Yikes! I'm right behind you at age 59. Twitter (now X) is my primary platform, but I just created a Facebook page for my novel. Strangely, it would not let me create "Howard Lovy, Author," so I did what experts tell you NOT to do and created a page to promote one book. Will it lead to sales? I have no idea. I'm afraid of putting too much time in a dying outlet. But I don't really have the dancing ability to succeed at TikTok! https://www.facebook.com/jakeandcaitstory
How weird. I just started an author page this week for a new client. Did you try again? Sometimes, The Facebook Gods need a day of rest.
The bummer about starting a singular book page is that the page just kinda sits there when you move on to the next book.
My workaround suggestion: try to create just a Howard Lovy page (no author) and then if they accept it, you can go into page settings and change the username to HowardLovyAuthor. I hope that helps!
Does any of our efforts lead to sales? We need to rethink how we use socials - the main point is visibility and connection, which will lead to sales. I definitely recommend ads if you can swing it (or ask your lovely publisher).
Rachel, This is such a timely and informative analysis. Thank you. And glad the tacos were delicious! I researched Amazon ads vs. Faceback ads about six months ago. One fairly seasoned advertising consultant explained to me that in my genre, sci-fi, there's just too much competition to bid at an economic price for Amazon ads. And therefore, he was advising me to focus on FB ads as a better alternative. But he also told me that you really need at least three books in order to earn any ROI via FB. So after reading your post, I'm now wondering if it makes sense to do either FB or Amazon ads. If you have any thoughts on that, I'd love to hear them.
Great question, Janet. There is no easy answer (of course) because...it's complicated. You have two books out now (I think?), so you technically have a backlist.
As an author and marketer, I focus on where my audience hangs out. You may catch more people with FB ads than with Amazon ads if you find that your demographic is on FB.
Amazon ads can also be helpful - I defer to my go-to guy, Charlie Levin, at MunnAvenuePress.com for specifics.
There's a lot of testing in both to see which keywords resonate.
I'm currently running a FB ad for a sci-fi book for a client. We started it two weeks ago, and the cost per click is .31. (I always aim for .30 or less, so that's a decent cost.)
But here's what kind of amazing: 150 link clicks (which I can track), 21K views, and reach of 12K. So pretty good for a $100/month ad.
Some people are so done with The Billionaire Boys Club (Bezos and Musk and Zuck), there's little left for us more #ahem 'mature' writers. It's a personal choice.
As I've undoubtedly commented before, I've taken to just sharing and not caring. I realize that's anathema to this blog about book marketing, but after trying to keep up with the Joneses on all the platforms for most of 2023, I took a long (9 month) break from everything in 2024 and have picked up my pen, so to speak, with an understanding that I'm just going to write and enjoy it, and if no one likes anything, that's fine with me. I have a job, a job I really like and pays very well, so writing for me is just about my joy. I've started making audios and videos and doing lots of fun, new creative things to market my writing, so to speak, but really those things are fun for me, and that's the only reason I do them. As I said, I gave up.
Is Facebook still a viable platform for book sales? Eh, doesn't matter in the least to me -- I'm still trying to figure out if I should leave Meta altogether. But I do have a "The Fictional" page there, which is my brand, and I cross post to Instagram, Bluesky, Threads and Tumblr. And I have videos on YouTube now that no one's even noticed. But I loved making them. I think I'm winning.
It can be very frustrating, to be out there making a splash and not selling more books. It's truly dependent on your strategy - is FB where your demographic hangs out? If not, probably not worth it for you.
Genre fiction does quite well on IG and TikTok and YouTube - look at #BookTube to see if your genre is popular, and then you can create those videos or pitch yourself to the channels. Just a thought!
I stopped using Facebook two years ago as medium took all my time but I’m thinking of creating an authors page and run some adds now. Don’t know if it still works the way it used to.
Depends on how long you haven't been there - they updated the Page design and format, with a lot more bells and whistles (you don't have to use them). Analytics and insights are very helpful IMO.
I'm on Day 2 of running ads on Facebook for the first time. Lots to learn. I woke up worrying I'd put in a non-working landing page link as an option - and what if I had - and could I edit an ad that's already running?
