How To Sell Your Books, And Why You Can’t Avoid Social Media

Salinger is dead, and BookTok has killed him

If you want to sell books, you need to get on social media, and you need to do it yesterday.

• Are you a burgeoning author?
• Writing the next Great Novel?
• Do you dream of being a recluse, letting your art speak for itself, staying away from social media?
• You want to be a J.D Salinger or Emily Dickinson, rather than a Stephen King or Colleen Hoover?

Well, it might be time for a new dream.

J.D Salinger has been dead for over a decade. But the ‘Salinger’ I refer to is the prototype we imagine for a reclusive author who lets their art speak for itself. This type of author just isn’t feasible in today’s digital world.

Old age killed Salinger, BookTok has killed his successors

BookTok is the book related side of TikTok. Users discuss books they’ve read and recommend or warn against them. It’s had an immeasurable impact on the publishing industry. Books are flying off the shelves and authors are being launched from thousands of sales to millions.

You don’t even have to be on TikTok to see the effects. Nearly every bookstore will have a table dedicated to books popular on TikTok, and the “bestsellers” section will be full of books which came out years ago having a resurgence in popularity due to BookTok. Youtube and Instagram are also part of this phenomenon, though they don’t play as large of a role as BookTok.  

In 2022, Time named Colleen Hoover one of the most influential people of the year. She was the most popular author of 2022, largely due to the influence of TikTok and her social media presence.

It’s no mystery why this happened. Social media is cheap and efficient. It’s also a type of marketing which feels like that elusive word-of-mouth marketers chase after. Readers can get recommendations from influencers (who are also a hot commodity in digital marketing) or other bookworms with similar taste.

There is a much higher level of trust than seeing an advertisement from a publisher. 

It gives authors one more tool in their belt to help their book sell. Gone are the days of relying on book signings and word of mouth. Or praying that your publisher allocates enough of the marketing budget to your book. Authors can now get to advertising their own books easily.

There’s no more room for being reclusive anymore as an author

If you want to quit your day job and be an author the best thing you can do is start learning social media marketing. While still chic, it no longer pays to be a mysterious intellectual. Stop signing up for wine tastings and start signing up for digital marketing courses. 

A few tips to get you started

Being an author who poured time and effort into perfecting your craft and coming up with innovative ideas, you’d be forgiven for thinking that people are interested in the contents of your book more than anything else. You’d be forgiven, but you’d be wrong.

• Like most social media, Booktok is visuals based and attention spans are short.
• Get familiar with the popular aesthetics on BookTok. Dark academia, Sad Girl, cottagecore etc. What subcultures your book fits into and how people can fit your book into their online presentation is more important than plot to start with.
• Marketing scholars will tell you that many purchases people make are motivated by their conception of their identity and books are no different.

So find what type of reader you want and get on to their corner of the internet. 

Social media marketing thrives on short messages delivered in engaging ways. No one wants to see you describe your book’s plot for 5 minutes. Market your book through key words. 

DON’T POST LIKE THIS!

“My romance novel, Songs in C++, is about a cheerful singer and a moody programmer coding his website who get off on the wrong foot but find out there’s more to each other than they thought after an unexpected blizzard forces them to spend time together. Coming out in a few months on DD/MM”

INSTEAD, DO THIS

You get the picture. The shorter and more full of keywords your description can be, the better your chances of keeping someone’s attention and finding the readers who want your book. Some publishing houses have even taken to getting rid of blurbs entirely, replacing them with bullet pointed tropes.

Social media is a powerhouse of the publishing world. If you can write to the most popular tropes and aesthetics, and market yourself accordingly, you can build an audience before your book ever hits the shelves.

With so much of the publishing world being dominated now by the will of social media algorithms, there’s little space left for wallflowers and recluses.

The good part is because social media is so broad, no matter how niche and specific your book is you will find communities online who are interested. With book sales up, you can at least rest assured people are willing to make the engage on social media -> purchase transition, something many marketers scratch their heads about. Some day you might be able to quit your day job. Or just be able to afford a new fancy laptop.