Before I share the top10 Facebook Tips to increase book sales that EVERY author needs to know, let me begin by explaining why every author needs to be on Facebook.
So, Do Authors Need Facebook?
The quick answer is YES! As an author, you can choose if you want to be on other social media platform (like Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram), but you need to be on Facebook. With 2.7 billion users, Facebook is the only social media platform where every author’s audience is on. Other social media networks don’t cater to every industry or audience segment.
It is important to know who your target audience is before you create profiles on other social media networks. You only want to be on social media networks that your audience is also apart of. For example, Pinterest’s users are mostly moms, lifestyle bloggers, beauty gurus.
Facebook Tactics For Authors
There was once a time when authors could just write their book, hand it to an agent and let the publisher do the rest of the work. Now we are in the 21st century, and everything has changed. Authors today must also market their book and build an author platform where they can engage with their readers. One of the most facebook tactics for authors and ways to get more book sales is by engaging with targeted readers through Facebook. In this article, I will be sharing the top 10 Facebook tips to increase book sales. These Facebook tips for authors will help you build a tribe of loyal readers who help you further promote your book.
Here are the top 10 Facebook Tips To Increase Book Sales You Need
1. Create A Vanity URL
When you first create your Facebook author page, you’ll be assigned a random URL, consisting of a lot of numbers. To make your page easier to find and your links more recognizable, you should turn this link into a vanity URL aka your book title or author name. This will transform your URL from something like facebook.com/pages/123456789 to the much clearer facebook.com/yourbooktitle.
2. Setting Up Your Facebook Tabs
Once you’ve chosen your template, a system of default tabs will appear below it. You should reorder these tabs to put the ‘Shop Tab’ first, and the ‘Events Tab’ second. Rearranging the tabs is easy, just click n drag.
3. Setting Up Facebook Shop
To begin setting up your shop, click on the “Shop” tab from the left-hand column. A pop-up box will appear asking you to agree to the Seller’s Terms and Policies. Check the box and click continue. You will then be asked to choose a checkout method. Select “checkout on another website” so that you can direct readers to the Amazon page for your book.
When you’re done, click save. After that, you’ll be able to add books to your store!
4. Adding a Book To Your Store
Once your Facebook shop is set up, you will need to add some products aka books to it. To add a book, you will need an image that is square and with a resolution of 1024 pixels by 1024 pixels. This image should contain the book cover and cannot include any promotional material or text, or else Facebook may remove it.
You may be thinking, “book covers are rectangular, how do I make them square?” If you upload a book cover as is, the image will be distorted, and readers will not be able to see the cover properly. You will have to use an image editing program like Photoshop or Canva to create the square image.
Once you have the image, go to your author page and click on the Shop tab. Next, click on ‘Add Product.’ Fill out the form with the book title, price, book description, and URL. The URL should take the reader directly to a place they can purchase the book, i.e., Amazon. You should make sure your book is ‘Featured.’ To do this, check the “Feature This Product” box.
5. Set Your Facebook Button
At the top right side of every Facebook business page is a big blue button that says ‘Shop Now.’ Make sure you add the URL that will take readers to a place where they can purchase your book. But if you want to push email signups instead of sales, you may want to change the button to say ‘Learn More’ or ‘Sign Up Now.’
6. Use Facebook Stories
This tool was created to help you! Use it! Facebook stories don’t take up much time. Plus when you publish a new story, your audience will receive an alert!
Facebook stories don’t involve any editing and don’t need to be perfect. Just pick up your phone and start vlogging! The stories are also there for only 24 hrs then poof they disappear!
7. Use Facebook Advertising To Boost Your Audience
Yes, this may be at an additional fee, but it’s more than worth it. This step guarantees that you will have an audience. Those eyeballs don’t come cheap!
8. Use Facebook Audience Insights to find new interest audiences to target
Expand your audience targeting by finding other authors and readers through Facebook Audience Insights tool. Plug in your best-performing audience and see which pages it has an active crossover.
9. Improve Your Organic Reach With Tagging
Want to maximize your organic reach and start gaining followers organically? Try tagging your readers, other authors, businesses, or Facebook pages. Or when you share an article from a publication on your Facebook page, always tag the media outlet and journalist.
10. Try Boosting A Post
Boosting a post is available to anyone with a business page. Boosting a post on Facebook means paying to get your content seen by more people. Creating an Ad on Facebook is very different from boosting a post. With a Facebook ad, you are creating an entirely new targeted ad. With boosting a post, you are boosting an already published post. Make sure you’re boosting a post that is already doing well, and that has a high ROI (return on investment) value.
Benefits of boosting a Facebook post:
- Make up for declining organic reach.
- Reach a wider targeted audience.
- Access to analytics.
Conclusion: Facebook Tips To Increase Book Sales Every
Following these 10 Facebook tips to increase book sales will dramatically help you gain traction on Facebook. I used these same Facebook strategies for authors to help them grow their readership.
There is one facebook tip for authors that will always get you the most results. That tip is investing in Facebook Ads. Just because it’s free to use Facebook for promoting your book doesn’t mean it’s free to become successful.
A common misconception is that successful authors don’t invest money in their brand is false. There are plenty of things you can do to grow your Facebook account organically, but once you get to a particular stage, it pays to pay. I actually have a secret facebook strategy that I have used to help authors build a credible and highly engaged audience from zero to one thousand overnight. Want to know? Join my newsletter, and I will email you the secret.)
I hope this article helped inspire you to start growing your readership on Facebook! Looking for more social media advice? Join my Authors only Facebook group where I will answer any of your marketing or publishing questions. Plus I am giving away my free 20 page social media guidebook that has over 100 tips for authors in it!
Thank you!!!