Here you will find:
What to include
What not to do
Ideas for posts
Prizes
Marketing your Facebook takeover
Links to find creative commons licensed images
Creating graphics with links to free sites
A list of questions you can ask for games
A list of questions for character interviews – please keep it to 6 questions per book
Examples of graphics
Some services Sherry provides that do the work for you
Let’s Get This Party Started!
First, take a deep breath. This is not nearly as hard as it all sounds and once you get everything together, you will be able to use it again and again. None of this takes as long as it sounds.
You will post during your time just like you do on your own Facebook. Click on the box, copy/paste, add any image you want, and hit share.
What To Include
Once your time starts, you will want to make sure you hit the highlights of yourself and your brand. These will be posts that help readers find you, buy your books, and follow you on social media. I find it very helpful to already have everything I want to post with what time I plan to post it in a Word .doc so all I have to do is copy/paste into Facebook. Be sure create a post for each of these:
- Your bio – This should not be more than maybe 250-300 words. You want to engage your audience, not give them your life story.
- A picture of you or your brand.
- The purchase links to the book/s you plan to talk about during your time. These can be Amazon, Smashwords, Bookbub, etc.
- The back cover blurb – do one for each book you plan to talk about during your time.
- Links to your social media (Got a newsletter? Be sure to include that)
If you plan to market and promote more than one book, make sure you keep each book’s posts together. For example, I post stuff for one book for 30 minutes, then switch and only talk about the second book for 30 minutes when I do a one-hour time slot. Don’t mix all the books together, keep them separate.
What Not To Do
You want everyone involved in the event to have fun. I’ve seen some bad events and I’ve seen some great events. The difference between the two – organization. If the host is organized, most like the event will be as well. During your time slot, you want to be respectful, have a smile on your face, and keep it nice and friendly. Here is a list of things you do not want to do:
- Be rude or condescending to anyone else
- Treat anyone like they are stupid, even if they are
- Post over another author
- Start before your time
- Go past your time
- Argue with anyone
- Post offensive, x-rated, racially, or politically charged material
If something happens and you miss your time slot, you’ve missed the event. Do not just start posting your stuff any time you want. If you do that, you will be stepping on another author’s time.
Ideas For Posts
Keeping your time interesting and hopping with participation means posting something new every few moments. No need to stress over thinking up stuff to say. I have been taking notes on Facebook events for a long time, and have gathered plenty of stuff for you to talk about.
- What is the genre of your work? (For romance/erotica writers, what is the sub-genre? What is the rating, XXX to G rated)
- Share an excerpt from the book – no longer than 500 words.
- Share some reviews – you can make this a graphic by adding a few words from your reviews as text on an image.
- Ask questions – I have a list of questions you can ask. You will give your answer in the post, share a picture or a video. (these games can be used to give away prizes)
- Share an image of what your character/s look like-minded
- Do a character/s interview – I have a list of questions you can ask your characters (try to keep it to 6 questions for each book)
- Talk about your writing, where you like to write, what kind of music you listen to, do you have a cat or dog or another writing buddy…
- An author interview with you, hosted by me
You can share anything you like. Use your time to SHOUT out about yourself and your books. Be personable but not too personal. Engage the fans. Put a smile on your face. Take a shot of a strong libation. Most importantly, have fun. If you would like me to do an author interview with you, please refer to the services at the bottom.
Prizes
You do not have to give anything away. If you are giving away swag, take pictures of it as you plan to give it out. Example: If you plan to give away 3 coffee cups (one at a time) then just take a picture of one cup. Amazon gift cards are a great, Starbucks gift cards are a hit, Sherry’s Berrie’s gift cards are awesome. $5, $10, or any amount you want. Free copies of your books. The prizes can literally be anything. Refrigerator art from your kid…
Be sure you add to your posts with prizes that it includes anyone living n the country you’re in, like the UK, the US, Mars. Shipping overseas is horrendous, so you offer winners outside of your country an alternate give like an ebook or gift card.
