If you are a self-published author, you may already know that social media platforms are crucial for book marketing and getting your book and yourself out there to potential readers.
Other writers use Twitter hashtags to plug their books constantly, and you know that you need to do the same if you want to compete. Let’s take a look at the best Twitter hashtags for self-publishers.
Traditional publishing companies employ whole teams devoted to book marketing for their writers. However, when you are self-publishing, you don’t have that at your disposal.
So how do you make your Twitter account work for you? How do you join the writing community on social media platforms and figure out how to use relevant hashtags? This article is here to help you with that.
Hashtags for Writers
The writing process for self-publishing authors now includes having a strong online presence and being able to participate in book marketing alongside publishing professionals on platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and your author website.
It can be overwhelming to attempt to decipher the specific hashtags that can get your book noticed. You may know that trending hashtags get the most attention, but understanding how you can use them to reach an audience for your self-published book can be a very confusing problem to solve.
This article will give you Twitter tips, as well as tips for other social media platforms so that you can compete with other writers, join the online writing community, and promote your own work.
Indie authors who publish their own books can get followers on social media so that they can find interested readers and attract attention and support from other authors. The hashtags that you use can make a significant impact on your book marketing success.
This article will use one example throughout to show you what can work for you on social media to gain followers and attention in the lane of marketing.
The following is a short description of the book an author has just completed and self-published. Throughout this article, we are going to help him with book marketing using social media hashtags, Twitter posts, and other online tools.
Jordan just wrote and self-published a romance novel. It features a single father who has just moved to a new town after the death of his wife. He is trying to fit into the community in his new role as a single parent. He’d also like to make friends and help his three-year-old son thrive and adjust to this new way of life.
Jamie, the single father, meets a woman who works at the local library during the move. She convinces Jamie to enroll his toddler in the child reading and craft program that she leads. After a few weeks, both Jamie and Sally feel a certain attraction, but what Jamie doesn’t know is that Sally is a bit of a black sheep in the community due to a family scandal that took place fifteen years ago.
Sally doesn’t want to blow Jamie’s chances of a normal life in this town, but she can’t help but feel attracted to him and is trying to figure out if she’s being selfish by starting a relationship with him.
Writing Hashtags
Here are some writing hashtags you can include in your posts to engage other writers:
- #1K1H
- #1LineWednesday
- #AmEditing
- #AmWriting
- #Creativity
- #FridayReads
- #StoryStarter
- #WordCount
- #WriteGoal
- #WriteMotivation
- #WritersBlock
- #WritersLife
- #WriteTip
- #WritingBlitz
- #WritingPrompt
- #WritingTip
- #WritingTips
- #WroteToday
Using the Best Twitter Hashtags for Your Book
Indie writers don’t have publishing companies and agents to do the promotional work for them to get people interested in their books. That’s where social media comes in.
When you tweet or post on social media, you are able to link the world to your book, depending upon your ability to get people interested in what you have to say. Hashtags can make all the difference.
There are several types of hashtags that you can use to get support and followers.
Genre Hashtags
Twitter is a great way to connect with busy readers because you have a limited amount of space in which to say something. The information posted on Twitter is fast-paced, and it is presented as snippets that users can digest quickly.
So it would help if you said what’s important about your work, your story, your progress on a book that you are teasing the release of, and yourself. The words you choose to use on this platform matter.
When you tweet about your book, a quick and easy way to gain followers and get attention for your work is to use genre hashtags. If you wrote a romance novel, you could appeal to people who are looking for new books in that genre by using a hashtag.
The hashtag acts as a quick link that will lead anyone who has clicked on or searched that hashtag to the tweets that included it.
So if there are readers out there who are looking for new reading material in a specific genre, they may search for the hashtag and then scroll through tweets and posts that mention the genre they’re interested in to get ideas about what their next read should be.
In the example given about Jordan and his romance novel, he might tweet something like this to get fans of the genre interested in his book.
New book coming! If you love romance, scandal, and forbidden love, you’ll love my new book! “New in Town” is for sale now. Click the link below to order, and follow me for other exciting news and announcements. #romancenovels #romancegenre
Notice that in the example, Jordan didn’t just use one hashtag. He used two hashtags in the hopes of getting more exposure for his book.
As a writer without a publishing company to back him, he knows that he has to connect with as many people as possible through his words, hashtags, and online presence. Using different hashtags to describe the genre of his book will help him connect to more people.
When using Twitter, it is usually suggested not to use more than two hashtags per post because it can bog down the post, and people will lose your message in the distraction of the hashtags.
This is because you are limited to 280 characters on Twitter (increased in 2017 from 140 characters). Other platforms have no such character restriction, so it is acceptable to use as many as you want (Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags) to promote your work.
