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Nink: Selling Direct Through Author Websites

This article, written by Mindy Klasky  is from the September 2021 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc.  (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership. 

This article discusses U.S. and international taxation law, which varies by country, state, province, territory, and municipality. The information here may not apply to your specific circumstances and is not legal advice.

Authors wear multiple hats, including writer, researcher, editor, and marketer. As e-commerce continues to expand, authors can add yet another identity to their figurative wardrobe: owner/operator of an online store.

Online stores allow authors to control the sale of their books far more than they can through traditional vendors. Authors can set prices without worrying about artificial pricing floors or ceilings.* They can also offer unique products not available at traditional vendors.

Authors generally earn higher royalties on sales through their own websites than those through traditional vendors. The details vary, depending on store platform (e.g., Payhip or WooCommerce), payment gateway (e.g., PayPal or Stripe), and product cost, but most authors receive 80-85% of the cover price of their goods.

But website stores present some challenges—most notably issues in delivering goods to purchasers and in handling taxation.

I conducted a survey in late June 2021, asking authors to report on their experiences running stores on their websites. All percentages noted below are derived from that survey. (Due to rounding, not all numbers add up to 100 percent.)

Building the store
There are many customizable e-commerce platforms designed to provide individualized stores on websites. Each integrates with an existing website to display goods, allow customers to order, and accept payment. Some systems also take care of fulfillment (delivering goods to buyers).

Popular e-commerce platforms include Payhip (used by 35% of survey respondents), WooCommerce (29%), and Shopify (12%). It is also possible to build a store entirely from scratch, using HTML code to create buttons and accepting payment through PayPal or Stripe.

Not all e-commerce platforms function on all website platforms. For example, WooCommerce is designed to work as a plugin on WordPress websites; it’s not available on other website platforms such as SquareSpace, Wix, or Weebly.

Some authors (including approximately 64% of the survey respondents) set up their stores themselves, adding the code to their existing website and optimizing it to best reflect their brands. Another 6% had their personal assistant set up their stores, while 30% hired a programmer or web admin to create the store.

Once a store is created, it needs to be maintained. Software requires occasional updates to run smoothly and to minimize the risk of hacking. New products (e.g., newly published books) must be added. Authors can run sales, including special prices for specific time periods. Eighty-two percent of survey respondents reported maintaining their own store or having their personal assistant maintain it. The remainder hired a programmer or web admin for at least some of the maintenance.

Stocking the store
Once a store is installed on a website, an author has a lot of leeway about what products to stock. Among survey respondents, 60% sell ebooks and 53% sell print books. Thirty percent sell audiobooks, 35% sell swag, and 6% sell membership in classes, seminars, or public appearances.

Owning a store allows an author to develop unique products only available at that store. For example, they can build unique boxed sets, including the first book in multiple series, books collected according to tropes, or books related to a specific holiday. Authors can also pair books with swag in unique packages.

Moreover, authors can provide a high level of “fan service,” offering books in their own stores prior to releasing those books through traditional vendors. Such early releases reward dedicated readers while simultaneously increasing the value of an author’s newsletter (because interested readers will click on links in that newsletter, further building ties to the author and increasing the deliverability of future newsletters).

Delivering goods
When customers purchase electronic goods (e.g., ebooks, audiobooks, class memberships), they typically expect those products to be delivered immediately. The leader in electronic goods fulfillment is BookFunnel, which walks customers through the process of “sideloading” (adding new purchases to e-readers or computers, without the delivery apparatus of a traditional vendor). Sixty-five percent of survey respondents report using the service, which automates delivery of electronic files.

Fulfillment is somewhat more complicated for physical goods (e.g., print books,  swag). Fifty-nine percent of survey respondents report that they or their personal assistant handle shipping of at least some physical goods. In addition, 18% of respondents rely on a print-on-demand store to deliver products. (Shipping directly from a print-on-demand store avoids paying twice for moving the same items.)

Tax concerns
Many authors shy away from website stores because they are concerned about the tax implications of running an online business. Recent United States Supreme Court rulings have clarified that online store owners are obligated to collect and remit sales tax for all states where their customers reside. (This represents a change from the earlier rule, where owners only needed to remit sales tax in states where the owner had a business presence. In the United States, sales tax is managed on a state-by-state basis; there is no federal sales tax.)

Some states classify ebooks as “electronic products” that are not subject to sales tax. And most states further relieve the burden through “garage sale” laws, stating that it’s not necessary to remit sales tax on small or “de minimis” sales. (One of the last holdouts for a de minimis exception, Kansas, rectified the oversight with an exception that became effective on July 1, 2021.) Laws change frequently, though, and store owners should remain current on the requirements to collect and remit sales tax. An overview of U.S. laws on sales tax can be found at Tax Jar.

Store owners may also be liable to pay value-added tax (VAT) on sales made to residents of foreign countries. While some countries have exceptions that cover ebooks, others explicitly state that all sales of all goods, no matter how small, remain taxable.

Store platform Payhip, which is based in the United Kingdom, proudly handles collecting and remitting VAT for store owners. As of this writing, no other major store platform provides that service.

Store owners take a variety of actions regarding collecting and remitting taxes. For authors based in the United States, 79% of respondents accept customers from anywhere; the others limit their sales based on country. (All respondents based in other countries accept customers from everywhere.)

