20 Things I Learned from JRW's "How to Sell the Heck out of Your Book"

l-r: Chanel Cleeton, Stacy Hawkins Adams, and Jane Friedman at the JRW Writing Show

I had the pleasure recently of attending James River Writers’ “The Writing Show.” The topic was “How to Sell the Heck out of Your Book” with Chanel Cleeton, Stacy Hawkins Adams, and Jane Friedman. Here’s what I learned:

1. Write a fabulous book. Focus your energy on your writing.

2. Readers and word of mouth sell books.

3. Authors have an advantage when they write a series. It keeps readers coming back for more.

4. Authors need to read a lot and know their genre.

5. Books with good covers sell.

6. Make sure that you keep an email list and create a newsletter. You own this list. Make sure you maintain it.

7. Be active on social media.

8. Make sure you have an author website. Keep it current. Your website is your business card.

9. Jane Friedman said that you need an email list, website, and social media platform, and you need to maintain all three.

10. Build relationships with your readers.

11. Be creative when you plan events and launches. Who can you partner with?

12. Look at where you spend your advertising and marketing dollars. Data is your friend. It can help you set your goals.

13. You should start your marketing plan for a new book four months before it launches.

14. Networking is important. Build relationships with readers, authors, booksellers, and others.

15. If you ask people to do something for you (e.g. post a review, blurb your book), make it easy for them. Send them a summary and an information/press sheet.

16. Time management is an issue for authors. There is a lot to juggle. You need to find balance.

17. Hope is not a strategy for book marketing. You need a plan.

18. Don’t get in panic mode over book marketing. You need to be in it for the long-term.

19. Always be professional.

20. Know where your readers get their information or hang out. Figure out ways to reach them there.

How Do You Decide What Author Events to Attend?

There are so many events and writer functions to choose from. It’s often a tough decision to make on whether to go or pass. I have several author friends who weigh their decision based on how many books they think they’ll sell.

Your writing is your business, and you do need to make sure that you have time to write and market your work. You, as a professional, also need opportunities to sell your books. And your time is valuable.

That being said, there are times when I’ll do a volunteer event or a workshop where I don’t have an expectation for book sales, but there are often benefits or surprises that go along with these.

Every event is an opportunity to talk to readers. Because I’ve attended an event, I have been invited to a radio interview, podcast interviews, marketing opportunities, book clubs, and other speaking engagements.

I love libraries and writing programs for new writers (especially kids), and I try to make time to do these kinds of events. I spoke to an English class recently about the mystery genre, and I was floored that multiple students had brought copies of my books for me to sign.

I did a group event at a wine festival once. It was hot. We were outside, and book sales were slow. But we did have an opportunity to talk to hundreds of people. I gave out bookmarks, pencils, and pens. I was also pleasantly surprised that my ebook numbers jumped the next week. People who were not ready to buy a book at the wine festival bought one later online.

Once, I did a book club presentation at a senior facility for a friend who was a program director. After a wonderful discussion, all the participants asked me to come back for a book signing.

So, yes, as an author you need to make sure that you divide your time. If you’re on the road constantly, you’re not writing your next book. But, if you don’t go out, you don’t have opportunities to talk to readers. I think it’s a balancing act.

Ways to Get Traffic to Your Website

All authors need a website with your current information and all your books. Getting people to visit your website can be a challenge sometimes. Here are some ideas to drive traffic to your website.

1. Have a blog on your website and blog regularly. Pick a schedule that works for you and try to stick to it. Find your niche of what you want to share (e.g. tips about writing, social media tips, book promotion ideas, recipes, crafts, etc.).

2. Share links to your blog posts on your other social media sites for advertising.

3. Make sure to put your website’s URL on all of your other social media sites. If there’s not a specific field for it, make sure to include it in your biography or description.

4. Find other authors like you and do a blog take-over. She posts on your blog while you post on hers. You swap audiences and hopefully introduce new readers to you.

5. Find ways to have guest bloggers or interviews of others on your blog. When the guests share your post, other readers find your site. On my Pens, Paws, and Claws blog, we have #WriterWednesday interviews with guest authors.

6. Build a network (formal or informal) of other bloggers/writers who will share each others’ posts. You spread your reach to all their followers.

7. Review books on your blog.

8. Do guest posts on others’ sites. Include your biography, website URL, book links, and social media links at the bottom of your post.

9. Put your website’s URL on your bookmarks and business cards.

10. Some authors give away freebies or have contests on their websites. Others give away short stories or excepts from a future work.

