Special thanks to the Independent Book Publishers Association and Django De Gree for this great information on how to turn your followers into readers!

Did you know the average customer acquisition cost for books generally falls between $10 and $30 per customer? This means authors are spending between $10-$30 just to get one physical book purchase. Authors who are spending money on ads tend to start out losing money, as the ad cost in the beginning doesn’t fully cover the cost of the book. Luckily, there are tons of (free!) ways you can use your social media to connect with your audience and potential readers.

Building a community matters. It will take time to build your circle of author friends and readers, but it will lead to more intentional and meaningful book purchases down the line. Your audience is also more likely to want to engage with you and follow your writing journey if they feel more connected to you than when they happen upon your ad in their feed. 

Good news, though! Your community doesn’t have to hinge on you creating and posting content.  Here are some less-involved ways to build community:

1. Offer a free version of your ebook in exchange for reader emails. This is a great way to connect with people who are right on the edge of wanting to purchase your book in a low-cost, low-stakes way. It then gives you a way to contact these people later on, adding them to an email list to alert them to your upcoming events or releases. Don’t want to give your whole book away? You can always give away a couple of chapters, a shortened version of your book, or part of your audiobook. You just need to have something to incentivize your audience into reaching out and giving you their email.
2. Engage with relevant posts by leaving comments on other authors’ or readers’ posts. If you can relate, talk about it—this will help you broaden your audience and get in front of new people who you know will be interested in your book or your subject matter. Plus, if you’re commenting on things related to you or that you care about, it shows authenticity that your readers want to see.
3. Follow back and personally thank your first 200 or so followers. This can help create good engagement and form good connections with these people who are interested in learning more about you/your book. You don’t have to thank them for buying your book (if they did)…you don’t have to even make it about your book. Let the connection be that you’re both bonding over shared interests and things you’re passionate about.

Making Content That Connects 

Making relevant posts and genuinely connecting with your audience matters much more than going viral. If you keep putting out the kind of content you want to and that’s related to your book/subject, you’ll authentically connect with the kind of audience you want.

If these relevant posts happen to mention your book and subject matter… well, that’s the best way to get your book in front of this new audience without being sales-y! These people are following you for your content, not your product, and they won’t appreciate you pivoting to only selling once they’re connected to you. It takes 7-10 interactions for someone to buy your book—the more people are exposed to it and the stronger their connection with you, the more likely they are to move from passive follower to active consumer. So keep posting!

Keep posting, and keep playing with what you’re posting… because what performed well last week may not have the same effect this week. You have to have a short memory about what has and hasn’t worked—social media is changing daily, as can be seen with the rise, fall, and return of TikTok in January. You have to be willing to just keep making and posting content—trust the algorithm to do its thing. Using keywords and hashtags in your captions will help the platform push your content towards your target audience. 

You want to have a mix of what can be considered “candy versus meat content.” Candy content is fun, trendy posts like memes that are designed specifically to attract attention and boost engagement. These are posts you don’t really have to plan out and will likely create in just a few minutes. Meat content is more in-depth images or videos that can show behind-the-scenes (BTS) of your creative process or discuss themes or lessons in your book/content. These videos help build trust with your audience and keep them more engaged in the long term. Your Candy posts get the audience’s attention so they see the Meat posts later on.

Be sure you always have a call to action (CTA) in your posts. Make sure people know where to find you by directing them to your bio, where you should have your website linked. Directing people to your site helps with analytics, as you can see where people are coming from, when, and how often, which you can cross-reference with how different posts are performing.

What kind of content should you post? Here are some ideas:

Fiction:

• Use trending sounds to dramatize key scenes or themes. You’ll know something is trending because you’ll likely see videos linked to the same sound, or with the same concept, show up in your feed again and again. You can also sign up for newsletters from sites like HeyOrca, who will point out what kinds of videos and audios are trending each week.
• Share relatable character moments to connect with readers emotionally. Is an important scene related to personal growth? Point that out and discuss a bit of how your character got there, and people interested in or experiencing personal growth will connect with that moment.
• Post cliffhanger excerpts to spark curiosity and drive engagement (common for romance)

Nonfiction:

• Share actionable advice tied to your book’s main topic
• Debunk common myths related to your subject for intrigue
• Showcase personal stories that align with your book’s themes

Children’s books:

• Highlight vibrant illustrations to captivate parents and kids alike
• Post fun read-aloud snippets with animated character voices
• Share BTS moments of creating artwork

People know when you’re overly rehearsed. You want to be as authentic when talking about the book as you were when actually writing it. Your passion and energy will come through the screen and that’s what people will want to connect with. Keep this in mind, and don’t overthink your book marketing. 

Remember how much you love what you created (your book), and use that passion to connect with your audience. Just be yourself and put content out in a way that when they discover you, they feel like they’re meeting a best friend—and they’ll fall in love with your book the way you did. That’s the best way to build a meaningful, long-lasting community.

Want to turn followers into readers? Contact us today to learn how our book publicity services can help you grow your audience and boost book sales!

Looking for more social media tips? Check out:

Social Media Trends for Authors in 2025

Tips for Promoting Your Book on Meta

Ways to Repurpose Your Book Content Into Social Media Content