Followers don’t pay the bills.
In this age of social media influencers and the pressure authors feel to be present on every platform, I want to help you keep things in perspective.
I had 20 subscribers on YouTube when I made my first sale. How, you ask?
I made a video about developmental editing and put (GIVEAWAY) in the title. The giveaway was a free developmental edit of the first chapter of a manuscript. About 10 people watched it the first day. Exactly two people commented (which entered them into the giveaway).
I then gave the free edit to both those commenters. And one liked it so much, she paid me to edit her whole book. With her word count, that made me about $2000. This was the first money I ever made for myself.
Your social media should work like this for you.
You do not need thousands of followers to:
book a speaking engagement.
sell your book or associated product
pitch your service in the DMs
Fiction authors, this goes for you too!
When I had 30 followers on Twitter, I asked for input on my book cover. It had two effects: 1) I realized I needed to get a new cover and 2) I got 10 sales. Half of them were paperbacks.
I now have around 3000 YouTube subscribers. But you know what’s funny? My views are still exactly the same as when I had only 100 subs.
They’re REALLY low!
But that’s okay. Because the people who watch my videos are looking for an editor or ghostwriter. They want to pay me upfront. So what do I care if I only make around $60 in Adsense every month?
When you’re getting several thousand from people who found you on TouTube, the subscriber count or watch time doesn’t really matter.
The best part? Google noticed.
Every person who googles “how to find a ghostwriter” sees my video on the first page. Why mine?? I have no idea. It’s a year old and only has about 1700 views. But it’s on the first page of Google.
The thing to remember is it takes time, particularly with YouTube.
I’ve had my channel for three years, and it’s only in the last year I get consistent inquiries every month from YouTube.
Twitter is only a year old for me. The leads trickle in and are a totally different audience (entirely nonfiction, mostly male). That’s okay too.
And Facebook… I’ve had that since college. And it doesn’t bring me business at all. But it brings me community, which is also important.
So instead of agonizing about your follower count, think instead on how you are using your social media to sell your books or your services. Do your posts:
Direct people to your Shopify where you sell your books?
Tell people where to find your next speaking engagement?
Promote your newsletter or private Discord server?
The key is to make your social media work for you, rather than you slavishly chasing that next follower.
Top-Tier Reading
This is an indie-author respecter channel and I am thrilled to share these absolute gems with you. Mathias is book 1 of a vampire detective series and it’s awesome! If you liked Supernatural, you’ll love this. Especially if you also like watching Joe Kenda on the Investigation Discovery channel :)
For something more reflective, Crossroads through Time is part time travel, part women’s fiction for anyone whose ever had that tantalizing daydream of going back to change something pivotal in their life. A slower burn but worth every minute.
What a wonderful story, Kristin. You are going places, girl.