S. S. Greene Author

Most new indie authors (including me when I started writing and publishing books) will either think that they’re done with everything once their book is finished being written and published or they aren’t sure where to start with marketing their book to produce sales. 

I am lucky in that I have a background in marketing and know some tips and tricks. Granted, I don’t know everything. Not even close, but I know some things, and this is my advice for you. 

Social Media:

Social media is fun and great, but it can also be taxing if you spend too much time on it. I have experienced this many times… burnout. 

For me, I have a lot of social media accounts for my books: Instagram, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads, and my website. Posting updates on all of these accounts and keeping up to date with each account on my books can be tiring, but I’ve found that recycling and reposting my content on each platform helps. Also, scheduling posts and keeping a calendar of when I should be posting what and where helps to keep me organized and less stressed about how much I need to do. 

Another really good point is that you don’t need to have an account for EVERY type of social media platform. Personally, I chose not to use TikTok and X. TikTok’s sponsored ads are a bit too expensive and haven’t been producing sales as well as my other accounts. For X, I just came to the conclusion that I have enough social media accounts and that BlueSky is pretty similar to X.

I have found that paying for sponsored ads on Facebook and Instagram has worked for me in gaining page reads and sales. It’s the most practical way for me to promote my books with my rather small-ish marketing budget. You will also want to post organically and on stories at least three to four times a week on each platform that you have. Also, you will want to connect with people who are like-minded or would be interested in your books. This means commenting on posts and starting a conversation. This helps with gaining followers who actually read and look at your content. Keep this in mind when you use social media. It can be very taxing if you aren’t organized. So, keep a calendar, and make sure you fill it out before the week starts. 

Website:

At first, I didn’t think I wanted a website. I already had a good amount of social media accounts to connect with readers and other authors. After I sat and thought about it for a while, I realized that even if I did have social media pages, there are people out there who don’t have social media and actually have to look up a website to check something out (in this case, books!). Also, it’s a great way to organize and sort out your books from your updates and announcements.

For me, I used a WordPress platform for my website because I have a blog page on WordPress and love the formatting and how easy it is to use and maneuver. In my work with marketing, I have used Wix as well, and though I do like how much you can personalize your page, it can get a bit confusing and hard to update written text. There were some glitches that it had, and I’m unsure if they have been fixed yet. 

Once you have a website, it’s important to keep it as updated as possible. If you have a WordPress website, when you create a post to put on your website, you can email all of your subscribers with the update. I like using this instead of a newsletter. It’s a lot faster and easier for me to just keep my website as updated as possible. If you’re not technologically savvy, like me, you might want to hire a professional website designer/developer to get your website set up at first.

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Overall, you want to make sure that you use marketing channels to sell your books, but make sure that you aren’t spreading yourself (and your budget) too thin with using too many different platforms and channels.

The most important advice that I can give you is: it’s okay to ask for help! I ask for help and advice from other authors on Threads. 

I wish you much luck with your books, and happy reading and writing!