Expert Round-Up Topic: How important is social media for authors?
ALEX GENADINIK
I personally use zero social media because most marketing and ensuing sales come from the Amazon platform. So, for authors like me, it’s not important. But social media is very important in these 2 cases:
1) For authors looking for a book deal, a big audience will often open the doors to a book deal because the book agents will see that these authors can promote and sell the book to their audience.
2) Independent authors who don’t know how to sell their books on Amazon or who need to give their Amazon-listed books a boost, need to build a social media audience who will buy that book.
Alex Genadinik is the Founder of SPRK Token and author of Business Plan Template and Example: How to Write a Business Plan: Business Planning Made Simple.
JOHN LA PUMA, MD
Social media has been very important in the success of Indoor Epidemic as we are able to display our international book of the year award in Health (Alternative Medicine), and as a feedback system. Analytic data showed that our audience is overwhelmingly women 35 to 64, especially those parenting, or in or near perimenopause, or who are caregivers.
We found that the same post performs very differently by platform. Our TikTok myopia post is our highest-engagement post, beating even our New York Times feature and NPR coverage. On Instagram, the opposite is true. People like to see me in a real setting as a physician or on our regenerative organic farm with morning light. Those posts outperform graphics and statistics. On LinkedIn, media proof performs.
We find that social media works when you let the data tell you who is actually reading your book, not who you intend the audience to be, and meet them where they are. To help people learn about the dangers of excessive indoor time and nature/light/air/movement as medicine, we use the same message with three different ways of delivering it.
John La Puma is the author of Indoor Epidemic: 93% Inside Steals Sleep, Focus & Years—The 7% Outdoor Rx Restores Them.
IndoorEpidemic.com
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RICHARD KAYE
Social media is incredibly important for authors, but not for the reason most people think. Most books don’t become bestsellers because someone saw a single post on Facebook or LinkedIn and immediately clicked “buy.” Social media works because it builds familiarity, trust, and credibility over time. Readers buy from authors they know, like, and perceive as authorities.
I’ve found that the most effective approach is to leverage every piece of publicity you receive. If you’re interviewed by the media, featured in a newspaper, speak on a podcast, or even take a photo with a recognized celebrity or influencer, share it. Those moments become social proof. A picture, article, or interview says, “This author is someone worth paying attention to.” Every post becomes another touchpoint that keeps you top of mind and expands your reach far beyond your existing audience. Social media isn’t just a marketing channel, it’s a credibility amplifier.
Richard Kaye is the author of The Trust Economy: How to Win Hearts, Keep Customers, and Grow Without Chasing Leads and Co-Founder of the Heart of Humanity Award.
LIAM SANDFORD
When I wrote Effortless Public Speaking, the book was a product of building a community on social media first. I hosted a weekly audio room about public speaking on Twitter, and 150 people turned up to the first one. That room became a community, and the community became readers of the book. Nearly every reader, review and speaking invitation I get comes back to building on social media.
So, I would suggest authors stop treating social media as a megaphone for their book. Instead, treat it as the place where you give people access to your thinking for free, covering the same ideas that are in your book. The people who get the most value from your free content are the ones who go on to buy it and leave a review. My second book makes the case that your book is not the finish line. It is a marketing asset for your business, and social media is what turns it into one. A book sitting on a shelf does very little. A book attached to an audience you speak to every week acts as a lead magnet for your business. Social media matters for building relationships and trust with your readers, and when that exists, book sales come as a result.
Liam Sandford is the author of Effortless Public Speaking.
GREGORY DOWNEY
Having a strong social media presence was the absolute key to Attracting Miracles becoming an overnight best seller. It gave me the ability to tease content, share snippets, bring value ahead of publish, and to build huge anticipation for release day.
It opened up dialogue and triggered pre-sale conversations that would never have existed without a strong social media presence.
As a new author on an imprint that placed the majority of the marketing and PR activities on my shoulders, I would not have enjoyed the success that I have enjoyed without social media. In fact, I have sold more copies than was anticipated by statistical standards.
With When Business is Love, social media was not employed as a primary marketing strategy due to the disconnect between the author and those managing social media for Hästens. The conversations would have been with a degree of separation and not directly with the author as I was able to do with Attracting Miracles.
Gregory Downey is the author of Attracting Miracles and a contributor to When Business is Love by Jan Ryde.
