Writers are offered many Facebook groups, some strictly private, professional, and writing-craft oriented. These tend to be good educational groups, and I have enjoyed them.
We can also gain membership in public groups which were created for indies to make their books available to the public. These groups are easily searchable on Facebook.
These public groups, especially those with large numbers of members (over 10,000), are good sites to drop in once every week or so and share a link to whatever book you might have free or on sale for .99 at Amazon or to promote your new release.
These sites cater to readers and posts show up in the general feed, somewhat randomly. I have found that these public groups do actually do help authors gain sales—not a lot, but a few.
Many of these groups cater to readers of romance books, but there are a few that are for any kind of book that is written. One of the best Facebook groups for Indies to post free and .99 cent Kindle books is Amazon Book Clubs. They have over 35,000 followers, and most of those followers are readers looking for a good, affordable Kindle book.
However, one must use common sense, and so I suggest you only post your books once a week at most. People get tired of seeing the same authors spamming these sites over and over.
I am a member of several groups where the same three or four authors invariably post the same books every single day. Not only that, they post all their books one link at a time. After a month or two of this, they will complain they aren’t getting any sales no matter how hard they try. Then they drop out of sight.
What these well-intentioned authors don’t understand is that making any kind of public Facebook forum work for you is like making Twitter work. You must be patient and careful not to spam your intended market, as that will drive away potential readers. In these book forums, you want to present yourself in a competent, professional manner.
Your icon or avatar is the image of you the world sees, so choose a picture that looks professional. Your book cover will work, but I suggest using a real photo of you if you have one you like.
When it comes to both your professional Facebook page and Twitter, it works best when you share content that is original and pertains to your life as a writer. People aren’t too interested in whether or not you got the dishes done, but they do care about what books you just read, or how your own writing is going. Tweet your blog, and retweet other tweets you enjoyed. If you have a hobby, such as watching IndyCar Races or you play golf, tweet about those things too. I tend to tweet about food because I’m vegan and I love finding new recipes. You want your followers to get to know you, as well as your books.
Follow people you find interesting, follow the real people back (there will be spam-bots following you, so watch out for those and don’t follow them) and don’t spam the universe with constant “Buy my Book” tweets. Be consistent, but creative.
Remember, nothing ever happens as fast as you want it to. Building a fan base takes time, years, actually. It doesn’t happen over night, although rewards will occur in small leaps and bounds. Those little surges of sales are what keeps us going, the lure that keeps us plodding forward.
For an excellent blog post with links to a lot more information than I have to offer in regard to places to connect with readers, check out How to Promote Your Fantasy Novel on Facebook, Twitter, Wattpad, YouTube, and more by Chris Well.
Life in the Realm of Fantasy 
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
Sound advice from Connie 👍😃
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Thank you Chris.
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Reblogged this on Stevie Turner, Indie Author. and commented:
Informative blog from Connie J. Jasperson, and thanks to Chris, the Story Reading Ape for bringing this to my attention.
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Thank you for the reblog Stevie, and thank you again, Chris ♥
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You’re welcome!
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Reblogged this on Anita Dawes & Jaye Marie.
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Thank you for the re blog!
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Pingback: #amwriting: connecting with readers by Connie Jasperson – Allison D. Reid
Fantastic post Connie! 🙂
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I’m glad you find my ramblings useful!
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I love ramblings. 🙂
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I actually don’t use Facebook anymore, but I used to be on a site called Wattpad. I do agree getting a fanbase takes time, but I wonder how much effort these authors are putting into their marketing. If, after a year they see no progress, I do agree it’s time to move on.
I had a good amount of followers on Wattpad (3,456), but since they rarely read my original stories, I left the account behind and locked my stories away them. I guess it depends on how much time you can spare.
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@Akaluv – You are right that the efforts people put into marketing are frequently misguided. It’s an unfortunate fact that good, effective marketing does cost money, and many of us will never make that investment back. I think Wattpad works for some authors, but I haven’t put as much effort into it as my friend, Shaun Allan has. He has been quite successful there.
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I agree that it does cost money, and a struggling writer really has to decide if it’s worth it. Ah, I know Shaun. He invest a lot in the community there. He is quite successful and yeah, it works for some writers but not all.
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Hi
Really good advice on how to connect, I am not at the stage where I have a book to market but when I do I will try to follow this advice.
From
Ru
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Hello @ruhenhoque – thank you for stopping by! I’m glad you found something worthwhile in this post, and good luck with your book!
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You always tell me something I didn’t know, Connie. I’ve avoided Facebook since a minor hack, but might have to reconsider it. Cheers, my friend!
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@J.D. – I use Facebook for two things – My author page and the private page my publishing company uses as the virtual office.
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Wonderfully written 🙂
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Thank you! I’m glad you stopped by!
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