CA Book PR Firm Urges Authors To Build Their Own Social Media Platform To Support Their Work

LOS ANGELES - Aug. 22, 2018 - PRLog -- Offering his sage advice to authors around the world - - Charlie Barrett, who heads the award-winning book publicity firm in Los Angeles called The Barrett Company, is a strong believer in the impact of social media to help authors get known and ultimately sell books. "Often I am asked...if I invest my money in social media marketing with Face Book and ads on Google, how many books will I sell?"  To be blunt and honest, according to Mr. Barrett, there is NO guaranteed way to sell books that easily on social media...it takes time and an investment in an author's ability to be able to use and understand how social media works best for each individual author and the kind of books each writes.

Mr. Barrett says social media creates brand recognition and keeps authors names in front of the people who may buy their books. "Facebook, Twitter, Pinterst and Instagram all ultimately should have an impact on book sales, but not always direct sales. Rather, it's keeping your name and author identity out there on social media so when someone thinks of a book on romance, or a detective book...'your' book will come to mind."

"People often remember what they read of social media pages and they tell their friends about it on Facebook and so forth. The message can spread very quickly about a new book - - whether it's a cook book or a mystery novel. Think of it like your friends discussing a new cafe to dine at in your town...it's the same exact experience."

Also, Mr.Barrett, whose author clients have included such best sellers as Boston Teran and John Locke (author of Lethal People, Killing Rachel and the first self-published writer to sell 1 million books on Kindle) reminds writers of the value of virtual book tours and their ability to reach thousands of readers around the globe via social media: "Virtual book tours can be done while an author sits at his computer and never has to leave town on a multi-city trip. These digital literary tours are cost effective and fun to do too.  Over a 30-day period, the author writes a number of short essays on their book, replies to some question & answer sheets that are ultimately featured on a variety of blogger stops and social medias destinations. VBTs get tremendous pick-up on Google, and other search engines.

All authors need a basic press kit to get started such as a press release, an author photo to use for media, images of their front book cover, an introduction to media interview training, what book reviews to seek and most importantly...a firm social media platform on which to place their publicity materials."

The Barrett Company offers free 20-minute consultations for authors who are interested in social media marketing. TBC and its partners actually started virtual book tours as early as 2008. See company web site at http://www.thebarrettco.com