Does Twitter Actually Sell Books?

Our world is accustomed to rapidly paced interactions. We are always connected—at least virtually. Platforms like Twitter allow for the spread of information at hyper speed. In fact, people can live almost entirely on Twitter—socially, professionally, romantically—without batting an eye, but can Twitter sell books? 

Yes and No. 

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By Vanessa Montalbano 

Our world is accustomed to rapidly paced interactions. We are always connected—at least virtually. Platforms like Twitter allow for the spread of information at hyper speed. In fact, people can live almost entirely on Twitter—socially, professionally, romantically—without batting an eye, but can Twitter sell books? 

Yes and No. 

THE YES: When used to its full potential, Twitter is a great tool for word-of-mouth visibility. It helps authors build and interact with an audience and, if used correctly, can help them expand their network drastically. 

That’s easy enough to say for those who already have an established following, but don’t go to Twitter thinking of it as a transactional space, because it is not. So, how do you prove yourself as a voice within the literary scene? A good idea is to follow other industry professionals on the site—publishers, authors, agents, booksellers, librarians, bloggers, and eventually readers. Be sure to also interact with these people: comment on their posts, reply to them if they reach out, congratulate them on achievements. This not only ensures that you create a platform for yourself and your work, but it also makes you a good online literary citizen.

Now, how do you begin those interactions that lead to joining a literary community? A few quick pointers: 

• Twitter poll. Polls make it easy for people to reply as they are scrolling past your post, plus you are able to get back to it and share the results! A good idea for a poll could be asking your followers what their preferred genre is or for their opinion on which movie you should watch next that includes a particular actor or actress. 
• Trending hashtags. Incorporating hashtags contributes to ongoing and popular conversations and can help get your page noticed. Some common ones in my network are: #WritingCommunity and #amwriting. This is not only a foolproof way to boost engagement, but it also helps to create meaningful interactions based on something many of your followers can relate to either personally or professionally, as well as any unique likes and dislikes. 
• Pinned tweets. A pinned tweet is a tweet that remains at the top of your profile regardless of when it was posted. This is helpful because it means that whenever someone views your profile, the pinned tweet is the first that they see. It is a great idea to pin a tweet about your book, where to purchase it, and any other exciting news about  your writing (a book cover reveal, tour dates, a contest win, positive reviews, etc.). 

 After a while, Twitter becomes a built-in, supportive writing community bubble. 

THE NO: What’s bad about using Twitter to sell books is that it is difficult to track whether tweets lead to actual sales. As is with most things, there’s also an imperfect science to using Twitter: what time of day to post to garner the most views; what types of links or posts generate the most clicks. None of these are a guaranteed sale. 

To work around this, you might want to create a social media strategy. What I mean by this is that although much of social media is simply throwing ideas around and seeing which ones stick, you should also have some goals and targets. 

Potential goals might include:

• What do you want to achieve? Think about your platform and what you are trying to promote.
• How will you measure success besides directly linking to sales? A goal might be to grow your following and increase your engagement rate.
• Who are you trying to reach? It is good practice to define your audience and/or the primary market you want to reach (for example, you may want to define by gender, age group, and/or other defining criteria, such as readers of sci-fi or romance, and so on). It’s also important to know how to find them.
• What is your content strategy? In other words, what kind of content will you post? You might consider sharing snippets of your life, favorite quotations, news, announcements, links to blog posts or reviews, and any type of promotion that you are running. This is in addition to tweets more directly tied to your book. 

You also ought to have a marketing timeline. This is especially useful if your book has not yet been released. While some of your content will be evergreen, some can and will be tied to specific dates, such as book giveaways, cover reveals, launches, bookstore readings, and festival appearances.

What’s comforting about Twitter is that it’s a great avenue for personalized engagement, community building, and connecting with people beyond your physical reach.  Thanks to these types of apps, authors are able to communicate with readers directly while spreading awareness of the existence of their book. This also opens an avenue for people to have access to you, as they are more likely to buy your book if they “know” you—and like what they’ve come to know. In doing so, you are also creating an author profile for yourself online. Additionally, after some time, most people will begin to associate your Twitter profile with your books, so this works to generate a notable brand for yourself. 

So, does Twitter actually sell books? I’d like to think so. And even if not, well,  as a  contemporary author, you will need  an online presence  regardless. You might as well build a network along the way.

Happy tweeting!