Store owners based in the United States exhibited a great deal of confusion when surveyed about taxes. Some know that they’re selling taxable items. Many aren’t aware that their goods might be taxable. Many rely on the de minimis exemptions (although most say they have not researched those exemptions specifically). Some rely on Payhip (although Payhip might not remit taxes to all tax authorities worldwide).

Overall cost to set up store
The cost of installing a web store varies widely. The store requires a website (usually the same as the author’s), which in turn requires hosting from a service like SiteGround, Bluehost, or GoDaddy.

The website must use a theme or template that is capable of supporting a web store. Many of those themes and templates are free, but paid themes and templates tend to provide a greater range of functions, a more specialized design that might stand out in a crowded field, a higher level of customer support, and more frequent updates. Popular themes include Storefront, Divi, and Astra.

Some store software is free (such as WooCommerce). Other store software—e.g., Payhip and Shopify—have tiers of pricing, providing different features at various price points. Most store software providers offer a free trial for users to experiment with the features for 14 days.

Finally, website stores generally rely on payment gateways such as PayPal or Stripe to accept customers’ payment for goods. Those gateways charge a transaction fee for every sale (e.g., $0.49), plus a percentage of the cost of the item sold (e.g., 2.49%).

Of course, no single author’s store is going to challenge the reach of the Amazon behemoth or other traditional vendors. Ninety-five percent of surveyed authors noted that their website stores were less profitable than any of their top three venues. (The remaining 5% were unwilling to answer the question.) While one author reported website sales equaling 10-24.99% of their total sales and another reported website sales of 5-9.99%, all other respondents who answered the question were equally divided between sales of less than 1% and sales of 1-4.99% of their total income.

The future of stores
Many respondents noted that their stores are not currently key income-generating pieces of their sales strategy; however, they are bulwarks against the harsh strategies and potential failure of traditional vendors. Several respondents called for authors to increase the training of their readers, helping potential customers become more comfortable with sideloading.

Website stores remain a tantalizing prospect for authors. In the short term, they offer increased income, with a huge potential as customers become receptive to buying outside the structure of traditional vendors.

At the same time, creating and maintaining a store (especially the international taxation issues associated with the operation of that store) are intimidating for many authors. While there are rumors of third-party sites offering the opportunity for authors to create self-branded stores with minimal fuss, those rumors are not yet public.

 

*While Amazon reserves the right to match prices to other vendors—including authors selling direct—they’re unlikely to discover pricing on most authors’ websites.

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USA Today bestselling author Mindy Klasky’s most recent novel is the romantic comedy The C Word, the first volume in her Love in the Age of COVID series. Klasky learned to read when her parents shoved a book in her hands and told her she could travel anywhere through stories. As a writer, Klasky has traveled through various genres, including romantic comedy, contemporary romance, and traditional fantasy. In her spare time, she knits, quilts, and tries to tame her to-be-read shelf.

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Nink: The Care & Feeding of Your Newsletter

This article by Tara Wyatt is from the July 2021 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc.  (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership. 

Newsletters, while an incredibly useful author tool, can be frustrating. What do you send? How do you find subscribers? Most importantly, how can you get the most out of your newsletter?

How to get started
If you’ve never set up a mailing list before, the first thing you’ll need to do is to pick a provider. There are dozens of mailing list services available, and the options can be overwhelming.  Let’s look at the three most popular platforms:

  • MailChimp is one of the biggest and best-known email marketing platforms. If you have fewer than 2,000 subscribers, the platform is free to use, but pricing quickly jumps to $31 per month for 2,500 subscribers and $79 a month for 10,000 subscribers, making it one of the more expensive platforms.
    • Pros: MailChimp’s reporting and the metrics available to users are thorough and extensive, and they have several beautifully designed templates, making it easy to send eye-catching emails to your subscribers.
    • Cons: Automations are difficult to set up (we’ll talk more about automations shortly), and affiliate links are not allowed.
  • MailerLite is a newer service, but is very similar to MailChimp in terms of its design and ease of use. The biggest difference is that they are significantly cheaper than MailChimp, as 2,500 subscribers will only cost you $15 a month, or $50 a month for 10,000 subscribers. However, only the first 1,000 subscribers are free, as opposed to the first 2,000 with MailChimp.
    • Pros: Extremely user friendly with an easy-to-use interface and helpful customer service, and features such as integrated automation and a landing page editor.
    • Cons: The reporting isn’t as comprehensive as what you get with MailChimp.
  • Aweber has been around for nearly 20 years and is a giant in the email marketing industry. The first 500 subscribers are free, which means they have the smallest free plan of the three services, but the pricing is reasonable: 2,500 subscribers, $29 a month; 10,000 subscribers, $69.
    • Pros: Aweber offers A/B split testing, analytics, and a highly functional mobile app for stats. They also offer user-friendly templates, and automation and list management tools. Their customer service is top notch.
    • Cons: If you’re not into the reams of data available on Aweber, there are cheaper options. Users have also reported deliverability issues with Aweber.

If you build it, will they come?
Now that you’ve chosen your email list service and set up your account, the next step is to get readers onto your list. Sadly, it’s not as simple as creating a newsletter sign-up form on your website and hoping readers will find it and subscribe. However, enticing readers to join doesn’t have to be difficult. Here are a few strategies that will help you start growing your list.

