oh boy do I feel this deep in my bones....I'm a few weeks late (surprise!) but enjoyed knowing that others look at Tiktok and go "oh I could do that...." Only to rarely if ever do it. What I have done:
1. post my face thre
2. post B-roll with overlaid text
3. post more of my face
4. Post me talking and also me lip syncing
5. Post crap from Capcut.
And I never (ever ever ever) get more than about 250 views and very few actual interactions. Let me know if you ever uncover the secret!
I’ve been on TikTok for about 3 years, 26k followers and the best advice I had that helped me was to think of it like IG stories- videos can be less curated and perfect looking. Videos where you flick through the book with an enticing book like ‘this book will [fill in the blank]’ then showing the cover at the last moment are good for selling on there
Very intrigued to follow along on your Tik Tok journey... definitely an avenue for engagement that's worth considering. If your research goes further, please share your findings (and your Tik Toks 😂)
I gave TikTok the old college try for all the reasons you mentioned—wanting to please my publisher, wanting to do everything in my power to promote my books, etc.—and I HATED it. Just, like, every single aspect of prepping, filming, editing, posting, promoting, and being in that world. To be fair, I did not expect to *enjoy* it; I find “content creation” an exhausting concept and the gamification of our app-based existence makes me crazy. But I didn’t expect to actively loathe “being on TikTok” as much as I did. I thought it would wind up in a “necessary evil” category re: book promo but instead I just walked away after about 50 posts and never looked back 🤷🏻♀️
I've been taking a social media break for a bit now because I just got tired from it all and wanted to get back to the joy of writing. But I will say I miss TikTok the most! I think about returning to social media and not getting back on Instagram at all and just focusing on TikTok. Instagram feels like it's gotten really weird to me. There are so many ads now and everyone is trying to sell something. I get off the app and suddenly feel like I want to create a 6 figure Amazon storefront even though I don't. TikTok is a lot more fun. I do think the TikTok algorithm rewards good storytelling and I always felt like I could be more like "me" on that app. Making a coffee in sweatpants and chatting about something random goes great on TikTok and it's WAY easier to edit videos than you think. The more you post the easier it is to just post without overthinking it. My "lazy" TikToks always perform better than the ones I put a lot of effort into. This one did pretty well (especially the number of "saves") and as you can see it wasn't a lot of effort: https://www.tiktok.com/@mrsmollywilcox/video/7158522861391449386
Great post! I joined Tiktok recently (at 49yo lol). I watched 2 YouTube videos on how to make reels/tt videos and it was shockingly easy. Love me the b roll approach.
What are your thoughts on Threads? I have a private Instagram that I want to keep private but am waffling on starting a writer public account where I can start (trying likely fruitlessly) to build good content and a following for a hopeful future book release. I'm only 16K words into my WIP
Tbh I have spent but time in there but I hear good things from the writing community. Now’s a good time to start! But just get on there and poke around and see what interests you. Try not to think too much about selling a book down the line just yet.
Congrats on the upcoming book, Kate! From my experience, TikTok and IG do not equate to book sales but they do build brand awareness. I’ve traditionally published 9 novels with Big 5. I have 12.4k followers on IG and 7.3k on TikTok. Last year I had a video hit 1.4M views on TikTok and the same one got almost half a million on IG. The bump in sales was negligible.
If your Gen Z nephew wants to help, that’s brilliant. I have outsourced my IG video creation to a Zillennial who is fantastic. She knows social media and the best music and what is visually eye catching (I don’t!) Meanwhile, I write the captions while she creates the visual piece. It lets me write books and my substack while she does the video editing (which is such a huge time suck).
Happy to chat about this more if you ever want it! I also have a two-month book publicity calendar for social media here if it’s helpful, with how often you should be promoting your book leading up to and after launch. (Don’t worry about preorders. Honestly no one preorders anymore. Focus on soft pre launch and then hit hard at on-sale.)
The biggest sales bump (that I could track) based on something I myself did for my book was because of a TikTok video that took off. It was a very basic video (just a non-polished video showing a funny chart in my book and then the cover).
I think if I really went in hard I could probably sell more books on TikTok but I just don't find myself wanting to devote all the time required for it. And for what it's worth, that video (and most of mine) are non-face videos because I just am more of a text person.
That said, I feel like the talking/writing advice videos do well and seems like they could be a good plug for your book that you could cross-post to Instagram too. But just sort of depends on what you have time for/want to spend time on.
There are DEFINITELY ways to be successful on IG that don’t sound like ‘this secret will change your life!!!!’ but it mostly means you adjust your perspective on what successful looks like. Views, reach, no of followers are less relevant than you’d think when selling books - what works better (and often feels nicer) is connection, conversation, and harnessing the ripple effect instagram can create via digital surrogates, but that often doesn’t come with the dopamine hits of quick growth
Love everything you're saying. Like always. This time I have a comment.
This is from the lovely Becca Syme from the BetterFasterAcademy:
Books don't sell because of social media.
I don't meant that social media doesn't sell books. I mean that social media doesn't force books to sell. Not only that but, if a book is really going to sell, it's going to be the readers using social media to sell the book. Not the author.
