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Self-Publishing News: 8.6.2018 – The Company Files!

And now for the news!

Some highlights from this month in the world of self-publishing, specifically news from or regarding self-publishing companies!

11 painful moments CEOs and founders thought their business was sunk — and how they turned it around

This month has been a quiet one on the self-publishing front, at least in terms of news from the top. (Next week we’ll be giving over more page space to the many fantastic authors who, as always, inspire and encourage us.) But here comes an interesting article by Shana Lebowitz of Business Insider on eleven CEOs and business founders who somehow managed to save their companies from complete failure; true to form, one of these CEOs has a self-publishing connection. Twitter founder Evan Williams was also the founder of Blogger, now a subsidiary of Google. But early on, Blogger ran into trouble–enough trouble that Williams was forced to lay off all of his employees. How did Williams–and Blogger–pull through? A whole lot of elbow grease, as it turns out: Williams worked on his start-up alone for three years before Google started paying attention … and making noise about buying the start-up. The other founders in this list have fascinating stories, too, but it’s refreshing to know that at least at Business Insider, self-publishing platforms are one of many platforms giving voice to the average person that is getting serious treatment.

Is #Bookstagram Changing How You Read? How You Judge Books by Their Cover

The short answer is … yes. Yes, the hashtag #Bookstagram, most popularly used on Instagram and Facebook (which owns Instagram), is indeed changing the way that we read. According to this article by Veronica Walsingham for Inverse, over two million posts have been tagged with this hashtag, which for many Instagram users is as much about aesthetic as it is about the books themselves. But make no mistake–it’s also definitely about the books! For those who haven’t used hashtags before, the humble pound sign (#) has become an engine of discovery on social media platforms as diverse as Twitter and Tumblr and YouTube and Instagram. It serves as a collector, a kind of vehicle for ideas, in that anyone who tags their post with that hashtag will be gathered together into a separate feed when users click on it. Walsingham’s article is interesting, of course, not just for its exploration of the kinds of content which makes it into the #Bookstagram hashtag, but for its identification of who, exactly is using it. And guess what? Self-publishing authors and the companies which get them onto the shelf are among the many! Read the full article for more.

As a self-publishing author, you may find it helpful to stay up-to-date on the trends and news related to the self-publishing industry.This will help you make informed decisions before, during and after the self-publishing process, which will lead to a greater self-publishing experience. To help you stay current on self-publishing topics, simply visit our blog every Monday to find out the hottest news. If you have other big news to share, please comment below.

Book Promotion, Book Promotion Strategy, etsy, Facebook, flickr, goodreads, instagram, Kelly Speaks, linkedin, pinterest, snapchat, Social Media Marketing, tumblr, twitter, youtube

An Indie Author’s Social Media Primer | Summary Edition

Well, it’s been quite a project, this social media primer of ours! I hope it’s proven as useful to you, our readers, as it has been enjoyable for me to write! I thought I’d take a couple of minutes to take a lingering glance in the rear-view mirror, and write a bit of a retrospective on what it means to carry out a social media marketing campaign–and how a primer fits in.

“We’re here,” I wrote in that initial blog post, “first and foremost, to talk about how to market your self-published book.” And therein lies both the value and danger of social media as a marketing tool. If you really are using social media effectively, as a natural and organic extension of your existing work and personality, then you’ll most definitely benefit, and your book sales will most definitely benefit as well. If you approach social media as an all-purpose tool and the only tool you need in your toolbox–or if you present yourself falsely, inauthentically, or otherwise find yourself at odds with your fans–or if you bite off more than you can chew–or if you find yourself slipping into social media as just another time-waster–then you’re missing the point of being an author on social media. These are the pitfalls, or at least a few of them, and they should not be taken lightly or underestimated.

Here’s the trick to being a self-published author on social media: You must always remember that you are, first and foremost, a writer. And as we’ve said before here on Self Publishing Advisor, the absolute best decision you can ever make in marketing your book is to write another book. If social media helps you spread the word, and helps you keep writing, then it has a place in your campaign. If it distracts you, or distresses you, or eats into time you would otherwise spend writing, then you should revisit the expression “effective marketing.” There is, however, a great deal of value to trying something new, especially when you hit a roadblock. It is my hope that, by providing a primer guide to each of the major (and some of the minor) social media platforms, I may take some of the guesswork and fear out of launching yourself into the world of social media. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll be able to bypass some of the misery and second-guessing and mistakes that I myself have made over the years–and find a new home, a new community, and an engaged readership in some unexplored corner of our digital universe.

