First I will say I am twitterly ignorant, and I am much more experienced with facebook yet through my research for marketing my first book, Beyond Gavia, I read that twitter is where it's at. I had a twitter account and through the height of irritation I canceled it (yes I was having a temper tran trum). I plan on reactiviating my account; Twitter gives this option for a month after cancelation. I'd like to know how many other of you writers utilize twitter to build your author platform, and how do you go about doing it? I assume you obtain followers by chance or by being known, ect. Any advice on the use of twitter and how I can use fully to my advantage?
I don't have experience using Twitter for this, but if I was to do this - and I probably will in the future, I would be tempted to make a new account specifically for that purpose. That way you can tailor it to your needs without affecting your personal Twitter account (if you decide to have one). Another thing I would check out is making a Facebook Page to promote your book and look at the apps available that let you use just 1 of the formats and copies your posts from that one directly over to the other one.
You should, I hear its a great way to promote, but I guess I just don't understand how to obtain followers. I do have a FB page just for my book, and just for me as an author as well.
I have been using twitter for a while now and the golden rule that I stick too, is to give more than you take. So always try and mention other authors, blog posts etc more than you plug your own work. I have done this and I have built up a solid following of people that I am happy with. Throughout the week I will read tweets and if there are people that I really like, I will make a note to tweet them in my "follow Friday tweet". Using hashtags such as #wip #indie and your genre of choice will also help. Beware of 'Bots' though, if you tweet about a "trending topic", sometime you will be followed by bots and they may spam you. Also never just click on a link if it is from a first time tweeter, these are normally laden with malware and viruses. Apart from that downside it is really great to get out there and share your opinions with other. Good luck with your books and if you need more help my twitter is @bskelhorn
Promote your book shamelessly through Twitter, Facebook, whatever means you can. This is especially true if this is your first book and you have not yet established yourself as an authour. I just published my book as an eBook through Smashwords (google it). It is called "Terror Illusion". There, a bit of shameless promotion for you.
Thanks guys. I have a bit of a problem tooting my own horn. Manic writer, what other kinds of avenues do you use to promote? I find promoting is exhausting. I've been promoting my first book, Beyond Gavia, as much as possible. It's a science fiction about a young woman who is battling cancer. I was inspired to write the story because my aunt has been battling cancer on and off for the last 8 years. I'd like to donate a percentage of sales to the cancer society. I thought about contacting them telling them, hoping they would maybe help in promotion yet I don't want them to think I am using cancer as a sales catalyst. Any opinions here? Bskelhorn, thanks for the twitter info. I only know two people who use twitter. How to I go about getting followers? As of now I have no followers so I would be tweeting to no one.
Follow and interact with people who you think will be interested in what you are promoting or who have followers who would also start following you. See what hash tags they are using to promote themselves. Once you start the ball rolling it's pretty viral - you get a bunch of followers, they add you to their lists which is followed and re-listed...
Find authors of similar novels and follow all their followers, and make sure you have a link in your bio that allows them to purchase your book.
Make sure to put a picture of yourself on twitter. Your cute and it can help sell. I have a friend who is a former LFL Player and she is cute. She does some charity modeling sort of stuff and she is very active on her facebook. It didn't take her too long before she completely filled up her facebook with the max number of followers and was forced to startup an additional page that allowed more than 3,000 followers (or something like that)
I'm new to the twitter world, too. It's hard. I don't know how to go about using it, and I'm not promoting a book. I think you just add people, and tweet, and if you seem interesting, they'll follow you. As far as I know that's how it works.
Fun scenario: If you want to chat to a boy/girl (In other words, go on the pull), you put the effort in and go to where the types of people you want to attract go, and then you chat to them. Business, and writing is a business, is no different. If you want to attract readers, then you have to go where the types of reads you want to attract are, and millions of them are on twitter! It's a no-brainer! When pitching to agents or publishers, one of the most important things they look for is a strong online presence. Twitter is easy. It's just short punchy sentences. Thoughts, ideas, funnies, that sort of thing. But don't promote, or if you do, do it sparingly or it will annoy followers. Be real, be honest, be you. Chat. Be friendly. To start with, follow other people and most people will follow you back. When you see people you follow having conversations that interest you, then follow the person they're chatting to. In no time at all, you will build up a huge following. Although i say promote sparingly, if something exciting happens, like you get offered a six figure publishing deal, yell about it on twitter, and yell loud! Something like that would get retweeted and in a matter of minutes you could find your "I've done it!!!!!!" tweet read by literally millions of people. Which for an author looking to promote their work is brilliant. For a writer i can't overstate how important twitter and facebook are. Oh, when you're looking for people to follow, avoid the trap of following lots and lots of other authors - you don't want writers, you want readers! Follow the types of people who are likely to read your work, follow book groups, etc. I also follow agents, publishers (go onto publishing websites, get a list of people who work there in marketing, sales team, etc, and follow them on twitter, it's a great way of finding out what's going on). The other thing to say is it's very addictive, so be careful you don't end up a twitter addict because it's easily done!
I'm quite an avid user of Twitter, and I think it has great potential for helping you sell books. If you use it right. This means not endlessly shouting "BUY MY BOOK" at people, but building, as you've said, a presence. Which means you have to tweet like a person. About your life, about things that interest you, and yes about writing and books too. If people find you interesting or amusing or informative, then they will follow you. You then have a platform for getting attention for your work. There are a lot of writers on Twitter with whom you can connect. There are also, as others have said, a lot of readers. It's all about community, and the aim is to be a functioning and contributing part of that community.
