This post is a repost from Filles Vertes Publishing, posted with permission here. This post was originally written by me and posted on their platform.

Does social media sell books?

Social media includes a variety of platforms that each have unique features. However, all platforms have one purpose: connection. In theory, if an author is connecting to their audience then it should lead to books sales.

But that doesn’t always happen. Hopeful authors will often start many social media accounts only to realize that their follower count isn’t leading to book sales. They might struggle to come up with content or feel weary about interacting with their audience.  

So, why aren’t you selling books?

Authors that struggle to sell books will often have timelines flooded with graphic advertisements and little real interaction with their audience. These authors might only have other authors trying to sell their books in their audience. These authors might repost the same advertisements 5-10x a day in hopes that it’ll somehow be more interesting the second time around. 

If you feel a little called out here, don’t worry. I’m going to give some tips on how to turn that around.

The problem with the hypothetical author above is that they aren’t “connecting” with their audience as much as they are just shouting at them. I’m not going to say those methods have never worked, but it’s unlikely. The one exception here might be the #Bookstagram crowd that truly relishes professional book photography.

As an author on social media, you don’t really need to post about your book that often in order to sell it. You can give reminders about new releases or post a quote pulled from the best page in your book. You can occasionally post ads on your timeline. However, you don’t want to do that all the time because it’s highly likely that your followers on social media have already bought your book (or they are following back and won’t ever buy it.) You probably don’t need to “preach to the choir.”

Especially if you only have one book out, you should be using your social media to nurture the audience that you already have. Create interesting content for them! That might mean new author interviews, blog posts about your journeys writing in a new genre or sharing snippets into your life. You must tailor this to your own audience. Don’t only post pictures of your kids of your audience is mostly teenagers, for example. They’re cute but maybe not that interesting to a 16-year-old. 

If you only post the same pictures or Facebook memes, your audience might get bored. You don’t want them to forget about you or they won’t remember to buy your next book when it comes out! 

While it’s fantastic to post about your book sometimes (especially if there’s a sale or a freebie), you don’t want to be too repetitive. Advertisements will have a greater return on investment if you use them as intended (paid advertisements) and use social media to notify your readers when something new and/or exciting comes up. 

How can you use social media to increase book sales?

Can you sell books on social media? Yes, but you must be perceptive to your audience. You have to be willing to produce interesting content. That sounds kind of crazy, especially if you have already not made enough on your book to buy a coffee with. But it’s necessary to build a lasting connection with your readers. Readers can’t be a fan of someone that they know nothing about. 

If you feel like you’re already doing everything right and somehow you still aren’t seeing any results, you need to track your engagements more closely. You can create an account on social media management websites and simply filter for the top posts each week.

Keep track of when you post and how much engagement each post gains. If you notice one post does well, highlight it! At the end of each week or month, you can go back and find which posts did the best. Then, you can make sure to try and create similar posts in the future to better tailor your content to your audience.

When you look at your social media account by the data, rather than how much you personally liked one post or another, it’s easier to change up what you’re doing. For instance, if you love posting photos of your breakfast each morning but none of the posts are popular with your audience, you can consider only posting your breakfast occasionally or when it’s relevant (like on National Waffle Day!)

Check out these other articles on social media and building an author platform for more help:

This no-nonsense article from BookBuzzr give you three ways to sell more books on Twitter.

The Creative Penn has an abundance of posts on social media for authors. There’s bound to be some information that is useful to you whether you are looking to self-publish or publish traditionally.

If you’re looking for ideas about what to post on social media, check out this article on Inc.com that gives 10 great ideas (with examples!)

Those aren’t paid sponsors, just some helpful links that I’ve found around the internet.

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