-15 engaged (i.e. commenting) viewers, and although that number doesn't sound like much, I've saved the video on my Facebook page and it's now been viewed nearly 300 times. Not bad!
What did I do? To give it a festive feel, I wore my outfit from the actual book launch party, and had a few celebratory sips from a glass of Port (in the absence of Prosecco...) whilst being 'live'.
I shared why I'd written the book, read an excerpt, showed people what the book looks like in the flesh, and invited comments and questions. This last bit is what I enjoy the most about Facebook Live: the actual interaction with those who are watching. We had a bit of banter, and I feel the whole thing just helped to build a bit more trust with those who were perhaps teetering on the edge and unsure whether or not to buy the book.
Blog tour
This is scheduled for early November, so maybe I'll tell you how it went in my December blog for MTW! But I did just want to include it here, as it's a very powerful way of helping your book - which you've poured a lot of your heart into, not to mention time and energy - reach new audiences.
Several bloggers in my launch team asked to be part of this tour - after all, it can be excellent publicity for bloggers as well as for an author - and I reached out to a few more, who I'd had on my radar for a while. If you're planning to launch a book in the future, it's worth keeping note of any bloggers you come across whose audiences would be a perfect fit for your book.
A word of warning: don't commit to writing guest posts for everyone - you'll run yourself ragged! I've ended up with quite a long blog tour (two weeks and counting...), and am very relieved that I capped the amount of guest posts at four. After all, I've written a whole book about Advent - to come up with four additional and unique pieces is no easy task! Any more would have been impossible.
The other 'stops' on my tour will be interviews and book reviews. The interview questions have come from the bloggers themselves, which is great, as they've each asked me things relevant to their own audience.
My publisher generously agreed to give away a free copy on each stop, so I'm hoping this attracts attention and encourages readers to interact with the post, either by commenting or sharing, or joining the blogger's mailing list.
On that note, I prepared a bit of a cheat sheet for bloggers, with tips and ideas for using a giveaway to increase their audience, as well as some information about earning commission through affiliate links. As a blogger myself, I've been on their side of the fence many more times than the side I'm currently on, so feel it's comfortable territory!
I've made a social media graphic to share blog tour dates, again using Canva:
It is my hope that many of the bloggers get on board with sharing each other's posts, thus increasing blog traffic for all of us. There can never be too many Christian writers, blogs and books in my opinion: by sharing each other's blogs, we are helping our audiences to discover new writers and voices who may be just what they're needing to hear.
That, in a rather large nutshell, has been my approach to using social media to launch my book. I'd love to hear about how you've used social media to launch your book - do post in the comments! And if there's any aspect of this that you'd like to hear more about, please let me know.
Lucy Rycroft writes Christian parenting blog Desertmum. Formerly a teacher and PGCE lecturer, she now divides her time between freelance writing and raising her kids. Her first book, 'Redeeming Advent', was released on 11.10.19, and is available to buy from Eden and all good retailers. Lucy lives in York with her husband and four children.
Most Christian bookshops have closed down, he reminded me. People are still buying Christian books - but you have to get your book in front of them in more creative ways. The average Christian book sells just 250 copies, he said.
As a blogger, it was no news to me that I'd have to market my own book - in fact, I was excitedly anticipating being able to start doing so. For over seven years, I'd been writing my blog and building up trust amongst my 'audience'. Now I was about to have a physical product to sell them - I couldn't wait to get going!
So, what did I do?
Before I claim any credit for the ideas which follow, I must stress that they've all come from others! I've had the privilege of being a part of others' book launch teams over the past couple of years - and, aside from getting to read some amazing books, it's been brilliantly useful to watch what others do and pick up ideas.
Since a few people have commented on the effectiveness of my online book launch, I thought I'd share the ideas here. I've simply taken what I've learnt from others and added my own personality. Those who launch books next year, the year after, and so on, can do the same! As we go on, we get stronger and do it better - especially when we learn from others.
Book launch team
As many of you have done, I put together a launch team. Most members were Facebook users, but this was not a prerequisite, as I didn't want to exclude those who had lots of good ideas for face-to-face book-selling and sharing, so I communicated via email as well as the Facebook group I set up especially for the launch team.
I gathered around 30 members to join my team, of whom I estimate around 20 were actively engaged. In return for a free PDF copy of my book, launch team members were invited to submit their reviews on Amazon, Eden, and other online booksellers. This meant that by the day of the book's release, there were already a handful of positive reviews online, which can only encourage sales.
