A guide for authors just starting out with a Facebook business page.
Guest blogger Crissi Langwell gives us a crash course on using your Author Facebook Page as effectively as you can, even if you feel awkward in the beginning.
What Should Authors Post on Their Facebook Page?
If you’re a newly published author, or striving to be one, congratulations! You’ve done the hard work of writing a book! Now it’s time to get word out about your book, which is where social media comes in.
But before you start spamming your friends with posts to buy your book, let’s take a step back and make a plan, starting specifically with Facebook.
If you don’t have a Facebook business page, it’s easy to create one, this tutorial will help.
Once you have a FB page, then what? I’m sure it’s daunting to look at that blank page, the status bar telling you to write something, but you don’t know what. It’s especially hard when you don’t have many fans (except one, hi Mom!) who will even read what you write.
Note from Marlene: Having an author Facebook page might be scary, but it can be fun. As Crissi says, “Don’t give in before you’ve even started.”
Show Them Who You Are
First things first, make sure you have a profile picture and a cover photo. Your profile can be you, or it can be your book. On my own author Facebook page, I like to use my own photo most of the time. But when I’m getting ready to release a new book, I’ll change it to show my book cover.
For the cover photo, you can choose scenery, a collage of your books, or anything that gives readers another clue as to who you are. But make sure the cover image is big enough to fit in that space. Nothing looks more unprofessional on a Facebook page than a pixelated image for the cover photo. The exact dimensions are 820 X 312 pixels.
Hint: Go to Canva.com and create your Facebook cover there. This is a design website that offers easy templates that make all your designs look fun and professional. Here’s an easy tutorial to learn how to use it.
Personalize Your Page
Make sure your Facebook page URL is the exact name you want it to be. In your “About” section, go to the “General” area and edit your Username. Otherwise, your URL will add a bunch of numbers to the address, making it look clunky.
Finally, fill out your “About” section with your bio, your website, and anything else you want readers to know about you. This section is checked more often than you think, and can be readers first impression of you.
What to Post!
Posting Rules
- Be authentic. Be yourself.
- Don’t spam your readers with “buy my book” posts
- Refrain from politics or hot button issues (unless your books are about politics or hot button issues)
- Post at least once a day, if possible
- But don’t over-post, or you’ll lose readers
Ten things you can post about on your Facebook page:
- A blog post you’ve written
- A quote from your book
- What you’re reading now (NOT your own book)
- Something funny that happened today
- Something in current events or pop culture that your readers would be interested in
- A quote from another author or influential person. Go to canva.com and create an image.
- A top 10 list of books your readers might enjoy knowing about
- News of a book event you’ll be attending
- News about your book release, or a sale on your book
- A photo of you writing, living life, or having fun
Please note, only two of these ten items are directly about your book. A good rule of thumb is to follow the 80–20 rule: 80% of your posts are NOT about your book, and 20% of your posts are.
It’s a good idea, before you post anything, to think about what your readers are like. What kind of person would like to read the things you write? What other things would they like besides your books? Keep these things in mind with everything you post, because what you’re really trying to do is build an audience that is interested in YOU, because this will be part of your platform.
Your page views will be small in the beginning. Don’t stress about that number. Keep posting content that people will want to like, comment on, or share, and that number will go up. You just need to be consistent.
Crissi Langwell is a romance author in Sonoma County. Her passion is the story of the underdog, and her novels include stories of homeless teens, determined heroines, family issues, free spirits and more.
