Kima Jones of Jack Jones Literary Arts says, “Book publicity is book discovery.” This is true for both legacy marketing and social media marketing. In fact, if you have a publicist (or are doing your own outreach to magazines, reviewers, podcasts, etc.) your legacy and social media marketing campaigns will work in tandem. That means, social media marketing is more than just posting selfies and pictures of your lunch. It’s about building awareness around your book, your campaign, and you as an author.
Let’s first begin with debunking a couple of myths.
- All publishing houses provide publicity, so if your book is being published the publicity will be taken care of. Sorry — not true! Even if you do have publicity help, you will probably want to supplement it. And you’ll definitely want to add a social media campaign to your plan. Why? Because social media is the easiest and most cost effective way to connect with potential readers.
- Publicity is unaffordable. Ok, it is pricey. You can be looking at $10,000 or more to hire a publicist. But you can also hire someone to take care of small chunks of your campaign, such as only handling print media, only handling broadcast media, or only handling social media. Outsource the parts of publicity that you can’t or don’t want to deal with.
- Social media takes tons of time. It doesn’t have to. Sure, you can spend all day making reels, TikToks, and posts. You can also create a monthly plan, dedicate a day each month to making your posts, pre-schedule everything, and forget about it. A good social media strategy can result in a lot of traction with not a lot of time commitment.
IDEA GATHERING / PILLARS
- Think about your book in cultural context, such as news hooks and holidays to which it ties.
- Think about the themes of your book and make a list. This can be helpful when creating posts.
- Think about your origin story as a writer — in your life, in your career, and in the project you’re publicizing.
- Based on the ideas you came up with (above), decide on three messages. These are your brand pillars. Most of your social media posts should relate to these pillars. They’re also your touchstones when creating your content calendars.
- Soft promo vs. hard promo — Soft promo integrates lifestyle and culture. We also think of this as storytelling and value-adding when creating posts. It’s information you share that helps build name recognition (see below) and generate following WITHOUT directly selling anything. Hard promo offers specifics about a product or an event. You’ll include event time or sale price and a link to buy or participate. You social media posts need to be a combination of these, with a great focus (say 75% to 25%) on soft promo.
NAME RECOGNITION CAMPAIGN
While your social media campaign may center on a various topics (your book release, an upcoming author event, a tour), strategy should also include increasing name recognition. This means you’re not necessarily focused on IMMEDIATE SALES but on building your platform. Although social media has a lot of built-in immediacy, it’s also an important tool in the long game of brand awareness and community building.
HOW TO BUILD COMMUNITY
Showcase other authors and literary initiatives. Use your platform to share about your work and events, but also dedicate a percentage of your posts to shout out writers you love or whose books are coming out soon. If you support a literacy organization, a writers workshop, an initiative for youth writers, etc., shout it out! (And if such an organization is not yet on your radar — find one or two. Make sure you’re tagging the authors and organizations you mention!
TIMELINE
A traditional book campaign is 6-10 months; a social media campaign can follow this timeline. Allow at least 3-4 months leading up to the book launch to generate awareness and enthusiasm. This is when you can share a cover reveal, an excerpt, and reviews. You can also reveal book event dates and a tour schedule if applicable.
During and after the launch you’ll share images and videos from events, photos of fans with the book, reviews and quotes, and personal experiences from your events and travels.
Social media should extend well before and after the book campaign begins and ends so you’re not bombarding your followers with information and then returning to radio silence. Instead, think of your pre- and post-launch months (and years) as time for name recognition and community building, while also reminding followers about your book(s) and where to purchase your work.