(Note: Integrating the sign-up on your website with the back-end of your newsletter is sometimes seamless and sometimes complex, depending on what platforms you’re using. You may need some technical assistance to get that set up).

Reader magnets
A reader magnet is something you’ve written that you offer to your readers for free in exchange for signing up for your mailing list. Your reader magnet can be anything, from a short story to a full-length book. If you’re just starting out, you could write a prequel novella to your first novel. If you’re uncomfortable giving away entire stories for free, you could create detailed character profiles for readers to download, or put together a sampler that contains the first chapter of each of your books. The idea is that the reader magnet will entice readers to give you their email address in exchange for this bonus goodie, so make it relevant and interesting to your target readers.

Another example of a reader magnet is a bonus epilogue. Include information about this at the back of the book, giving readers the link to sign up to download their copy. This is a highly effective strategy and attracts the readers you want—the ones who read and enjoyed your book—onto your list.

Once you have your reader magnet chosen (and you can have more than one, especially if you have reader magnets specific to certain books), advertise it not just on your website, but also in the back matter of all of your books. A reader who’s just finished your book is more likely to be “warm” and willing to hear from you on a regular basis.

As long as what you’re offering is enticing, reader magnets are a fantastic way to grow your list.

Onboarding automation
Once someone signs up for your list, what happens next? They need to hear from you right away, especially if they’re expecting the delivery of their reader magnet. This is where onboarding automation comes in. When you set up your mailing list account, you’ll also want to set up a welcome sequence containing anywhere from one to several emails that are sent automatically. (The process for setting this up will vary from platform to platform, but there is technical support available on all of the major platforms.)

The first email should welcome them to the list and thank them for signing up while providing them access to their free content. Follow up with a second email a few days later—here, you could highlight a permafree book (or offer them links to other free books if you don’t have any freebies of your own to offer), or give them more information they would find interesting and relevant. A third email could once again thank them for signing up while letting them know what to expect going forward (how often you send, what type of content you include, for example).

BookFunnel
Now that you’ve chosen your reader magnet, you might be wondering how to deliver it to your readers. While it’s possible to simply host the bonus content on your website (or on a site like Google Drive or Dropbox), you could also use a service like BookFunnel. The main drawback is that BookFunnel isn’t a free service, but it offers numerous benefits you should consider.

If you’re using BookFunnel, you simply upload any reader magnets to the site and use the generated link they provide in your onboarding sequence, directing readers to the BookFunnel site to download their content. Any technical glitches or requests for help will go through BookFunnel and not to you.

Another advantage to using BookFunnel is that they offer monthly promotions where you can team up with other authors in your genre to offer readers a free book in exchange for signing up for your list. If you’re focused on building your list, this is an excellent way to find new readers.

However, if you’re on a budget, BookFunnel isn’t a necessity, and you can deliver your reader magnets by providing a link to a shared Google Drive folder, for example. You could also team up with other authors on your own to do newsletter building cross-promo. This is more time intensive, but a good option if you’re on a budget.

The care and feeding
Now that you have a mailing list and are starting to attract readers through your reader magnets, joint promotions, website, and back matter, the next step is to start sending on a regular basis. Whether you’re sending weekly, on the 1st and 15th, or monthly (and this will vary from one author to the next), be consistent. Sending regularly trains your readers to expect to hear from you and allows you to develop a relationship with them as opposed to simply showing up in their inbox when you’ve got a new book or a sale. Finding out how often your readers want to hear from you will take some trial and error. One way to fast-track this process is to survey your readers about their email marketing preferences and incorporate what you learn.

The content you include will be up to you and dependent on your readers and your brand. However, it’s a good idea to keep a list of content ideas so that you’re not stumped for what to send. Make sure that your content is relevant and engaging for your readers. If every single email is nothing more than a sales pitch, readers will lose interest and your open rates will drop. Some non-sales content ideas include a behind-the-scenes look at your work in progress, character profiles, book recommendations, a personal story, memes, news stories relevant to your books, recipes, updates on what past characters are up to now, and things that have inspired you, such as songs or places.

Another key to success is to pay attention. Subscribe to newsletters from authors who would have the same target readers as you, and look at what they include in their emails. What resonates with you? What gets clicked or elicits a response in your newsletters? Make a note of what type of content works best.

In addition, include a link to the reader magnets at the bottom of every email, as some readers may have missed content and will appreciate the link. It’s also a good idea to include a link to your most recent book and/or the first book in your series at the bottom of the email.

Hit send
A successful, fruitful mailing list is one of the most powerful marketing tools in your author arsenal. Focus on growing your list, sending regularly and giving readers interesting, click-worthy content, and you’ll reap the rewards.

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Tara Wyatt is a contemporary romance author who lives near Toronto, Ontario. Known for her heat and her humor, her books have won several awards. When she’s not writing, she can be found playing with her daughter, reading, or binging Netflix with her husband.

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Nink: Social Media Promotion, Part 2 ~ Best Practices for 2020

This article, written by Mindy Klasky  is from the September 2020 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc.  (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership. 

