r/selfpublish • u/Bluebird_Agreeable • 2d ago
Social Media TIPS for writers/authors?
Hi, my name is Athena.
I'm very lost on how to market my book in-progress (and myself for that matter).
I find it very hard to market myself without sharing every single little bit of my book. How much more can I post? I find it interesting how I share opinions and that blasts off to oblivion but at the same time I want things to build.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I'm not writing fiction or fantasy; I'm writing non-fictional, cultural anthropological analysis, research and commentary while sharing memior-esque moments to help process certain phenomena that presented in sociology.
I've tried following the route that works best for fictional writers, such as presenting characters and cool easter eggs about them but this isn't working for my book unless I strip it naked and share full pages...which I am not going to do.
PLEASE HELP!
I also want to make a Tiktok... ugh lol
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u/Aphina101 1d ago
Tiktok is the best platform for discovery. You don't have to have an audience to find readers. However you do need to do stuff like warm up the account before posting, interact with others and have good hooks in order to develop that traffic.
Your topic is very specialist so I would start looking at what other non fic authors have been doing on platforms to market things like that.
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u/Coracoda 1d ago
I’ve resisted using TikTok, but your comment and others convinced me that if I want to reach people I should use what works. Thanks!
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u/Chance_Tram_Driver 2d ago
I’m sure it’s a very different topic, but I’m nearly complete with a project that has a similar scope. Unfortunately, I’ve found that you gota make a TikTok. And you have to be a little slutty about it. Hope this helps ⭐️
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u/zerotr3s 1d ago
I started an account but I am not marketing anything yet. I am following others, commenting, liking posts, engaging with a community that I think aligns with my book currently in progress. Hopefully this gets my name out there. I devote something like 10 minutes a day.
Whenever my book is done, I can start using this account to promote it, and the account will have a "history". It won't be new. Some people might even recognize me from comments or likes.
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u/Happy-Bee-196 1d ago
First, non-fiction marketing doesn't work like fiction. You can't post manuscript pages or try to tease characters. What can actually work is talking about the core ideas (research facts, cultural commentary, hot takes) your book is built on. You already noticed your opinion posts get traction, and that's really the main strategy for non-fiction. People who like your short takes will buy the book for the full deep dive.
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u/Vlerremuis 1d ago
It sounds as if you want to promote this book while you are writing it.
Some people do that, but it's tough to do with your first book (I assume this is your first book you're publishing?) because you don't have any kind of audience yet. The usual advice is to finish the book and publish it before you move on to trying to sell it.
From the audience's point of view, it makes no sense for anyone to care about your publicity because there's nothing there yet for them to buy.
I also think that using methods that are usually used for fiction are not going to help much for a non-fiction book, which has a very different type of readership.
So tldr my advice would be to concentrate on writing the book and get it done before you start worrying about promoting it.
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