Social Media Tips

Ideas and tips for posting to social media

I’ve been a little quiet on social media lately, but I’m thinking about posts for my next books. (They don’t release until summer 2026, but my head goes where it goes!) Here are some things I’m thinking about.

Tips

• Show Your Face. People like faces! And they want to support you. I know we're sometimes shy or not feeling camera-ready, so don’t force it (if you’re uncomfortable, that will also make your viewers uncomfortable). But viewers do love a face—especially yours!

• Be authentic. In the same way that your discomfort will make viewers uncomfortable, they’ll also resonate when they can feel truth and authenticity in your posts. So stay true to yourself.

• Tell a story. You are a storyteller and everyone loves a good story. So tell a good story about your book—why you wrote it, what the heart is, who your characters are… whatever stories you can think of.

Also, tag your friends and collaborators!

Content Ideas

You’ll of course want to post when you have news and updates—reviews, unboxings, events, etc. but what if you don’t have any exciting news to post? There are lots of other social media posts you can create to connect with your audience at any time. Here are some ideas:

1. Meet Your Character

In the vein of “tell a story,” posts about your character are a great way to do just that! I love this example from Lian Cho:

2. Behind the Scenes

You can always post peeks of your process. Isabella Kung always has gorgeous process videos of her watercolors:

This is an obvious fit for illustrators, but authors can do it, too! Here’s a behind-the-scenes post from Malevolent Musings:

3. Book Activities

Book activities are great ways to extend your books for parents and educators, and another reason to post about your book! Abi Cushman always has great activities for her books:

4. Personal Tidbits or Fun Facts

At Litapalooza a couple years ago, teachers told me they love to know little personal tidbits and fun facts that they can share with their students. It gives the students an insider’s peek, like they know a special secret about the book or the author! So I recorded some fun fact videos, like this one:

5. Author Life

You can share behind-the-scenes of not only your books, but also of your life as an author. Here’s a post from Christine about what she brings with her on school visits:

And here’s a post from Robbi and Matthew Swanson, from their Daily Minute series:

The list goes on and on! I love getting ideas from other authors and supporting their posts as well. But it can also be healthy to take a social media break! (Christine is much better at this than I am.)

Over to you! Do you have any post ideas or tips to share?