Having a web presence is essential for all writers in the twenty-first century.
Whether you write fiction, poetry, scripts, nonfiction or all of the above, social media can help boost your audience.
Having an already-established audience makes agents and publishers more likely to pick up your work because you’ve already got a guaranteed audience to sell your books to.
It’s a tough market out there, and the more you can do to prove to agents and publishers that you already have people who will buy your books, the more interested they’ll be.
If you write nonfiction, having a presence means you don’t have to reintroduce yourself to editors each time you contact them. Staying in touch with them using social media keeps you in their consciousness, making them more likely to think of you when the opportunity for a piece in your specialist area comes about.
It also gives readers somewhere to find out more information about you and your other work, wherever it’s published.
Even if you haven’t finished your work in progress yet, there’s no excuse for not starting to build your profile now. The sooner you start, the bigger your audience will be by the time your work is ready.
It’s best to focus your time on one or two. The more thinly you spread yourself, the less time you have to spend on each platform, and the harder it is to increase your following.
Below is a guide on which social media platforms are best suited to you and what you write.
Fiction
Facebook has the largest audience of any social media site. That’s a lot of potential book buyers, but also a lot of noise that potential book buyers need to drown out in order to find you.
Even if you don’t use Facebook Ads—which you’ll likely need to do at some point—having Facebook is a great way to connect with readers.
While the average post on a Facebook page will only be seen by 2% of your followers, authors such as J.A.Huss have talked of their success using Facebook groups.
Facebook groups allow you to create a group of engaged fans who are interested in you and your books, but who eventually turn into a network of friends.
If you take great photos, Instagram is perfect for catching your readers’ attention. It has one of the highest engagement rates out there and with hashtags like #bookstagram, it’s easy to find like-minded people.
YouTube
YouTube is one of the biggest search engines in the world. Not only that, but videos are on the rise. They’re the best way to catch someone’s attention.
But what can an author do with a YouTube channel?
The possibilities are endless: you could do Q&As, live book launches, book trailers, interviews with other authors, and more.
Romance author Tracy Bloom does a great job of using YouTube to market her books using book trailers.
Goodreads
If your book is on Amazon, it will appear on Goodreads eventually. It’s best to claim your book on Goodreads so that you have control over your author profile, your books’ descriptions, and can respond to comments and reviews.
You can also use Goodreads to track what you’re reading and books you want to read.
Poetry
Poets like Rupi Kaur built their following on Instagram and have gone on to have collections published.
Fans of Instagram poetry like their poetry short, snappy, and heartfelt. If you write long prose poetry or use complicated metaphors, Instagram is probably not the best place to post your poetry.
Tumblr
While Tumblr isn’t the most popular social media site out there, it’s easy for posts to go viral. People can share and comment on other people’s posts.
Much of what’s shared centres around particular fandoms, but artists such as Taylor Swift are also fans.
Coca-Cola also do a good job of using it too.
Screenwriting
Twitter is a great way to show your knowledge and share information about your works in progress.
Screenwriters such as Scott Myers and Bitter Script Reader use Twitter to offer commentaries on recent films and scripts, as well as the state of Hollywood.
Nonfiction
Hashtags such as #SundayBlogShare and #wwwblogs can help to boost the reach of your blog posts and introduce you to people with similar interests.
YouTube
Do you specialise in a particular topic? Why not create a tutorial on said topic?
Creating tutorials establishes you as an expert on a topic. This then helps to increase your audience’s trust and faith in you. The more you increase this, the more likely they are to share your content with their friends and family.
Out of all of the social media sites, LinkedIn is the best for networking. It’s aimed at people who want to improve their professional skills and network with people in the same industry.
You can meet likeminded people in LinkedIn groups and trade tips and advice on your craft.
Medium
Medium is a blogging platform that you can use either instead of a self-hosted blog, or alongside one. If you repost something from your blog, make sure to change it slightly, mention that it’s a repost, and link to where you found it originally so that you don’t affect your site’s SEO.
Over to You
What social media sites have you had success with? I’d love to hear your stories in the comments below!
What about using Facebook for Non-Fiction? Is it a waste of time? And how would I use Goodreads as a social platform? (Sorry, totally stupid with the technology…)
I wouldn’t say it’s a waste of time, but I would say that it depends on how you use it. It’s harder than ever to get seen on Facebook, so you really need to do something that stands out and resonates with your audience. If you like creating videos, it can still be great, but if you’re camera shy it’s going to be harder than ever to get noticed.
