Does Social Media Help Sell Books?

According to a poll paid for by Sisters in Crime, the answer is no.

Though Word of Mouth was near the top of what does sell books, along with being on the best seller list, and paid advertising, I couldn't help but think that Social Media is a form of word of mouth.

Certainly Facebook and Twitter are seen by a lot of people. I know for a fact that social media helped Joe Konrath become a best seller in e-books. Ooops, maybe Sisters in Crime isn't all that interested in e-books even though Konrath is making more money on Kindle then he ever did with his paperbooks.

Speaking for myself, I've been intrigued by books I've read about on blogs, including my own. When I interview someone and their book sounds interesting, I've bought the book.

Whether the poll is right or not, I'm going to keep on writing my blogs, posting on Facebook and Twitter and interacting with people who read my books.

So what do you think?

Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com

Comments

C. N. Nevets said…
It clearly does, because virtually every dollar I've spent on books in the past four months has been on books by authors I've met through social media or whose books I've seen reviewed in social media by bloggers that I trust.

That said, I don't know if the numbers are significant or not. My own purchases are not even a blip on the radar.
I definitely think it works too, but Sisters in Crime and MWA (I'm a member of both) are clearly cemented into the old way of publishing and promoting.

Marilyn
Sage Ravenwood said…
I have a Twitter and Facebook account and rarely if ever use them. That may change once I'm published. Right now though, I'm more inclined to read about books through blogs. I've been introduced to several new authors this way. So having said that, I think blogs work great for publicity. (Hugs)Indigo
Anonymous said…
Who knows what sells books but I blog, I'm on twitter, Facebook, etc. and while I was on vacation last week doing no promotion whatsoever, I had the biggest sales week ever. I may have to do nothing more often. lol!

The thing to remember is that all of this hoopla about digital books going big and social media as a way to promote, etc., has a lot of variables. I sell more on Kindle than anything else - it's affordable and somehow it attracts my kind of readers. Kindle came along and gave new life to my books. Ebooks in other formats? Forget about it. All digital is not created equal. And all genres don't sell equally either.

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