The Story of Your Life

I’m about to expose the realities behind taking your dream of becoming an author and actually making it happen.

First, the reality check...have you ever considered how much time and effort goes into writing a book? As an author of seven books I know how time consuming, brain-aching and testing it can be to develop your story line, weave twists and turns into your story to keep readers engaged so they want to keep turning pages, make your characters believable, likable, and lovable. That said, when you’ve done it successfully, the rewards are unsurpassed, so keep reading if you’re an aspiring author, or a person who sincerely believes you have a book inside you. Even if you don’t feel you have the ability to write a book, but feel your idea for a book is good enough, there are people who'll write it for you.

Okay, so once you’ve got your book written, the next challenge awaits you. Are you going to self-publish it and run the risk of a book not being properly edited (and face the serious consequences of that—God help you if a professional reviewer or critic gets their hands on it!), not having a professional cover or not having the kudos of being published by an established and credible publisher?

Still with me? Good...because we’ve only just begun, and I suspect only those people who are really serious about becoming an author or getting a book published will make it to the end of this article. Ha! A good way of sorting the wheat from the chaff, and believe me, you need a very thick skin to make it as an author.

Right, so now you’ve got your book written and published. Prepare yourself for the next step: promotion! There are millions of books available on Amazon alone, let alone other distributors. So, you need to make your book stand out from the crowd.

As an author and columnist I have learned (the long and hard way) how relevant and important social media is to authors, and through trial and error I've discovered what social media channels are most effective. To demonstrate I’ve not just made this up–I've referenced all my sources of information.

“Writers can no longer afford to be reclusive and just write” (Transformational Writers, 2017).

Unbeknown to many newly published authors, one of the most challenging parts of being an author awaits them and I was as naive as most new authors are. It took me a long time and a lot of unnecessary expense to learn how to self-promote effectively.

The importance of social media is summarized in a key observation and statement made by an attendee of the Willamette Writer’s conference. “One of the major trends I witnessed was a greater recognition of the key role Social Media and websites play in book promotion and writing careers.” (Transformational Writers, 2017).

There are numerous websites that offer you free accounts and publicity, but what starts out as a free account soon becomes a cost. Here are some ways authors can promote themselves for free, or at minimal cost.

Website

This is an opportunity for an author to showcase their work, draw attention to their name and create credibility/kudos. There are a lot of sites available to create a free website, such as Weebly.com and Wix.com. A good example of how powerful a website can be is the Dead Camp website by bestselling author, Sean Kerr (Kerr, 2017).

Dead Camp by Sean Kerr

Author Platforms

Sites such as Vocal offer authors the opportunity to showcase their writing abilities and actually pay you for your efforts based on the number of people who read your articles. Perfect! Get paid to expose your name and works. What could be better? Your articles have the potential to reach thousands upon thousands of people, and I mean thousands! An article published by one of the writers for Vocal reached almost 42,000 people! (Cates, 2017). I’ve signed up to that. Who wouldn’t?

Vocal

Blogs: These are becoming increasingly popular for authors, and for good reason. One of the many success stories of blogging is from Suzi Vitelli who started to write a weekly blog to promote her first book. “In the process, I attracted the interest of an agent who now represents the book. What I did worked for me because it was fun and driven by my passion and interest." (Transformational Writers, 2017).

Newsletters: Authors who don't want to be so public and hands-on with their readers or followers can publish a regular newsletter. Providing the newsletter is fun, informative and interesting it can attract new followers and potential buyers (Caballo, 2017).

Articles in magazines: There are magazines who offer authors the opportunity to post articles for free. For example, Divine Magazine has over 2,000 followers on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media channels (Divine Magazine, 2017) so posting articles is a good way of gaining free exposure and attracting readers.

Divine Magazine

Twitter: Georg Grey (who I'm friends with on Twitter) is a Twitter guru who has 367,000 followers and uses his social media expertise to promote other authors (Grey, 2017). Creating a Twitter account and connecting with other people means your publicity posts show up on their thread, and many people re-tweet other people’s tweets, so they gain even more exposure.

Facebook: Bestselling author, Kevin Tumlinson, spends 98% of his marketing budget on Facebook ads, and his list now has 26,000 subscribers. To entice readers to subscribe he offers free books (Caballo, 2017). There are PA companies, such as RAM PA Group, who are members of more than 100 book clubs on Facebook (I'm now a member of 65 of them who I feel serve me best) that have more than 1 million members and will take care of your promotional needs at an affordable price (RAM PA Group, 2017). Testimonials from their clients confirm they have seen a noticeable improvement in sales by using their services (Lane and Bee, 2017).

LinkedIn: This site was not created to make sales. It is a tool to find prospective clients, engage with them to build an awareness of your presence and what you do. Then you can invite them into further conversation to see if there is a fit between what you are offering and what your audience want (Hanzelka, 2016).

Thunderclap: This is the first crowd speaking platform that helps people be heard by saying something together so their messages are mass-shared. A Facebook user with 200 friends can amplify their message better than somebody who has 3,000 friends. More than 12 billion messages have been sent by people from 238 countries and territories (Cascino, 2017).

YouTube: This is the third most visited site on the internet. Video is a powerful communication and marketing tool. Text alone cannot compete with sound, images and text (OC Search Consulting, 2017). You can write to appeal to search engines, but a video transmits so much more. But, the video needs to be professional and attract attention.

