If you’ve ever wondered how to market your books on social media, you’re not alone. It is a quest of many independent authors. Marketing may not be your forte; it doesn’t have to be for you to market your novel on social media,
The mission you have on social media (should you accept it) is not selling books but selling stories. Your stories.
Today, we deal with the task of figuring out how to break your novel apart into singular pieces of content for social media marketing.
In other words, how do you convert your novel into a format readers can consume? One that will lead readers to buy your book. Pepsi and Coke use to have taste tests when I was a kid. The purpose, of course, was to boost sales and keep the rivalry going.
Create A Visual Taste Test
What makes taste tests great is they’re very social. And, that’s the point. Companies stir talk over their brand this way. They create buzz. As a novelist, traditional or self-published, you need to create taste tests because they create buzz.
The way to accomplish this is using visuals. In the previous post, How to Attract Attention with Your Novel On Social Media, we shared with you the 3 S Formula. If you didn’t read that post be sure to do so and get the 3 S Formula worksheet.
Follow along for now. The first S stands for Script It. You can understand this already with writing your novel. Now it’s time to Storyboard It. At this stage, you will convert plot into pictures. The cool thing about this is you may have already done so without realizing it.
Most novels have illustrations in addition to the book cover. The drawings represent singular pivotal moments, or plot points, in your story. You can use these for marketing! Social media is a prime platform for the visual story. What you want to do is create a visual representation of your entire novel for marketing purposes. It’s simple, really.
And, they’re more exciting than sales links.
In screenwriting, they call it story beats. Blake Snyder was infamous for his Save the Cat book on screenwriting. In it, he educates aspiring screenwriters on how to flesh out a story. Each act of the story contains beats, e.g.: Opening Image, Premise, Setup, and the Catalyst.
How many books have been turned into movies? Think storytelling when you attempt to market your novel on social media. You’re not an information marketer; you are an entertainment marketer.
Story is developed into the written script and then quickly into storyboards a comic book version of the story; quick and rough.
Turning your manuscript into pictures is like converting apples to sweet cider. Your novel, like apples, are both products in and of themselves that can be sold and enjoyed, as is. But, they can also be changed into another product. In your case, it’s a must if the first version is going to be enjoyed at all.
I work at an Orchard. It’s my privilege to work directly with the owners of the apple farm. One of the things I’ve learned is that one product can become many. And, if a business is going to thrive it’s a must. Apples can transform into many things:
- Apple Crisp
- Sweet and Hard Cider
- Apple Wine
- Apple Pie
- Apple Dumplings
- Apple Sauce
One of my tasks there is making sweet cider in the cider mill. The process is a lot of fun; thousands of apples get transformed into sweet cider. They get crushed, squeezed, treated then bottled. That’s the process in a nutshell.
Think of your novel as a crispy apple (name your favorite variety here). How do you make one crispy novel a sweet read? Look at the featured image above. The book is becoming another product.
Here are some idea possibilities; inexpensive compared to what you might be doing. Perhaps you are spending much time and energy doing things that will never sell more books and build your brand.
- Book Cover – This visual must tell the reader what the story is about. Everything matters here: Title, title font and color, background and any other imagery involved. This is a door into the story inside.
- Opening image – how does the main characters world begin? Create a visual. Put your illustrator to work.
- Premise – your storyline, or logline for screenwriters, can become a powerful visual image. The premise is a one sentence or short three sentence storyline that tells the reader what your novel is about.
By turning a written premise into a visual image, you can create a powerful attraction more effective than any Amazon sales link. Remember, Amazon sells books; your job is to sell your story. Do this right and you’ll make one crispy novel a sweet read!
Below is an example of a book cover I had made for my first novel — which I am still writing, lol. Actually, the story is based on everything Fiction Marketing Simplified teaches. I’m so excited! Always been a non-fictioner.
Till next time.
I hope you enjoyed today’s post. Kindly leave a comment below and share!