Author Note: Social media remain a linchpin for many authors’ promotional efforts. This article outlines current best practices for five relatively under-utilized social media networks: LinkedIn, Snapchat, TikTok, WeChat, and WhatsApp. (It also includes a brief update about Tumblr.) Last month, we looked at some of the more established players in the field: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube. Please note, paid advertising on social media platforms is beyond the scope of this article.

Editor’s Note: As of Aug. 6, President Donald Trump issued an executive order which will ban any US companies or citizens from making transactions with ByteDance, the parent company of the video-sharing social networking service TikTok, in 45 days. Trump also issued an order taking similar action against Tencent, the Chinese company that owns WeChat. On Aug. 5, Instagram debuted Reels, its version of TikTok.

 * * *

New social media networks seem to pop up every day, and as they do, authors might want to target these apps, even if there is no guarantee they will be around, for these networks attract users who are international and young. Each platform’s unique rules and configurations encourage users to develop new modes of engaging users. As with legacy social media, savvy promoters choose platforms that play to their strengths, keeping abreast of changes at those sites.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn was created specifically to connect business partners (sometimes referred to as building “B2B leads”). According to LinkedIn, the network includes over 660 million users in more than 200 countries. While some authors use LinkedIn as yet another platform to correspond with readers, the network’s strength is in bringing together publishing professionals—authors, book designers, editors, publishers, etc.—to discuss matters specifically related to the publishing business. The following best practices, therefore, focus on that business mission, rather than on socializing with readers.

  1. Optimize your profile. LinkedIn’s algorithms favor profiles that list at least five relevant skills, include a professional profile picture with an appropriate background photo, and are complete with up-to-date information. LinkedIn recently added a “Services” feature helping members highlight their range of services; authors should complete that profile section. Users can endorse the skills of business colleagues, which frequently leads to reciprocal endorsements. They can also request recommendations (personal testimonials).
  2. Be engaged. LinkedIn’s algorithms reward engagement. Therefore, users should be active.  Follow industry influencers, comment, message, add connections, and otherwise interact with other members on the site.
  3. Create long-form content. The most successful content on LinkedIn solves members’ problems by providing specific answers to users’ questions. How-to information and lists result in the most popular posts. Individual entries can run up to 1300 characters; titles of 40-49 characters perform best.
  4. Build real relationships. LinkedIn users tend to be savvy business people who don’t respond well to spam, hard-sell messages, or general posts. But users who focus on building true business relationships through the system see responses. For example, LinkedIn claims that its in-system messages (“InMail”) are 300 times more likely to receive a reply than a standard email.
  5. Observe traditional business hours. Because LinkedIn is primarily a business tool, its users are most active during traditional business hours midweek—from 8 a.m. Tuesday to 4 p.m. Thursday. Users tend to be less responsive on Mondays (when they’re catching up from a weekend off) or on Fridays (when they’re preparing to leave the office for the weekend.)

Snapchat

Snapchat is a social media network with more than 218 million daily users, the majority of whom are under 35. The mobile-phone app allows members to post “snaps”, photos and short videos that can be modified with filters, stickers, and text. Each snap has a timer, limiting how many seconds that snap can be viewed. “Stories” made of multiple snaps persist for 24 hours. (Snaps can also be saved as screenshots.) In 2019, rumors flourished that Snapchat was losing business; however, its parent company set a new record for quarterly revenue in the first quarter of 2020. Therefore, Snapchat seems likely to stick around, at least for a while.

  1. Be original. Snapchat users enjoy access to exclusive material that isn’t available on any other platform. Originality is more important than perfect photo composition, lighting, or other formatting.
  2. Show “behind the scenes” activities. Snapchat users love the impression of participating in everyday moments of one another’s lives. This makes the platform especially useful for teasing not-yet-released books, including pre-orders. Authors can also share live events, writing conferences, or one-off celebrations, such as selling the 10,000th copy of a book.
  3. Be succinct. Snapchat users are looking for fun, quick interactions. Users tend to be distracted easily; therefore, stories should be no longer than two minutes. Strip all unnecessary information from your posts.
  4. Post frequently. Since snaps disappear in 24 hours or less, frequent posting is vital to preserve your Snapchat presence. At a minimum, you should post 1-5 times each day.
  5. Partner with influencers. Like other social media network, Snapchat has established influencers who court numerous followers. Connect with influencers in your genre to spread information about your books.

TikTok

TikTok is a social media network offering short (15 seconds, by default) video content. It boasts 800 million active users, 41% of whom are 16-24 years old. The average user spends almost an hour a day on the mobile phone app. As of Aug. 5, Chinese tech company ByteDance owns TikTok.  Because of alleged national security concerns, some companies and the military have banned employees from putting the app on their phones.

  1. Complete your profile. At the moment, only select users are allowed to add a website link to their bio; however, all users can add Instagram and YouTube profiles to their TikTok profiles. (TikTok and Instagram seem to have a substantial affinity for identical or similar content; however, the feed post dimensions differ.  Instragram feed posts are 4:5; TikTok videos are 16:9.)
  2. Follow the trends. Music and dance are hugely popular, with many videos earning “copycat” viral spread. Other popular trends include lip syncs, fitness workouts, pranks, and a wide range of challenges.
  3. Make videos fun. Keep your posts humorous, and don’t attempt to engage in serious communication. TikTok’s short videos are intended to be “snacks,” not rigorous nutrition.
  4. Create unique content. TikTok users expect unique content, created and distributed within the app. Repurposed content is typically ignored; some users will call out repurposing and urge others to mock it.
  5. Unclear algorithms. TikTok is so new that no industry leaders have fully parsed its algorithms. Nevertheless, it seems as if those algorithms begin by spreading videos based on similar geo-locations. Using trending hashtags and sounds seems to boost discoverability as well. Videos (even older ones) can go viral in a flash, often because a hashtag or a sound spikes in popularity.

