How It Works: Simplify Your Indie Author Journey with AuthorScale
At AuthorScale, we're dedicated to developing tools with and for indie authors to tackle some of the most common challenges you face.
Our mission is to free up your time, allowing you to focus more on writing books. One of our most popular tools designed to achieve this is our SlideShow Suite.
If you're new to the slideshow strategy, keep reading to discover how it can revolutionize your book marketing. If you're already familiar or running slideshow accounts, feel free to skip ahead to Chapter 4.
1. What Are Slideshows?
Slideshows are a format of social media posts that have become incredibly popular in the BookTok community on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Many indie authors and publishers use slideshows as a powerful promotional vehicle. Every day, authors are going viral with slideshows, propelling their books into the top ranks of the Amazon store.
Each slideshow typically follows a simple structure:
Catchy Opening Line: It starts with an attention-grabbing sentence to hook the viewer.
Engaging Narrative: This is followed by additional context that builds interest.
Cliffhanger Ending: It ends with a cliffhanger, leaving readers eager to know more and encouraging them to purchase the book.
Some popular authors who have mastered the art of slideshow marketing and are worth checking out include:
Susie Tate (www.tiktok.com/@susietateauthor)
Helena Hunting (www.tiktok.com/@helenahunting)
Nicole Fox (www.tiktok.com/@authornicolefox)
Sadie Kincaid (www.tiktok.com/@sadiekincaidauthor)
At the time of writing, these authors all have books in the Top 20 on Amazon, showcasing the effectiveness of slideshow marketing.
Bestselling indie authors currently in Amazon’s top 20 who have mastered slideshow creation. (Disclaimer: We are not affiliated with these authors; they are showcased purely for educational purposes.)
2. Why Do Slideshows Work?
Social media platforms are filled with readers looking to discover their next favorite novel. The key to success on these platforms is to post high-quality content as frequently as possible. Slideshows are particularly effective because:
Immediate Engagement: They start with an opening line that grabs attention right away, such as "When you open an OnlyFans account and it backfires..." or "The biggest regret I had in my 20s was...".
Narrative Hook: They provide context that draws the viewer into the story.
Cliffhanger: They end at a suspenseful moment, enticing readers to find out more by purchasing the book.
Unlike traditional book trailers that summarize the entire book, slideshows typically narrate a specific scene from the book. This approach piques interest without giving too much away.
From a production standpoint, slideshows are easy to produce. They require only text and a background image or video, which is a significant advantage over other content formats that rely on heavy production equipment like studios and filming gear.
Frequency is Key: Posting frequently increases the chances of going viral. Many successful indie authors post 1-3 times a day, 6-7 times a week, sometimes across multiple accounts, throughout the entire year.
3. The Challenges of Running Slideshow Accounts
Despite being easy to produce, running slideshow accounts can be time-consuming and tedious, often taking up to 20-30 hours a week. Many authors experience burnout due to the tedious nature of the process:
Identifying Key Scenes: You need to pinpoint scenes in your book that are best suited for marketing. This requires a different mindset from writing, as you have to think like a marketer, focusing on what will captivate potential readers.
Crafting Engaging Hooks: Breaking down these scenes into sequences of enticing text is a skill in itself. It involves creating hooks that are compelling and concise. This is where many authors struggle, as it requires balancing creativity with marketing tactics.
Tip: When marketing, avoid perfectionism. Be experimental and don't over-engineer your slideshow. The perfect hook doesn't exist, so focus on producing multiple good hooks rather than obsessing over one.
Creating Visuals: After crafting your hooks, you need to find or produce matching background images or videos. This can be time-consuming, especially if you're not familiar with graphic design tools.
Assembling Posts: You then have to assemble your posts, either directly in the TikTok or Instagram app on your phone or via third-party applications like Canva or CapCut. This step involves formatting your text and images correctly to create a polished final product.
Writing Captions and Hashtags: Writing a great caption and choosing the right hashtags are essential for reaching your target audience. This requires additional time and research into trending tags in your niche.