Goodreads is quite a tough one, and probably better for fiction. There are groups for just about everything imaginable on there, and they’re really great for networking. If you can befriend people on there who write in a similar area to you, you can promote each other’s content, too. Goodreads has become a lot like Facebook in that it’s very saturated and very hard to stand out. Giveaways can be a good way to get new followers, but some people enter them without really paying attention to what they’re signing up for (they just see a free book), so the quality can be quite low.
Overall it really depends on where you get the best quality leads from, and where you enjoy the most. There’s no point spending ages on a platform that you don’t enjoy and that doesn’t bring anyone to your books/content.
Hope that helps!
If ones aim is not to be published but still get an audience to comment on your work online Wattpad is recommendable.
A disadvantage is that to make your book known networking is a must.
Hi, I’ve been looking for a publishing platform recently and took a hard look at Wattpad.
Brilliant…if you are writing for female teen romance, about vampires, ghosts, pet adventures and so on. If not, fergeddaboutit.
I’m still looking for a platform for some useful adult non-fiction travel stories [with pix] ie how not to lose your leg after a Brown Recluse spider bite! How to get along with heavily armed Yemenis…Any suggestions because I can’t find the perfect platform?
Thanks and Good luck to you too!
Julian
Ps my 1,000 page website was recently destroyed by BlueHost so I suggest you never go near them!
Facebook — stay clear, hacked back in 2009, lost account complete nightmare;
Tumblr is for kids 16 and under not my target audience. A big waste of time.
LinkIn is for professional workers and as Authors are not considered professionals another waste of time. You get companies following wanting you to promote their company in your country. Annoying!
GoodReads — if you’re not on Amazon don’t bother since 2013 it belongs to them they ignore authors if not available on Kindle.
Instagram — people there click on pretty pictures, they don’t read the stuff below and don’t follow links.
Anchor, that’s new, might try that.
YouTube — after 4 years of posting two ebook videos no likes other than 6 and about 250 views total absolutely no sales, no ad revenues either too low for views/subscribers
Twitter for now, but whenever I post everything is drowned by retweets from other authors who follow thinking I’ll review their books for them for free.
Social Media is very Anti-Social. Trolls and people who tell you to get lost, ridicule yourself and your work. No body talks anything good. Book reviewers get the tally of followers and likes but humble authors get ignored completely.
My views in regards to social media has changed. After years of blogging, and being on social media such as Facebook, I no longer believe they are effective for the small time blogger or writer. People on Facebook are more interested in funny pictures and memes; things they can quickly thumbs up. People on Facebook DO NOT READ, and they’re not interested in reading. Anything more than a thumbs up, is just too much work for Facebook users. I’ve been proven write from time and time again. I think writers are better off on Quora and Medium. At least their users actually read!!!!
It’s true that it’s hard to get people to read things on Facebook, but it depends what your aim with social media is. If your aim is to sell books first and foremost, then no, it won’t work. If your aim is to build a community and interact with your readers, then it will. People ignore salesy posts and the algorithm kills them anyway. If you continually provide value, though, your readers will keep coming back to you.
I did a Facebook Live to promote the launch of Return to New York, and it got me several sales for an hour’s work. Some of those were new readers, too. The focus of the video was on my writing process, and why I write about what I do. People found that interesting and from that went on to read my fiction and nonfiction.
Before people want to buy from you, they have to know, like, and trust you first. The only way they’ll learn to know, like, and trust you is if you offer them something of value without any ulterior motives or asking them to part with their money. That builds brand loyalty, and from there, they’ll be willing to buy from you.
I think that these platforms, other than Facebook, are awesome. I never knew there were writing forums. Omg, I love to write! This is great! ??
I love the post Kristina…
I agree about your point about being spread to thin, when attempting multiple SM streams. Im now focusing on 1 – 2 for now (Pinterest and YouTube) with a view strengthing and increasing engagement and followers. Some lovely inspiration, so thanks for sharing that.
Robert – https://www.awerefirstpublishing.com
Youtube – AwereFirstPublishing
Pinterest – kindlebooks8566
Have ever someone used Wechat to post their academic blog? In China, thee are more and more scholar begin to create their personal Wechat public platform to broadcast their new researches.
For sure on YouTube, you can promote a book with success
– YouTube is, in essence, a free resource, accessible to everyone. As an author, you can take advantage of the huge levels of daily traffic that YouTube will receive.
– YouTube rewards video publishers who create very interesting and relevant content. Authors are renowned for creating highly engaging writing content; therefore, this environment is perfect for authors who have the ability to transform their written content into a visual source.
