Writer Sanctum
Writer's Haven => Marketing Loft [Public] => Topic started by: The Bass Bagwhan on December 01, 2024, 09:16:32 AM
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Isn't tiktok primarily a video platform? How do you market books on it?
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There are a few authors who do that, as I see them on Facebook as Reels.
I'm not sure it works unless what you're doing is quirky. Even then, I'm not sure it sells books.
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You can create vid shorts/trailers. Others don't use pen names and have no problem holding up their book and talking to fans. I haven't used it because the only vids I've made are trailers. I put all my trailers on my YouTube channel--they're really too long for TikTok.
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I have no experience with TikTok, in part because I'm suspicious of their privacy practices. But I have read that so far, it seems to work better for attracting YA readers. Also, some of the successes on TikTok have come from someone else marketing the author's books. I gather that some TikTok channels are devoted to sharing books. But I've not seen any insight in how to attract the attention of a TikTok reviewer.
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I think I'm going to take a dive into staring a TikTok channel this week. I have two videos I can add--one is a trailer and the other chronicles an upcoming book cover. I can't add content regularly, but I can make a presence. I'm gonna take a look today...
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I'm beginning to think no one is reading my posts. I've kind of gone over this a lot - like a whole lot - in lots of different threads - for the last few years.
I posted this in August of 2021:
An emerging best practice for creatives is to engage with their audience as much as possible, including through as many platforms/services as possible.
In the Sustaining a Career (https://writersanctum.com/index.php?topic=5569.msg111942#msg111942) thread I even gave specific examples of how and what to post on a weekly basis, including best practices.
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TikTok, like all social media, is about branding. And YOU are the brand, not your books. This is super important to grok otherwise you're wasting your time.
I said before to pick a lane, this is even more critical with social media. If you ignore this fact you will almost certainly be wasting your time - sure, you might get lucky, but algorithms don't really get nuance.
Also, you have to post frequently-ish and on a pretty rigid schedule. You need to commit to your fans and then keep that promise - otherwise you're wasting your time.
It takes time to build an audience - to find your tribe. If you're expecting quick results - you're wasting your time.
If you use social media as a buy my crap sales channel like Freebooksy et al - you're also wasting your time.
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And it should be noted that Congress is in the middle of banning TikTok - Biden signed the Legislation into law earlier this year. The Courts are suppose to rule by January 6, 2025.
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I've read that ban might be overturned ?? In a turn of events, Trump is now siding with TikTok (I recall him wanting to ban it before. :shrug )
I got on the TikTok bandwagon this morning. Seems there's quite a lot of uncertainty on these social media sites with Bluesky vs Twitter vs TikTok vs Instagram/Facebook. I just added this one to my social media sites. I continue to stay away from Facebook and Instagram due to their creepy personal info draw--they ask a lot of private information to "better their searchability" and I got creeped out. Not to mention I write under a pen name. TikTok and Twitter/X was super easy to join.
But your plan of just joining as many platforms/services as possible doesn't sound like a bad approach, PJ.
My new TikTok profile this morning (feel free to look and let me know if I did anything stupid on my newbie profile site):
https://www.tiktok.com/@alhawkeauthor
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Well, live and learn. My vid has zero views. I think it's because it's the same video already published on another Tik Tok account. I got permission to post, and posted it on YouTube shorts, but I wanted to put some content into my new Tik Tok channel today. Oh well, hopefully I won't get banned with my first go at this. I really wanted to sign up on their platform to add a different short video in another week or two.
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TikTok takes months and tons of videos to get a foothold.
It's all about finding the right formula for your posts - the right framing device for your messaging.
Just like self-publishing, social media is a marathon, not a sprint.
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Actually, even though I was asking about TikTok and videos, my train of thought at the moment is where and how to reach a younger demographic of readers who might like my thriller or horror novels.
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Actually, even though I was asking about TikTok and videos, my train of thought at the moment is where and how to reach a younger demographic of readers who might like my thriller or horror novels.
Social media.
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Actually, even though I was asking about TikTok and videos, my train of thought at the moment is where and how to reach a younger demographic of readers who might like my thriller or horror novels.
Social media.
Too vague.
Where on social media?
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Well, live and learn. My vid has zero views. I think it's because it's the same video already published on another Tik Tok account. I got permission to post, and posted it on YouTube shorts, but I wanted to put some content into my new Tik Tok channel today. Oh well, hopefully I won't get banned with my first go at this. I really wanted to sign up on their platform to add a different short video in another week or two.
I checked out your channel. Nice. Are you going to add more content? How has it been going for you so far?
