Here lies the ancient book of Horror Novel Promotion. But beware, for it is dark and full of terrors!
When it come to promotion, social media is our largest asset and our biggest crutch. Thanks to internet communication, everyone has something to promote. Without it, there is no indie author. But with it, suddenly everyone's decided to write a book, whether they have what it takes or not.
In the horror world, using social media to promote your writing is just like any other genre. Interaction and personality are key. Using social media is about creating a platform and cultivating an audience by making friends and people you interact with.
Just posting your book and Amazon link on social media is not an effective strategy. At most, such posts may serve as an announcement of a new release and encourage fans of your work to buy it, but that's as far as such posts go.
Effective promotion on social media means putting your books in the background and sharing and creating content that fans of your genre and writing may like. It also means interacting with others and commenting on their posts that you find interesting and that relate to your message.
Here are a few tips to help you with the larger social media platforms for promoting horror books:
Facebook is a great place to market your horror books, but it takes time and effort. You can start out by making an author page to promote your horror books. Then you will need content that is relevant to your audience, and lots of it, as well as a way to attract people to like your page.
This can be done either by “boosting” your posts, which costs a little money, or engaging in groups and posting your page content to those groups.
Here are some horror groups worth checking out:
Horror Writers. This is a page for horror writers, readers, and fans.
Horror Writers Net. This group is for anyone who appreciates horror fiction.
Horror Readers and Writers. This forum welcomes anyone posting about horror, whether it be books, films, editing, or producing.
Horror Promotion. This page encourages readers and fans of horror to post their favorite horror books.
Literary Darkness. This group focuses on intelligent discussion about literature with dark themes.
Q: How is anyone to find the book they want? A: Social Media!
Twitter is a big ‘place' and a lot of tweets are lost in the noise. When tweeting it's important to use hashtags so others will see your tweet. Also, if you're going to post a link to your website or Amazon book page, be sure to use a link shortening service like bit.ly so you'll have enough characters to write something snappy that others will respond to.
Here are some important hashtags for horror authors:
#Horror
#Paranormal
#Suspense
#ScaryStory
#HorrorStory
#Scary
#indieauthors
#mustread
#kindle
#kindledeals
#BookMarketing
GOODREADS
Social media for book lovers, Goodreads is a site owned by Amazon that has its own catalogue of books and reviews. It is also home to some old-school type message boards perfect for horror authors. Just remember, interaction is key, not blind posting of your books.
Here are two of the biggest horror groups on Goodreads:
Horror Aficionados. This group features discussions on all things horror, mostly books, of course, but also movies and horror culture.
Literary Horror. A group dedicated to dark fiction of the literary sort.
Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments.
Keith Deininger is the award-winning and #1 Amazon bestselling author of many horror and fantasy titles, including WITHIN, THE FEVER TRILOGY and THE GODGAME series. He has been called “one of the finest writers of imaginative fiction” and “Ray Bradbury on acid.” His latest novel, VIOLENT HEARTS, has been compared to Stephen King’s fantasy-based work. He lives in Albuquerque, NM with his wife and two kids. Although he loves a good nightmare, in person he’s a really nice guy. Promise.
Keith's personal site: www.KeithDeininger.com
Keith's SEO content and editing company: www.MeridianPublications.com
