Join the Twitterati like a Boss. Top Author Hashtags to Start Using Today

Twitter is an amazing platform for interacting with other writers, staying on top of industry happenings, connecting with readers and grabbing once of a lifetime opportunities - like pitching to agents! Carina Press, for example, held #CarinaPitch on 18 April 2018 for the second year running and gave authors the chance of a lifetime to pitch their WIPs in no more than 2 tweets! Can you really afford to miss out on that??

The main thing you need to know about Twitter (and Instagram) is that the # is EVERYTHING. Post without using it, and you may as well be a tree in the forest that falls.

Follow your icons, friends and other people of interest to you and you’ll find that it’s not a passive platform like Facebook, it’s lively and often very educational.

So, back to the hashtag - include them in your tweets and watch your followers grow.

What are Hashtags used for anyway?

• Indexing emotions (#Vague #SorryNotSorry)
• Identifying a Brand (#Oakley)
• Recommending a Product (#BestRead)
• Connecting with like-minded people (#WriterLife)
• Finding Experts (#AskAgent)

Example of a Tweet:

When you are researching sex toys...for work! #AmWritingRomance #WriterLife

Use these #’s to find your tribe and connect with other writers:

#AmWriting

#AmEditing

#WordCount

#WriterWednesday (or #WW)

#WritersLife

#AmWritingRomance

#IndieAuthors

#WriteChat

#NaNoWriMo

Connect by book genre, this case romance:

#Romance

#RomanceWriter

#RWA

Looking for or giving advice?

#WritingTip

#WriteTip

#GetPublished

#BookMarket

#BookMarketing

#PromoTip

#SelfPublishing

#SelfPub

#Publishing

#AskAgent

#AskAuthor

#AskEditor

Connect with Readers

#FridayReads
#BookGiveaway
#MustRead
#LitChat
#StoryFriday
#MustRead
#TeaserTues
#BookGiveaway
#FreeBook
#FreeDownload
#Kindle
#Nook

So what are you waiting for?

Cindi Page is a Digital Marketer by day at wordofmouthct.co.za and a romance writer by night.
She shares her business tips and #writerlife #entrepreneurlife on Twitter as @1stTruLove

Some local romance writers on Twitter:

@romy_s ‏
@RaeRivers1                                         

@DorothyEwels
@ColletteKellyZA
@ThereseBeharrie 
@EricaTayor
@EdenWalking
@DaniReneAuthor

Your Facebook Book Launch Step by Step

Welcome to 2017, where you don’t need to give people people cupcakes and wine and hold thumbs that they will buy your novel at your book launch. You can successfully launch your book online with a Facebook event. It’s easy, inexpensive and has tremendous reach.

Who participates?

Your readers / target audience and fellow authors in your genre (exhaust all your contacts, don’t hold back. Remember, if you don’t ask, the answer is the same as a ‘No’.).

What’s in it for you?

You reach wa-aay more people (hundreds, possibly thousands), with more meaningful interactions than you ever could with an in - person launch. It’s also costs next to nothing to pull off. You can be creative. Just pretend you’re already a best selling author, and you’re ready to rock.

What will it cost?

Although you will not be spending money on wine, snacks, a venue, an outfit, transport, a photographer and giving away paper versions of your book - you will be investing your time in preparing for the event and time on the day. Don’t worry, you can do it in your PJs and slippers if you want to, no problem.

What’s in it for the guests?

Not only do your readers (and fellow authors) get to chat online in a live Q&A (I like the game: ‘Ask the Author Anything’), there will also be books (digital) given away - and who can resist a free book?? Some authors give away paperbacks / signed copies / other swag / Amazon gift cards - it’s all up to the author. The best giveaways are the ones where it’s simple, but with a kickback for you, the author. For example: If you like my Facebook page or sign up to my newsletter (insert links for convenience) I’ll send you a free digital copy of my book!

Step 1: Prepare a media kit for your book (*= required)

• Cover images *
• Blurb *
• Teasers (best done with images and excerpts from the book - use Canva.com)  *
• Video trailer
• Author bio *
• Excerpts of reviews / bloggger comments *
• Anything else you can brag about like other press coverage

Step 2: Create a Facebook Event

• Create an event on FB from your FB author page about 2 weeks before the event date.
• Set a date and time (this can be a couple of hours in a particular day or it run for a few days, that depends on you). Keep time zones in mind.
• Use Canva.com to create stunning artwork for your event cover / banner.
• Write a decent description of  your event. Say it is a launch, explain how it will work (See Step 3). Include all your social media links/ handles etc.
• Make sure the settings allow for invited guests to invite others. The more the merrier.
• Invite as many people as you know.