I opened an account with TikTok the other day, after telling myself for more than a year I will not be going there - my daughter has an account and while the memes can be hilarious I thought the audience for my books wouldn't live there. I've changed my mind. Over a billion users! There has got to be a way to make that work for you. Amazon is bloody difficult to get sales from these days, compared to even 10 years ago when I started selling books on the platform. It wasn't easy back then.
I haven't set up a channel on tiktok yet, only opened an account. I'm pondering the way to go with this.
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I checked out your channel. Nice. Are you going to add more content? How has it been going for you so far?
I opened an account with TikTok the other day, after telling myself for more than a year I will not be going there - my daughter has an account and while the memes can be hilarious I thought the audience for my books wouldn't live there. I've changed my mind. Over a billion users! There has got to be a way to make that work for you. Amazon is bloody difficult to get sales from these days, compared to even 10 years ago when I started selling books on the platform. It wasn't easy back then.
I haven't set up a channel on tiktok yet, only opened an account. I'm pondering the way to go with this.
Thanks! And thanks for checking them out. TikTok is kinda weird for me. Take a look at the # views. For some reason my views on Tik Tok are like 1 or 2. Horrible. But compare it with the same vids posted on Youtube shorts. There I'm averaging 150 views. SO what's happening? It could be because I've already established a greater following on Youtube.
Tik Tok doesn't seem to be for me. But I continue to post the short trailers I've created there.
All this demonstrates how one social media channel operates so hugely different from another. I'm really not sure what I'm doing wrong, but it seems I'm shadow banned on TikTok. OR something. I really don't know. But, I carry on.
I've been so against social media for so long. Not sure why. But posting on different forums regularly now doesn't feel a whole lot different than chatting on here now. If only I had started five years ago...
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I'm guessing the explosion of AI videos ( can you use AI stuff on Tiktok?) is going to get even more explodier as more and more AI generating sites offer free, basic accounts in the effort to convince you to eventually go pro.
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Of course being a late entry is a steeper marketing hill to climb. Be sure to use: #BookTok
From the AI:
The main hashtag for the popular community of book lovers, reviewers, and authors on TikTok is #BookTok.
It's the central tag that connects a vast amount of content related to books, literature, reading recommendations, reviews, and bookish lifestyle videos. The community itself is often simply referred to as "BookTok."
Other related and popular hashtags include:
#BookRecommendations
#BookReview
#bookish
#BookWorm
#romancebooks (and other genre-specific tags like #fantasybooks)
R.C.
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I've been so against social media for so long. Not sure why. But posting on different forums regularly now doesn't feel a whole lot different than chatting on here now. If only I had started five years ago...
This.
:tup3b
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The main hashtag for the popular community of book lovers, reviewers, and authors on TikTok is #BookTok.
Yes, to all of that, but the secret sauce is engagement/participation, not advertising. The goal is to find your tribe, your fans - not to go viral. For example, if a million people who hate to read books see your post, what good is it? The goal/strategy is to be visible enough for your future fans to find you. And that takes time. The day-to-day tactics are to figure out your framing device through experimentation, be true to your brand and your creativity - and yourself. And, hopefully, have fun.
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To go back to an earlier point in the thread (the discussion of why the same video would produce far more views on YouTube than on TikTok), I did a little research when I was thinking about TikTok.
YouTube is geared for 16:9 type videos, though it also supports other orientations. TikTok is geared for 9:16 and is designed for people watching on the phone, though it also supports square videos and 16:9. But videos not optimized for phone viewing aren't going to be as popular. This really puts a crimp in cross posting.
I just did a brief survey, but not that many authors post their own stuff there, though there are some. BookTokkers are more often people reviewing books they like, not books they wrote. The question is, how to get the attention of a booktokker with a big following.
I couldn't find any booktokkers that were within twenty years of my age. Most of them are young and photogenic. Most of them are a little quirky and incorporate movement. Posters tend to dance while doing something. Or maybe walk down a hall while doing something. And they may well record video using a cell phone on a tripod, with frequent cuts so they can get a different angle or even do a scene change.
I guess someone on TikTok mentioned Substack at some point, because I keep getting views from TikTok even though I have no presence there. Go figure!
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To go back to an earlier point in the thread (the discussion of why the same video would produce far more views on YouTube than on TikTok), I did a little research when I was thinking about TikTok.
YouTube is geared for 16:9 type videos, though it also supports other orientations. TikTok is geared for 9:16 and is designed for people watching on the phone, though it also supports square videos and 16:9. But videos not optimized for phone viewing aren't going to be as popular. This really puts a crimp in cross posting.
