Do authors really need to be on social media?

How to build your author platform without Facebook, TikTok or Bookstagram

I left Twitter in November 2021, and I have never regretted my decision.

I mean, it helps that Twitter (or X, I suppose) has since devolved into… whatever is currently going on over there, but even if it were the least toxic, most welcoming site on the internet, I still wouldn’t regret my decision.

If you are an author who loves social media, more power to you. There are many, many benefits to having an active online community on the various platforms. This article is not designed to get you to stop doing what you’re doing.

This article is for the authors who, like me, have to be dragged kicking and screaming to their socials and who’ve been wondering if it’s possible to be a successful author in this connected era without building a massive following on TikTok.

The short answer is yes. For the longer answer… read on.

TikTok made me buy it

Nobody is going to deny that social media — when done well — can help some authors sell some books.

According to industry-leading trade journal The Bookseller: “One in four book buyers used TikTok/BookTok in 2022 and these consumers accounted for nearly 90 million book purchases.” [Source]

That’s a lot of books. But that’s not the whole picture. The article goes on to note that, “Video sites remain less important sources of book discovery overall than previous readership (103 million books), physical shops (63 million books), word of mouth (54 million books) and online book retailers (48 million books), with discovery via physical shops up 13% in 2022 compared to 2021.” [Source]

The rise of social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, has undoubtedly impacted the landscape of book marketing. But, after twenty years of Facebook, that landscape has become increasingly crowded and competitive. Social media can be a powerful tool for authors, but relying on it exclusively for book marketing is a risky strategy.

“Video sites remain less important sources of book discovery overall than previous readership (103 million books), physical shops (63 million books), word of mouth (54 million books) and online book retailers (48 million books), with discovery via physical shops up 13% in 2022 compared to 2021.” [Source].

The drawbacks of relying on social media for book marketing

I’m not by any means trying to talk you out of building your following on social media. But it’s important to be aware of the possible pitfalls.

Algorithm changes

Social media platforms are constantly updating their algorithms. Facebook is notorious for it — novel marketing expert Thomas Umstattd Jr wrote a whole article about the 2021 algorithm update and what that meant for authors, and Facebook has changed things up again since then. This has dramatic consequences for your visibility. What works today may suddenly stop working tomorrow.

Oversaturation

There are 3.05 billion users on Facebook. That’s a lot of potential eyes on your book promo. But average engagement on a Facebook page is… 0.07%. That’s not 0.07% of 3.05 billion, by the way. That’s 0.07% of the page’s followers. There are a lot of authors on social media, and the competition is fierce. Standing out from the crowd is increasingly difficult.

Burnout and distraction

According to eBook curation website The Fussy Librarian, “Excessive use of social networking sites can lead to depression, anxiety, and even illness. On top of that, social media burnout can drain authors of their creative juices.” [Source] The constant need to create and share content for social media is often mentally and emotionally draining. This can lead to burnout, decreased productivity, and a loss of focus on your primary passion: writing.

Limitations on reach

Social media algorithms are designed to amplify content with high engagement and filter out low-engagement content. That means that accounts with 1 million followers are going to get priority over accounts with 100,000 followers, which will get priority over accounts with 10,000 followers, and so on. Those are still big follower numbers, and there’s a lot of work involved in growing a follower count like that — and it’s still not really big enough to move the needle in any kind of meaningful sense. Booklaunch.com founder Tim Grahl crunched the numbers, and they’re not encouraging — even the top performing social media book promoters are not seeing significant results. “I worked with a client that had over 160,000 Twitter followers,” he says. “We tracked the sales in promoting his book on the platform and it resulted in less than 400 sales.” [Source]

Look. You’re unlikely to hurt your sales by growing and maintaining your social media following (with the following caveat), but it’s not the only — or even best — way to promote yourself as an author.

“You’re unlikely to hurt your sales by growing and maintaining your social media following, but it’s not the only — or even best — way to promote yourself as an author.”

Your value as an author does not reside on Instagram

As an emerging author, you’ve almost certainly heard that agents and publishers are only interested in writers with a strong online presence. But that’s not necessarily the case.

