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.
- click on Settings in the top right-hand corner of the screen when looking at your author page.
- Select Templates and Tabs on the left side.
- Click the Edit button next to your current template.
- 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:
- Turn ‘Use Default Tabs’ Off
- Click and drag the Offers tab to move it to the first position
- 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.
- Hover on the button and select edit button.
- Choose the shop with you option and the Shop Now button, click next in the bottom right.
- 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.
- 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”
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.
View Comments (64)
I don't have an Edit Page option under settings. I tried it through my personal page and my author page. Is this just available to certain pages, I wonder?
I see! You're not talking about settings under the account settings. I watched your video again and got it figured out. Thanks - great tips!
I had this same issue! I kept ending up in the Facebook account settings. Finally I saw the page Settings...I was beginning to think I was crazy!
This was a fantastic post! The video clips made this process so easy. Thanks so much for these tips, Chloe!
Thanks, Chloe! Took the pain ou of it. I originally had it set up for email subscriber conversion, but they changed the FB settings or something, so, now with your help, I've optimized it for sales. ;)
A very useful article. Have just followed all the steps and got my store up and running. Didn't know about any of this!
Thanks so much! I just set up my Facebook shop! Your directions were perfect :-)
Thank you for posting this. I had no idea this was available, but with your instructions I was able to change my page easily. Thank you!
When I click on "Shop" in the left-hand column to set up the shop I didn't get a pop-up box. It says "Finish Setting Up Your Page" and wants me to use Stripe or Paypal. How do I get back to Terms and Policies and Checkout Method?
Hi Mike, I played around with this and unfortunately it looks like in order to get back to the pop up where you select "checkout on another website" is to delete the shop and start over from the beginning again.
Ho w do you delete the shop? I have the same issue.
Thank you . I love the step by step instructions.
Do you have to pay Facebook a commission for selling your products there? If so, how much?
Hi Jade, When you click "check out on another website" when you set up your store, you are still selling your books through Amazon, and simply using the Facebook store to drive traffic to your titles. Since this is the case, and Facebook isn't actually collecting any funds for you, no, you don't pay a commission.
Hi Chloe, I tried to set up a Facebook shop, and followed your step by step directions here, but Facebook is no longer giving the option to "checkout on another website." When I click on "shop" it doesn't bring me to the prompts listed in your article. It just prompts me to fill out a box with all kinds of information I'm not comfortable putting on Facebook like my bank account information and social security number. Especially with the controversy this past year that Facebook was sharing private information, I don't think it's a good idea to put that sort of stuff onto their website. If you have any advice on how to sidestep this prompt and choose the "checkout on another website option" I would really appreciate it. Thank you, Jenna Moquin
Hey Jenna, sorry for the trouble and thank you for pointing out the issue. It looks like Facebook has changed their shopping options, and unless you already have it set up, you can no longer use the shopping tab to check out on another site.
We have researched the new options and updated the article with new best practices for authors that don't have the old shopping options.