One of the things I miss most about conventions due to this global pandemic we're all surviving is sitting down with other authors and finding out what their odd little tricks are for selling books and boosting their signals. I shared one earlier this year that I picked up at Capricon in If You're Going To Cons as an Author, Wear a Hat, and I recently came across another trick that seemed silly, but I had to give it a try to see if it really worked after all.
That simple sales trick? Put pictures of your pets on social media, and let the Internet's natural reaction to share images of cute cats and darling dogs sell the book for you!
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| So what's my cut of this again? | |
For those who don't know that adorable little face, that's my cat Jager. In addition to being my sensitivity reader for my novel Marked Territory, which is a noir thriller about an alley cat named Leo who gets embroiled in a bit of nastiness on the Bronx's south side involving the raccoons, a pack of mutts, and a curious little mystery, Jager also agreed to help market the book. In return for posing for a couple of pics, I agreed that he would get a portion of all the proceeds from books that he sold.
And you know something? The image shares of this pic, along with a little story like, "I promised my sensitivity editor that I'd give him a cut in new toys and fresh nip, so help me spoil my cat a little and get a copy of my new book!" actually got people to boost the signal pretty effectively. The post got two to three times the amount of attention from my standard FB feed and author page, and it managed to generate interest even from groups where I usually get relatively small feedback, if any.
In addition to getting likes, hearts, and shares, though, the posts also sold books. Not gangbuster sales, of course, but far more than I'd honestly expected when I first set out to make the posts.
And Alice Liddell, which is the fellow author who shared the trick with me (incidentally, go follow her author page on Facebook for some quality storytelling), basically responded with, "Told you so."
Whatever Stops Them Scrolling
An old piece of advice I once received was that you need to be sure your posts always have an arresting image to stop people from scrolling. It's the first step of engagement, after all. Once you've managed to halt them, you can try to drag them in and get them to boost the signal, buy a book, or both.
And the Internet has basically programmed us to love cute animals.
When you share an image and a story about one of your pets, though, it does something else for you; it gives the viewer some insight into who you are. They might know you're an author, but if you share pictures of your pet with them, that's a bonding moment. It shows them you're a person behind the cool job and flashy book cover, and it lets them know that at least some of the money you make is going to take care of that precious fur baby you keep in the office to help second-guess your plot twists.
Lastly, if you put your link in a picture, then no matter if someone shares with the original post or not, it's going to be embedded whenever someone takes a look at it. Which means your buy link is going to travel a lot further than it otherwise would.
Also, while I have your attention here, please consider signing up for my newsletter so you can stay on top of all my news, releases, and what Jager's up to!
Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!
That's all for this week's Business of Writing! If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my noir thriller Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!
If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!
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