Book Giveaway, Work in Progress, and Other Book Promotion Hashtags
People love free stuff. It really doesn’t matter what the products are. People will bite if you offer something for free. Use this tactic to gain followers on social media. This is a ploy used by publishing companies, bestselling writers, and new writers alike.
Announce a giveaway of your new book in a tweet or a post, and then set the rules for the giveaway in a way that will garner you the most attention.
Example:
Want a free copy of my newest book, “New in Town”? I’ll be giving away a free signed copy on Friday, right here on Twitter. All you have to do is follow, retweet, and use the hashtag #NewInTown to enter. Check back in to see who won! Good luck, readers!
Twitter users know that it takes just one click of a button to retweet something, and if there is a chance that they can win something free by doing so, more people will comply.
When you make one of the giveaway rules that people use a specific hashtag in their retweet, you make that hashtag more popular. Popular hashtags get more exposure, which makes your tweets easier to find, making your book easier to find, which is good for marketing.
Work in Progress Hashtags
The best Twitter hashtags are easy to remember, catchy, and fun. When you are teasing a new book, and you’re self-publishing, it’s a good idea to use writer hashtags to get followers excited for the book release. You can use hashtags like #WorkInProgress, #NewBookComing, #AlmostHere, #BookRelease, and #BookLaunch so that other people can get interested and anticipate your upcoming book.
Reading Hashtags
Below is a list of reading hashtags you can use to build your online presence:
- #bibliophile
- #BookAddict
- #BookAholic
- #BookList
- #BookNerd
- #BooksAndCoffee
- #BooksAndTea
- #bookworm
- #Comedy
- #DarkThriller
- #Genre
- #Goodreads
- #Greatreads
- #HotTitles
- #MustRead
- #Mystery
- #Paranormal
- #Poetry
- #reader
- #Romantic
- #SummerReads
- #Suspense
- #WhatToRead
Sales and Promotions
You can also use hashtags and social media to announce promotions and sales of your book. For example, offering 10% off a book that is not yet released if your readers preorder it can be announced alongside or separately on social media using hashtags such as #Preorder, #PreorderSale, or other such promotional hashtags.
Ask For Support
It doesn’t matter what sort of books you write. There are writers with agents and a publishing house backing them on social media who write the same genre you do. Asking for support from other authors and followers is a great way to get your name and book out there.
Use Other Writers
Writers regularly help each other out with book promotions and book endorsements, especially online. Tagging other writers, messaging writers, and asking for plugs and positive comments about your book on their social media accounts can help you tremendously.
If you write science fiction, find and ask for the support of other science fiction writers. If you write children’s books, find and connect with other children’s books writers.
Promise them a mention in your tweets, a post on your own account to their author website link, or other such book promotion help in return.
Send other writers, especially those within your genre, a free copy of your book if they are willing to read it. Ask them to use a hashtag for your book promotion so that you can better market your book through both your tweets and the tweets of fellow writers.
Ask for advice, and see if they have any insight into what the most popular hashtags are when it comes to writing. Ask what has worked and what hasn’t worked for them. Even if more famous authors won’t plug your book, they may still offer great advice. The writing community can and often do help each other out.
Don’t Give Up
If you attempt to get promotional help or book reviews from other authors and get turned down, don’t give up. It may not have worked out this time, but once you get your name out there and sell some books, they may be more inclined to help you in the future.
Don’t be afraid to ask and to ask again later down the road. Remember that the worst a person can do is say no, or ignore you altogether. It’s always worth it to try.
Use Hashtags for Writers to Sell Yourself
Appeal to readers by reminding them that you’re self-published and need their support more than some of the more well-known writers.
Make sure that you don’t insult or degrade other writers, and use hashtags that are more exclusive to indie authors that can help with book promotion.
Things like #selfpublished, #SupportIndieAuthors, and #KDP (Kindle Publishing Direct) are all ways to let readers know that you don’t have the support and backing of a traditional publishing house and need their help to propel you forward. People like to feel like they discovered someone before fame took over. Take advantage of that.
Using Other Platforms
Hashtags work on other social media platforms as well. Your followers can do the same thing on different platforms and use the hashtags you create to help get you attention as a writer.
Instagram hashtags, Facebook hashtags, links, comments, threads, Pinterest boards, and follows can all help you get the attention you need as a self-published writer.
The ultimate goal is for other people to be able to find your story through a simple search. Publishers take advantage of entire marketing teams, and you have just yourself, your hashtags, your posts, your websites, and of course, the help of your loved ones.
You may not have fancy editors to look over your posts before you publish them, but every one of your posts should still have the best hashtags you can think of to get the most use of your tweets.
Following hashtags on Twitter for a while can help you figure out what to say in tweets and in a post so that your writing is highlighted and the hashtag you choose is effective.
When you use hashtags for writers, you need to be sure that each hashtag directs attention to your writing, career, followers, and books. Hashtags can help enormously and should be taken advantage of at every chance you get to use them.