Step 3: Line up the “entertainment”

• Ask fellow authors in your genre to share the stage with you and promote their work.This is great because it’s generous and helps build a sense of community. You can decide on criteria like only authors who have released a book in a last year if you want to.
• Decide on how long their timeslot will be and on which day.
• Make a schedule and stick to it. Remember to give yourself a timeslots too!
• Get them to confirm their participation and send them reminders.
• Suggest some ideas to them and recommend they get a media kit ready (see Step 1).
• The idea is that they will keep the momentum going on your event page by introducing themselves, sharing excerpts and reviews of their book, take part in live Q&A and do a giveaway / run a competition. Sometimes this means that you have to get the ball rolling by asking the first question or being the first to comment.

Step 4: Leading up to the event

• Finalise that schedule.
• Promote / tell people about the event.
• Boost your event by paying FB a small sum of money to reach even more people. This will cast the audience net even wider, which is what you want.
• Prepare your giveaways / competition criteria.

Step 5: On the day / days

• Make yourself available to introduce the authors participating.
• Have some questions prepared in case the audience is slow.
• Be positive and upbeat.
• Make sure whatever is happening is relevant, interesting and engaging. Varying the content with live video/ music videos / recorded videos / images and soon will really help.
• Promote your book!
• Ask for Follows / LIKES and Subscribers
• Engage with your audience.
• Give of yourself and be yourself - that’s the whole point.
• Ask a friend or two to LIVE Tweet your event with hashtag.
• Share images on Instagram / status updates of what’s happening on your event page on your FB author page.

Why not participate in our very own ROSA member, Erica Taylor’s Facebook Book Launch for her debut novel, A Suitable Affair? Invite all your romance lovin’ friends too!

©Cindi Page 2017

Cindi Page is a digital marketer by day and romance novelist by night. She Indie-published her first novel, A Piece of My Heart, in 2016 and her second and third books are due for release late 2017. Connect: cindipage.com /@1stTruLove /FB: cindi page author / wordofmouthct.co.za/ cindi@cindipage.com

Carlyle Labuschagne on Branding for the Brave

Image credit: Marie Dry

At ROSACon2016, successful local YA author Carlyle Labuschagne presented a talk on Branding for the Brave.

She opened the session with an exercise, getting us all to think about our own brands: what is the end result we desire from our branding? What are our core values? Who are our role models, and why?
Only once we have a grip on who we are, and what we stand for, can we establish our author brand.

Carlyle shared some excellent advice for author branding:

• offer value to your readers
• Put out a clear, simple message
• Be consistent across all media and platforms

She also shared concrete, specific tips on how to run giveaways and contests, use graphics and teasers, and how to use social media features such as Teaser Tuesday. She recommended collaborations between authors and bloggers as a great way to spread awareness of our brands.

But perhaps the most valuable piece of advice she shared was that authors must show passion for their own brands. If you are not enthusiastic and excited about your own work, and your own brand, how can you expect anyone else to be?

Conference Report: Tristan Banha's talk on Social Media

Thank you to author Rebecca Crowley for her report on Tristan Banha's talk on Social Media & Branding at #ROSACon2014.

Report by Rebecca Crowley

On Saturday afternoon ROSACon welcomed Tristan Banha, the founder of The Juice Box social media agency who’s recently joined the Chat Factory, where his clients include Joburg Theatre, Peugeot South Africa and the Smile Foundation. The Chat Factory is a social agency looking after social media publicity, strategy and account management.

Tristan began with a presentation emphasizing the constant growth in social media use. In South Africa specifically Instagram and YouTube are the fastest growing, while Facebook remains South Africa’s biggest social network.

Addressing Facebook in particular, Tristan said writers must have a fan page. He described Facebook as a “coffee shop”, a virtual place for mingling and sharing, which means it’s essential to divide the personal from the professional. An author-specific fan page provides this barrier, as well as helps authors target their engagement without blurring the lines between professional and more general social interaction.

