Why Your Social Media Following Isn’t Translating Into Book Sales
Having thousands of followers doesn’t guarantee thousands of readers
Social media can give you a rush you haven’t expected as your numbers start increasing.
Hitting milestones like:
1,000 followers
5,000 followers
10,0000 followers
One would think that once your follower numbers increase, your book sales would increase too, right?
Except this isn’t the case.
Your new book is about to be released, but as soon as you post about it, the traction in sales you thought would happen doesn’t.
What we need to know is….
Social Media Followers Don’t Always Equal More Readers
A large part of social media is posting content and testing the waters to see what your audience responds to.
Depending on the content that you post, you may have attracted an audience that wants to see the conversations surrounding your posts but who aren’t particularly interested in purchasing your books.
What we need to understand is that many people reading on social media:
Skim for important information
Take multiple times to view a book before they decide to purchase it
This is why it’s important to know your audience and who you are pitching to.
Being Part of a Writing Community Can Be Like Being in an Echo Chamber
When authors follow other authors and ask one another to share their posts, it can become an endless reposting of books to buy, creating an echo effect.
The writing community is a wonderful place to be. You can learn so many things about the industry, writing, and marketing. However, in terms of book sales, when everyone is after the same goal (selling a book), it makes it harder to achieve said goal.
On a positive note, writers are readers too. Just keep in mind that it may not be their first priority to purchase yours.
Engagement Doesn’t Always Equate to Book Sales
Believe me, it’s thrilling to see your book post get shares, comments, and likes, but know this doesn’t always mean these people are going to buy your book.
For example, I pinned my post for my book The Lies We Keep on X when it was released. The post seemed to be doing well, however…out of 4.9k people engaging with my post, I ended up selling 25 copies.
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https://x.com/klhicks912/status/1999877501246374284
This just goes to show that the odds aren’t high for a book sale when you are posting on social media. Posting on social media is more about building awareness of your book.
When we build awareness for our book, the chance is higher that someone will see their friend like or repost it and take a chance on it.
What is the Reason Readers Should Care about Your Book?
Too often, I see posts about a book being released, and the author would appreciate it if you could buy it.
What we need to remember about marketing a book is that we need to give readers a reason to care about it.
This means talking about the process of writing or publishing your book. This means telling readers your favorite characters, why you chose the setting, or important details about your book. It also means giving more background on why your readers should care.
For example, my book Anywhere Else has some elements of things I experienced in my own life. So my post looked like this:
4 things you didn’t know about Anywhere Else:
The original idea for the book came from my own experiences.
Leena was originally supposed to end up with no one.
Brent changed the most while I was writing because he needed a story Leena could understand.
Five years later, my favorite thing about the story is how many readers have connected with it.
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The point is, using social media to give readers insight makes them care about your book. Without that, you won’t sell any.
The key is to stop chasing followers and begin chasing readers.
In truth, I have roughly 48.4k followers across my platforms. In truth, I’m not making that many sales. (Believe me, I wish I were.)
The number of followers on social media doesn’t always reflect book sales, because these followers are taking in the content you are giving for free on social media.
Over the years, I’ve built a social media following that looks impressive on paper. But one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that follower count and book sales don’t move in perfect unison.
Remember to:
Give readers a reason to care
Don’t only post content on social media about people buying your book
Engage with others on social media (it goes a long way)