What Are LinkedIn’s Benefits for Authors?
Personal and Business Profiles
Showcase your work and knowledge on both a personal profile and one you build for your business.
Groups
Connect with readers, collaborators, and reviewers. Engage with them and learn more about them so you can improve your books and get ideas for what to write next.
Publishing Platform
More than 610 Million High Quality Members
Increase your visibility by sharing your expertise by publishing text, image, and video posts.
Facebook and Twitter may get all the mainstream attention, but LinkedIn is where the real professionals hang out.
How To Create an Author Profile on LinkedIn
A well-crafted author profile on LinkedIn can help you connect with other professionals in your field, promote your work, and attract new readers. Here are some tips for creating an effective author profile on LinkedIn:
The Headline
Craft a powerful headline that encapsulates who you are and what you do as an author. Use keywords and powerful verbs. Include special symbols to make separate titles stand out. The headline needs to be succinct and catchy. It should make someone want to read the rest of the profile. It should also be a consistent expression of your brand.
The Headshot
Use a professional headshot that is in alignment with what appears on your website and the cover of your book. Make sure that it is recent, professional, and has a light background. You want the image to stand out when it is small. Using a frame around it helps. Here are some templates you can use on Canva.
The About Summary
Create an About bio that highlights how your target audience can benefit from reading your books and working with you. Talk about your writing experience, your publications, your awards, and anything else that makes you qualified to write the kinds of books that you do. Be sure to focus on the kind of books that you want to be known for writing – this will help attract the right readers to your profile.
The Background Banner
Use the profile background photo to highlight your book and social proof markers. Here are some Canva templates you can use.
Contact Information
Keep your contact information up to date. Include a link to your website so that people can learn even more about your work. You are only allowed three websites … make them ones that support your business.
Engaging, Upleveled Content
Be active. Post new content regularly to grow your visibility by sharing new publications, awards, speaking engagements, blog posts, and thought-provoking quotes and questions. Be sure to add rich media, such as book trailers and infographics, to showcase your work.
Experience
Obviously, your current experience should be your current business. But you also want to fill out as much of your past experience as you can, with an emphasis on those positions that support what you are doing now. You can even use your books as “positions.”
Update Regularly
Update your profile monthly. If I don’t have any new information—a new project, client, or skills—I simply update my profile banner image.
By following these tips, you can create an engaging and informative author profile on LinkedIn that will help you build your brand and reach new audiences.
Ideas for Using LinkedIn to Market Your Books
Now that you have a killer author profile on LinkedIn, it is time to start growing your visibility so that people learn about you and your books. Here are a few ideas for using LinkedIn to market your books:
Grow your connections to 500+: The more connections you have, the more people will become aware of you. And LinkedIn is more likely to support this cause if you have more than 500 connections. Use the search feature to find the following types of individuals to invite a connection with:
- People who might like your books – potential readers
- People you’d like to work with – potential collaborators, mentors, business partners, and so forth
- People who might share your books with their audiences – book reviewers, influencers, journalists, and so forth
If you can invite 3-5 people each month to connect, you can grow your connections fairly quickly because your effort will be compounded by LinkedIn’s algorithm, putting you in front of more potential connections.
Showcase Your Books and Expertise: Publish your own articles, ask engaging questions, and post thoughtful and inspiring quotes with your take on what they mean. I’ve found that posting on LinkedIn at least once a week can increase the number of profile views 2-3 times. The more profile views you get, the greater the chance that people will want to connect with you.
Join Relevant Groups: Join groups where individuals you want to connect with (see above) hang out. Participate in the conversation and add value to the group.
Add Your Books to Your Profile: Did you know there is a “Publications” section you can add to your profile? Be sure to add your books there!
Fill Up the Featured Section of Your Profile: Add book trailers and thought-leadership blog posts to the Featured section of your profile. Make sure the first three items are your strongest, as those are the ones that will display on your profile.
Be Savvy with the Search Function: In addition to using job title terms to find people to connect with, also use key terms related to your book’s genre or subject matter. Using this tip, you’ll find content that potential readers and followers post and engage with.
With a little effort, LinkedIn can be an invaluable tool for marketing your books and building an audience of engaged fans.
