One of the things I didn’t do well when I launched my three prior books was to create a social media ad campaign. Nowadays, it’s imperative that we do this–to help spread the word about our work. And as my fellow writers who undertake this challenge can attest, it’s about writing, editing, producing, and then MARKETING. And this is the most difficult aspect.
As a professor at a university, I teach a course called The Advertising Campaign. In that course, students must create their own campaigns over the semester and then pitch them. As I always say about teaching—the wonder of it and the beauty of it—is that you get to teach the students things, and in turn, they teach you. Bouncing ideas off of each other in class and sharing our thoughts about campaigns, copywriting, and content is so helpful, and benefits us all as we begin to create and innovate.
In that spirit, I’ll be sharing with you here the campaign for The Postcard and Other Short Stories & Poetry that I’ve put together, week by week. Today’s first ad is probably my favorite, and it will help set the tone of the campaign that follows.
If you’re an independent author, consider creating your own social media campaign to help spread the word about the book you labored to create. After all, it’s great to produce something, but that something needs to be read, right? These promotional ads can also be used in print, too, and I’m currently trying to decide which publications suit me—and my books—best.