Answers: yes, you can edit an ad that's running and it's easy to do but no, I put in a functioning landing page link and there were no options to put in more than one functioning landing page link anyway.
I suspect my audience is more on Facebook/Meta platforms and less on TikTok - though I don't think either are platforms I'm in full ethical agreement with. In fact, just last week, I shamelessly (no, I am ashamed at the conflicting behaviour) signed a petition to urge advertisers to boycott Facebook, knowing I intend to advertise there this year to explore how it works - and to see if I can make it work for me.
At the end of the day, the tech bros are uber-wealthy and though I'm comfortable in the short term, I need a lot more to even be financially secure-ish in the medium-to-long-term. So if I can eventually make some profit from Facebook I'll call that a win. I'm conscious it's important to be flexible and see where the market is going.
Why sign the petition though? It was an opportunity to add my name to the concerns I have around Facebook abandoning its fact-checking and going the Musk-route to content moderation. If some companies can afford to withdraw from Facebook, citing ethical grievances, then that's a win for all of us.
I agree. The Tech Bros are in charge of everything we as authors use frequently (FB, X, Amazon, YouTube, Google eve, etc.). I wish there was less cognitive dissonance - how do we market without these tools where our readers hang out without feeling like we're selling our soul?
I'm observing which posts are indexed by Google and deciding where I want to spend my time (including here on Substack - it's indexed, so yay).
Thanks! I was an early adopter, but I have been meaning to quit FB for five years. Your posting prompted me to act. They have a 30-day waiting period before actual deletion. By March, I will be an ex-FB-user! It is a good feeling.
Facebook has become even scarier than I thought it was… I heard you in Madalyn Sklar's Live Feed on Thursday and immediately went to the FB settings to make them unable to track my activity when I was NOT on FB (thank you for that, Rachel), but I had no idea of all the pandering to political figures that was going on. #sigh
And I was looking for you and your folks at the Taco place... I guess I just missed you xoxo
Yikes! I'm right behind you at age 59. Twitter (now X) is my primary platform, but I just created a Facebook page for my novel. Strangely, it would not let me create "Howard Lovy, Author," so I did what experts tell you NOT to do and created a page to promote one book. Will it lead to sales? I have no idea. I'm afraid of putting too much time in a dying outlet. But I don't really have the dancing ability to succeed at TikTok! https://www.facebook.com/jakeandcaitstory
How weird. I just started an author page this week for a new client. Did you try again? Sometimes, The Facebook Gods need a day of rest.
The bummer about starting a singular book page is that the page just kinda sits there when you move on to the next book.
My workaround suggestion: try to create just a Howard Lovy page (no author) and then if they accept it, you can go into page settings and change the username to HowardLovyAuthor. I hope that helps!
Does any of our efforts lead to sales? We need to rethink how we use socials - the main point is visibility and connection, which will lead to sales. I definitely recommend ads if you can swing it (or ask your lovely publisher).
Rachel, This is such a timely and informative analysis. Thank you. And glad the tacos were delicious! I researched Amazon ads vs. Faceback ads about six months ago. One fairly seasoned advertising consultant explained to me that in my genre, sci-fi, there's just too much competition to bid at an economic price for Amazon ads. And therefore, he was advising me to focus on FB ads as a better alternative. But he also told me that you really need at least three books in order to earn any ROI via FB. So after reading your post, I'm now wondering if it makes sense to do either FB or Amazon ads. If you have any thoughts on that, I'd love to hear them.
Great question, Janet. There is no easy answer (of course) because...it's complicated. You have two books out now (I think?), so you technically have a backlist.
As an author and marketer, I focus on where my audience hangs out. You may catch more people with FB ads than with Amazon ads if you find that your demographic is on FB.
Amazon ads can also be helpful - I defer to my go-to guy, Charlie Levin, at MunnAvenuePress.com for specifics.
There's a lot of testing in both to see which keywords resonate.
I'm currently running a FB ad for a sci-fi book for a client. We started it two weeks ago, and the cost per click is .31. (I always aim for .30 or less, so that's a decent cost.)
But here's what kind of amazing: 150 link clicks (which I can track), 21K views, and reach of 12K. So pretty good for a $100/month ad.