11. Make sure you keep your content on your blog/website current. If people visit, and things are dated, they often don’t return.

5 Keys for Authors and Social Media

Social media for authors is a vast subject, and if you ask ten people what works for them, you’ll get ten different answers. The algorithms and features on a lot of these sites change frequently, so something that worked for you last month doesn’t work the same way now. I’m doing some workshops in March for writers and their social media platforms. Here are the five things that I think are key for writers to know.

1. Repeat what works for you. Try a variety of the platforms, but choose one or two that work for you and your readers and focus your time and energy there. If not, you will work yourself silly trying to keep up with all the posts, comments, and emails.

2. Guard your writing time. Life and about a hundred other distractions will get in your way. Don’t let your social media time take over your writing time. You should be writing your next book.

3. Be real and be social. Participate in conversations and network on these sites. Like, comment, and share others’ posts. Add to conversations. Start a conversation. And be timely. It looks odd if you comment on a thread from three months ago.

4. Know your readers and your audience. Know the demographics (e.g. age, preferences, and styles) of your audience and post topics interesting to them. Facebook and Twitter analytics can help you see who is viewing and following your accounts. Find your niche. Your audience is not everyone who reads. You need to narrow it down and target your posts and marketing to that demographic.

5. Make a plan. Decide which social media sites you want to focus on and figure out a schedule that works for you. I check my major sites every morning at breakfast. If I have time, I check during lunch. And I hop on after dinner and review updates. I also schedule posts on Fridays for the following week. A schedule helps me stay active on my sites, while balancing other things.

Where Do I Start with Social Media Platforms? Tips for Authors

There are so many forms of social media out there. Where and when do I start as an author? It can be overwhelming.

I say start before you launch your first book. Start building your presence. I would pick a few sites and add others later. You can share information, links to blogs, book reviews, and other interesting information before your book is published.

Before you begin, you’ll need a professional photograph and a short biography. Make sure you have the links to your blog. As you set up your new accounts, remember that you can always go back and add or change information later.

I use Canva to create the artwork for headers (page banners) and posts. They have the templates already sized to fit all the major sites. This way you can customize your look and feel and make it match across all your sites.

Some authors struggle with whether to create a separate website/social media sites for each book. My recommendation is to create one for your author brand (either your name or your pen name). You, as author, are the focus, and your site should highlight your books. Now, many authors who write under different pen names often have separate sites for each identity.

Here are some other things you need to think about…

• Make sure you have a website with a blog. Your website’s URL should be your name or your pen name. Make sure that you have a site that you (or someone you pay) can keep updated. Nobody wants to see your information from 2004. (The reason most people have a blog on their website is to have a way to add new content regularly to the site. Readers and followers don’t revisit sites where the content is outdated.)

• Create an author Facebook page. After you gain followers, you’ll have access to analytics/metrics. The analytics show how many people interacted with your posts. On author pages, you can schedule posts. Some people use their personal Facebook page. Personal pages do have a cap on the number of friends you can have, and the algorithms limit the number of people who see certain types of posts.

• Create an Amazon author page and connect all of your books to it. I also connected my blog, so followers can see recent posts.

• Many social media sites can be connected. If you post to your author Facebook page, you can have it automatically tweet on Twitter. Decide if you want the same post on multiple sites. It can be a time-saver. But one draw back is that a post formatted for one social media site, may not fit or appear the same way on another. An example is if you auto-Tweet a Facebook post, it puts a link in the tweet to the Facebook post. Your followers on Twitter have to click the link to see what it is. (There’s often no picture.) Some people avoid these types of post, and you’re not getting action on that post.

• There are other tools (free or for a fee) that will help you monitor and schedule posts on social media sites. As you gain experience, you may want to look at some of these to help you be efficient with your time. (I use a free version of TweetDeck to schedule my Twitter posts. I pay for Tweepi to help me manage followers. I also use a free mobile app called Followers to manage my Instagram account.)

• Find the social media sites that you like and build your following there. You are more apt to visit those sites frequently and stay active on them. My go-to sites are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

• Balance your writing and social media marketing time. It’s all important, but you need to be writing your next book.

Why Authors Should Have a Newsletter/Email List...

As an author, it’s important that you have a mailing list (for emails). Platforms like Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, where you build your following, own the contact and make/change the rules. If your account is suspended or the site goes down, you no longer have access/contact information for your fans and followers. It’s a good idea to have a sign up sheet where you can collect names and email addresses. This is your list and you maintain it.