The List:

Thank you for helping me build this Social Media Primer! If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@gmail.com. And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of marketing musings. ♠

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com.

Alternative Marketing Methods, Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Book Promotion Strategy, instagram, Kelly Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Social Media Marketing

An Indie Author’s Social Media Primer | Instagram

Another week, another new social media platform. You might think we would have run out of new ideas and methods for digital connection by now, but the list of possibilities only seems to keep expanding––and in some cases, though not all, the platforms are enduring. Instagram is one of those platforms, and it may just turn out to be one of the most useful ones there is for the self-published author looking to dive into the whole marketing-by-networking process.

It’s not that Instagram doesn’t have its fair share of detractors (believe me, it does)––but then, which social media platform manages to keep all of its users happy, all of the time? There are journalists out there who firmly believe that marketing your books through social media is an endeavor bound and doomed to fail; they are, however, in the minority. And a lot of authors, like indie poet Mirtha Michelle, have found promotional success after creating authentic and dynamic relationships with their fans. “I don’t try to be anything I’m not,” she writes. “I’ll post pieces of who I am.” All social media platforms present opportunities to connect in this way, but Instagram in particular has found a dedicated and loyal user base––industry professionals are beginning to recognize that Instragram’s model of encouraging its users to post images of day-to-day activities is something we can rely on to stick around, unlike some other quote-on-quote “faddish” platforms.

So, what is Instagram? To tell you what it is, we first have to clear up the biggest myth of all––that is, what it isn’t:

Debunking the Great Instagram Myth: “It’s all cats, lattes, and what you had for breakfast.”

Instagram is one of the most streamlined social media platforms out there, in part because it has been engineered almost exclusively for “mobile” use––that is, as an app for smartphones. Users snap a picture on their smartphone’s built-in camera of what’s going on around them, edit it to look artsy or gritty or incandescently pretty using one of the app’s “filters,” and then post the picture for their friends, family, and other followers to “like” and comment on. Users have only to scroll through their feeds with the swipe of a thumb to view all of the pictures taken by all of the people they follow. Ease of use and the built-in appeal of a visually-driven interface makes Instagram an engaging digital space, and it has evolved to allow users to post short videos in addition to their pictures.

Instagram is generally, in my experience, an upbeat place––rife with photos of waterfalls and meadows overlaid with inspirational quotes, self-aware embarrassing selfies, and the ever-evolving memes. Everyone has figured out how to tweak it to best represent their lives and interests: hikers, climbers, birdwatchers, and other lovers of the outdoors post their daring feats and snaps of dawn over this or that lake; artists post videos of their works-in-progress as they go; cooks and bakers post snapshots of their (artfully) dirty countertops; and authors post quotes, snapshots of their bundled manuscripts, and tantalizing glimpses of their laptop screens. There are plenty of cats, and lattes, and half-eaten breakfasts to be found if you follow folks who are prone to disorganization, but most Instagram users are part-way through the process of developing a personal “brand”––and many are more interested in showing you who they are than in showing you what they eat. Follow these people––these authors.

Top 5 Best Practices:

1. Go for the gut. Instagram is about intimacy. Remember that, if you remember nothing else about this post. Your followers on Instagram aren’t interested in posts that keep them at arms-length; the whole reason they follow you is that they want an “inside look,” to “go behind the scenes” of your life, even if you’re just a moderately successful accountant from Atlanta. Posts that show a glimpse of your heart and your goals as a writer, or a slice of a rough day, are more likely to engage your fans. If you don’t care about the content of a photo, that’s a good sign that they won’t either.

2. Think regular, but not too regular. You don’t have to sit down and block out a schedule for the next six months, but it is a good idea to plan a regular post––perhaps once a week––that your followers (your readers!) can count on seeing pop up in their feeds. It’s also a good idea to allow plenty of room for spontaneous posts that reflect your mood at a given moment, and those all-important surprises that transform a day into an important day. Just don’t clutter up your followers’ feeds with repetitive or blasé posts that tempt them to keep scrolling and scrolling past all of your hard-won new content!

