Most of
you probably already use Twitter. If not, you really should be! Some of you may
be wondering: what's the big deal?
The potential for selling your book is only surpassed by the potential for
making great relationships with readers―ones who will spread the news to all
their friends, and they'll tell 100 friends, and so on and so on…
Author
John Locke, a publishing sensation, credits Twitter as largely responsible for
his success. He's the first independent author to sell over 1 million ebooks on Amazon. And there are only 8 authors
who've achieved the million ebook mark. Maybe you'll be the next.
So how do
you use Twitter to market your ebooks? Simple, you create relationships. You get to meet people from anywhere in the
world. There are some pretty cool people out there. By showing a genuine
interest in people, you'll gather more followers. Eventually, some will read
your book. Maybe they'll tweet about how much they enjoyed it. Maybe they'll
write a review. Maybe they'll suggest it to their book club, or to a producer
they know. This actually happens.
There are
a variety of ways to find readers on Twitter, some of them quite obvious, I
think.
1. Search
Twitter for:
Kindle
suggestions
Kobo
suggestions
Nook
suggestions
#books
#fridayreads
#amreading
#ebook (s)
#bookclub
(s)
Don't
just pitch your book to them, create relationships. Read their profiles. Read
their last few tweets. Talk to them at least once before pitching your book to
them. Ask them what genres they like? RT one of their tweets. Ask them
questions. Answer a question. Yes, you can suggest one of your books, or give
them your website, but do try to either answer their question about a
suggestion or get to know them.
2. Search
for your genre:
#romancenovel
#fantasy
#western
#historicalromance
#thriller
#mystery
#mysterynovel
#technothriller
Look for
tweets where people talk about your genre in a positive way. Add to the
conversation. See above tips. Always get your URL in there.
3. Search
for authors you think people would compare your writing (for your novel) to. Chat
first unless you're already friends with them online or unless they're asking
for suggestions.
When pitching
them, say something like:
I saw you
liked (author). Me too. In fact, he inspired me to write (name of novel)
(Amazon URL shortened)
Or…
Since you
enjoy (author), I think you may like (name of novel) (Amazon URL)
Using
Amazon customers with Twitter:
Step 1: Go to your book’s page on Amazon and look in the Customers Who Bought This Item Also
Bought section.
Step 2: Make a list of the book titles that appear. These are titles
YOUR customers have also bought. This means they like those books, plus they
think they’ll like yours. This means anyone who likes those other titles may
also like yours.
Step 3: Go to twitter and search for those book titles one at a time.
When you find someone who has liked that other title, tweet them and say that
they may like your title too since they liked ____.
Step 4: Word your tweets differently each time, make them personal, and
include link to your ebook on Amazon. Use URL shortener like TinyUrl...or I
highly recommend you get Hootsuite. You can then schedule tweets. Huge
marketing time saver!!!
If someone
says they prefer another genre other than yours, recommend one of your author friends or another author you like. Be helpful. What goes around comes around. :-)
Twitter
is a leading, successful social network for one reason: it's social. From
personal experience, I can tell you I've sold more ebooks via social networks
in the past two months than I have doing 80+ book signings for 2 years. And I've met more
people; maybe not face-to-face, but they're still quite happy to meet me on Twitter and
buy one of my books.
And don't forget to follow me: http://www.twitter.com/cherylktardif and http://www.twitter.com/imajinbooks
Happy tweeting!