Some people are so done with The Billionaire Boys Club (Bezos and Musk and Zuck), there's little left for us more #ahem 'mature' writers. It's a personal choice.
Thank you, Rachel. That's very helpful.
As I've undoubtedly commented before, I've taken to just sharing and not caring. I realize that's anathema to this blog about book marketing, but after trying to keep up with the Joneses on all the platforms for most of 2023, I took a long (9 month) break from everything in 2024 and have picked up my pen, so to speak, with an understanding that I'm just going to write and enjoy it, and if no one likes anything, that's fine with me. I have a job, a job I really like and pays very well, so writing for me is just about my joy. I've started making audios and videos and doing lots of fun, new creative things to market my writing, so to speak, but really those things are fun for me, and that's the only reason I do them. As I said, I gave up.
Is Facebook still a viable platform for book sales? Eh, doesn't matter in the least to me -- I'm still trying to figure out if I should leave Meta altogether. But I do have a "The Fictional" page there, which is my brand, and I cross post to Instagram, Bluesky, Threads and Tumblr. And I have videos on YouTube now that no one's even noticed. But I loved making them. I think I'm winning.
It can be very frustrating, to be out there making a splash and not selling more books. It's truly dependent on your strategy - is FB where your demographic hangs out? If not, probably not worth it for you.
Genre fiction does quite well on IG and TikTok and YouTube - look at #BookTube to see if your genre is popular, and then you can create those videos or pitch yourself to the channels. Just a thought!
I stopped using Facebook two years ago as medium took all my time but I’m thinking of creating an authors page and run some adds now. Don’t know if it still works the way it used to.
Depends on how long you haven't been there - they updated the Page design and format, with a lot more bells and whistles (you don't have to use them). Analytics and insights are very helpful IMO.
I'm on Day 2 of running ads on Facebook for the first time. Lots to learn. I woke up worrying I'd put in a non-working landing page link as an option - and what if I had - and could I edit an ad that's already running?
Answers: yes, you can edit an ad that's running and it's easy to do but no, I put in a functioning landing page link and there were no options to put in more than one functioning landing page link anyway.
I suspect my audience is more on Facebook/Meta platforms and less on TikTok - though I don't think either are platforms I'm in full ethical agreement with. In fact, just last week, I shamelessly (no, I am ashamed at the conflicting behaviour) signed a petition to urge advertisers to boycott Facebook, knowing I intend to advertise there this year to explore how it works - and to see if I can make it work for me.
At the end of the day, the tech bros are uber-wealthy and though I'm comfortable in the short term, I need a lot more to even be financially secure-ish in the medium-to-long-term. So if I can eventually make some profit from Facebook I'll call that a win. I'm conscious it's important to be flexible and see where the market is going.
Why sign the petition though? It was an opportunity to add my name to the concerns I have around Facebook abandoning its fact-checking and going the Musk-route to content moderation. If some companies can afford to withdraw from Facebook, citing ethical grievances, then that's a win for all of us.
Thank you for reading and sharing, Amanda.
I agree. The Tech Bros are in charge of everything we as authors use frequently (FB, X, Amazon, YouTube, Google eve, etc.). I wish there was less cognitive dissonance - how do we market without these tools where our readers hang out without feeling like we're selling our soul?
I'm observing which posts are indexed by Google and deciding where I want to spend my time (including here on Substack - it's indexed, so yay).
No easy answer to any of this.
Thanks! I was an early adopter, but I have been meaning to quit FB for five years. Your posting prompted me to act. They have a 30-day waiting period before actual deletion. By March, I will be an ex-FB-user! It is a good feeling.
Nice, Richard! There are many other options - again, I always look at what will give me (and my author clients) the greatest visibility.
Tip: You can download all your content for repurposing (if you want to).
Facebook has become even scarier than I thought it was… I heard you in Madalyn Sklar's Live Feed on Thursday and immediately went to the FB settings to make them unable to track my activity when I was NOT on FB (thank you for that, Rachel), but I had no idea of all the pandering to political figures that was going on. #sigh
And I was looking for you and your folks at the Taco place... I guess I just missed you xoxo
LOL 🌮
Yea, I had just figured it out and wanted to share. I included that link in this post. I hope people figure it out, too. xx