You’ve finished writing your book. You survived the editing stages, and you have made publishing arrangements. All of the hardest work is done, right?
Of course not.
Marketing is one of the most difficult aspects of becoming an author. You must promote yourself without sounding too braggy, while still selling your book to the masses. Luckily, there are Facebook groups like Celthric’s Book Promotional Scifi and Fantasy group that are dedicated to promoting novels of certain genres. As an administrator of the aforementioned page, I have seen a lot of great (and some not-so-great) marketing techniques. Use the tips below at your discretion, as they will obviously not work for everyone.

1. Post videos, not images. Videos have a higher interaction rate than images. (That said, a stellar image will draw more viewers than a low-quality video.) Put time and effort into a short (90 seconds or less) book preview to tease your story. Don’t give away any major plot points — nobody wants to buy a book when they know how it is going to end! Keep the text in the video to a minimum as well. The purpose of this teaser trailer is to entertain the audience before hitting them with the price and release date of the story. Get them hooked, and then give them the nitty-gritty!
2.Post often, but not too often. When it comes to Facebook groups like Celthric’s Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Promotion group, your posts are less likely to get lost in a virtual sea of data. It is still a good idea to post your marketing links and promotional content about once a week on these pages though.
3.Change up your marketing techniques! Nobody wants to see you posting the exact same promotional content every week. Change one major topic of your spiel each time you post about your novel — appeal to a different audience, focus on a different theme of your book, or offer a NEW sale — and you will keep your fans interested while picking up some new ones along the way.
4.Use text descriptions sparingly. Don’t rewrite the novel in a post to a group. 9 times out of 10, I ignore the text on Facebook book marketing attempts. It is better to let your image or video speak for itself.
5.Forget the hashtags. Or only use two or three. Many writers try to tag their books with every relateable word imaginable. Overusing hashtags just clutters up the post and shows that the writer is not tech-savvy.
6.Remember, you are selling yourself as much as you are selling your book. Be courteous to others in the comment section of your posts. You can delete negative comments, but do not engage with Facebook trolls — people do not want to buy books from writers that cannot control themselves online. (Note: Many authors prefer to create a separate Facebook fan page where they manage their writing business from. This looks more professional, and you can still post whatever you would like on your “normal” Facebook page.)
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