I use MailChimp to create my newsletters and maintain my contact list. If folks subscribe or unsubscribe, the application takes care of it. (You are required to unsubscribe those who request it.) The services vary, and you should choose one based on what you need, how often you publish, and how many emails are on your list. With these sites, you can also export your list to keep it as a backup.

Many authors offer something free (a short story or character information that’s not available anywhere else) to new newsletter subscribers. Sometimes, that’s a good hook to get people interested.

I have a page on my website for my newsletter. I also have a sign up form on the main page.

The list of email addresses belongs to you, so you should spend time cultivating it. I keep signup sheets and clipboard in my bag for events. This list is valuable. You know they are readers who are interested in your work.

Does Your Website Need a Health Check?

People often create a website and update it only occasionally. Authors need to periodically check their sites to make sure they’re current (and interesting). New material (and your author blog), keep readers coming back to your site. Here’s my checklist for author websites.

1. Make sure your photo (author headshot) and biography are current. Your photo should be recent and professional.

2. Include a list of events (including online ones like Facebook parties) on your site. Make sure that you keep the list up to date. No one wants to see your events from 2010.

3. Check all of your links on your site to make sure that they still work. Make sure that you can move from page to page and your pages appear as you want them to look.

4. Fill out your “contact me” form and verify that you get the email notification.

5. Make sure that your newsletter signup form works correctly. You don’t want to miss people who are interested in your work.

6. Include all of your publications with buy-links. I have a page for books, novellas, and short stories. Put your most current book first or at the top. When you do links, include multiple outlets to share the love among book retailers.

7. Make sure you have a media page that has several biographies of different lengths (100, 250, and 500 words). Many authors include photos and book covers here. If you’re asked to do a presentation or someone’s doing an article or blog post on you, they’ll use the material on this page.

8. Make sure that you have links to all your other social media sites. Verify that they work.

9. Include your blog on your website (if you blog regularly). Again, people don’t want to stop by and see that your last post was in 2005. Pick a blogging schedule that works for you and try to stick to it. This is a great way to have fresh content on your site and to keep readers returning.

10. Remove any web pages that are no longer useful. Many of your web applications will let you deactivate or archive them in case you want to use parts of them later.

11. It is great to have someone create your site for you, but you either need a personal assistant or publicist to keep it current, or you need to maintain it yourself. Content from the last decade does not inspire readers to return to your site.

12. If you’re looking for new ideas for your site, visit other authors’ pages that are in your genre. Look at the color choices, layouts, and content. Look at the order of their pages (links or tabs at the top).

13. Look at your webpage on a computer, tablet, and cell phone. Most web services create pages that are “mobile friendly” and adapt to the screen on the device. But there are still some that don’t. Make sure your site looks professional on a variety of devices.

Social Media Sites Need Care and Feeding

Social media is all about networking, connecting, and relationships. Some authors create their sites to build their platforms and then ignore them. It’s important to have a presence in a lot of different places, and it’s time-consuming to keep them up to date and active. You need to be able to respond to comments and conversations. You also need time to like, share, and comment on others’ posts.

Here are some tips that help me balance writing, the social media monster, book marketing, and all the other things that life throws at me.

• Create a routine of when you check your sites. I check during breakfast, at lunch, and at the end of the day. in the evenings, I multitask and check on my social media sites during TV time.

• Schedule posts on your sites. This helps you to get ahead and have regular posts even when I’m not online. I schedule tweets after midnight for time zones other than the U.S.

• Create posts that stimulate comments or conversations. Ask your followers what they’re reading or what book they’d recommend. Talk about favorite characters, sleuths, and movies. Conversations and shares help expand your reach.

• Share information that is helpful to your followers.

• Make sure that you like, comment, and share others’ posts. Some authors forget that it’s not all about them.

• People love to be recognized. If you’re at an event or with others, make sure to take a picture and tag them. And look at the photo before you post it. Make sure that it’s flattering. No one wants to be the one with the goofy-look on her face.

• On a lot of social media sites, there are bots posing as followers. When you follow them back, they often drop you. There are applications (some free and some that have a cost) that help you see who is no longer following you. I go in and clean up my Twitter and Instagram followers about once a month.

• Look at your posts. They shouldn’t be all “buy my book.”

• Make sure that you’re not posting the exact same post on all your sites.

• Every quarter, check your biography on your sites and make sure it's current. The artwork, photo, and color/font schemes should be similar. This is your brand, and you want it to be cohesive. Make sure that you have a photo, banner, biography, and link to your website on all your social media sites.