The Fool-Proof Twitter Book Marketing Strategy You Need to be Using

I just got an email from an author who says this:

One trend I notice with indie writers is this: on social media, we tend to connect with other writers. Which is not to say this is such a bad thing. After all, writers can help other writers. But writers don’t represent our core audience. We’re never going to sell a lot of books by connecting with other writers. So my question is, what’s the best way to entice readers? I think it’s somewhat challenging because many pure readers are just not active on social media. Even a site like Goodreads, designed as a platform for books, attracts a large number of writers. I think many writers end up marketing to other writers just because that audience is so readily available. But it’s a bit like trying to reach baseball fans by marketing to baseball players. I just don’t think it works all that well. So how does one overcome this? How to find readers and only readers among sites populated mostly by writers?

And he is totally right

So what can you do about it? Here’s a simple Twitter Book Marketing Strategy that works.

1. Read what you write

The best way to engage with readers is to read the same books they do (other books in your genre), share them, talk about them, use the hashtags, talk to the authors of those books (who will be happy you are sharing them).

If I write YA dystopian stuff, I’m going to pull quotes from #thehungergames and mention #suzannecollins and @reply to her posts, and retweet her stuff.

I’m going to search Twitter for bestselling books in my genre and see who is talking about them, and follow them. I’m going to comment on the movies, on any news about the author or books.

Seriously, make a list of keywords, right now.

List the genre, the category, 10 famous bestselling books in that genre, 10 not so famous but selling well indie published books in the genre. Write down the author names of all those books.

2. Follow everybody who says anything about any of that stuff

Follow aggressively. Login, search for stuff, and follow follow follow.

Follow 100 new people a day.

Twitter will recommend who else you should follow. Once you start, Twitter will get smarter about who it is recommending to you.

3. Write articles about stuff related to your genre

Write book reviews or summaries, news about the authors, numbered posts like “10 best dystopian YA romance novels you haven’t read yet.” Think of titles with keywords. Research and write them. Pick stuff that appeals to target readers, that readers of that genre are going to love and share. Post it on your blog, or on Medium or bigger sites. Share it.

4. Google your keywords, your genre, and similar books and authors

Write down all the sites that keep popping up. Your looking for smaller blogs, run by one person, that show up in the search results often. Find out who they are. Follow them. Share their articles and posts and social media. Comment on their articles. If they are on Twitter, use @theirname so they know you shared them.

Make a list of “top 25 amazing blogs about Your Genre” and post it on your blog, with links to those 25 blogs and an enthusiastic summary. Half of them will see your post and share it or link back to you.

5. Keep following 100 people a day (or limit)

keep sharing and retweeting their stuff. Keep researching and writing great content that readers will share (people share stuff to say something about THEMSELVES, not you. So don’t talk about yourself. Talk about stuff you like.

How does that sell more books?

You might be thinking, but when do I get to talk about MY books?

Answer: you’ll have your link and book name in your bio. You can add a picture in the header on Twitter. You can mention it if you’re doing a special or sale. Otherwise…. don’t.

Post good content, share it, make friends.
People have to learn to associate you as a provider of great content related to the genre they love. And they’ll end up on your website, where you’ll have a big beautiful picture of your book and purchase links and special offers.

If you follow 100 people a day, you should get at least 1500 targeted followers a month. In 3 months you’ll have about 5000. THEN you can launch our book or promote it a little. If that doesn’t work, it’s probably your book cover, or you don’t have any reviews yet.

Twitter isn’t a place to sell or market your book. 

Twitter is a place to earn trust by providing value.