Social media is a blessing and a curse for indie authors. Right now, for me, it feels like a curse. It is as if I’ve gotten on the wrong side of Facebook and all the other platforms. I’m hearing nothing but cricket-song out there.
This is happening despite the fact I’m running a price discount on The Fate of Wolves (ebook) this month, and The Dreams of Demons next month. What’s an indie author to do!
So….what am I going to do with an internet abyss that seems endless, and oh so terribly quiet?
Answer: Complaining a little…and then, double down as any crazy person would do. (When the street corner bullhorn doesn’t work, try something else…but keep trying)
For little over a week, I’ve been doing a deep dive into my social media marketing. I’m asking myself basic questions. How am I going to engage people? What have I not tried? What have I let get stale?
For those who read my posts, you know already that I’ve discovered Biteable.com. This site allowed me to piece together new (And I hope better) book trailers for all my books. I’ve also researched all the places and ways to use those trailers in my marketing plan. (Posts across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.) For more information on where and how to post trailers across the internet go to my last blog post.
While googling where to post trailers, I realized I’d forgotten about a few book sites I had used back in the day (2010) when I was promoting my first three books in the Darkly Series. Sites like AuthorsDen and LibraryThing. Not surprisingly, because I’d forgotten about them, each of those sites had out of date information concerning me and my books. This led me to the realization that my online-brand, AKA Tarrant Smith, lacked continuity. For a reader (and google), it shouldn’t matter which site I’m discovered on. Every platform should contain the same author bio and picture, the same links, the same awards, and the same book blurbs. Now, are these two sites easy to navigate? Hell NO! (About the same level of headache as Goodreads. But of course, you can find me there too!) Anyway, AuthorsDen and LibraryThing were pretty cutting edge in 2010 and they were some of the only places to list an ebook in those days. Needless to say, I cussed a little but got to work.
Now with my media-presence house in order, I turned to finding something new to add to my book promotion toolbox. (Which is the real reason for this post.)
Unearthing a book promotion site that would do more than just take my money and wave goodbye was my goal. I had tried Whizbuzz.com in the past but had seen little return on my investment. I started there anyway just to check to see if they offered anything new. But after nearly two years of being away, nothing seemed to have changed in what they were offering…so I did a google search for book marketing and almost as an afterthought I clicked on AllAuthor.com.
Turns out, you can list your books for free with them, but to get the cool marketing tools you want, an author needs to pay the $59 for pro status.
I paid the fee. Here’s my profile page with them and the landing page they set up for my books. Looks nice, right? Now, if you aren’t web-savvy then your AllAuthor landing page can serve as a second author’s website. I can promote discount deals on this platform. I can make book review gifs and promotional material using AllAuthor’s tools. (Examples below. The first one is a png file, the other a jpeg.)
AllAuthor will let me bank as many tweets with gifs as I want and then automatically post a set number of times on my Twitter account without me having to do anything but provide the list of tweets. That’s pretty cool. In just the overall time and hassle saved, I think AllAuthor is a good value for anyone who’d rather spend less time marketing and more time writing their next book.
I won’t actually know if anything I’ve done with AllAuthor will make a difference across my social media. At least, not immediately. But I’m willing to give it time. If anything, adding this platform to my marketing arsenal will provide Google another corner of the internet on which to find my name. Go on, google Tarrant Smith. I appear to be everywhere!
So one last time, let’s go through my brand’s internet health check-up:
- Created new digital ads for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
- Tried to create visual and informational continuity between all existing platforms.
- Backtracked to old book listing sites to update my basic information. Bio, Bio pic, awards, book details, social media links, etc.
- Pieced together new book videos.
- Dispersed those book trailers across as many platforms as possible. Those that one expects like Facebook, Twitter, my website, Amazon Central, YouTube…and others less expected like submitting a video to my book’s Amazon sales page.
- Added DailyMotion and Vimeo to my list of video sites.
- I gave in and paid Facebook for an ad that will run for the next 5 days. (Because I’m weak and insecure)
- Discovered and utilized AllAuthor’s book promotion tools
- Polished my own Author’s website and reported my discoveries here on my blog for other indie authors to try.
And to be honest, that’s all I can do to break through the awful silence I’m experiencing at the moment. I’m going to keep writing and publishing my books regardless of who reads or doesn’t read them. I can’t stop writing. I’ve been telling stories all my life.
And in the end, I might have to make peace with the notion that I might just remain the best kept secret on the internet.