If you are giving away copies of your book/s, they must be gifted to the winner. Don’t make it free for the day, don’t use perma-free books as prizes, no Mobi, Epub, PDF, etc. You buy a copy of your book and gift it to the winner. Or you can use something like Bookfunnel. Or an Amazon Giveaway. Give the appearance that you are paying for a book to give them. It makes you look good.
You, the author are responsible for getting the prize to the winner. You will need to announce the winners no later than 48 hours after the event ends. All winners are randomly drawn to keep it fair. You will want to add to any posts that give away a prize that the winners are randomly drawn from XYZ (site link)
Here is a free site that will randomly choose a winner for you. https://www.miniwebtool.com/random-name-picker/
You will also need to include this disclaimer for every post where a winner will be chosen:
(This giveaway is not endorsed by or affiliated with Facebook.)
Marketing Your Facebook Takeover
As soon as you put your name on the sign-up sheet is the time to start telling people about the event. Once you click “going” to the event, you will be able to share it, invite people, and have access to scheduling your posts.
Promote the event and your date and time on all of your social media several times a day. The more people who see you talking about it, the more likely they will come to check it out. Announce that there will be chances to win prizes, tell them if you will be giving stuff away.
Talk about other authors who will be in the event. This cross-promotion will reach a huge audience and is the backbone of getting people to the event. The more people who come, the more people will stay to see you. I cannot stress enough how important it is to advertise this event everywhere and invite everyone. Even your mailman.
Where To Find Images With A Creative Commons License
During your time slot, you may post anything you like. Talk about whatever books you have, ask questions, post pictures, gifs, songs… Studies show that 4 times as many people engage with the post if it has a picture.
To find pictures for your graphics that you want to make changes to, like adding text, they must have a creative commons license. If you are not going to add text or change a picture, then it does not need to have any specific license.
There are a couple of good websites to get pictures you can use and make changes to the image, they all have a creative commons license. They are free.
Keep it R rated. No female nipples and no genitals.
Creating Graphics
Here are a couple of good sites where you can add text and pictures of your covers to images.
You can create things like Facebook banners and graphics for teasers and reviews. Here is my author banner that either the host or I will post before I start.
And, here is a site to make any image3D.
https://diybookcovers.com/3Dmockups/#tabBody1
Like this:
Graphic teaser examples: These will be images that have snippets from the story added to them as text.
Sample Review graphics
Keep in mind which would look better with text and which might not. If the picture is too busy, it might not be a good one. Watch out for the font choice, some are hard to read. Be sure to use one with colors you can easily see the text on.
Also, remember that what the people look like in the picture will lead the readers to think that’s what the characters in your story look like. So if you have a dark-haired man with chest hair as your character, don’t use pictures of blond-haired guys with no body hair.
Questions for Games. Readers will participate and answer the questions for a chance to win if you’re giving away a prize.
Be sure to add pictures, Youtube videos, album covers, etc with your questions. You can google these pictures, no license needed. Don’t forget to add the disclaimer if you are giving away a prize: (This giveaway is not endorsed by or affiliated with Facebook.)
