Sometimes I'm good on social media, and sometimes I'm downright slacking. Excerpts. I have not done them. If you've seen them, it was my publisher. That is going to change, starting now (I hope?). Here is an example of what my publisher has done with excerpts, but I wanted to make a study of it. Some authors post many without the pictures with a thematic background, some use photos that pop like this one.
As for video excerpts? On TikTok and Instagram, the popular thing seems to be good music, words in blocky boxes, accompanied by cool music. Frankly, the largest issue I'm seeing is they put way too many words in a limited time. It's unreadable. I was watching book excerpts 4 or 5 times just to read it realizing it could be a gimmick to get more views. Now, I pause constantly because this tactic annoys me. It takes the beauty and interest away. I'm hoping to make some TikTok videos with short, readable clips.
I'm not a pro at social media marketing in any way. But I do know as a consumer that I want an excerpt to do these things:
1. Capture my attention
2. Be readable, visually and timewise (I'm a FAST reader)
3. Be quality writing that I am interesting in--I'm not a formulaic novel reader
4. Be error-proof (yeah, no one's perfect and I noticed a typo in one of my videos, sigh, but of you're taking an excerpt from your book that should be edited)
5. Has music to match the mood of the book and not distract
What would you add?
If you want to follow here are my links.