Managing Posting Schedules: Finally, you need to stick to a consistent posting schedule. This means repeating the previous steps multiple times, depending on how frequently you aim to post each day.
4. How AuthorScale's SlideShow Suite Saves You Significant Time
Our SlideShow Suite streamlines the entire process of creating and managing slideshow content, allowing you to run slideshow accounts at a fraction of the time it used to take. Here's how it works:
Writing Your Slideshow Hooks: You can write your own hooks or have our system suggest hooks based on your book.
Adding Background Images or Videos: Easily add visuals with a click of a button, choosing from stock images or generating new ones with AI.
Connecting Your TikTok Accounts: Push the posts as drafts to your accounts for manual posting or schedule them out.
Below is a detailed breakdown of each step.
4.1 Uploading Your Book
If you want our system to suggest hooks based on your book, you'll first need to upload your manuscript. Don't worry; your work is secure with us.
For Automatic Hook Suggestions: Upload your book to enable the system to analyze and extract key scenes.
For Manual Hook Creation: If you prefer to write your own hooks and just want to use our slideshow builder for visuals and posting, you can skip this step.
4.2 Identifying Key Scenes
Once your book is uploaded, our system will scan your manuscript to identify scenes best suited for marketing.
Customization: You can request more scenes or provide specific feedback, such as "Please find a scene in the first chapter."
Efficiency: This feature saves you the time you'd spend manually searching through your book for marketable content.
4.3 Turning Key Scenes into Hooks
After identifying the key scenes, you can generate hooks based on them.
Automatic Hook Generation: Think of it as your personal assistant presenting hook options to you.
Refinement: Select a hook that catches your attention and refine it further by providing feedback like "Please improve the opening line" or "Turn it into a POV (Point of View)."
Efficiency Over Perfection: Remember not to spend too much time refining a single hook. It's better to post three good hooks per day than one perfect hook per week.
4.4 Adding Background Images
Enhance your slideshow by adding background images. You have three options:
Uploading Custom Images
Personal Touch: Upload images you already have on your computer to use as backgrounds.
Finding Stock Images
Search and Select: Find matching stock images from our integrated library.
Consistency: Choose whether to apply one image to all slides (recommended) or select different images for each slide.
Generating AI Images
Create Unique Visuals: Generate completely new images using AI technology.
Ease of Use: The image generation prompts are created in the background, so you don't need to be an expert in prompt engineering.
Regeneration: If you're not satisfied with the output, you can regenerate each image up to five times and adjust the prompt manually.
4.5 Optional: Animate Images
Stay ahead of the curve by animating your images, a trend we've recently discovered to be effective.
Learn More: Check out our blog post for details on how to use this feature: Introducing AuthorScale's New Image Animator.
4.6 Connect Your TikTok Accounts
Simplify your posting process by connecting your TikTok accounts directly to AuthorScale.
Direct Posting: Send your slideshows directly to your accounts now or schedule them for later.
Captions and Hashtags: Add captions and hashtags right from the tool to optimize your posts.
Minimal Phone Use: The only thing you'll need to do on your phone is add a sound to your post.
Coming Soon: We're working on adding integrations with other social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube Shorts.
Get Started Today
We'd love to welcome you to our community of like-minded authors who share the goal of being among the first to spot and leverage new emerging social media trends. By joining AuthorScale, you'll:
Save Time: Streamline your marketing efforts and reduce the time spent on tedious tasks.
Shape the Future: Your feedback is invaluable to us and can directly influence the development of new features.
Engage with a Supportive Community: Participate in discussions, share experiences, and learn from others.
Thank you for considering signing up! We're excited to help you simplify your marketing efforts so you can focus more on what you love—writing books.
Conclusion
Marketing your book doesn't have to be overwhelming or time-consuming. With AuthorScale's SlideShow Suite, you can efficiently create engaging slideshow content that resonates with readers and boosts your book's visibility.