How To Connect with Readers, Reviewers, and Collaborators on LinkedIn
The first way is direct: Search for specific types of people and invite them to connect with you. You can do this using the search feature, but also by looking at the connections of your connections. If someone is connected to one of your connections, you can ask for an introduction, which can increase the likelihood of your invitation being accepted.
The people you want to connect with should fit into one of these groups:
- People who might like to read your book
- People who review books like yours
- People who offer products and services that are complementary to your book
- People you already know offline
Once they are connected, you have the opportunity to build a professional relationship with them through your profile and the content you share, which will be pushed out into their feed. And remember: A personal message is often more effective than a generic invitation, and it shows that you’re genuinely interested in making a connection.
Another way to connect with your target followers and connections is through LinkedIn groups. Join groups that potential readers, reviewers, and collaborators would join and participate in conversations. These groups are also a great way to get to know these types of people better so that you can offer them more of what they want.
Publishing high-quality and engagement-worthy content is another way to increase your visibility among potential readers and other professional connections. You can share a variety of things that are related to your book’s topic:
- blog posts and articles—your own, as well as those written by others in your industry
- excerpts from your book
- book trailers
- questions and polls
- interesting facts and figures
- inspiring or thoughtful quotes
If you want to turbocharge your LinkedIn networking, become a connector. Develop a targeted group of authors in your genre and start connecting them to each other. In other words, help other authors expand their networks.
And, if you really want to be seen as an authority, you can develop a free monthly webinar series that you can invite your contacts to, as well as ask them to invite their contacts to.
And finally, the more engaged you are with the people who comment on your posts and the groups you belong to, the more visible–and attractive–you’ll be to potential readers.
Of course, you want to make sure that you have a strong profile that accurately reflects your writing abilities and style before you do all this work. A well-crafted profile can be the difference between making a positive impression and being dismissed as just another hack.
10 Examples of Successful LinkedIn Profiles for Authors
Would you like some additional inspiration for using LinkedIn? Here are some examples of LinkedIn author profiles:
Linda Bernardi
Author of The Inversion Factor
Linda Bernardi makes use of the Publications section to share her books. She also has an engaging background banner that showcases her brand.
Mark LeBusque
Author of Being Human
Mark LeBusque uses his Featured section to effectively showcase his authority. He also uses his books as positions in his Experience section.
Krisstina Wise
Author of Falling For Money
Krisstina Wise is a power user of LinkedIn’s profile features for authors. She has leveraged the headline, Experience, Featured, and Publications sections. In addition, her background banner is simple but communicates her brand powerfully.
Suzi Pomerantz MT., MCC
Author of Yoga of Leadership
I’ll admit the image of a dragon is what made me take a look at Suzi Pomerantz’ profile more closely (I collect dragons). However, if you want inspiration for a great About Summary, read hers. It communicates very clearly what she is about and why you would want to connect with her.
Heather R Younger
Author of Caring Leadership
Heather Younger is another power user. She promotes her current book in her background banner. Her Featured section showcases her authority. She features her book in her Experience and Publications sections. And you can tell that she posts fairly regularly.
Laraine Sacco
Author of The Missing Piece in Business
I love how Laraine Sacco showcases her books in her experience. She not only states that she is a “6x International Best Selling Author,” but uses the addition of images to make that particular experience stand out.
Tom Witkowski
Author of Short Stories
Don’t think you can promote fiction on LinkedIn? Think again and take a look at how Tom Witkowski is promoting his short fiction work. His brand is consistent throughout his profile, and he leverages the different sections to showcase his personality and work.
Debra Bokur-Rawsthorne
Author of the Dark Paradise Mysteries Series
Have you published several books through the same publisher? Then Debra Bokur-Rawsthorne’s profile might give you some ideas of how you can leverage that piece of information in your profile.
Rachael Tarfman-Perez
Children’s Book Author
Rachael Tarfman-Perez is using her profile to promote her work as a children’s book author. Her background banner supports her brand, as does her About Summary.
Susan Glenney
Children’s Book Author
Rachael Tarfman-Perez is using her profile to promote her work as a children’s book author. Her background banner supports her brand, as does her About Summary.
Denouement
LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for promoting your books and establishing yourself as an expert in your field. It provides opportunities to connect with potential readers, media outlets, and other authors. With a little effort, you can start using LinkedIn to market your books and build connections that will help you sell more copies. If you’re not already using it, what are you waiting for? Get started today!
