Taming Amazon discussion

I know you’ve seen the tweets, people shouting at you to “READ MY BOOK!” it’s “ON SALE NOW!” I have to admit that I’m guilty of it myself, until I found there’s a better way to promote your eBook.

If you can get someone’s attention with an interesting blurb from your book, they might want to take a look to see what it’s about. I suggest looking through your story and picking out a dozen or so quotes and turn them into a “Tweet.”

Here are step-by-step instructions to tailor-make your tweets.

Using the hashtag, write the title of your book. I’m going to use my book as an example, so #InvasionOfPrivacy is 18 characters. (I hope this doesn't come across as promoting my book, but I wanted to use a real example.)

Then I’ll add the address to the book on Amazon.com, http://amazon.com/dp/B00EBATCTU. With the spaces, that’s 51 characters. You can use an URL shortner like bitly.com if you need to, but it’s been my experience that people are hesitant to click on a shortened link.

Identify a “tweetable” quote from the book. They should be short, insightful, provocative, or intriguing. My example is “Someone is watching you right now, as you sit at your computer.” Now our count is at 114. You should leave room for someone to add their username to re-tweet you.

I have a Word document where I’ve created 12 pre-made “tweets.” So, every day or two, I’ll visit Twitter, read a few profiles of followers or new contacts and tweet something interesting I find out about them. Then, after I’ve posted a few times, I’ll add one of my pre-made tweets about my book.

Be sure to mix it up a bit, so you’re not always self-promoting. If your quote is engaging enough, it doesn’t come across that you’re simply trying to promote your eBook, you’re offering something interesting.

How do you promote on Twitter? What is your favorite social media site to promote your book?

Thanks, I hope this helps and I look forward to hearing from you.

Jim

Jim, why do you think shortened URLs get fewer clicks? I shortened all my URLS.

I basically use Hoot Suite to schedule my tweets: 1 promo a day either plugging a book or a blog post. I try to drive people to my website/blog to entice them with my writing style in the hopes they'll give the books a try. Each blog post has a teaser for a book at the end. Then once or twice a day I go on Twitter for "live" posting: responding to others or noting something that happened to me that day or something crazy in the world. That starts some conversations. I cannot let Twitter be a time suck so I am doing the bare minimum. My followers hover around 2400. Advice?

Another question: Do quotes from reviews help sell books in Twitter? Or awards noted in tweets? Or a sassy teaser? Not promoting here but here are three samples I use. I cannot attest to their success (I hate getting bogged down in all the stats): what catches your interest?

BOOK OF MERCY: finalist in Midwest Book Awards! http://tinyurl.com/3f2xfdb #censorship #parenting #libraries

BOOK OF MERCY review: "gives us what a good book should: courage to forge a better world." http://tinyurl.com/3f2xfdb

She: "No unicorns, but I do have deer." He: "Like Bambi." She: "Better than Bambi." Book of Mercy http://tinyurl.com/3f2xfdb

No Pradas were worn in the making of this book. BOOK OF MERCY. @sherryroberts7 http://tinyurl.com/3f2xfdb

I think the Tweet with the award noted is more compelling.

Thanks, Jim, for the input. By the way, Down Dog Diary is a finalist in this year's Midwest Book Awards, as well.

Congratulations!
http://www.mipa.org/24th-annual-midwe...

Sherry wrote: "Another question: Do quotes from reviews help sell books in Twitter? Or awards noted in tweets? Or a sassy teaser? Not promoting here but here are three samples I use. I cannot attest to their succ..."

I think the last works well.

Jim wrote: "How do you promote on Twitter? What is your favorite social media site to promote your book?"

I publicize my Wordpress blog articles to Facebook and Twitter and from what I can see they are appreciated and retweeted.

I try not to put just automated email with promos on Twitter, just adding to the noise. In fact, I rarely mention my books. I mean, if people think I'm interesting, they click on my profile and they can click through to my blog and find out all about my books.

I use Tweetdeck to schedule tweets so they don't go too quick after another. If I blog about my books, I often use a quote and a link to my blog.

