Marketing, Promotion, Publicity, And Social Networking For Writers

If you want to build a career as an author, you might want to prepare for a fair amount of self-promotion, marketing, and publicity. Writers need to put in the extra effort to spread the news about their books (or other writing) by word of mouth. The good news is, if you read the articles on book marketing and promotion below, you won’t have to work hard to succeed. You just have to work smart.

Our articles will show you how to make the most of social media websites and other promotional avenues to effectively publicize your writing—whether you’re working on a novel, a nonfiction book, poems, short stories, or essays.

You’ll find it all here—our best articles on important aspects of promotion and publicity for writers—everything from modern social networking to old-fashioned business cards. Authors who are promoting their books (novels, memoirs, or how-to books) will especially love these great tips!

However, keep in mind that in order to have a good social networking campaign, you first need to have a very good author website. Your author website is the home base of your book marketing, publicity, and promotional campaign. It’s where all the friends that you make on social media websites will go to find out more about you. It’s where all your promotional efforts will begin and end.

Be sure to bookmark this page so you can read about all of the wonderful promotional and marketing opportunities that are available to you online and off. Good luck promoting your writing!

Marketing And Promotional Ideas For Writers: Building Your Author Platform

Let’s begin by looking at some of the basics of marketing for writers. Not all writers are naturally good at self-promotion and publicity. But that’s ok! Anyone can become proficient at online marketing and reputation-building with a little bit of tenacity and a willingness to learn.

Permission Granted: Why It Is OK To Embrace Self-Promotion — Self-promotion and enthusiastic marketing are often expected of writers these days. If you’ve been afraid to promote your novel or even your poetry, take heart in knowing that you’re not alone. Then, read this article.

Your Writer Brand: Laying The Foundation For A Long Career — If you’re hoping for a long career as a creative writer, it’s important to start thinking about your author brand in the very beginning. Learn more about the concept of branding for writers, then learn how to create your own distinct brand.

How To Turn Visitors Into Fans — Just because a person visits your author website doesn’t mean he or she will come back. Here are a few strategies that will encourage your visitors to become dedicated fans.

9 Ways To Become More Googleable – A Primer For Reputation-Building Writers — If your goal is to become a career writer, literary agents and editors will search for you online. Be sure that what they find is what you want them to see.

6 Easy Steps To Book Your Author Blog Tour — A blog tour can be a powerful way to spread the word about your book or novel. Here’s how to create your own author blog tour!

Apps For Writers On The Go — If you live life in the fast lane, you will love these handy apps that allow writers to turn any moment into an opportunity for inspiration.

FAQ: What Should My Book Marketing Press Release Contain? — A press release can be a great way to share the news about your novel or nonfiction book. If you’re going to use a press release for marketing and publicity, here’s what you need to know.

Effective Cross-Promotion: Create Your Power Promo Team — Don’t go it alone! Your marketing, publicity, and promotional efforts will be more effective if you’ve got a team on your side.

Writers: Create Your Digital Press Kit — Book marketing and publicity are often accomplished through digital press kits: collections of strategic information that introduce writers to the media.

10 Tips To Host A Creative Contest That Promotes Your Book — Promote your book by creating a contest that you can host online! This is a great, low-cost opportunity for effective marketing and publicity.

Three Easy Marketing Ideas For Shy Writers — Feeling skittish about self-promotion? Here are three ways to promote and market your writing without having to get up on a soapbox holding a megaphone.

7 Steps To A Bigger Reputation As A Writer — When it comes to marketing and publicity, your reputation as a writer is everything. Follow these seven steps to build a stronger author platform.

How To Hire A Book Publicist: Find Help Marketing Your Book — It can be a great idea to hire a book publicity or marketing firm to help spread the word about your book. Before you begin searching databases to find a book publicist, it’s important to know exactly what you want.

The Truth About “Guaranteed” Followers And Fans — Virtual assistants often guarantee followers, but that’s not always a reliable promise.

6 Lessons Writers Can Learn About Marketing From Mardi Gras — Fun, colorful Mardi Gras celebrations inspired these clever tips on how to jazz up your marketing and promote your writing with style throughout the year.

Think Outside The Bookstore: The Benefits Of Cross-Promotion – How do you convince complete strangers to market your book—and have them be happy to do it? Cross-promotion!

5 Things Literary Agents Want To See In Your Author Platform – Building a strong author platform before you begin querying could make it easier for a literary agent to say yes! to your book.

Social Networking For Writers: General Self-Promotion And Marketing Tips For Establishing Your Author Web Presence

There are many ways to promote your writing. One of the easiest, cheapest, and most efficient ways to promote is to use social media. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter can help you make a name for yourself—if you go about it the right way. The articles in this section offer general pointers that can be applied to most social networks.

