In the world of social media, it feels like it is all about the hype. Whether you like it or not, social media is a great place to get your readers excited about your upcoming or existing book. One way to create this hype is to get readers involved in the creative process.
'Like' your favorite image.
If you are in a situation where you have some control over your cover design, or if your publisher is willing to consider this marketing approach, you can post three or four acceptable versions of your cover and have your fans vote on the cover that they like the best by Liking it.
'What would you do if ...?
You can create a buzz about your book by presenting a synopsis of your protagonist's main problem (perhaps a little more than hat would appear on the book's blurb) and asking readers to discuss ways that they would extricate themselves from the situation.
'Like' if you would try this ...
Get your readers excited about your characters by revealing one of their more unusual qualities and asking your fans to like if they also do the same thing, or if they wish they could!
Giveaways
It's true that the aim is to sell books, but sometimes giveaways are necessary to get books into a few readers hands and getting them to start talking bout your book. So for any of the challenges that you post on your social media sites, whether it is one of the ones I suggested above or another, a giveaway is a great way to get readers excited about interacting with your page.
Have you used other social media methods to get your readers excited about your book even before publication?
I try but don't seem to have a lot of luck. I did do the "help me pick a cover" once for a thing I was self-publishing. Usually I don't get that option. I've done giveaways as well.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried any of them as yet, but they sound like really good ideas
ReplyDeleteI've done quite a few blog giveaways. These were very successful five or six years ago but the advent of free Kindle books changed that landscape. Now I give books to reviewers and readers who sign up for my newsletter.
ReplyDeleteOne of my aliases tweets regularly and has built up quite a nice following with a few retweeting my every tweet. This has helped get the word out about new releases.
I haven't tried the others you mentioned, but I'm filing them away for future reference.