Tumblr

Tumblr is included on this list of  social media platforms, but its network has largely fallen into disuse. Extensive research on best practices revealed no articles more recent than 2018, with most of the articles substantially predating that. Current user data was virtually non-existent from any credible source. Therefore, authors are likely better served to focus on other platforms.

WeChat

WeChat is a social media network based in China. Its “Moments” platform allows users to post images, text, and short videos. Moments can be linked to Facebook and Twitter accounts. WeChat’s more than one billion monthly users are regularly tracked by Chinese authorities. The service censors topics it believes Chinese authorities will consider politically sensitive. At present, very little content at WeChat goes viral.

  1. Target Chinese citizens living overseas. Many Chinese citizens live abroad as students or as residents. They’re prime contacts for this evolving social media network.
  2. KOL v. KOC. WeChat doesn’t have “influencers” like those found on US-based sites. Rather, there are Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) and Key Opinion Consumers (KOC). KOLs build up large numbers of followers, and they accept money to promote goods or services. They don’t, however, yet have the social legitimacy to make posts go viral. Instead, KOCs are perceived by many users to be less cynical and less likely to have their opinions purchased by outsiders. Even though KOCs have smaller groups of followers than KOLs, they might actually have greater influence. Focus on finding KOCs who communicate with people likely to read your books.
  3. Follow the format. WeChat posts resemble blog posts. When crafting posts, maintain user interest by getting to your main point quickly. Finish strongly, in hopes of getting users to click the “Wow” button.
  4. Hone content. WeChat posts aren’t likely to be seen by a large community of users. Therefore, it’s very important to have a specific goal for each post—provide book launch information, inform readers about sales, etc.
  5. Harness in-app search. WeChat has an internal search feature designed to help users find specific content amid the huge number of posts made on the platform. Standard SEO practices (e.g., including strong keywords in titles and headings) is important to make the best use of this feature.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a social media network with two billion users located primarily in India, Brazil, and other non-US countries. (WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014, but it has been maintained as a separate platform.) While it began as a messaging service, allowing users to send text messages to other users’ telephone numbers, it now permits users to share media. Its simplicity, encryption of files, and refusal to share information with third parties have proven attractive to younger users. Users have a median age of 36, and 71% of all users are in the age bracket 18-44.

  1. Get permission. WhatsApp terms of service prohibit you from searching for or buying contacts. Instead, you must ask users to share their phone numbers with you or to message you first. This restriction results in an audience that is highly motivated to hear what you have to say.
  2. Engage with your contacts. WhatsApp messages enjoy extremely high engagement rates. According to HootSuite, 98% of WhatsApp mobile messages are opened and read, and 90% of those messages receive a response within three seconds of receipt. Harness this engagement by actively communicating with your WhatsApp contacts.
  3. Keep it short. One marketing firm found that its WhatsApp messages enjoyed the most engagement when they were 15 words or shorter.
  4. Do not share newsletters. Mass-mailing users is strictly forbidden by WhatsApp’s terms of service. The app reserves the right to sue any user who distributes newsletters or similar communications through the service.
  5. Consider doing consumer research. WhatsApp Business (a separate, pay-to-play service that runs on the WhatsApp platform) provides many tools for consumer research. Business users can ask direct questions, send surveys and polls, and respond to individual queries, such as customer-service complaints.

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USA Today bestselling author Mindy Klasky learned to read when her parents shoved a book in her hands and told her she could travel anywhere through stories. As a writer, Mindy has traveled through various genres, including romantic comedy, hot contemporary romance, and traditional fantasy. In her spare time, Mindy knits, quilts, and tries to tame her to-be-read shelf.

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Nink: Social Media Promotion, Part 1 ~ Best Practices for 2020

This article, written by Mindy Klasky  is from the August 2020 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc.  (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership. 

Author Note: Social media remain a linchpin for many authors’ promotional efforts. This article outlines five current best practices for five of the oldest, best-established social media networks: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube. Next month, we’ll look at some newer players in the field, including LinkedIn, Snapchat, Tik-tok, Tumblr, WeChat, and What's App. Please note, paid advertising on social media platforms is beyond the scope of this article.

No author can possibly interact with readers on all social media channels; there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. Successful promoters pick and choose among platforms, selecting the ones that play to their strengths (e.g., long and detailed essays, short and witty observations, photos, or video.)

While many services allow authors to create one post and disseminate it across multiple platforms, those distributed posts might not put the author in the best promotional light, because each platform’s users expect interactions consistent with the platform’s design. (For example, Twitter’s 280-character limit means that a long, insightful observation about the publishing industry will be reduced to a hyperlink or Twitter thread many users will never follow.)