Examples of my tweets:

RT #SampleSunday “You grow weed. Real criminals don’t bother with misdemeanours.” wp.me/p1mYQc-41 @Tao_Of_Violence #Amsterdam #Assassin

RT #SampleSunday BDSM isn't so funny when it's not consensual... wp.me/p1mYQc-2V @Tao_Of_Violence #Amsterdam #Assassin #WIP

Ah, the perks of research: smoking #herb and listening to #reggae on #Spotify. Currently Bob #Marley Small Axe. @Tao_Of_Violence #ebook

WIP Bram Outtake: "...Bram felt moist warm breath in his ear, as a little girl whispered, “Did God strike you blind?”@Tao_Of_Violence #ebook

RT #SampleSunday He would gladly trade his cowardice for her courage wp.me/p1mYQc-3Y @Tao_Of_Violence #Amsterdam #Assassin

So I mix it up. Sometime it's a reminder of a new article on my blog, sometimes a quote, other times the kind of music I listen to while I do my research...

Here a question for everyone. Has a Twitter post ever led you to purchase or sample a book by a new author? It'd be interesting to learn what Tweets have actually worked.

Other questions to consider: How often do you click on other people's Twitter links? What types of Tweets do you tend to respond to?

Sherry, you mentioned that you don't want to get bogged down in stats. I agree that it's easy to spend to much time with the numbers or to fall into the trap of "paralysis by analysis," but I think it's incredibly important to at least do a basic review of each marketing tactic to see if your time and effort is being rewarded. Otherwise, you could be wasting a lot of time and money (if you do ad campaigns). For example, if an author spends 5 hours a week on Twitter and 5 hours a week on Facebook, but notices that she always gets higher responses on Facebook, then she might want to consider shifting time from Twitter to Facebook or determine if something isn't clicking with her Twitter audience. Twitter and Facebook might be free to use, but time is valuable!

J. wrote: "Here a question for everyone. Has a Twitter post ever led you to purchase or sample a book by a new author? It'd be interesting to learn what Tweets have actually worked.

Other questions to consi..."

J. Yes, I do look at stats, but I try not to get hung up on them. As far as I know, there is no way to track a purchase from Twitter. On my Wordpress site, I can track when a visitor to my site or blog has clicked through to Amazon, but I don't know if that led to a purchase. I think the key with social media is what vehicle do you feel most comfortable with, and thus will be more social on. Also where are your readers? Are they on Twitter or Facebook or somewhere else? I have a lot of Twitter followers but it seems so many are other authors. How many of those authors are buying each other's books? Some surely. But I have been to a number of "writing" conferences where writers don't buy books. The $64,000 question is where are you readers and how can you get to them?

Sherry, good point! I agree that you should work on the platforms you feel comfortable with. An author can make Facebook, Twitter, a blog, etc... work if given enough time, focus and consideration. I think a lot of authors (myself included) try to do too much and end up not really making a strong impression on any platform. (Something I'm working to correct)Going back to Twitter, one way to track activity is to look at retweets. I believe you can also track clicks if you use URL shorteners. Of course, as you pointed out, clicks don't correlate to sales.

Personally I prefer Twitter to Facebook. I can grow Twitter more easily and I now get e-mails letting me know how many people have viewed my posts (I like my stats!) I don't add many authors on Twitter they are mainly readers & reviewers.

Facebook pages have now changed so unless someone regularly visits your page, you don't feature in their home stream. So no matter how good your posts no one will be reading them unless they visit!

Another good point for Twitter is that you can link it to Goodreads and every time someone adds you on Twitter, they get an invitation to add you on Goodreads. For me this is home, because this is the home of readers.

I don't sell many books, but they do say it takes 4 books before people remember your name.

Tracey, thank you for this:"Another good point for Twitter is that you can link it to Goodreads and every time someone adds you on Twitter, they get an invitation to add you on Goodreads."
My question is: How do you do this? Link Twitter to Goodreads?

Martha wrote: "Tracey, thank you for this:"Another good point for Twitter is that you can link it to Goodreads and every time someone adds you on Twitter, they get an invitation to add you on Goodreads."
My quest..." That would really interest me too