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By Indie Authors for Indie Authors.

Tag: twitter for writers

Twitter Hashtags for Authors

Twitter Hashtags for Indie Authors

February 25, 2016 / / 3 Comments

Twitter Hashtags for Authors

 

 

If you’re like every indie author on my Twitter timeline, you’re trying to sell your book. I have my own opinion on the success of just screaming out to everyone and anyone to buy your book, but I’ll let @Gavrusik do it for me this time.

 

 

 

 

Get the picture? As I’ve said before, you’re not going to walk into a coffee shop and scream out to everyone there to buy your book. Why do you do it online?

However, you have a twitter account to meet other authors and readers with similar interests. That’s great. There are simple #hashtags that every indie author should know to help their tweets be seen. This list is not exhaustive, but it is some of the most important ones.

 

The Core #Hashtags:

These are about as basic as it gets, but you should know these:

  • #AmWriting
  • #AmReading
  • #WritersLife
  • #IndieAuthors

 

Reach Readers:

There are times when you want to reach readers–any and all of them. These hashtags will help you shout into the void with just a little bit more purpose.

  • #BookGiveaway
  • #FridayReads
  • #MustRead
  • #GoodRead

 

Reach Specific Readers:

Sometimes, you want to find those readers that have the highest likelihood of having interest in your book, not just anyone who’s ever read something in their life. Try sending tweets with targeted hashtags. These are some of the top genre-targeted #hashtags:

  • #SciFiChat
  •  #YALitChat
  • #YA
  • #FlashFic
  • #Romance
  • #Horror
  • #FanFic
  • #History
  • #Biopic
  • #RWA (Romance Writers of America)
  • #MemoirChat
  • #RomanceWriter
  • #KidLitChat
  • #PoetTues
  • #ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers)
  • #MGLit (Middle Grade Lit)
  • #SCBWI (Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators)

 

Connect With Authors:

Maybe you’ve learned a thing or two from me and you’re not just trying to sell your book. That’s great. Congrats on making your social media profile not completely psychotic and one-track-minded. (Minded? This guy’s an author?)

Here’s some great #hashtags to connect with authors:

  • #IndiePub
  • #SelfPub
  • #WriterWednesday or #WW
  • #SelfPublishing
  • #ScriptChat (for Screenwriters)
  • #WordCount
  • #LitChat
  • #BookMarket
  • #ZineChat
  • #WritingParty
  • #NaNoWriMo

Get Writing Help:

Sometimes you just want specific advice on writing. Try these #hashtags on for size:

  • #Grammar
  • #AmEditing
  • #WritingTips or #WritingTip
  • #Writing
  • #WritingPrompt
  • #WriteChat

 

Industry Tags:

Finally, let’s bring this full circle–from the broad general #hashtags getting more and more specific by the middle, and now back to some brand general industry tags.

  • #Ebooks
  • #Publishing
  • #GetPublished
  • #BookMarketing
  • #Digital
  • #AskEditor
  • #AskAgent

 

There you go. 48 #hashtags for you to consider when you tweet about how amazing your book is and how you will drink gasoline if I buy your book. (How did this become a thing? How is the “I will do X crazy-ass thing if you buy my book” a real thing?)

Fine, I’ll give you an even 50 #hashtags because you’re neurotic and OCD. If you need two other tags when trying to sell your book, consider #DoesAnybodyHearMe or #IKnowSomethingYouDontKnow. You’re welcome.

 

Find more writing and publishing tips at Nothing Any Good.

Twitter-for-authors

Does Twitter Actually Sell Books?

February 19, 2016 / / 2 Comments
Twitter-for-authors

Image Courtesy of Authors Win

More than any other social media site, it seems that Twitter is the place to be for self-published and indie authors. I’m not quite sure why, but Twitter seems inundated with people of our ilk. If you’re like me, your Twitter feed is packed with reviews, books, giveaways, interviews, promotions, and on and on and on. it never ends.

I’m certainly not pointing the finger here. You know what they say, there would be four fingers pointing back at me. My tweets contain plenty of information about my own book. We seem to each of us be chasing the same thing and asking the same pool of people to support our dreams. Authors supporting Authors.

We can’t all buy each other’s books, can we?

This got me wondering, does all this author promotion actually work? Is Twitter actually helping to sell books?

While this is only anecdotal, I found Derek Haines‘ article about his success rate an interesting gauge to help answer this question.

Mr. Haines boasts a 15% conversion rate of Twitter profile visits to site visits. Out of 17,000 Twitter profile visits in a given month, 2,723 of those visitors clicked through to visit his page. This is a pretty darn good number.

He digs a little deeper, though, and I’m glad he does. Mr. Haines presents a recent example of a book promotion he ran. The Twitter stats showed that 4,435 people saw the tweet, but only 43 people engaged with it. This is a very small conversion rate, but one to which I think most Twitter users can relate. (I certainly can attest to that kind of low conversion rate.)

Even more significant, not a single one of those 4,435 viewers and 43 engagers bought Mr. Haines’ book due to that promotion.

This is reflective of my experience with Twitter as well. It has not been an avenue to say, “Buy my book!” and then just kick back and watch the sales role in; nor should it be either.

If you’re using Twitter simply to pimp out your book and seek immediate sales, I think you have an uphill battle in front of you. However, if you’re looking to be involved in the Twitter author community and interact, you can create awareness of your brand and book.

This is the paramount rule of thumb for most all social media. People treat it differently than they would real-world, face-to-face interactions, but they shouldn’t. You wouldn’t walk into a bar and announce to each person there that you have a book, and then incessantly talk about your book when you sit down at the table with your friends. So why do you do it on Twitter?

Besides, it’s probably not selling many books for you anyway.

 

 

Find more writing and publishing tips at Nothing Any Good.

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