Another helpful aspect of my launch team has been their willingness to share the book informally across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To help people do this, I used Canva to put together a few memes featuring the book cover and a quote. An example is below:
Does it seem over-the-top to encourage so much social media sharing?
In Wendy Jones' useful book Power-Packed Book Marketing, she states that it takes us, on average, six or seven views of a new product before we decide to buy it.
I don't know about you, but I can definitely relate to this. Even if I think something looks good, I'll very rarely buy it the first time I see it. I'll want to have a think about it, sleep on it, see what others are saying first.
And, besides, whilst I am eating, breathing and sleeping this book, others have far more going on in their lives!! It's easy to forget to buy something, even something you've already made up your mind about.
So actually no, it's not OTT to share, and encourage others to share, your book. It was great to see comments popping up like, "This looks good, think I'll order a copy for a friend" - but the best thing was when people started to say, "I've seen this around so much, I'm off to order a copy", because it proved that all the sharing was working!
Facebook Live Book Launch Party
I'd never planned to do one of these, but someone suggested it on the Association of Christian Writers Facebook group, so I thought I'd have a go. It was fun!
I scheduled it a few days after the official book launch (and physical book launch party). I communicated the day and time to my mailing list, as well as across social media and to my launch team.
When the time came, after a few false starts with technology (I am totally inept), I had about half an hour with my audience - it's hard to say how many were watching, as Facebook only tells you how many start watching, not how many leave! But I had around 10-15 engaged (i.e. commenting) viewers, and although that number doesn't sound like much, I've saved the video on my Facebook page and it's now been viewed nearly 300 times. Not bad!
What did I do? To give it a festive feel, I wore my outfit from the actual book launch party, and had a few celebratory sips from a glass of Port (in the absence of Prosecco...) whilst being 'live'.
I shared why I'd written the book, read an excerpt, showed people what the book looks like in the flesh, and invited comments and questions. This last bit is what I enjoy the most about Facebook Live: the actual interaction with those who are watching. We had a bit of banter, and I feel the whole thing just helped to build a bit more trust with those who were perhaps teetering on the edge and unsure whether or not to buy the book.
Blog tour
This is scheduled for early November, so maybe I'll tell you how it went in my December blog for MTW! But I did just want to include it here, as it's a very powerful way of helping your book - which you've poured a lot of your heart into, not to mention time and energy - reach new audiences.
Several bloggers in my launch team asked to be part of this tour - after all, it can be excellent publicity for bloggers as well as for an author - and I reached out to a few more, who I'd had on my radar for a while. If you're planning to launch a book in the future, it's worth keeping note of any bloggers you come across whose audiences would be a perfect fit for your book.
A word of warning: don't commit to writing guest posts for everyone - you'll run yourself ragged! I've ended up with quite a long blog tour (two weeks and counting...), and am very relieved that I capped the amount of guest posts at four. After all, I've written a whole book about Advent - to come up with four additional and unique pieces is no easy task! Any more would have been impossible.
The other 'stops' on my tour will be interviews and book reviews. The interview questions have come from the bloggers themselves, which is great, as they've each asked me things relevant to their own audience.
My publisher generously agreed to give away a free copy on each stop, so I'm hoping this attracts attention and encourages readers to interact with the post, either by commenting or sharing, or joining the blogger's mailing list.
On that note, I prepared a bit of a cheat sheet for bloggers, with tips and ideas for using a giveaway to increase their audience, as well as some information about earning commission through affiliate links. As a blogger myself, I've been on their side of the fence many more times than the side I'm currently on, so feel it's comfortable territory!
I've made a social media graphic to share blog tour dates, again using Canva:
It is my hope that many of the bloggers get on board with sharing each other's posts, thus increasing blog traffic for all of us. There can never be too many Christian writers, blogs and books in my opinion: by sharing each other's blogs, we are helping our audiences to discover new writers and voices who may be just what they're needing to hear.
That, in a rather large nutshell, has been my approach to using social media to launch my book. I'd love to hear about how you've used social media to launch your book - do post in the comments! And if there's any aspect of this that you'd like to hear more about, please let me know.
That's fascinating, Lucy! Thank you for being so generous with your knowledge and experience.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome Ruth! Actually I've learnt most of it from other members of ACW!
DeleteThank you, Lucy. This is really useful. I have a number of ideas of stuff I could do to work on the marketing. Now you have given me another one.
ReplyDeleteIt's getting motivated that's the problem. I have so many more interesting things to do and as a retired vicar, I have people wanting me to fill ever-increasing gaps. They say clergy are like gold dust. And I like to be useful. Finding time to actually write among all this is a challenge, let alone all the dull social media. And then there is your irresistible book to read ... :)