By Edward Nawotka, Editor-in-Chief
It has become a maxim of publishing that you need to use social media to build readership, establish a platform, what have you. For example, in today’s feature story comics impresario Mark Waid notes that he built an audience for his digital comics publishing startup Thrillbent by asking fans to “…use Facebook and Twitter to find another 20,000 readers, and then I ask that the new 20,000 will find another 20,000.” He admits, “We’re talking small steps, but it works.”
For some, especially those catering to an audience of readers who “live” online — and by this I’m assuming we’re talking about a relatively younger demographic (not young, mind you, but younger, or youngish, or at least, youthful) — social media promotion most definitely works. But what of those readers whose audience may indeed not be as adept at utilizing social media, or at the very least limit it to social interactions with family and friends, rather than using it to seek out entertainment options, what to read, etc. What of them?
And of course, opinions vary as to whether social media actually works to sell books.
Earlier this year at our Children’s Publishing Conference, Scholastic’s David Levithan — a man who knows how to write and publish books that young people read — said that they had no proof at Scholastic that social media (and I’m paraphrasing here) was ever responsible for selling a book. He maintains a minimal amount of social media interaction, finding it a distraction from his daily routine.
Of course, Scholastic is Scholastic is Scholastic much in the same way a rose is a rose is a rose. It is what it is: the colossus of global children’s book publishing. One can assume that the audience will inevitably arrive at some point with a Scholastic title or two (Harry Potter? The Hunger Games?).
So the question is: in this digital era, do you absolutely need social media to get readers? Perhaps not, but you know, it can’t hurt. The answer depends to a large extent on your cost/benefit analysis and what your investment in time is worth.
Let us know what you think in the comments.
12 Comments
Authors don’t seem to have a choice in this technologic age with all the people on Facebook and Twitter. It’s another tool, but one that probably would be foolish to ignore. And users can click right from your website to an online seller. What could be easier?
Not everyone lives on Facebook and Twitter… and authors don’t “absolutely” need social media to sell their books. I agree with Rosemarie Kaupp that it is just a tool, but authors should train themselves to use multiple tools in order to survive. Gone are the days when authors can just write and leave everything else to their publishers. Authors should take more control over their own careers, and using social media is just one of the many ways to achieve this goal.
One would hope that people will be talking about your books on the various social media platforms, so it makes sense to at least participate in the conversation rather than ignore it. As a fan, I sincerely appreciate author interactions on the web. Having recently published something, I was caught off guard by people wishing to discuss the work on Twitter & FaceBook, and I had to scramble to catch up!
Books are sold by readers telling other readers. Not by writers telling strangers.
Nothing sells like a dam good story. The rest is window dressing.
The fallacy here is thinking that social media is a sales tool; it’s not. It’s a tool for communication; specifically for listening to – and participating in – the conversation surrounding your brand, book, etc.
I agree with Colleen. I know an author -and blogger- that brags of having more than 200k followers. Everybody who knows him actually knows his book as well. But he wasn’t able to bring more than 100 people to his release event. Though he used his so-called “large platform” to enhance the sales, his book is still under the break even line.
I also agree with Colleen: social media is not primarily a marketing tool but a means of communication. And a fast growing one at that. It’s conventional wisdom that people online are only the young, but that’s not true: close to 30% of senior Americans (according to a recent AARP survey) are online and adept at using social media. Everyone year more people join the Internet ball game.
What does all this mean for writers? That for the first time it’s become easy to connect with their readers! So if you’re an established writer and you’re coming out with a new title, social media will work wonders for you and ensure your book sales take off immediately. If you’re a newbie, it’s not going to work out that way at all. Readers don’t want to waste their time with poorly written stuff and indies, by rushing in to publish everyone of their mss, have earned the reputation of adding to the “slushpile” – not very encouraging situation for new writers trying to break through.
So yes, SM helps sales but only for certain, already established authors…
Social media is about building relationships. It’s not a silver bullet to sales. If you use it to aggressively market your book most likely you will fail. But if you use it to become friends with people in your target market and with those that have bought your book. If you talk about topics that cover interest both of your target market and are captured in your book. If you are looking at the big picture and the long-term not the quick right now sales. And if you are using your time wisely. It does work as your new following become word-of-mouth sellers of your book. Social media only works if you understand that it is soft sales and long-term strategy. Make sure your profiles mention the book/link to it, make sure your website highlights your book, talk about your book when and where appropriate, but don’t make most of your social media interaction about you and your books.
I think it’s probably close to a necessity for new authors and self-published authors. Word of mouth doesn’t get started just by having a book on Amazon. The first few hundred people need to be pointed there and convinced enough to buy. I don’t think that authors need to be on every social media platform, but finding one or two they can interact in comfortably is a very good idea.
I agree with everything that has been said and especially with Wendy about SM being maybe the only option for new and indie authors. I would also add that this is a relatively free medium for self promotion and for relationship building.
Social media is essential, but you still have the dilemma of needing to put in thousands of hours of promotional time. Most people don’t have that time, and learning to use social media effectively can take the same amount of hours. A well-made book trailer, not a slide-show or something that you can make for $99, goes a long way. You pretty much accomplish in 2 minutes or less what it takes most writers a year to realize.