When Justin from Justin's Book Blog asked me if I wanted to be part of a blog tour on writing craft books I was like: "No can do. Not in April. I have a gazillion and six deadlines. I don't even have time to read my email this month!"
Then he said it was for Beth Revis. I don't know if you've ever met her, but I have and she's amazing. She's not just a successful bestseller, she's kind, supportive, down-to-earth, and funny as all get out. I'd been meaning to read her craft books for forever because she's also really smart and I knew I could learn from her. So since I already had Paper Hearts on my TBR and I have five books releasing over the next two years that I'll need to market and promote, I decided I couldn't pass up this chance to help a friend and help myself at the same time. I started with Book #3--Paper Hearts: Some Marketing Advice. Read my review of the book on Goodreads.
Today it's time for Tip #3:
Beth: There are hidden costs to every promotion you do. If you’re mailing prizes, the hidden cost is shipping—and for international shipping, that adds up. If you’re selling books at a convention, the hidden costs is the travel and other expenses to get to that convention. But beyond the hidden costs, consider the actual, up-front cost of what you’re doing.
A traditional publisher can expect to make a few bucks per book—so if you’re spending $5 for swag to give away to everyone who buys your book, you’re actually losing money. It’s fun to develop swag and find prizes, but make sure you’re doing it in a cost effective way. I say this with full knowledge that I have always gotten swept up with making swag and gifts for readers, but I also say this with the experience of spending more money than I’ve made on a hard day’s work at a convention. Make a budget and stick to it.
Paula: Now Beth is going to answer a couple of commonly asked marketing questions and just for fun, I'm going to give you my answers too (Spoiler alert: Beth and I think a lot alike!)
1. What can young writers do to start building their platforms now?
Beth: Focus on writing. Focus on craft. Don't worry about platforms*. Unless you are literally a celebrity with hundreds of thousands of followers, no one cares about your platform. Agents and publishers are checking out your social media only to make sure you're not completely crazy and that you know how to professionally** use social media. So yes: use social media--if you want to. Work on creating a professional online presence. But don't sweat it. The book matters--nothing else.
*The one caveat: if you're writing nonfiction, you do need a platform. You have to prove your audience and expertise if and only if you're writing nonfiction.
**By professional, I don't mean pay a bunch of money for sleek designs. I mean don't be racist, sexist, hateful, or otherwise crazy pants. Treat social media as a professional cocktail party--don't say it if you wouldn't say it to your peers or in front of your mom.
Paula: I agree completely when it comes to focusing on the writing. It's really easy to let perceived promotional responsibilities eat up all of your writing time. I spent a lot of yesterday making fun graphics for an upcoming e-book sale instead of working on my deadline book. #BadPaula As a published writer, it is expected I will do a decent amount of promotion, but if you don't already have self-published books available for purchase or a signed contract for a future traditionally published book, you have plenty of time to build up an online following later.
I would also add, consider keeping your personal social media and your professional social media separate. I don't use social media in my private life--I have a Facebook profile that is never updated, but that's it. However, if you're going to make an FB as an author, make a separate page, even if at first it seems like no one is reading it. Make a second Twitter account and get in the habit of putting the writing-related stuff there. What's appropriate for your friends and family to see and read isn't necessarily what you want a bunch of strangers having access to. If you make this decision at the very beginning, you won't run into issues where you're scrambling to delete potentially awkward posts later.
2. Any advice on finding the line on what counts as too much self-promotion?
Beth: Lisa and Laura Roecker once told me that they only talk about themselves (i.e. self-promo) after they've talked about someone else and/or someone else's book. That's the best rule of thumb I keep in the back of my mind as I do self promo--whenever I've talked about myself, I talk about
something else.
The problem is, the people who need this advice tend to ignore it. There's a group of people who feel like they have to use social media 24/7 for self promo. They're basically spam bots. And the only thing you can do is block them and hope that one day they figure out that this isn't how social media works.
On the other hand, there is a smaller subset of authors who are so worried about being perceived as spammy that they never self promo. And if that's you--that's fine. It's not bad to keep your social media promo-free. But it's okay to mention you're a writer and have a book out. And it's okay to
mention the same thing three or so times a day--because the reality of the situation is that the vast majority of social media users only use a few platforms and are only only a few times a day. So if you tweet about your book once in the morning, once at noon, and once at night, you're probably reaching different people every single time. It feels like a lot of self promo, but it's not.