The following best practices should help authors identify the social media networks most in line with their skill sets. All facts and figures on social media usage cited below come from the Pew Research Center’s Social Media Fact Sheet, which was last updated June 12, 2019.

Facebook

Facebook, the second-most-popular social media platform in the United States (after YouTube), counts approximately 69% of US adults as users. Among all Facebook users, 74% visit the site daily, and an additional 17% visit the site weekly.

Facebook applies complicated often-changing algorithms to determine which posts to show to which accounts. While the precise nature of those algorithms is secret, the system favors posts that generate a great deal of interaction (likes, shares, and comments) from users. In recent months, the algorithms seem to favor the distribution of posts from the profiles of family and friends over those of commercial pages.

  1. Polish your cover photo. (“Cover photo” is Facebook’s term for the banner at the top of a profile, page, or group; it is not the “profile picture,” which is often a user’s portrait.) Your cover photo, which is your first chance to snag a passing user and make them a fan, should reflect your brand, instantly conveying your genre and your specific books. View your cover photo on multiple devices; the entire photo is not visible on mobile devices. As there are still millions of users who access Facebook via computer make sure your cover is optimized for that platform. The new desktop interface places a user’s profile picture in the bottom center of their cover photo (a change from past placement, to the lower left.)
  2. Engage your followers. Facebook’s algorithms promote posts that receive a lot of engagement. Therefore, authors should post with the specific goal of creating interaction. Consider asking direct questions (especially ones with easy, straightforward answers). Acknowledge responses to your posts by clicking “like,” adding stickers, or making a comment. (Those acknowledgments build a personal bond with your followers. At the same time, they increase your points of contact with your followers for future Facebook algorithms.)
  3. Use videos and images. According to Social Media Today, more than 8 billion videos are viewed on Facebook every day. Still photos, memes, and other images also catch readers’ eyes as Facebook posts scroll by. Similarly, short text-based posts stand out when accompanied by one of Facebook’s prepared background designs.
  4. Create groups. While Facebook notoriously limits the visibility of posts to profiles and pages, they give far greater visibility to posts made in groups. Rumors abound that Facebook will start to charge for group; however, no charges are yet in effect. Your groups can be relatively small (e.g., a street team or an ARC team) or quite expansive (e.g., a book club for your genre.) Many authors foster the appearance of exclusivity by making their groups private.
  5. Avoid hashtags. While Facebook supports hashtags, they are not commonly used on the site. If you do use hashtags, never use more than two in a single post. Multiple hashtags may send a message to Facebook’s algorithms that your post originated on another social media network.

Instagram

Approximately 37% of US adults use Instagram, with 63% visiting the site daily and another 21% visiting the site weekly.

  1. Deliver quality posts. Of course, all social media require quality posts—but quality photos really matter for Instagram. Learn your camera’s settings. Consider creating a uniform feel by using the same filter on all your posts or by adopting a color scheme for specific periods of time.
  2. Use hashtags. Instagram followers respond well to two types of hashtags: A) Long, witty, and entertaining hashtags that may be unique within the Instagram world and B) Precise, common hashtags that link communities of users. Study the hashtags commonly used by authors in your genre and plug into their networks.
  3. Use stories. Stories are built from images and video, with added text, GIFs, stickers, filters, and polls. They last for 24 hours before disappearing from your feed.
  4. Run a contest. The best contests are simple ones—ask your followers to comment on one of your posts, then select a winner. You don’t have to give away expensive new technology like a Kindle or an iPad; instead, you can award your own ebooks. If you run a contest, make sure you follow Instagram’s rules.
  5. Remain social. Perhaps because of the relatively sparse textual interaction on Instagram, many users forget to engage with their followers. Respond to comments, answer questions, and thank people who compliment your posts.

Pinterest

Approximately 28% of US adults use Pinterest. Statistics about daily and weekly visits are not readily available.

  1. Pin fresh content. Fresh content goes beyond merely adding new pins. Rather, Pinterest wants to encourage the addition of pins that aren’t available anywhere else on its site. If your pin isn’t unique, consider adding unique (but relevant) titles, using a different font in the text overlay, and using different graphics, patterns, or colors. (Generally, it’s not sufficient to use only one of those methods to create content considered “fresh” by the Pinterest algorithms.)
  2. Pin the most important items first. The first five pins you post each day will get more engagement than the rest of your board, no matter what time of day you make those pins. Consider which items are most important and pin them first.
  3. Emphasize quality over volume. Pinterest finds more value in quality pins (fresh content, quality images, etc.) than in the number of pins you make. Use your limited social media time to create consistently good pins, rather than a multitude of mediocre ones.
  4. Use keywords. Keywords increase the value of your pins to Pinterest users. Use keywords in descriptions, focusing on the terms a user is most likely to type when trying to find content like yours. When possible, include relevant keywords in your profile and board descriptions.
  5. Limit use of group boards. Pinterest created group boards to allow communication about specific, limited content. Over time, those group boards became ways for authors and others to cross promote. Pinterest has now indicated that it will provide greater distribution of relevant individual boards, rather than group boards.

Twitter

Approximately 22% of US adults use Twitter, with 42% visiting the site daily and another 29% visiting the site weekly.