Unfortunately, sometimes, books just don't sell. And no amount of me being on social media is going to sell a book the market has said it doesn't have a demand for. And the market is always right about the demand
The market is not making a designation about whether or not the book is good, well done, worth reading, etc. The market is only making a decision about whether or not there is a demand for the book right now.
Social media does not create demand. It responds to demand.
(And I know there will be people reading this who are saying, "but no, Becca, if you really try on TikTok, your books will sell," and to that I say, "that's not what the evidence says." The evidence of what's happening on every social media channel is that they are saturated and visibility is hard, and just more posting isn't the answer. You have to post content people want to consume. And that isn't equally easy for everyone.)
I love that so much! I have to read every single day. ❤️❤️
It's text based, you can build good visibility with even a few posts a week (which like all platforms, can be scheduled). There are vibrant communities of people looking for advice on publishing. LinkedIn Live video conversations are casual and technology wise, pretty simple. One key to LinkedIn is for you to comment on other people's posts as a way to build visibility.
As for TikTok, we recommend to authors not interested in creating videos/starting a new platform (and that is OK!) is to "pitch" others on TikTok who are already talking about the subject, offer them a review copy of the book, and ask them if they are interested in covering the book in some way. Easier said than done!! But many publishers/publicists have lists of people to contact or know how to research good candidates.
No matter your path, Kate, your information is SO VALUABLE that wherever people find it, they will learn a TON. :)
Since Kamala became the candidate, Threads is GOING OFF. It's quite a fun community now. So fun that I had to delete the app from my phone because in a few days I logged seven hours on it. Ugh! But it's just like old Twitter.
Also, just go for it on TikTok! I think you're right that people will be hungry for your content over there. The only way you'll find your right posting style is to DO it. I have a book coming out in late October and I'm dragging my feet on reels and such ... it's a farming book and I feel like so much of farming content is really pretty and I don't really do "pretty." So, yeah. I'm having these conversations with myself over here right now too. But to YOU I can just say GO FOR IT! I know people are going to love your book!
Agree on Threads! I was on Twitter for years and had way more followers there but the engagment that I (and many others I know) have been getting on Threads recently is a lot more than I used to see on Twitter most of the time.
oh boy do I feel this deep in my bones....I'm a few weeks late (surprise!) but enjoyed knowing that others look at Tiktok and go "oh I could do that...." Only to rarely if ever do it. What I have done:
1. post my face thre
2. post B-roll with overlaid text
3. post more of my face
4. Post me talking and also me lip syncing
5. Post crap from Capcut.
And I never (ever ever ever) get more than about 250 views and very few actual interactions. Let me know if you ever uncover the secret!
cheers
Liz
I’ve been on TikTok for about 3 years, 26k followers and the best advice I had that helped me was to think of it like IG stories- videos can be less curated and perfect looking. Videos where you flick through the book with an enticing book like ‘this book will [fill in the blank]’ then showing the cover at the last moment are good for selling on there
Very intrigued to follow along on your Tik Tok journey... definitely an avenue for engagement that's worth considering. If your research goes further, please share your findings (and your Tik Toks 😂)
I gave TikTok the old college try for all the reasons you mentioned—wanting to please my publisher, wanting to do everything in my power to promote my books, etc.—and I HATED it. Just, like, every single aspect of prepping, filming, editing, posting, promoting, and being in that world. To be fair, I did not expect to *enjoy* it; I find “content creation” an exhausting concept and the gamification of our app-based existence makes me crazy. But I didn’t expect to actively loathe “being on TikTok” as much as I did. I thought it would wind up in a “necessary evil” category re: book promo but instead I just walked away after about 50 posts and never looked back 🤷🏻♀️
I tried TikTok a few years ago and all it gave me was a headache. However, I think I may now be in a better position to give it another go.
I've been taking a social media break for a bit now because I just got tired from it all and wanted to get back to the joy of writing. But I will say I miss TikTok the most! I think about returning to social media and not getting back on Instagram at all and just focusing on TikTok. Instagram feels like it's gotten really weird to me. There are so many ads now and everyone is trying to sell something. I get off the app and suddenly feel like I want to create a 6 figure Amazon storefront even though I don't. TikTok is a lot more fun. I do think the TikTok algorithm rewards good storytelling and I always felt like I could be more like "me" on that app. Making a coffee in sweatpants and chatting about something random goes great on TikTok and it's WAY easier to edit videos than you think. The more you post the easier it is to just post without overthinking it. My "lazy" TikToks always perform better than the ones I put a lot of effort into. This one did pretty well (especially the number of "saves") and as you can see it wasn't a lot of effort: https://www.tiktok.com/@mrsmollywilcox/video/7158522861391449386
Great post! I joined Tiktok recently (at 49yo lol). I watched 2 YouTube videos on how to make reels/tt videos and it was shockingly easy. Love me the b roll approach.