2. Any advice on finding the line on what counts as too much self-promotion?
Beth: Lisa and Laura Roecker once told me that they only talk about themselves (i.e. self-promo) after they've talked about someone else and/or someone else's book. That's the best rule of thumb I keep in the back of my mind as I do self promo--whenever I've talked about myself, I talk about
something else.
The problem is, the people who need this advice tend to ignore it. There's a group of people who feel like they have to use social media 24/7 for self promo. They're basically spam bots. And the only thing you can do is block them and hope that one day they figure out that this isn't how social media works.
On the other hand, there is a smaller subset of authors who are so worried about being perceived as spammy that they never self promo. And if that's you--that's fine. It's not bad to keep your social media promo-free. But it's okay to mention you're a writer and have a book out. And it's okay to
mention the same thing three or so times a day--because the reality of the situation is that the vast majority of social media users only use a few platforms and are only only a few times a day. So if you tweet about your book once in the morning, once at noon, and once at night, you're probably reaching different people every single time. It feels like a lot of self promo, but it's not.
Paula: This question resonates with me so much because I often worry that I'm becoming a spambot. When my first book came out, I refused to even do Rafflecopter contests or give entries in exchange for Twitter follows or GR TBR adds because it felt so slimy. Reality check: An entry for a follow or RT is how a lot of promo activities are structured. It is expected, accepted practice in the industry. You don't have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable, but the number one promoter of your book should be the person with the most invested in it, and that's YOU. So if you're not going to do these things, you need to come up with other things to do instead because your publisher will want you to do some online promotion.
I actually have different strategies for different social media. For Instagram, I generally try to keep my self-promo posts to one out of every three posts (so about once a week) or less. I might go up a little for my release month, but then I'll drop lower in the periods between books. I enjoy Instagram and often post pictures of cats, nature, funny things I come across, and other people's books. My Facebook might be a little heavier ratio of self-promotion, but that's probably because I don't like FB as much as the other platforms so creative content is harder to come up with. Also, due to FB's current algorithms, most of my posts are seen by fewer than 10% of the people who have liked my page, so I feel like the chances of people getting spammed via FB are very low. Twitter is my main social media activity and the bulk of my tweets are me talking to other people, sometimes about books but often about TV shows or celebrities or national parks or cats.
Like Beth said, you can tweet the same thing three times a day and probably hit different audiences. One thing I do that keeps me from feeling like a spambot is to use Tweetdeck to schedule almost all of my promo tweets ahead of time. Right now I'm running a Goodreads giveaway for The Art of Lainey and a pre-order incentive for Girl Against the Universe. When those activities went live, I scheduled three tweets the first day (including one in the middle of the night for my international readers for the pre-order.) I scheduled two the next day, one the following day, and then a few more sporadically over the next couple of weeks, mixing up early morning and late night and weekend. The end result of scheduling promo tweets is you can get a good mix of coverage and tweet variation without having to worry about oversaturating your feed.
Like anything else, there are caveats to using scheduling--you might feel like a real heel if everyone else is tweeting about a recent tragedy and you're tweeting "Pre-order my book and get fun stickers!" But again, I think most people on Twitter understand that tweet scheduling is a normal business practice. Another good way to find out if you're overpromoting is to ask your followers. I've asked people if posting on FB every day during release week is too much or if they are seeing too many retweets during RT contests on Twitter. Finally, I would recommend against retweeting or reposting every positive review of your book, and definitely don't tweet the same reviews over and over. The #1 reason I unfollow/mute people is because they spam me with the same positive reviews of their books day after day.
ETA: The #2 reason I mute people is when they use the DM function in a spammy way. Resist the urge to send an auto DM to every follower, even if it's just thanking them for following you. That's unnecessary spam. And if someone follows you on Twitter, they can find your blog/FB/Tumblr/Pinterest/Book-buying links if they want. Sending all this stuff in a DM is irritating to a lot of people (or to me anyway ;D)
Like anything else, there are caveats to using scheduling--you might feel like a real heel if everyone else is tweeting about a recent tragedy and you're tweeting "Pre-order my book and get fun stickers!" But again, I think most people on Twitter understand that tweet scheduling is a normal business practice. Another good way to find out if you're overpromoting is to ask your followers. I've asked people if posting on FB every day during release week is too much or if they are seeing too many retweets during RT contests on Twitter. Finally, I would recommend against retweeting or reposting every positive review of your book, and definitely don't tweet the same reviews over and over. The #1 reason I unfollow/mute people is because they spam me with the same positive reviews of their books day after day.