  1. Optimize your profile. Make sure your handle is short and simple, without extra characters. (Consider creating a new account if your handle is hard to use and remember.) Review your bio, the first thing on your profile that most people will see when they consider following you. Don’t forget to use relevant hashtags to integrate your profile into existing Twitter communities.
  2. Pin a tweet. Create your very best content, and then pin it to the top of your feed. Along with your bio, a pinned tweet is your “first impression” to newcomers. Consistently put your best foot forward, including when you change your pinned tweet when launching a new book or series.
  3. Build relevant followers. Early marketing efforts on Twitter emphasized increasing the number of followers and harvesting contacts without regard to how relevant those accounts were to yours. Contemporary best practices emphasize building relevant followers—authors, readers, agents, editors, etc. Consider trimming your list of followers so that you’re only broadcasting to people who are interested in you, your books, and your genre.
  4. Engage your followers. As with most forms of social media, followers want to communicate with the genuine “you” (or, at least, your genuine author persona); they aren’t looking for sales pitches and endless promotion. The oft-cited 80/20 rule remains a useful guideline—spend 80% of your time engaging with your followers and only 20% selling to them. (Engagement includes responding to your followers’ tweets, retweeting, and @mentioning others. You might also ask relevant questions, conduct polls, and tweet about trending news. Humorous accounts tend to thrive on Twitter—possibly as an antidote to the flamewars that tend to rage on the platform.)
  5. Use visuals. As with other social media, visuals are increasingly important. Followers engage more with photos, videos, and other media than they do with long strings of hashtags.

YouTube

YouTube, unlike other social media, functions as a search engine, allowing users to initiate research queries. Arguably, this “search engine” function exists separately from the site’s “social media” function. Nevertheless, approximately 51% of US adults visit YouTube daily and another 32% visit weekly, making YouTube the most popular social media site in the country.

  1. Create quality content. YouTube’s primary goal is keeping viewers watching. Therefore, the site’s algorithms heavily favor “sticky” videos, so create your videos with that goal. Eliminate fluff from your introductions, and get to the meat quickly. Script your videos so you don’t have dull moments where a viewer might exit.  Provide interesting visuals, like graphics, animations, and changing backgrounds to break up your speaking.
  2. Optimize your title. You want viewers to choose your video over all the others reported following a search. To maintain energy, keep your titles short, use relevant keywords, and keep in mind the words and phrases people are likely to use when searching for videos like yours
  3. Use compelling thumbnails. Most of your viewers are going to see your thumbnail at a tiny size. Therefore, use bright, contrasting colors (ideally not red, white, or black, because those are the colors YouTube uses for its own design.)
  4. Create playlists. Remember—YouTube wants to keep people on its platform. Playlists make that easy, by presenting viewers with jumping off points for their next video. Create playlists for your videos and display them on your channel page.
  5. Recruit subscribers. Once you’ve invested time and energy in getting people to watch a video, you want them to watch all your future videos. Encourage them to subscribe to your channel. Add a Subscribe button to every end screen, to capture people before they leave the “territory” that you control.

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USA Today bestselling author Mindy Klasky learned to read when her parents shoved a book in her hands and told her she could travel anywhere through stories. As a writer, Mindy has traveled through various genres, including romantic comedy, hot contemporary romance, and traditional fantasy. In her spare time, Mindy knits, quilts, and tries to tame her to-be-read shelf.

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Nink: Lifestyle Brands ~ Next Level Trademarks

This article, written by Mindy Klasky  is from the July 2020 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc.  (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership. 

Hey! Author! What’s your brand?

In general, authors are increasingly sophisticated about branding. Many of us use slogans, taglines for our websites and emails. We have logos—general ones for our websites and specific ones for our series. We use trademarks such as series names to convey the source of our books. We use color schemes and fonts and designs of book covers and websites to make ourselves recognizable to our readers.

But few authors have conquered the next frontier in branding: becoming a lifestyle brand for their readers.

What is a lifestyle brand?

A lifestyle brand embodies the values of a specific culture or community for marketing purposes. While a simple trademark indicates the source, sponsorship, or origin of a product, a lifestyle brand goes further, inspiring and motivating consumers.

Nike is a classic lifestyle brand. Its familiar “swoosh” logo and its slogan Just Do It do more than connote the manufacturer of a T-shirt or a pair of shoes. Instead, Nike inspires its customers to compete, to rise above ordinary limitations and to achieve the impossible every day.

Similarly, Southwest Airlines embodies the notion of a lifestyle brand. Expanding on its start at Dallas’s Love Field airport, the low-cost, no-frills airline incorporates “love” into its marketing, from a heart logo on its planes to heart-shaped swizzle sticks for drinks. That “love” is further conveyed for customers through the airline’s forgiving cancellation fees and luggage checking fees. Even the in-flight magazine is filled with empathetic stories advancing the notion of Southwest as an airline that cares for its customers.

As a result of their extreme enthusiasm, lifestyle brand consumers are more likely to remain loyal, regardless of the price of their beloved goods. Therefore, most lifestyle brands convey a sense of luxury—or a thrifty aversion to luxury. In addition to Nike and Southwest, popular lifestyle brands include Apple, Lululemon, and Mrs. Meyer’s.

Lifestyle brands create such an emotional connection that their consumers are often described as members of a “cult.” For example, one of the most popular blogs about Apple products is online at cultofmac.com, and thousands of articles reference Apple products, Apple founder Steve Jobs, and cultish behavior.