3. You’re in the inspiration business, so share yours. ‘Nuff said, really. One of the fastest ways to a reader’s heart is to talk with them about the backstories to the works they love best. Reading is about imagination, and inspiration, and participation––every bit as much as writing––so time spent sharing how and why you create what you create … is time well spent. Show your readers the emotional or physical worlds that they encounter in your books––snapshots of the real café you frequent that inspired the one in your latest novel, or the skyline of the city in which your novel is set, or a landscape overlaid with a quote that you turned to when facing your greatest discouragements––or that your characters turned to when facing theirs.

4. Use the hashtags and @username functions. I think I’ve about over-talked the importance of hashtags elsewhere (especially in my Twitter primer two weeks ago), but I cannot overstate the fundamental utility of these built-in functions. Findability remains key on any platform, including Instagram, and despite its visual nature it’s just as entrenched in metadata as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. People will still find you (and you, them) using keyword searches and hashtags, and they’ll respond to your material if they receive notification that you called them out by name. Host giveaways! Post a weekly “top fan” award! Use the system, above all, to interact with those all-important followers!

5. Don’t posture. All social media platforms are saturated with posts that the average user will find narcissistic and annoying, and although we can most definitely argue the merits of positive self-image and self-affirmation, it’s best not to turn your Instagram feed into a continual parade of any one type of content, especially the kind that forgets that connection requires conversation. Keep your pictures diverse, in nature and editing and subject, and your Instagram followers will feed on your creativity, your (carefully curated) spontaneity, and your interest in them.

Most Overlooked Feature:

The “Direct Message” function of Instagram, hands-down! You can send a private or semi-private message to up to fifteen followers at once, and although this feature won’t exactly broadcast your news and message to the general public, it will most definitely help build that sense of intimacy that I mentioned in point #1, above. You can use a DM to announce giveaway winners, or to surprise and delight a few select followers with bonus material! A DM feels much more intimate, and meaningful, than a picture any one of a hundred thousand people can see––and on Instagram, intimacy directly translates to lasting engagement with your fan base. Together, you and your followers can finish this sentence: “A picture is worth a ______________!”

I hope you’ll join me in building this Social Media Primer! If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@gmail.com. And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of social media know-how. ♠

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An Indie Author’s Social Media Primer | First Thoughts

Everyone’s got an opinion on how best to use social media. These two simple words have become the locus for more blogs, podcasts, and even heated offline debates than any other subject in the last five years––or more. In part we can attribute this pervasive conversation to the fact that the advent of social media has radically altered the average Westerner’s daily routine as well as that person’s basic expectations of relationships, whether we’re talking about relationships with other individuals, or with the companies and other institutions with which you or I might have some connection. These days, for example, it’s entirely reasonable for consumers to expect their favorite companies––whether Nike, or Denny’s––as well as their favorite celebrities––be they Rihanna or Neil Gaiman––to have active and responsive presences on social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And while Lady Gaga won’t be able to respond to each and every tweet lobbed her way over the course of a day, the fact that she responds to any tweets renders her a more accessible figure to the average Twitter user.

But we’re not just here to gab about the latest and greatest in Facebook updates and how to use the Twitter app––even though, certainly, those two will rank among many other topics we’ll examine over the coming weeks. We’re here, first and foremost, to talk about how to market your self-published book. It’s already hard enough to break into the market when it comes to books, especially self-published books––talk about a daunting proposition!––without a guide or even professional assistance; we exist to make your life a little bit easier. To that end, each and every social networking tool I address will be tied back to this notion of marketing, and marketing specifically as a newly-published or on-the-verge-of-published indie, hybrid, or self-published author.