ETA: The #2 reason I mute people is when they use the DM function in a spammy way. Resist the urge to send an auto DM to every follower, even if it's just thanking them for following you. That's unnecessary spam. And if someone follows you on Twitter, they can find your blog/FB/Tumblr/Pinterest/Book-buying links if they want. Sending all this stuff in a DM is irritating to a lot of people (or to me anyway ;D)
Wanna check out the Paper Hearts series from the beginning? Learn
more at BethRevis.com
Purchase Paper Hearts, Volume 1: Some
Writing Advice
Amazon – Kobo – Barnes & Noble – The Book Depository
Amazon – Kobo – Barnes & Noble – The Book Depository
I hope you've enjoyed today's content for the Paper Hearts tour :) Follow along with the rest of the tour at the Paper Hearts Tour Headquarters, and/or follow Beth Revis on Twitter! And don't forget to enter the giveaway for signed copies :)
I never thought about the costs of swag. I mean, of course I know that shipping is expensive and all that, but I never gave thought to it. Now I feel kind of sad for requesting swag :/ But then again, if the author can't afford it, they shouldn't have offered it in the first place :)
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of costs with swag. In addition to shipping, there is also printing and often design costs. This is why I won't just send it out for free anymore, because it does get expensive and I've found that when you value a product at $0.00 and send it to anyone who asks, they also place a low value on your swag.
DeleteI generally send swag now in exchange for things like Book Blast participation, pre-orders, etc. I probably will spend all of the $$ I make on the pre-order books by sending out the free swag, but to me that's worth it because I'm not taking a big loss--just breaking even in exchange for increasing the pre-release buzz. Also winners are so great about tweeting or Instagramming when they win prizes and swag and that's bonus promotion.
So in the end, is it worth it to spend a lot on swag--no. Is it fun? Yes :) I've pared back mostly to practical items (bookmarks, bookplates, post cards) + stickers which were designed for free and relatively inexpensive.
I totally mis-read some fine print here lol. So...I'm not entering, despite my two rafflecopter entries. I don't think I'd ever write books since I read too many, I'd probably accidentally plagiarize something. Yikes!!!!
ReplyDeleteWell, they also make great gifts or giveaway items :)
DeleteI love to write. I have 8 completed novels that are not published. I have a hard time letting other people see my work. I mostly write young adult. I am always looking for new books and materials to read to increase my knowledge and skill.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on finishing so many manuscripts. You don't ever have to show them to anyone if you don't want to. Not everyone is writing to try to make money :) But if you want inspiration and advice, these are great books to check out!
DeleteI love to write. I have 8 completed novels that are not published. I have a hard time letting other people see my work. I mostly write young adult. I am always looking for new books and materials to read to increase my knowledge and skill.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, thanks for sharing! Very timely and informative especially to aspiring self-published authors who are clueless with book marketing. There are numerous ways of promoting an ebook starting with social media. All it takes is patience, hardwork and creativity and you're on the right track!
ReplyDeleteChatEbooks recently posted https://www.chatebooks.com/blog-Book-Marketing-5-Ways-to-Make-Money-by-Giving-Away-Free-Ebooks
Agree completely. Beth's book is ideal for those who don't even know where to begin with marketing.
DeleteThis is such a great interview that covers a number of things I had never really considered before. Thanks for the great post, as always, Paula. And thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by the blog, Kelly :) I promise at some point I will go back to posting things that are more than giveaways. After being overwhelmed and behind on everything for about 13 months, I am finally getting caught up!
DeleteI'm a reader!
ReplyDeleteYay, readers! :)
DeleteGreat post! I love this blog tour and I love all the advice! Thanks, Beth and Paula!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by :D
DeleteReally worth to read all info, thanks allot. I already bookmarked this great website.
ReplyDelete