What are your thoughts on Threads? I have a private Instagram that I want to keep private but am waffling on starting a writer public account where I can start (trying likely fruitlessly) to build good content and a following for a hopeful future book release. I'm only 16K words into my WIP
Tbh I have spent but time in there but I hear good things from the writing community. Now’s a good time to start! But just get on there and poke around and see what interests you. Try not to think too much about selling a book down the line just yet.
Congrats on the upcoming book, Kate! From my experience, TikTok and IG do not equate to book sales but they do build brand awareness. I’ve traditionally published 9 novels with Big 5. I have 12.4k followers on IG and 7.3k on TikTok. Last year I had a video hit 1.4M views on TikTok and the same one got almost half a million on IG. The bump in sales was negligible.
If your Gen Z nephew wants to help, that’s brilliant. I have outsourced my IG video creation to a Zillennial who is fantastic. She knows social media and the best music and what is visually eye catching (I don’t!) Meanwhile, I write the captions while she creates the visual piece. It lets me write books and my substack while she does the video editing (which is such a huge time suck).
Happy to chat about this more if you ever want it! I also have a two-month book publicity calendar for social media here if it’s helpful, with how often you should be promoting your book leading up to and after launch. (Don’t worry about preorders. Honestly no one preorders anymore. Focus on soft pre launch and then hit hard at on-sale.)
https://www.creativeinspiredhappy.com/p/publicity-calendar-for-book-launch?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
The biggest sales bump (that I could track) based on something I myself did for my book was because of a TikTok video that took off. It was a very basic video (just a non-polished video showing a funny chart in my book and then the cover).
I think if I really went in hard I could probably sell more books on TikTok but I just don't find myself wanting to devote all the time required for it. And for what it's worth, that video (and most of mine) are non-face videos because I just am more of a text person.
That said, I feel like the talking/writing advice videos do well and seems like they could be a good plug for your book that you could cross-post to Instagram too. But just sort of depends on what you have time for/want to spend time on.
There are DEFINITELY ways to be successful on IG that don’t sound like ‘this secret will change your life!!!!’ but it mostly means you adjust your perspective on what successful looks like. Views, reach, no of followers are less relevant than you’d think when selling books - what works better (and often feels nicer) is connection, conversation, and harnessing the ripple effect instagram can create via digital surrogates, but that often doesn’t come with the dopamine hits of quick growth
Love everything you're saying. Like always. This time I have a comment.
This is from the lovely Becca Syme from the BetterFasterAcademy:
Books don't sell because of social media.
I don't meant that social media doesn't sell books. I mean that social media doesn't force books to sell. Not only that but, if a book is really going to sell, it's going to be the readers using social media to sell the book. Not the author.
Unfortunately, sometimes, books just don't sell. And no amount of me being on social media is going to sell a book the market has said it doesn't have a demand for. And the market is always right about the demand
The market is not making a designation about whether or not the book is good, well done, worth reading, etc. The market is only making a decision about whether or not there is a demand for the book right now.
Social media does not create demand. It responds to demand.
(And I know there will be people reading this who are saying, "but no, Becca, if you really try on TikTok, your books will sell," and to that I say, "that's not what the evidence says." The evidence of what's happening on every social media channel is that they are saturated and visibility is hard, and just more posting isn't the answer. You have to post content people want to consume. And that isn't equally easy for everyone.)
I love that so much! I have to read every single day. ❤️❤️
LinkedIn is a platform to consider.
It's text based, you can build good visibility with even a few posts a week (which like all platforms, can be scheduled). There are vibrant communities of people looking for advice on publishing. LinkedIn Live video conversations are casual and technology wise, pretty simple. One key to LinkedIn is for you to comment on other people's posts as a way to build visibility.
As for TikTok, we recommend to authors not interested in creating videos/starting a new platform (and that is OK!) is to "pitch" others on TikTok who are already talking about the subject, offer them a review copy of the book, and ask them if they are interested in covering the book in some way. Easier said than done!! But many publishers/publicists have lists of people to contact or know how to research good candidates.
No matter your path, Kate, your information is SO VALUABLE that wherever people find it, they will learn a TON. :)
Since Kamala became the candidate, Threads is GOING OFF. It's quite a fun community now. So fun that I had to delete the app from my phone because in a few days I logged seven hours on it. Ugh! But it's just like old Twitter.
Also, just go for it on TikTok! I think you're right that people will be hungry for your content over there. The only way you'll find your right posting style is to DO it. I have a book coming out in late October and I'm dragging my feet on reels and such ... it's a farming book and I feel like so much of farming content is really pretty and I don't really do "pretty." So, yeah. I'm having these conversations with myself over here right now too. But to YOU I can just say GO FOR IT! I know people are going to love your book!
Agree on Threads! I was on Twitter for years and had way more followers there but the engagment that I (and many others I know) have been getting on Threads recently is a lot more than I used to see on Twitter most of the time.
Ohhhh yeah I def need to start up on Threads. I'm hearing goof things! Thank you!!!!
This is good advice and very interesting. Although I can't imagine using TikTok.
Y'all these are some GREAT comments! Thank you! I have even more to think about and not in an *omg I'm so stressed out* way!