1. Are you a cat or dog lover?
2. What would be your dream pet?
3. If you could own any vehicle you wanted, what would you drive to work?
4. What’s your go-to genre to read strictly for pleasure?
5. What is your favorite quote?
6. Where was your favorite reading spot as a child? Where is it now?
7. What do you want your tombstone to say?
8. What is your favorite movie and why?
9. Who was your childhood hero?
10. What is your guilty pleasure?
11. Which famous person (or author), living or dead would you like to meet and why?
12. If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go? Why?
13. Do you remember the first story you ever read and the impact it had on you?
14. If you could have dinner with three authors (living or dead), who would they be and why?
15. What is your favorite show that you like to binge-watch?
16. Do you live in a city or in the country?
17. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
18. If you were living your Champagne wishes and caviar dreams, what would a day in your life look like?
19. Are you a morning person or a night owl?
20. What is your favorite song?
21. What is your favorite line from a movie?
Suggestions for different genres:
Romance/Erotica:
1. What is the most sensuous food you like to eat?
2. What is your favorite sexy/romantic song?
3. What is your favorite romantic scene or sex scene in a movie?
4. What’s the craziest location you’ve ever had sex?
5. What is it about the romance genre that attracts you?
Horror:
1. What is the scariest movie you’ve ever seen?
2. What scares you the most at night?
3. What is it about the horror genre attracts you?
4. Do you like Halloween? Do you go scary, funny, or character for a costume?
Thriller/action/adventure:
1. What weapons would you choose if you survived the end of the world?
2. What is your favorite gun?
3. Would you rather be in a zombie apocalypse or hand-to-hand combat in a war?
4. If time travel were possible, would you partake? If yes, when and where would you go?
5. If you were a superhero, what would be your superpower?
Comedy:
1. What makes you laugh? Slapstick humor, or witty repartee?
2. Do you like raunchy humor, or keep it kid-friendly?
3. Do you like to pick a public spot to sit and people watch?
4. Who is your favorite comedian?
Historical:
1. Do you like to read about the past?
2. Do you enjoy biography type stories, or complete fiction when reading a book set in the past?
3. If you are reading a book that has an anachronism, do you keep reading or put it down?
4. What about historical fiction attracts you?
Character Interview Questions: The main character of the book/s answers these questions.
1. How old are you?
2. What is your relationship status?
3. When you look in the mirror, what do you see?
4. What is people’s first impression of you?
5. Name three of your favorite things.
6. Name three things that tick you off.
7. What is your best memory to date?
8. What are you most afraid of?
9. What would you like it to say on your tombstone?
10. Now on to something lighter, what is your favorite drink?
11. What is your favorite food?
12. What is your favorite song?
13. What was your first impression of (his/her love interest)?
14. If we could only hear your voice (but not see you) what characteristic would identify you?
15. What would you most like to forget?
16. If you could go back in time, what one thing would you change in your life?
17. Are you close to family?
18. Do you see morality as black-and-white, or with shades of gray?
19. Do you care about what others assume about you?
20. If someone from your past showed up, who would you most want it to be, and why?
21. If someone from your past showed up, who would you most NOT want it to be, and why?
22. If you could make any one thing happen, what would it be?
23. Who in your life has the power to hurt you the most and why?
24. Describe a typical Friday night.
25. If this is one place in the world you could go, where would it be?
26. What is your most prized possession?
27. Are you a morning person or a night owl?
Good luck choosing only a few! All of these questions are geared towards getting your fans involved. You can also ask them to answer the same questions you pick in the comments.
Event Takeover Services
Sherry offers some services with the Takeover. If it’s too overwhelming, or you don’t have time, or you don’t want to do it… Take a look at what she has.
Author Interview – $10
I will send you a list of questions with 4 categories. You will pick 2 questions from each category, answer them, and email them back to me. You may tailor the questions to fit your needs. I will make an introduction graphic to announce the interview such as:
Marketing Advertisements for Facebook and Twitter – $20
I will make two different advertisements for Facebook about you and the event with graphics. I will make two different advertisements for Twitter about you and the event with graphics. These can be genre-related or story related.
A sample advertisement graphic:
For One Book – $25
Two graphic teasers
One review graphic
An author interview
A rafflcopter to send everyone to your social media
For Two Books – $50
Two graphic teasers for each book
One review graphic for each book
An author interview
A rafflcopter to send everyone to your social media
For Three Books – $75
Two graphic teasers for each book
One review graphic for each book
An author interview
A rafflcopter to send everyone to your social media
For Four Books – $100
Two graphic teasers for each book
one review graphics for each book
An author interview
A rafflcopter to send everyone to all of your social media
I have an easy to use form that I email you. You plug in the information in the right place and email it back to me. You keep everything, it belongs to you with full rights. You can use these over and over.
Please remember to have fun!
Very Sherry Terry 