Safety Tips For Social Networking: A Writer’s Guide To Staying Safe Online — Before you start marketing and promoting your book (or any writing) on social networks, be aware of the dangers and what you can do to stay safe.

Social Networking: 5 Social Media Tools That Will Make Your Life A Little Easier — Writers can easily spend too much time self-promoting on social media. These five tools will streamline your publicity efforts.

How To Get People Talking On Your Social Networks — By encouraging conversation on your social networks, you increase your exposure. Use these proven strategies to grow your social media following.

Integrate Social Networks Into Your Website — Make the most of your marketing and promotion efforts by incorporating your social network feeds into your author website. It’s easier than you think!

6 Steps To Reinvigorate Your Social Media Networks — If you feel like your efforts to build an author platform via social media are falling flat, this simple six-step program will inject some new energy into your campaign.

Writers: How To Deal With Negative Comments Or Feedback Online — When you are marketing or promoting your novel or your writer brand, you’re bound to encounter criticism. But don’t sweat it: Just know what to do.

Automate Your Social Media With These Free Promotion Tools — Did you know that your social media campaigns can continue to move forward even while you’re sleeping? This is part of what makes social media such a great marketing and publicity tool for writers!

Social Networking For People Who Hate Social Networking — If you’re tired of hearing about how much social networking helps writers promote and market their work, this article is for you. There IS a way you can promote on social media—without driving yourself nuts.

Posting Images: Harnessing The Art Of Social Media Pictures — Using images to promote your writing, your author website, or your social media profiles can be a fantastic way to make new friends.

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Hashtags But Were Afraid To Ask — We’ll answer all of those #burningquestions you were afraid to ask about hashtags.

Can Facebook And Twitter Replace Your Author Website?  — Understand the different strategic advantages of an author website and social media pages for promoting your writing.

Which Social Media Site Fits Your Personality? — Take this fun quiz to determine which social media platform is best-suited to your needs and personality.

Who Should You Be When You’re Online? Creating An Author Persona For Social Media — When promoting your writing on social media, avoid revealing every detail of your life by using an online persona.

5 Mistakes That Lead To Social Media Burnout: How To Avoid Stress, Frustration, And Exhaustion In Your Social Media Campaign — Identify and avoid making the mistakes that led to your social status meltdown in the first place.

5 Tips That Will Help You Post More Consistently On Social Media— Updating content and promoting your personal brand is far too essential to constantly put off for another day. Here are great strategies that will help you post more consistently.

Writers Guides To Specific Social Networks

Each social network has its own particular advantages and disadvantages, as well as its own particular rules and etiquette. In these articles, we show writers how to make the most of specific social networks. If you’re promoting a nonfiction book or novel, or if you’re building your author platform by driving traffic to your website, these articles are a must-read!

The Goodreads Author Program: Turn Your Reading Time Into PR Time — Social networking for writers is about as easy as it gets on Goodreads. If you’re reading books, you’ve got what it takes to succeed on this site.

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet: Is Twitter Worth A Writer’s Time? — By now, you’ve heard that Twitter can be a powerful tool for marketing and promotion, especially for creative writers. But will what you get out of it be worth all the effort that you put in?

Twitter Tips For Writers – 11 Ways To Gain Followers And Make Friends — If you’ve already made the leap into the Twitterverse, these eleven tips will show you how to make new fans.

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet: Is Twitter Worth A Writer’s Time? — A list of Twitter pros and cons to help you decide if Twitter is right for you.

Author Platform: Tweet As Your Character! — Some writers have tons of success by tweeting as a character from a book. But is this a good strategy for you?

8 Misconceptions About Facebook For Authors  — Before you dismiss using Facebook to help promote your writing, take a look at the facts that counter these eight common misconceptions.

Pinterest: 5 Tips For Building Your Author Platform And Web Presence — Yes, we all know Pinterest is a visual platform for sharing images. And yet, writers may find it incredibly useful while building their author platform.

YouTube For Writers: How To Make Web Videos A Powerhouse Of Promotion — YouTube, owned by Google, is more than just a video-sharing site. It’s a powerful way to get your name out there as a writer.

How To Set Up Google Authorship For Your Author Website — Everything you need to know about setting up Google Authorship for your website.

Learn More About Self-Promotion For Authors

This SFWA writer shares his success story

A handful of great articles about book publicity

Lots of ideas to build your author platform

Web Design Relief: Helping Authors Promote, Market, And Publicize Their Books And Creative Writing Online

Web Design Relief: Helping Authors Promote, Market, And Publicize Their Books And Creative Writing OnlineWe at Web Design Relief love helping writers establish bigger and better online reputations by creating dazzling author websites. For authors who are looking for interactive websites that incorporate strong social media campaigns, Web Design Relief offers insider strategies and guidance that get results.

You can also find more great information at our sister site: Writer’s Relief.

If you would like to repost any of our articles, email us at info@webdesignrelief.com.

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