Book Trailer Videos: As demonstrated, book trailer videos are a great way of grabbing the viewer’s eye to distinguish an author’s book(s) from other books amongst millions of others available on the market (RAM PA Group, 2017). For as little as $30 you can have a book trailer video produced. You’ve seen my book trailer video, so tell me if that makes you more inclined to buy the book, as opposed to just reading the back page blurb?

Get Good Reviews: These bring in sales! Especially if the reviews are left by ARC (Advanced Reading Club) reviewers. Most publishers will let you send copies of your books to reviewers on the condition you share the review with your publisher. I did this, and this is the response I got...

Good Reviews

Need I say more? My followers have sent me messages saying they have since bought Royal Service and will buy my future books. A word of advice on this score...only send your books to reviewers who'll appreciate your style of writing, and genre. Don’t send it to the wrong person or this strategy could backfire on you! If you do get a negative review—learn from it. Take into consideration why the person has left that review and act. I had a review from an ARC reviewer who read the same book (Royal Service), but went into it blind. They didn’t even realize it was the fifth book in the series and didn’t take the time to do any research about me as an author, or my series of books. For that reason I got unfairly criticized and it hurt. Once I’d dusted myself off, I decided to incorporate a preface into my future books so that anybody who picks up one of new books without having read my earlier books can bring themselves up to speed on the series. Always turn a negative into a positive by listening, learning and acting in a positive way.

Pimp Your Covers

One of the best ways to create a buzz and interest in your books, even before they’re published, is to use social media channels to create awareness of future releases. I just promoted the cover for my seventh book on my social media channels and the response I got was overwhelming. People are queuing up and chomping at the bit to buy the book!

Events and Promotion

Cover releases, blog tours, teasers, banners and book trailer videos. There are many PA companies who will organise these activities for authors who don't have the time or will to do this for themselves (RAM PA Group, 2017). I used RAM PA Group and they are very affordable. I’m one of the people who wrote a testimonial to confirm I saw positive results from the promotion they did for me.

PA Groups

Offering advice to other authors: This has to be tackled in the right way because there are those authors who think they know it all and take offense to advice. Sean Kerr, a bestselling author with a very large social media presence uses his experience and contacts to help other authors by sharing their posts on social media, features them as a recommended author on his website (I'm one of them!) and offers helpful guidance and support when requested. (Kerr, 2017). I've spent many a night chatting with Sean in times of doubt and need.

Ghost Writers

If you’re convinced you have a good book inside of you, but don’t know how to go about writing it then get in touch with me. With 30 years business experience, and seven fictional books written, I hope I’m qualified enough to help write both a fictional or business related book. Obviously my services as a ghost writer come at a cost, but depending on how serious you are about getting your book written and published, it could be a very small price to pay for the rewards you’ll get in return.

Conclusion

A commonly used phrase is “There is no such thing as bad publicity.” (Phrases.org.uk, 2017), but that is not necessarily true. Exposure to the public and readers can attract negative publicity, in the form of a bad review, or criticism, and it's all too easy for an author to react on impulse. “Authors should always stay positive while communicating on social media. If you do not have anything positive to say to a comment, then stay silent. If a person continues to attack, simply block them. Conversely, if somebody leaves a positive comment, respond to it.” (Deckers, 2014).

R.S. Gompertz states “All social media is public. Think through what you have said before you hit send.” (Transformational Writers, 2017).

Supported by various sources of research material, this article demonstrates that social media is fundamental to the success of any author, irrespective of whether they are a novice or bestseller. Depending on how much time, money, and technical capability an author has, there are effective ways they can promote themselves, or engage the services of a professional company at an affordable price. In this day and age authors cannot afford to do nothing and sit around for sales to come in because without social media it is highly unlikely they will become well-known or rich very quickly.

References

• Author’s name is not stated (2017). Social Media Trends for Publishing and Promoting Your Book - Gems from Writers at the Willamette Writer’s Conference. Transformational Writers. Retrieved from website: (March, 24 2017).

• Author’s name is not stated (2017). There is no such thing as bad publicity. Retrieved from website: (March 24, 2017)

• Author’s name is not stated (2017). The Power of YouTube For Online Marketing. OC Search Consulting. Retrieved from website: (March 24, 2017).

• Caballo, F (2017). Blockbuster Kevin Tumlinson Reveals His Book Writing and Book Marketing Secrets. Social Media Just For Writers. Retrieved from website: (March 24, 2017).

• Cascino, D (2017). What is Thunderclap?. Retrieved from website: (March 24, 2017).

• Cates, M (2017). Freelance writing for Vocal and Jerrick Media. Retrieved from website: (March 30, 2017).

• Deckers, E (2014). 5 Social Media Trends All Authors Should Follow. Problogservice. #1 Business Blogging Agency. Retrieved from website: (March 24, 2017).

• Grey, G (2017). Retrieved from Twitter profile: (March 24, 2017).

• Hanzelka, D (2016). What Are 10 Easy Strategies to LinkedIn Authority—Part 1.Retrieved from LinkedIn website: (March 24, 2017)

• Kerr, S (2017). Dead Camp by Sean Kerr. Cardiff, Wales. Retrieved from website: (March 24, 2017).

• Lane, M and Bee, R (2017). RAM PA Group. Retrieved from website: (March 24, 2017).

• Rodskar, A, (2017). Welcome to Divine Magazine. A place where you can find a bit of everything.Retrieved from website: (March 24, 2017).