Can people be a lifestyle?

Individual people can successfully market themselves as lifestyle brands. For example, Oprah Winfrey has a cult following, willing to follow her from television to movies and from magazines to bookstores. Similarly, Gwyneth Paltrow has crafted a lifestyle brand that transcends her career in film.

As with Nike and Southwest Airlines, these individuals promote a way of life. Oprah inspires her followers to realize their potential, repeatedly asking her viewers, readers, and followers to define their own dreams and develop plans for achieving them. Gwyneth fosters a more introspective inquiry, urging her followers to explore the mind-body connection. Both of these women guide their followers to a more complete, more satisfying life, with the not-so-incidental endorsing of products along the way.

Neil Gaiman is one of the few authors who has achieved this status. Gaiman writes in a wide range of genres, inspiring his dedicated followers to follow him from graphic novels to adult novels to middle-grade books to children’s picture books to retellings of Norse myth. His public appearances are mobbed by faithful readers who wait in line for up to ten hours for his signature. Avid fans permanently tattoo themselves with references to Gaiman’s books. For several years, he has sold out events styled as “An Evening with Neil Gaiman,” where entertainment takes the form of whatever interests him at the moment—songs, dramatic readings from his books for adults or children, or simply answering pre-submitted questions from the audience. Gaiman isn’t promoting a specific book; rather, he’s promoting himself.

Arguably, authors’ characters can become lifestyle brands as well. Ian Fleming’s MI6 agent, James Bond, has been portrayed by six different actors in two dozen movies. Regardless of the specific image on the screen, the suave character’s luxury tuxedo, martini, and high-end cars become aspirational for avid fans. That enthusiasm persists even though Bond himself does not exist.

Can a lifestyle brand be crafted?

Sadly, there’s no exact formula for developing a lifestyle brand. (If there were, of course, every trademark owner in the world would apply it, basking in the power and prestige of cultishly devoted fans.) There are, however, some marketing methods that make “lifestyle” status more likely:

  • Focus on the reader. How can you, the author, make your readers’ lives better? Can your books or your online presence answer questions, meet their emotional needs, or otherwise solve their problems? What community can you build for your readers? Can you give them an online home, such as a Facebook group? What about a forum to communicate with you and with each other? What unique aspects of culture can you offer your reader? Can you develop a catch-phrase or slogan and offer it on merchandise? Can you foster inside jokes with a unique vocabulary in the places you share with your readers? Can you create merchandise for them to identify themselves and each other in public spaces?
  • Keep it simple. At the same time that you’re building solutions for your readers, remember to keep your presence simple. Use a logo, but keep that design as straightforward as possible. (Think of Nike’s “swoosh” or Apple’s line-drawing of a bitten piece of fruit!) Use a distinctive font, but be certain it’s legible. You never want your fledgling community of fanatics to need to work hard to join you.
  • Maintain consistency. Once you’ve identified your simple logos, fonts, and other trademarks, use them consistently. Maintain a uniform color scheme. Apply similar designs to all of your social media. Communicate frequently with your readers on a regular timetable—releasing books, sending newsletters, posting to social media, and reaching out in other regulated, predictable ways.
  • Reach out to influencers. Every community has powerhouse members, people who enjoy an out-size effect on others. Some influencers can be courted with honest communication. Others are swayed by the offer of free books. Still others offer their influence for purchase, especially in the high-powered world of YouTube influencers. A high-powered influencer can be the difference between a merely successful brand and a powerhouse lifestyle brand.

Dangers of lifestyle branding

Building a lifestyle brand requires a substantial investment of time, to study readers’ behaviors and to develop solutions for their problems. It also requires a substantial investment in energy, to become consistently present in your readers’ lives. Most lifestyle brands also invest substantial money in reaching their audience, purchasing advertisements wherever their followers are likely to be found.

In interviewing authors for this article, I uncovered another potential danger to lifestyle branding: alienating readers who perceive authors as being too wealthy. Multiple authors reported a negative response among their readers when the authors displayed cars, shoes, or other purchases that were perceived as luxury goods. The authors were chastised for charging too much for their books or for wasting time playing when they could be writing. The affected authors noted that upset readers did not have a similar reaction to actors, athletes, or musicians sharing similar high-end acquisitions; there seemed to be a negative reaction unique to authors’ sharing.

(Of course, not all lifestyle brands connote wealth or luxury, and sharing one’s high-end purchases is only one way to build a devoted community. Anecdotes from a subset of authors are not hard data. Older authors such as Danielle Steel and Jackie Collins certainly built careers as “glitzy” authors, with a flamboyant style. But contemporary authors might choose caution if they’re building a luxury lifestyle brand.)

Building a lifestyle brand isn’t easy. But with a focus on existing readers, a simple, consistent message, and the amplifier of community influencers, authors can build communities of dedicated readers that might make the leap to true “lifestyle” status.

________________________

USA Today bestselling author Mindy Klasky learned to read when her parents shoved a book in her hands and told her she could travel anywhere through stories. As a writer, Mindy has traveled through various genres, including romantic comedy, hot contemporary romance, and traditional fantasy. In her spare time, Mindy knits, quilts, and tries to tame her to-be-read shelf.

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