How to Use Facebook and Other Social Networking Sites to Sell Your Ebook IN A DAY

By Darin Jewell and Conrad Jones

This ebook explains how essential social networking is in selling and promoting your ebook on the Internet in the digital age. In fact, the success of ebooks depends primarily on how well-versed you are on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and so on, and how well you converse with other virtual social butterflies. It is not just about having a Facebook page or Google+ account; instead, it is about knowing which applications and analytics on these sites are likely to benefit you most as a writer, including building your author brand, building an increasing fan base and maximizing your ebook sales.

This book first covers how to develop a marketing checklist and track your results. It explains in detail how to set yourself up on Facebook, with a focus on the lingo and best practices, before discussing the site’s Edgerank and Insights features, and the art of social engagement. The protocols and practicalities of LinkedIn, MySpace and Google+ are changing daily, and writing relevant posts, avoiding internet trolls and keeping informed of changes and how they might affect your marketing platform are all important aspects of online marketing that can make or break your ebook success.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Union Bridge Books
• Release date: Apr 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9780857280633

Book preview

Best Social Media Websites for Books

According to eBizMBA Rank, by the end of 2012, the most popular social media sites are as follows:

1. Facebook logo Facebook

750,000,000 – estimated unique monthly visitors

Twitter logo 2. Twitter

250,000,000 – estimated unique monthly visitors

LinkedIn logo 3. LinkedIn

110,000,000 – estimated unique monthly visitors

Myspace logo 4. MySpace

70,500,000 – estimated unique monthly visitors

Googleplus logo 5. Google Plus+

65,000,000 – estimated unique monthly visitors

deviant art logo 6. DeviantArt

25,500,000 – estimated unique monthly visitors

livejournal logo 7. LiveJournal

20,500,000 – estimated unique monthly visitors

tagged logo 8. Tagged

19,500,000 – estimated unique monthly visitors

Orkut logo 9. Orkut

17,500,000 – estimated unique monthly visitors

Pinterest logo 10. Pinterest

15,500,000 – estimated unique monthly visitors

cafemom logo 11. CafeMom

12,500,000 – estimated unique monthly visitors

ning logo 12. Ning

12,000,000 – estimated unique monthly visitors

meetup logo 13. Meetup

7,500,000 – estimated unique monthly visitors

mylife logo 14. myLife

5,400,000 – estimated unique monthly visitors

badoo logo 15. Badoo

2,500,000 – estimated unique monthly visitors

Some of these are social bookmarking sites, like Twitter and Pinterest, but for now we want to concentrate on the following social networking sites which we find are most useful in developing your core marketing foundation for your book – Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Google+, Ning and Bebo.

We will discuss these various sites in their order of importance and utility in promoting your book. Their level of importance will change for you as an author as your marketing develops. Some authors find Facebook the best means to promote their book, while others prefer LinkedIn or Ning.

One of the main strengths of social media is that most of these sites can be linked so once you have an account set up, any post which you make on one site can be shared on the others simply at the click of a button. Remember that we are showing you how to set up your profile on these sites and set yourself up as a published author in a day. You will not see book sales on day one but if you do it right, you will on day two and your sales will continually grow as your author brand and readership increases, providing your book is good (as explained in Chapter 1). No marketing campaign on the planet will compensate for a poorly written or poorly presented novel, weak plot or obscure subject matter.

Do not spend money on advertising in the press or with companies who pertain to send out press releases for you. Soft Target was published as a paperback with one of the biggest self-publishing companies around. They offered some marketing packages, which on paper looked amazing but in reality you can spend £3,000 without seeing any tangible return on your investment. You will be keen and enthusiastic about getting your message to as many people as possible and paying someone to do it for you appears to be the easy option, but we can guarantee that this is a waste of money, especially if you are an independent author. Most blanket press releases don’t make it past the spam filters and as we said before, your book is not news yet.

I know a fellow thriller writer who had a friend working in the advertising department at a glossy men’s monthly magazine. It is a well-established publication with a huge readership. His friend skilfully secured him a double-page spread advertising his book for free. It sounded like an author’s dream come true; two glossy pages in a leading high-street magazine to advertise his book with an editorial spread about the author and the plotline. He ordered hundreds of hard copies of his novel in anticipation of the sales rush for his books.

When the magazine came out, he logged online every hour on the hour to check sales. Nothing happened, in actual fact he sold fewer copies that month than in the month before. The advertising space would have cost him thousands of pounds. He was devastated by the result and if he had bought that advertising space, I think he would have thrown himself under a bus.

When you are preparing your marketing plans, timing is crucial. If you are looking for a magic formula to sell 10,000 copies of your book, then you’ll be disappointed. There is no one simple solution. You have to use a targeted strategy rather than shotgun approach to successfully set up a solid marketing foundation for your book, during which you are aiming multiple activities at the same readership and targeting a specific group of people with shared interests.

Ideally you should build up interest