When it comes to maximizing Facebook interaction, Tristan’s first tip was to ensure your content is mobile friendly, as 78% of South Africans access Facebook via their phones. He then explained the essential difference between being seen and being noticed. Achieving a high number of ‘Likes’ on a post constitutes being seen, but doesn’t necessarily suggest that the viewers will take that click any further (ie buy a book!). Being noticed, Tristan clarified, is better illustrated through an exchange of comments, as that shows engagement with the product (from the viewer’s side) and with the target audience (from the author’s side).

Tristan moved on from the nuances of Facebook to the overarching ways authors can maximize social media to engage with and generate new readers. Broadening from the “being seen v. being noticed” point, he suggested asking questions or crowdsourcing – getting input from audiences on Facebook or Twitter for character names or setting details, for instance – as a way to get readers involved with books or works in progress. The key follow-up step is to acknowledge the comments generated by these questions and interact with the readers who ask them, as that’s what secures their engagement and moves the interaction from seen to noticed.

Tristan described social media as a “community conversation” and encouraged authors to make use of it as such. He emphasized the use of hashtags on Twitter to help people join in the conversation, as they may search on those as keywords, and will expand the scope of the conversation from existing followers to potential new ones.

Overall, Tristan underlined that social media works best when the community provides the content and the author responds to it in an engaged, interactive way. Social media has the potential to massively grow an author’s exposure internationally and exponentially.

Tristan Banha and Rebecca Crowley at #ROSACon2014

Conference Report: Helen Holyoake on Book Marketing

On the Sunday morning of ROSACon2014 book publicist Helen Holyoake of Helco Promotions gave a talk on book marketing aimed at published (or near-published) authors. Thank you to Anthony Ehlers for his report on the talk.

The role of the book publicist

‘There’s always a certain amount of glamour to a new book coming out,’ says Helen Holyoake, a respected book publicist who has worked with JM Coetzee, Pamela Jooste and Fiona Snyckers. ‘You need to capture that excitement in a good PR campaign.’

Who uses a publicist?
Sometimes traditional publishers use her services to bolster their in-house marketing strategies, and she also works with many self-published authors, like Carlyle Laubachange and Rachel Morgan.

‘However, book launches are expensive,’ she cautions. ‘What I focus on is a solid media programme. One good article in the right magazine can equal R50 thousand in ad spend.’

Aligning retail and media
Helen believes South Africa hasn’t adapted to digital as much as the rest of the world. ‘The SA e-book market is tiny,’ she says. ‘Readers and reviewers prefer a printed book; the focus should be on print and online.’

A publicist will ensure that a mainstream book publicity campaign should make sure that the distribution of the book and the media launch work together. ‘The book should be available in retail to be able to take advantage of a media campaign,’ Helen says.

Helen works with a few distribution stakeholders that can help get books from the warehouse to the bookstore. Distributors form deeper relationships with booksellers – like Exclusive Books and independent stores – to ensure your self-published book will get on the shelves.

‘The barrier to entry is that because of the process, self-published books end up being more expensive than books from bigger publishers,’ she points out.

Self publishing?
Helen says there is a lingering stigma around independently published work. ‘For example, the Sunday Times won’t touch a self-published book,’ she points out.

However, there are ways around it. An agile, dedicated and savvy publicist can find a way to get a reviewer to look at it, if they find the right angle. ‘Even bigger books are struggling to get coverage,’ she says. ‘Editorial space gets smaller as advertising shrinks in magazines and newspapers.’

Television is another powerful platform. ‘Today you can sell more books with one TV interview than any other media exposure,’ Helen says.

‘Online has its place too. There is more advertising online and more space, and it allows for hyperlinks to author websites and blogs. My concern with online is that it’s so quick, it filters down quite quickly. It can be lost.’

Media schmoozing
‘Media relationships are an integral part of PR,’ she adds. ‘The media should always be targets to the genre you’re writing. For example, I never send a book unless a reviewer requests it after reading the press release and other marketing material.’

Often her relationships prevent negative exposure for an author. ‘Recently I had an editor call me to say she wasn’t going to run with her journalist’s review because it was a bad review,’ she says. ‘While some believe there is no such thing as bad publicity, you learn to appreciate these kinds of interventions.’

This relationship-building is the bedrock between the author and the publicist too. Helen says an author should form a relationship with a publicist and see it as an investment in your long term career as a writer. ‘There is a special relationship between a publicist and author,’ she says.

Helen with author Rae Rivers at ROSACon2014