“Some agents will reject fiction because of an author’s lack of social media presence,” says Jessica Faust of Bookends Literary Agency. “I am not that agent. For nonfiction, absolutely, it’s one of the first things I look at, but personally I don’t think fiction authors need a platform. At all […] What matters in fiction is the writing and the book itself. And of course the hook. That’s what sells the book.” [Source]

“As I work with bestselling authors,” says novel marketing expert Thomas Umstattd Jnr, “I have noticed that the more successful an author is, the less time they tend to spend on social media.” [Source]

Of course, he continues, doing more or less anything other than sitting passively and hoping for sales will persuade some people to buy your book. The key question you need to ask yourself, says Umstattd, is this: “How does this promotional activity compare to my next best alternative?” [Source]

Let’s take a look at some of those alternatives.

How to build your author platform without social media

Leverage book communities and online forums

If you’re the social type (but not the social posting type), the Internet is replete with places to connect with fellow authors and potential readers. Some of them can be cliquey, to be fair, but the vast majority of the places I’ve visited have been warm, welcoming, and full of advice. You’re not there to sell, you’re there to find your crew, but I know plenty of authors who’ve accidentally connected with their readership while they were looking for bibliophiles to scream with about their favourite things.

Utilise email marketing

This one is my favourite (and you can — cough cough — sign up for my email newsletter here). Email is by far and away the best RoI you’re ever going to get for your promo activity — it has the best engagement rate (15.7% is the lowest average open rate across all industries), it’s not subject to the whims of the algorithms, and, thanks to GDPR (and it’s not often I say that, either), anyone who’s on your email list is there because they have actively decided they want to hear from you. “Your email list list is your #1 asset when it comes to building your author platform,” says Tim Grahl [source], and I wholeheartedly agree.

“Email is by far and away the best RoI you’re ever going to get for your promo activity, and it has the best engagement rate.”

Set up (and maintain) your author website

I honestly believe that every writer should have a website, even before they’re published. It doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated: there are some excellent free and low-cost website builders out there with user-friendly drag-and-drop functionality that requires zero prior knowledge of coding or design.

Your traffic will not be sky-high, true, and your website will need to be nourished from time to time, and updated as your publications roll in, but in this online world, your website is your calling card.

As bestselling author Charlotte Duckworth puts it, “Having a proper author website is a way of telling the universe that you take your writing seriously and that you are committed to building a long-term career.” [Source]

Embrace offline networking

Or, as we used to call it, “networking.”

I know. I hate it too. I didn’t become a writer because I was so extroverted and gregarious, put it that way. But I’m still friends with many of the writers I’ve met through writing conferences, book festivals, literary events, SFF conventions, and more.

You don’t have to think of it as “networking” — in fact, it’s likely better if you don’t. But these are the places where your future audience will be hanging out, and so they are good places for you to hang out as well. SFF conventions, in particular, often have opportunities for emerging authors to read their work or sit on panels alongside published authors.

Plus… they’re usually fun.

Bottom line: you don't have to do social media if you don't want to

Ultimately, putting into place some form of marketing and promotional strategy is going to be the reality for most authors in the modern publishing world. Trad-published authors may or may not find that their publisher has a marketing department — but even then, unless you’re with one of the Big 5, the marketing department is likely to consist of one very stressed out person doing the job of five, and possibly a work-experience student. Smaller indie presses probably won’t even have that (but they’ll have a passionate team of people in love with your book who want it to do well, which has a power all of its own).

Social media seems like an easy win for authors. It’s free, it’s available to millions or even billions of people, many of whom read books, and neither of those things are true of most any other advertising method. It sounds like a no-brainer that you’d want to focus your promotional efforts here, and, if that sounds like a good time to you, then you absolutely should.

But if the idea of curating a Facebook following or #writingcommunity-ing your way through the Twitter white noise makes you second guess your writing journey, don’t despair. Conventional wisdom says you need to be active on social media to be a successful author, but tell that to Zadie Smith, Hilary Mantel, or Maggie Farrell. The path to success is not a one-size-fits-all approach, and there are plenty of ways for authors to thrive without relying on social media. Experiment with the strategies that suit you, stay adaptable, and most importantly, never lose sight of your passion for writing. After all, that’s why we’re here in the first place

Social media – yes or no? Let me know in the comments!