The Big Issue
The biggest issue for authors once they have their book in print is selling them. Even if you have a mainstream publisher, if you want your book to have staying power, you need to do some marketing yourself. And if you’re self-published or with a small publisher, then your own efforts are vital. Trouble is, artistic types aren’t always that great at selling their art. In fact I’d venture the idea that most of them aren’t; that’s why every creative field has agents whose job it is to sell the artists work.
Before the self-publishing revolution, publishers did all the advertising. Authors really did just write, but that’s not the case these days. You can spend a lot of money learning how to market your book and still find yourself floundering – I certainly do. I have, however, found a way that I can use my creative abilities to create something that makes my social media posts more visable; it’s something I enjoy doing and it does help to keep my books visible.
Images Are More Visible
If I post an update on Facebook without an image attached, it will get to around 10 of my 500+ followers. If I post something with a link that shows up as an image, it gets to between 30 to 50 depending on whether Facebook thinks the topic will interest people or not – I have no idea how they work that out. If I post just a photo with a link to where readers can find out more about the book, it can get to as many as 700 without me paying a cent – clearly people shared that one beyond my followers. That was the most a photo ever got to, though. Mostly they get to between 125 and 350, but often closer to the higher figures.
In the same way, on Twitter, readers eyes are drawn to images.
So posts with images work better than those with out images. They travel further and are more visible.
The Ongoing Problem
An author can only talk about their books so much on any social media platform. Some put the amount of sales content you should have as low as 5%. Others say no more than one post in 5 or 20%. Certainly the majority of what you put out should not be direct selling; it just turns people off. And if the only image you have to use is your book cover, you’re stuck, because there’s only so many times you can show your book cover before people simply don’t see it anymore. And if all you do is talk about your book, you’ll become boring, and boring is social media death.
At the same time, we do have to keep up a social media presence, so people don’t forget about us and therefore our work. So how do we do that without boring our followers or disappearing amongst the words? Answer: Social media book posters.
Social Media Book Posters
In the past, posters were always in portrait orientation, but that isn’t great for posting on social media. They’re okay for pinning on a notice board or a lamp post, but a landscape format is generally better for images you’re posting on social media; Twitter, for example, will cut out the top and bottom of a portrait orientated image so all you get is the middle bit – very bad showing for book covers.
Enter the social media book poster. You have an example of one above.
The idea of a poster like this is that:
- it fits on Twitter exactly so that everything can be seen – the image is not cut off as most images on Twitter are.
- the main image gives a sense of what your book is about but isn’t the image used on your cover.
- it has a few words, either a short, easy-to-read quote from the book or a pithy review.
- if the cover is shown, it’s small.
Do they sell books?
They certainly have more visibility than any post without an image attached, and you can write whatever you want to go with the image (like this post for instance). But I can’t quote any figures to prove that they actually sell books. I can however say that I have bough two books because of their book posters. I saw several for Jan Ruth’s books and after about the third one, I clicked through and bought the book. That proves their worth to me.
Besides, they look great.
Would you like some book posters for your book?
My cover artist also does images for book marking. Have a look here at what she offers. You don’t have to buy a whole package, just tell her what you want.
Would you click on a link in a social media post that included a book poster?
Tell me your thoughts. I love to hear them.
And if you’d like to know about the book mentioned in the poster, just click on the cover.
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