A good part of marketing for indie writers today has meant exploring various ways to use social media. Social media is everywhere and the suggestions for how to use them likewise.
For me Facebook was easy that is if I didn't want to come on there with a different identity to do it. Having it purely as a Rain Trueax [author page] for the videos, etc., that didn't take much. Anyone can access it whether a member of Facebook or not... I think. Does anybody else access it? Probably not.
Then there has been Twitter which I still don't quite get how it can benefit anybody. I get people wanting to follow me who have no interest in my writing or me. They do it purely to get me to follow them. This involves even starlets who obviously have somebody running their Twitter for them. Once I understood how this worked, I only added people I thought were in my market which still can end up going nowhere as the numbers go up and down. Sell books? Unlikely.
I joined Linkedin which some have said was good, and likewise [Pinterest] which I can't even remember how to spell but put up book covers and a couple of photos with no clue how any of that can sell books. My theory right now is-- unlikely.
Finally there is YouTube where I have the trailers [Rain Trueax Channel] and again-- does it actually get the books seen by someone new? Seems unlikely too.
The problem of getting books seen is the big one for indie writers. Maybe it comes through getting reviews and that requires either spending some money or sending out the books to various review sites and hoping they not only get noticed but in a positive way. Will that sell books? Who knows.
You can put a lot of time into all of these things and does it actually end up with the books being seen? So far I have no idea. When a book of mine does sell, and some have done pretty well off and on, I also have no idea how they got seen or why. Is it all a crap shoot? Luck? Timing? You already know what my answer to that is. I am, however, hanging in and maybe someday I will know. I can definitely see why some do hire publicists to do this kind of thing for them-- some who have the money to do it!
