Grow Your eBook Readership One Fan at a Time

Last updated: April 25, 2014

So, you’ve just published an eBook, have a brand new author page where it’s featured and can’t wait to tell the world about it. Well… where do you start?

If you’re like every other author on the planet – not to mention every other reader – you’ll want to make social media “ground zero” for your first next or even “latest” book marketing campaign.

To help you get started, this article will explore four simple, useful, effective and above all profitable ways to incorporate social media in your promotional efforts to help spread the word about your brand new ebook:

Step 1: Start Strong with a Powerful Book Trailer

The old adage, “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t quite work for ebook authors. Instead, we must spread the word using a variety of tools provided by social media. One such method is to start strong with a powerful book trailer.

Let’s face it: we live in a visual age. As much as people love their books, they love to watch videos about books. So why not combine the two by making a book trailer designed to show off your book’s storyline, characters and setting while also appealing to today’s visual crowd?

Book trailers are a great way to communicate with modern readers, even reluctant modern readers, by making what amounts to a movie trailer… for a book! If you’re looking for some great examples of popular, effective book trailers, simply visit YouTube and search for “book trailer.” You’ll find not just dozens, but hundreds of thousands!

Take a look at those that interest you and study what makes them so special. Then try to recreate that magic on your own. If you’re tech savvy, you can create your own or, if not, you may want to research companies who do professional looking book trailers for a reasonable fee.

We don’t recommend breaking the bank on promotional efforts, but a book trailer is a vibrant representation of your book to a huge audience of potential readers, and this is one area you don’t want to scrimp on.

Step 2: Measure Your ROI (Return on Investment) for Maximum Exposure

One thing many authors assume, unwisely, is that all social media is created equally – and is equally effective. The fact is, social media can be a major “time vampire” with all the sites, choices and maintenance required to build a strong, healthy and profitable author platform.

One way to ensure that the time you’re spending is maximized is to measure where the majority of your social media traffic is coming from. This helps you determine something crucial to every author: a return on your investment, or ROI. So before you commit to any one social media platform, make sure that you can measure its metrics effectively.

For instance, many authors choose to host a blog as a central hub for their book promotions. This is a great idea, but there are just as many blog hosting companies out there as there are social media platforms. Make sure you choose one that keeps track of, simply and visibly, where viewers are coming from. This way you can see where your traffic originates and, if it’s one-sided from one or two social media sources, focus your energies there rather than spending an equal amount of time on sites that simply don’t pay off.

When it comes to hosting your author page, choose a platform that is going to make it easy for you to measure traffic, hits, buys and visits. Here at Payhip, for instance, we allow you to easily integrate with Google analytics to examine where each sale came from. We can’t tell you how important that is when prioritizing the sites that are most worth your time, energy and promotional budget.

Step 3: Interact, Engage and Succeed!

Next up, remember that when it comes to social media, always put the focus on the “social.” Specifically, as an author, it is critical that you make connections with those who share your passion, creativity, desire, drive and even in your industry.

It’s not always *just* about selling, pushing and promoting your own book, but learning how others promote their pieces, reading new and exciting trend pieces by authors, editors, agents and publishers, and even learning of new publishing opportunities, like open calls for submissions to increase your visibility through appearing in an anthology.

Use social media as a way to get an honorary doctorate in Self Publishing 101 by friending, following, genuinely connecting and above all networking with other writers and publishing industry professionals via social media. That way every time you use Facebook, Twitter or your other favorite social network site, you are guaranteed to be connecting with like-minded individuals who are passionate about the world of publishing and self-publishing.

Step 4: Make Wise Choices

Finally, we can’t say enough about how important it is to make wise choices; with your money (if you choose to pay for promotions), with your time, with your energy, with your creativity and, above all, with your social media choices.

One whirl through the social media hurricane and you will quickly be overwhelmed: Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Scribd, Klout, Instagram, Reddit, Tumblr, YouTube… where does it end? And where do you start?

The fact is, few authors master ALL these social media sites effectively. After all, your job is to write… not become a professional book promoter! Instead, what most successful authors do is “kick the tires” of various social media sites, find the ones that best fit their personality, schedule and temperament, and stick with those.

For instance, some authors really take a shine to Facebook, master it, and reap benefits from that particular platform. Others discover that Twitter is their best way of reaching future readers. The fact is, there is no right or wrong way to use social media – only your way.

But you’ll never know until you try. Start sampling the various social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, Klout, Tumblr and YouTube to see which ones “click” the most for you.

Parting Words

So, there you have it: four simple, effective and profitable ways to use social media to promote your book. We hope you’re not intimidated by the size and scope of social media but, instead, are excited about the opportunities it presents.