Dear readers, thank you for sticking around during this self-indulging series about my publishing journey. I would like to imagine that at least one person reading these posts, has dusted their manuscript or even started one. And that same person now feels hopeful about the fact that there is a reachable option for their book.
Today, I want to write about marketing your book, specifically through social media. This year so far has been especially challenging with Covid-19. Still, even before the virus, I learned and understood the critical role that social media plays when promoting basically anything these days.
Here is what I have learned so far:
- This first question is crucial: Are you writing a book for yourself or your closed ones? Or are you writing a book with another purpose? Say–inspiring or motivating or entertaining. There is no right or wrong answer. If your answer is the latter, you need to accept that you need to do online marketing. And embrace it.
- Pick your resources wisely: there is a lot of online resources, the following two made a huge difference in my journey, Reinvention Revolution and Wharton’s Virtual Marketing Course.
- Choose your channels based on your audience: first, identify who your reader is first and then choose the social media platform accordingly. In my case, Instagram is my preferred channel.
- Make a plan: at the beginning being active in social media was giving me anxiety. I was overthinking everything, and I had a lot of questions about “the ideal number of posts per day.” I created a simple spreadsheet with weekly objectives, and that gave me a sense of order and control.
- Keep learning: keep reading about trends, hashtags, audiences, reach, attract readers, etc., Keep asking questions, keep taking courses, keep improving your page, your blog.
My self-publishing journey is not over yet. I see it as a marathon, and it is safe to say I’m probably just crossing the half. The Fearless e-book comes out next week (June 10th-YAY). The printed book will start being distributed worldwide until later in the summer (August 17th-YAY!). This means that I need to keep pushing. I want my writing to reach broader audiences, and in 2020 if I wish to have the slightest chance to achieve that, I need to use social media wisely and positively. But most importantly, authentically.
That is my final learning (and probably one of the most important ones) when it comes to social media and putting myself out there, authenticity matters. Even if you feel that things take longer than expected. Even if you think you need to go with the flow. As in all things in life, authenticity is vital.
This is the end of the self-publishing series. Again, thank you for sticking around and sorry if I wasn’t diligent enough with keeping Em’s Extras to Fridays only. Starting next week, my plan is to send you only one blog post weekly. Let me know if you have anything, in particular, you wish to see.
Thank you, thank you.
M.
Em and the Shelf in Instagram
Fearless e-book comes out next week: June 10th!
Click the image to know where you can pre-order.
Em and the Shelf 