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Best Practices for Authors Looking to Optimize Their Marketing Strategy

by Kimberley Grabas

Best Practices for Authors Looking to Optimize Their Marketing Strategy | YourWriterPlatform.com

Ilan Nass and his company have consistently helped businesses launch, track, and improve their social media marketing and ad campaigns. In this guest post, he’ll share his expertise and social strategies, outlining simple ways authors can optimize their marketing strategy to grow their network and increase book sales.


It’s an unfortunate truth that writing a good book doesn’t guarantee an author’s success.

With so many others vying for readers’ attention, it’s important to implement an effective marketing strategy. Various brands rely on best practices instilled by a Facebook advertising specialist or Instagram expert to promote their products, and authors may consider doing the same to attract a broader audience.

However, if hiring a professional is not currently in the budget, the onus is on authors to understand which marketing channels are available, and which will fit best with their marketing objectives.

Popular options include various social media platforms, a website, and email marketing. The tips here will help you sell more books by explaining how to independently optimize each channel.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog, Social Media Tagged With: book marketing, marketing strategy, social media

Advertising Your Books on Facebook & Instagram: 5 Actionable Tips for Authors

by Kimberley Grabas

Advertising Your Books on Facebook & Instagram_ 5 Actionable Tips for Authors _ YourWriterPlatform.com
ads for authors
ads for authors

ads for authors facebook instagram

If you’re interested in ways to manage your Facebook ads more efficiently, you’re in luck. The following post is by Ricardo Fayet, one of the founders of Reedsy* (a network of world-class publishing professionals that provide authors access to a diverse roster of talented editors, designers, marketers, and ghostwriters). Ricardo walks us through five key ways to implement Facebook and Instagram ads that get results.

(Note: Links marked with as asterisk denote affiliate links, which means that your choice to buy the service or product will result in a commission for Your Writer Platform  – at no extra cost to you. For more information, click here.)

While Facebook ads for authors are becoming increasingly competitive as more and more independent authors make use of them (and target the same audiences), they are still one of the best avenues to market a book.

Since Facebook has data about pretty much anyone out there, their advertising platform makes it easy for any author — no matter how niche their books are — to find their audience and serve ads to their readers directly in their Facebook or Instagram feeds. More importantly, ads are relatively cheap to test: you can get started with $5 a day and see results.

The only issue is, Facebook’s Ad Manager has become quite a complex interface, which changes almost every month as Facebook rolls out new features and possibilities. While these are generally a good thing for experienced advertisers, they make the learning curve even steeper for authors looking to get in the game.

In this post, I’ll help you cut some steps in the learning curve by giving you five actionable tips you can implement right away — whether that’s to improve the results of your existing campaigns, or to set up your first one!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog, Social Media Tagged With: Ads, Advertising, Facebook, Instagram, social media

Social Media for Authors: Quick Tips to Get It Right

by Kimberley Grabas

Social Media for Authors_ Quick Tips to Get It Right _ YourWriterPlatform.com

No matter how difficult it proves to be to get your ideas and stories down on paper, it’s more often the promotional aspects of “being a writer” that become the biggest obstacles for today’s author. In the following post, professional writer, Jessica Fender, shares a bit of her struggle in “getting the book out there”, as well as her suggestions on how to effectively use social media channels to engage readers and build relationships you’ll leverage for this, and every book you write.

Have you managed to finish your book and are you publishing independently? Great! Now, for the hard part – getting people to read it. ‘The hard part?’ you mumble. ‘Do you know how difficult it is to write a book?’

Yeah, I do. It’s difficult. Unfortunately, the marketing and social media plan can be pretty tough as well. In part, that’s down to the idea that you feel you’ve finished it. That’s certainly how I felt. I really didn’t want to go out there and sell it to people.

Actually, that’s not exactly how it went. First, I assumed the book would sell itself. People would read it. They would like it and tell other people about it. And so it would grow. If that was your plan as well then here’s my advice: Get another plan.

Books don’t sell themselves. Marketing sells books. So, if you really want to get your baby out there and read and you don’t have (or want) a publisher, you’re going to have to do that part as well!

Now, the good news

That sounds depressing? It is a little bit, I’ll freely admit. At the same time, there is a silver lining to this marketing cloud. Today it has become easier than ever to actually get your book out there in front of people. Mainly because of social media. If you know how to implement social platforms into your marketing strategy correctly, you can get some serious traction without having to spend some serious dough. In fact, there are plenty of authors who managed to do so. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog, Social Media Tagged With: book marketing, social media

Everyone’s A Winner! 9 Tips for Hosting Fun (And Successful) Book Contests

by Kimberley Grabas

9 Tips for Hosting Fun (And Successful) Book Contests)

Sweepstakes, contests and giveaways are becoming increasingly popular amongst authors vying for the attention of potential readers and book buyers. In this guest post by Writer’s Relief, you’ll get some helpful tips on how to make your contest a winner!

For self-published or traditionally-published authors alike, marketing is a key aspect of the book writing process.

Unfortunately, it’s also one of the toughest.

Getting your book out there into the minds and, hopefully, the hands of readers can take tremendous effort and dedication—so why not make it fun?

We’re here to help you creatively and enthusiastically host a book contest or giveaway!

9 Tips To Host A Book Contest

To start, let’s look into the two different types of contests you can host:

Sweepstakes contest: With a sweepstakes, the winner is chosen at random.

Skill-based contest: With skill-based, the winner is chosen based on talent.

For book giveaways, it’s easiest to do a sweepstakes, and it’s also more likely that people will participate.

1. What’s your objective?

First things first: what does success look like? Before diving in, make sure you have an objective in mind.

It will be difficult to determine if your contest was successful, if you haven’t first established what you are trying to achieve.

Here are a few possibilities:

  • Increase awareness of your new release.
  • Generate reviews.
  • Increase newsletter subscribers.
  • Increase social media followers (Facebook fans, Twitter followers, etc.).
  • Increase sales of your book.

Once you have zeroed in on the results you hope to get from your contest, you are in a much better position to structure your contest in a way that will help you attain them. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing & Promotion, Social Media Tagged With: contest, giveaway, sweepstakes

How to Create a Custom Facebook Cover Image That Gets Noticed (Without Spending a Dime)

by Kimberley Grabas

Facebook cover image post graphicCan’t afford a designer, but have Facebook cover image envy?

Do you want to have an amazing cover photo that attracts new readers as well as keeps your current fans coming back for more?

Well you’re in luck!

As of July 1st, 2013, Facebook has relaxed their guidelines somewhat, allowing you to add more than just the ‘20% text maximum’ to your image, as well as any other info you think may entice your fans to stick around.

Add to that the option to use the free online photo editing software site known as PicMonkey, and we’re in Facebook-cover-image-making business!

Tips for Making the Most of Your Facebook Cover Image

Before we jump into the ‘how-to’ of crafting your cover image, let’s check out a few pointers for making a Timeline cover photo really stand out:

1. Branding

The colors, mood and tone that you use on your website and other promotional materials should also be echoed in your cover image.

Remember, everything that you choose to reflect your brand is woven throughout your author platform and reinforces the image you wish to represent. So take special care in choosing images that support the vibe or feel you wish for your readers to experience when visiting. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog, Social Media Tagged With: Facebook, Facebook cover image, photo, PicMonkey, video

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