Facebook was once again named the most popular social media platform in 2018 and authors are taking advantage of the vast audience on the platform to get their books in the hands of more readers. In fall 2016, Facebook rolled out page templates so you can tailor your Facebook author page content to best suit your audience’s needs.

Navigating these features can be confusing, but don’t worry, we have you covered. Set aside 15 minutes, grab a cup of coffee, and check out these tips to help your author page get more engagement and get your books into the hands of more readers! Don’t have a Facebook author page yet? Check out our post on how to create one.

Changing Your Facebook Author Page Template

There are several new templates to choose from that will change the information available on your Facebook author page.

Available Templates for your Facebook Page are:

  • Standard (you’ll pick this one)
  • Shopping
  • Business
  • Venues
  • Nonprofit
  • Politicians
  • Services
  • Restaurants & Cafes
  • Video Page

You’ll notice none of these say “For Authors” but we’ve found that the Standard template is the best for Authors to promote their books in the most direct way possible. Facebook used to allow pages with the Shopping template to list products for sale on other sites, but that functionality has been removed.

Changing your template

You likely have the standard template selected, but, just in case you don’t, here’s how to change it.

  1. click on Settings in the top right-hand corner of the screen when looking at your author page.
  2. Select Templates and Tabs on the left side.
  3. Click the Edit button next to your current template.
  4. Select View Details on the standard template, and then click Apply Template.

Setting Up Your Tabs

Once you’ve chosen your template, a system of default tabs will appear below it. You should re-order these tabs to put the Offers tab first, and the Events tab second. Re-ordering the tabs is easy, just click and drag. Here are the steps:

  1. Turn ‘Use Default Tabs’ Off
  2. Click and drag the Offers tab to move it to the first position
  3. Click and drag the Events tab to the second position

 

Setting Up Your Offers

The best way we’ve found for authors to list their books on Facebook is make an offer for each title on their facebook author page. To start creating offers, click on the Offers tab and select Create Offer.

Click change photo in the image box, and upload an image that contains your book cover. Unfortunately, it must be at least 500 pixels wide and 262 pixels tall, so just your cover won’t work. We recommend using a program like Canva to toss something together with a nice wide background.

Next, on the left side of the pop-up, change the offer type to Customized.

You can then enter your book title under “offer description.”

Then, set the offer to expire as far in the future as possible. Generally this is a year from the day you are creating the offer (you can always create a new offer for the book after the first one expires, so we recommend setting a reminder or calendar event for next year).

Under “where can people redeem this,” select online and enter a URL of a page where readers can buy your book. For most authors this will be an Amazon link.

Make sure Shop Now is selected under “primary action,” and enter more info in the “description” box. We recommend adding a little more context about the book.

Hit publish!

Customizing your Offer Button

Under your Facebook author page’s cover image on the right side there is a button that by default says “see offers.” Here’s how to send readers to your Amazon page or website using that button.

  1. Hover on the button and select edit button.         
  2. Choose the shop with you option and the Shop Now button, click next in the bottom right.
  3. Choose website link and enter a link to your author page on Amazon, or another general location where readers can find all of your work.
  4. Click Finish.

Now readers can click your shop now button to see all of your work.

Create an Event

Are you going to be at a conference or a local event and want to let your readers know? Set up a Facebook Event to let your followers know when and where you will be. To create an author event, click on the “Event” tab and then click the “+ Create Event”

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Fill out all of the information for the event in the form and publish or schedule the event for when you want it to go up. To schedule an event for the future, click on the small arrow next to “Publish”.

That’s It!

Once you’ve followed these steps, you’ll have a Facebook author page optimized for book sales and event engagement. With nearly a billion people visiting Facebook pages every month, devoting some time to optimizing your author page is a great way to reach more readers. The easier it is to purchase a book, the more likely readers are to buy it. With an easily accessible shop, event listings, and advanced publishing tools, Facebook is a great platform for turning potential readers into fans.

Note: this article was last updated on Feb 7th, 2019. Facebook often changes how their pages work, so we will strive to keep this post up to date. Please let us know if you have any suggestions to improve it.

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Chloe is a Professional Book Nerd. She loves big words, big books, big dogs, and big adventures.