– YouTube is the second largest search engine on the Internet. As a self-published author, it gives you the power to put helpful and informative videos in front of people most likely to buy your book.
– A YouTube channel takes literally minutes to set up. There is no excuse for not installing one!
Tip 1 – Consider creating an informational video that explains the content of your book. It might be helpful to create a video that will promote your book and explain to viewers who it is, what the chapters are, and how they will be useful to the reader.
Tip 2 – Create a video about each relevant chapter in your book. For example, if one of the chapters in your non-fiction book focuses on self-help, create a video that visually shows the self-help tutorial. For example, I recently created a book on mechanical comprehension tests and filmed a 10-minute video that teaches people how to approach some of the questions.
Tip 3 – If you have written and published a fictional book or a novel, follow tip 1, then create videos based on the main characters in the book or on a specific plot or theme.
Remember not to give too much information during the video, because you want the viewer to come back to learn more.
WordPress. Some of the best blogs I’ve ever read were created on wordpress. Pick your topic, your style, your content. You define it. It’s a good platform to reach people who like to read, whatever the subject matter.
You can monetize, or not. I like the professional feel to the blogs, no matter what the style of the blogger.
Frankly, I’m a nonfiction writer who writes useful articles primarily for my own benefit, but post them on my blog to save them and because their benefit can be fairly broad.
I would like all writing platforms to allow all competent work to be published. As social media and other writing platforms work by algorithms, only the most current articles, videos, thoughts are likely to be processed, and usually by the rich, the powerful, the famous, those with connections, those with a huge social media following, the beautiful, and the young, and the so-called marginalized groups, [that should include me then].
I am fed up with nobody reading works in a niche market. We have nowhere else to self-publish. However, not enough traffic is being accumulated because we either can’t afford the premium rate or we do not have important connections. And this is wrong and unfair.
Please don’t give me a useless list of writing blogs, or other forums because I have used them all!
The only way to make this a fair, honest society is to give everybody a chance of writing whether it be a fiction writer, a poet, a writer about slightly controversial issues [within reason] or just somebody that has a story to tell without having to be penalized for not being on Facebook or having your own blog page. We deserve to be read too!
Thank you for sharing your perspective and this informative list! My strategy is to not place all my eggs in one basket but to use a variety of social media platforms. At first my goal was to sell my books, but now I consider that secondary to building an audience around my free newsletter. I had been blogging, primarily, but I was concerned that I wasn’t connecting with anyone. With my Substack newsletter, all of the same content is delivered right to subscribers’ inboxes, and it was very easy to transfer my blog subscribers over to Substack. The thing I dislike about Substack is that they make it very difficult for search engines to find you, so I cross-pollinate by posting the same content on Medium along with a link to my Substack newsletter at the end of each post in Medium. My fiction blends history, ethnography, fantasy, humor and sci-fi. It’s exceedingly weird and difficult to describe, which puts me in a quandy when pitching it to people. I address this by serializing my stories–essentially offering them to audiences in small doses–and interspersing those fiction posts with nonfiction essays explaining some aspect regarding what inspires me, why I chose the subjects I write about, or the techniques I use for historical fiction writing. Whatever I’m doing, I try to be judicious about the content I’m posting so that I’m not overwhelming peoples’ inboxes or wearing out my welcome. I’m also a member of numerous semi-relevant Facebook groups, and I’ve created some of my own. How has all this paid off? It’s too early to tell, but it has helped me clarify my values as a writer. I used to think selling books was my first priority, but selling books was never anything more than an index for having an audience, and there are many other ways to go about doing that. I think the problem many of us are facing is that the capitalist paradigm we’ve been beholden to just doesn’t work. There are many reasons I write, but “selling myself” just isn’t one of them. It’s a necessary evil that we’re continually cued to treat as all-important. Social media is designed to favor meaningless interactions, and shallow, brief, flashy, attention-grabbing content, not thought-provoking or in-depth creations. It’s no wonder writers flounder and flail in this universe. It wasn’t made for us. It’s an awkward fit at best, but maybe with effort we can use it to our advantage. I am grateful to it for helping me discern what’s really important to me from the external messaging that contributes to our overall frustration and despair. Thanks again for the thought-provoking piece.
Hello. Do you know which social media site I can use for coloring books?
Great article, thank you! I would add that literary agents tend to use Twitter the most it seems to me, so if that is where you are in the process, then it could well be the best platform.