The first social network that everyone thinks of is still, by and large, Facebook. And don’t worry, we’ll absolutely talk about how to use Facebook effectively. It is important to note, however, that the bigger a platform is in terms of user base, the more “crowded” the market will seem to a reader seeking new material. It is vital that an indie author knows the ins and outs of Facebook updates and feeds and public profiles and so on and so forth, because the vast majority of any author’s potential readers will have Facebook accounts; however, it’s just as vital for a self-published author to establish a certain degree of comfort with at least a couple of the lesser-used platforms, because they will be both more “discoverable” and more visible without the throng of other authors competing for attention. To that end, I will take a stroll through each of the quote-on-quote “major” social networking sites, including:

Twitter
Tumblr
Instagram
Snapchat
YouTube
Pinterest

… but I will also examine lesser-known or more specialized platforms, such as:

Goodreads
Etsy
LinkedIn
Flickr

… because, ultimately, it’s the tools we’ve neglected that end up most surprising us with their unexplored possibilities.

There’s a lot more to using social media for book promotion, however, than simply knowing the names of the most popular sites or even how to set up an account with and update each one. There are a whole host of other behaviors to discover, observe, and adopt––”best practices,” so to speak––than just generating content. Authors have to know, for example, the inside tricks. They have to know the whys as well as the wherefores: why does engaging your readers on multiple platforms translate to better book sales? Why is it important to track your social media efficacy using analytics? And most importantly of all, why is it necessary to create a strategy, a plan for your social media campaign? I’ll walk with you through the theory––and together, we’ll peel back some of the layers that lie between us and a social media repertoire that actually makes a difference. We’ll debunk some myths, learn some new things, and slowly work our way through.

Together.

(Since that’s kind of the point, in the end, of social networking.)

Alternative Marketing Methods, Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Book Promotion Strategy, Kelly Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Networking, Self-Publishing, Social Media Marketing

Navigating the Network | The Art of Self Promotion (part III)

Three weeks ago, I sketched out a few of the challenges facing self published authors looking to build their brands in the digital marketplace, and I made specific note of how great social networks can be as tools of self promotion. Last time I blogged, I looked at the second and third of my top five points to keep in mind regarding self promotion, and recommended cultivating your physical network as well as developing physical promotional materials. This week, I’m going to wrap up my top five points with a few words that count both as caution and encouragement––simultaneously!

To get right to the point:

4. Self promotion of any kind takes time. And energy. And constant attention.

Perhaps this is my caveat. As I mentioned earlier, you’re not just in the business of self-promotion––as someone who’s interested in self-promotion, you’re actually in the business of writing. So when weighing the pros and cons of starting a Twitter account or creating a blog on Tumblr specifically with the goal of promoting your book, consider the learning curve. Consider the fact that the time it takes to establish a presence and reach your audience through social networks is directly proportional to how much time you put in, and that there’s a considerable element of pure luck involved. Most tweets languish in the ether unread, and most Tumblr posts are not reflagged, and most Facebook followers are dormant, or run by bots. So while all of these networks have potential to launch you into instant and global success, they are often high-maintenance and low-reward. And they are habit-forming.

As with all other forms of promotion, you must be deliberate about your use of social networks, carving out time on a regular basis to devote to building your brand. Thirty minutes a day, three days a week, or every day during your fifteen-minute break between work shifts––whatever it takes, but not much more. Because let’s face it: As someone who’s interested in self-publishing, you have other things to do. You need to not just leave time for the other facets of your life––writing, working a job, working three jobs, family, and so on––but be able to throw yourself into them with passion and energy.

5. Everything changes.

If the rise of self-publishing and the ebook has demonstrated anything about the publishing industry, it’s that nothing can stand still for long. This may be a disquieting fact for traditional publishing and the markets that rely on it, but opening up one’s options to change can also be a diversifying, enriching, and rewarding experience. The digital and self-publishing revolutions are beginning to reach maturity, but on the whole they’re keeping a weather eye out for new changes, and new opportunities. Perhaps the most key feature for success in self-publishing (and self-promotion) is a willingness to take advantage of them. Keep asking questions. Figure out what options work for you, and what feels comfortable for you, and what is too frustrating or too complicated or taking too much time––and adjust your daily practices as necessary. Keep interrogating your options. If a new technology becomes available, or a new acquaintance walks into your life, or a new story drops into your mind, don’t hold back. After all, this is a business built on dreams.

This was just a primer! You can find the first and second posts of this series here and here. Check back every Wednesday to read more about the art of self promotion. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be diving deeper into the how-to details of managing both social and physical networks. If you have a question about any of these tools for self promotion, would like to hear from me about something specific, or have other big news to share, please comment below!

And now for the news!

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