Most decent video software will change the aspect ratios for various platforms, so, while it is a bit more work, it's not bad.
The question is, how to get the attention of a booktokker with a big following.
That's one way, and it's worth exploring, but it's still depending on someone else to do the heavy lifting.
I couldn't find any booktokkers that were within twenty years of my age. Most of them are young and photogenic. Most of them are a little quirky and incorporate movement. Posters tend to dance while doing something. Or maybe walk down a hall while doing something. And they may well record video using a cell phone on a tripod, with frequent cuts so they can get a different angle or even do a scene change.
Don't confuse trends with engagement marketing. You don't need to be young, pretty or a dancer. But you do need to be on brand. Again, the goal isn't to go viral, it's to find a few thousand folks out of a billion users who like what you do - be that writing, making stained glass windows or cleaning gutters. The marketing mechanics are the same.
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Yes, you do need to be on brand. But you also need to be aware of the demographics, which do seem to skew younger on TikTok.
Changing aspect ratios works, but it also means you can't rely much on your background, most of which gets chopped off in order to to get to 9:16. It's going to be a dramatically different look. That may put even more stress on the appearance of the presenter.
What's your experience on TikTok been?
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Hoping for more views on these platforms feels a little like gambling... Last month I came up with a "clever" way to put out more content (clever in quotes cause dare I say I'm clever). I created trailers in both formats, short and long with various alterations, and then thew them up on Instagram (Threads by default), X, Youtube and TikTok. I can vary the release of each. And I had 8 trailers to play with (4x2). It takes something like 30minutes to edit a full video into a short. It takes me about 4hrs to put a full trailer up.
Whatever may come of all of it, it was a total blast putting the vids together. And a good break from writing. Some will think it's AI. It's not. It's me splicing together stock vids. My original trailer company I paid taught me where to look for the stock footage. Of course, those original videos are a lot better. Lorri Moulton, here, taught me about Lumen5 (thanks again!). They're fun and, obviously free, so feel free to take a look on YouTube or... TikTok.
Anyway, if I don't get "viral" on TikTok, I don't care. As long as it's getting viewed on some platform somewhere.
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YouTube is geared for 16:9 type videos, though it also supports other orientations. TikTok is geared for 9:16 and is designed for people watching on the phone, though it also supports square videos and 16:9. But videos not optimized for phone viewing aren't going to be as popular. This really puts a crimp in cross posting.
YouTube has Shorts or something where they have 9:16 videos. I only watch YouTube on desktop and the 9:16 videos show up. You can scroll through them just like on a phone. I don't know how their reach compares with the 16:9 YouTube videos, but they're definitely not hidden or hard to find.
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YouTube has Shorts or something where they have 9:16 videos. I only watch YouTube on desktop and the 9:16 videos show up. You can scroll through them just like on a phone. I don't know how their reach compares with the 16:9 YouTube videos, but they're definitely not hidden or hard to find.
Yeah, Tik Tok and Youtube shorts use the same size = 9:16. I actually get more views from Youtube shorts, maybe because of what you just mentioned.
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How many of y'all are attractive young women? Because I suspect that's a big factor in one's success on TikTok.
Personally, I'm neither attractive nor young nor a woman, so that's three strikes against me and any TikTok ambitions I might have. "Strike three! You'rrrrrrrrrrre outta there!" (It's October, so a baseball metaphor seemed appropriate.)
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All I've read about were authors crying while promoting their books. LOL
Don't know if they're still doing that, but it's not for me. :ws
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All I've read about were authors crying while promoting their books. LOL
Don't know if they're still doing that, but it's not for me. :ws
Ah, yes. Pity marketing :icon_rolleyes: A highly effective tactic for some, but there seems to be some backlash these days, esp. among BookTubers.
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Affiliate marketing is an option I would try, if I were not resident in Australia or New Zealand--because for whatever reason TikTok doesn't appear to want sellers who hail from either of those two countries :icon_sad:.
That means hiring a TikToker with proven experience to make the trailer for you for a commission on each sale made.
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Affiliate marketing is an option I would try, if I were not resident in Australia or New Zealand--because for whatever reason TikTok doesn't appear to want sellers who hail from either of those two countries :icon_sad:.
That means hiring a TikToker with proven experience to make the trailer for you for a commission on each sale made.
I wonder how many people get a positive ROI from that. It is logical to assume that a good TikToker could probably produce something better than a platform newbie could, but does anyone have experience with this?