There is an old song on the Total Eclipse of the Heart album called “Going Through the Motions.” It’s a fun song, particularly the part that goes “in and out, and out and in, and up and down, and all around, we’re going through the motions.”
If you feel like that when you promote your book on social media sites, it’s because that’s exactly what you’re doing. Going through the motions. It feels like you’re doing something, it looks like you’re doing something, but you would be better off spending that time working a part-time job to save money to advertise your book. Pouring your energy into social media to promote your work is nothing more than an outstanding way to waste time.
“Build a Platform” and Other Myths
I've been dying to touch on this subject and I apologize for so long between posts. As you know, I've been working on Warm Autumn Rain, the 3rd book in the Hot Winter Sun Series, but I finally found some time. Here goes:
Yes, you need a platform. You need a social media presence. But you actually don’t need it for the reason you think. You need it so that fans can find you after they read and like your book/s. End of story. Building a platform, regardless of how magnificent it is, will maybe get you one sale a year. For the simple reason that no one knows who you are. Unless you can find a way to make that platform so fantabulous that you’ll rank number one on a Google search when someone’s browsing for books in your genre, you’re wasting your time. Build a platform so that fans can easily find you once they read your books, but don’t expect it to result in sales.
The Pressure is On
Book promotion is a losing battle without money. There’s simply no way to market your book for free. I recant that. There’s no way to market your book for free that will lead to sales. Therefore, whether it’s a publisher pressuring you to build a magnanimous social media platform from which to propel your book to stardom, or you’ve paid for worthless courses entitled, “Ten ‘Secrets’ to Selling 1000s of Books,” the bottom line is, none of what’s being said about social media is true.
Nobody can make a book successful through unpaid social media methods. People sell courses about how to use social media to market your book because they get money for the courses. End of that story. Publishers tell you to do it because they don’t know what else to say. They know a huge burden is on the author to promote and market their own books, but they can’t tell you to spend your own money on ads, because that kinda sorta doesn’t make sense when you're traditionally published. So, they fall back on pitching social media.
Nothing But the Truth
The only way to sell a book is to pay to advertise it to the appropriate demographic.
There are a lot of reasons for this, but let’s put it in a nutshell:
Unless you are paying for a sponsored ad, your posts get incredibly poor visibility. Algorithms have changed many times on the three major social media outlets, but they have never been as bad for authors as they are in 2023. Even publishers can’t stay ahead of the changes to get social media traction for authors unless they're already famous.
In fact, if you saw the number of people who actually see your book posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, you would probably cry. Let’s do some math. You put up a wonderful graphic about your book/s. Twenty people see it. Ten of those twenty don’t even read novels. Nine out of the remaining ten read, but don’t particularly care for that genre. The remaining person glances at the graphic and shrugs. That guy’s not making an impulse purchase on an unknown author. And there you have it. That is more or less exactly what happens on social media. After 50 rounds like that, you may get one sale. Time spent: immeasurable. End result: not worth it.
Nobody likes to hear that you have to spend money on something, especially if that person is under financial strain or doesn’t have an advertising budget. However, pretending that there’s another way to get traction for a book beside spending money is dishonest. I’d rather just tell the truth, even if it makes people dislike me. Write on!