How I Sell Books on TikTok (Updated 2024 Guide for Authors & Creatives!)

Summary

In this updated TikTok tutorial, marketing coach Shelby Lee shares insights for creatives to boost book sales. She emphasizes the platform's value, debunks instant success myths, and stresses the importance of consistency. Lee offers various video ideas, from 'get ready with me' to aesthetic clips, and discusses new features like carousels and TikTok Shop. Her advice includes repurposing content and trying different hooks to captivate viewers, ultimately growing a steady stream of sales.

Takeaways

• 📚 TikTok is a great platform for creatives to sell their products, but it requires dedication and consistency for sales growth.
• 🚀 The channel's most popular video was about selling books on TikTok, but an updated tutorial is necessary due to changes since 2022.
• 👤 It's essential for individuals to research and choose the social media platforms that best suit their needs.
• 📈 Success on TikTok isn't instant; it took the speaker months to see an increase in sales, emphasizing the need for patience.
• 🔥 While going viral can lead to quick sales, it's not the common scenario, so setting realistic expectations is crucial.
• 🎥 The speaker, Shelby Lee, offers marketing coaching and has experience selling books using organic social media strategies.
• 🆕 Starting a TikTok account involves engaging with the community to avoid being flagged as a bot and to understand the platform's dynamics.
• 🎼 Choosing between a business or personal account on TikTok depends on the need for analytics and the type of music used for promotion.
• 🔍 It's recommended to search and engage with one's genre or category on TikTok to understand what content resonates with the audience.
• 🎬 Video types for creatives on TikTok include 'get ready with me,' aesthetic videos, and utilizing stock images or videos to represent work.
• 🔗 The importance of creating strong hooks for short-form videos to capture attention and increase watch time is highlighted.
• 📝 TikTok has introduced new features like carousels and text-only posts, offering more content creation options for users.
• 🛍️ TikTok Shop allows for direct sales within the app, which can be beneficial for creatives looking to sell their products.
• 🔄 Content repurposing is encouraged on TikTok to save time, but it's important to vary elements like visuals to keep content fresh.
• 📚 For authors interested in selling books on TikTok, there's a comprehensive guide called the Book Talk Blueprint available.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic of the video is an updated TikTok tutorial for creatives on how to sell their creative products on the platform.

Why does the speaker recommend starting a TikTok account?

The speaker recommends starting a TikTok account because it is one of the best platforms for creatives to sell their products and reach a wider audience.

What is the importance of not rushing to post immediately after creating a TikTok account?

Not rushing to post immediately after creating a TikTok account is important to avoid being categorized as a bot or fraud account, which could lead to being banned from the platform.

What type of account does the speaker suggest for promoting creative projects on TikTok?

The speaker suggests considering a business account for promoting creative projects, as it offers more options like analytics, but notes that it has less access to non-commercial music.

Why is it recommended to engage with the TikTok community before posting?

Engaging with the TikTok community before posting helps to understand the platform, its audience, and the types of content that work well, which can inform the creator's own content strategy.

What is a 'get ready with me' video and how can it be used by creatives?

A 'get ready with me' video is a type of content that shows the behind-the-scenes process of a creative project. It can be used by creatives to showcase their work process, setup, and even the cleanup, providing a mini-vlog of their creative journey.

What is an aesthetic video and how does it relate to book promotion on TikTok?

An aesthetic video is a compilation of stock images or videos that represent the vibe or genre of a book. It is used in book promotion to attract viewers by creating a visually appealing and thematic representation of the book's content.

What is the significance of a 'hook' in short-form video content?

A 'hook' in short-form video content is crucial as it captures the viewer's attention within the first second. It is a mix of visuals, text, or sound that encourages viewers to stop scrolling and watch the video, increasing engagement and watch time.

What are carousels on TikTok and how can they be used effectively?

Carousels on TikTok allow users to post a series of photos that viewers can swipe through. They can be used effectively by adding a text hook to engage viewers and encourage them to explore the entire set of images.

What is the new feature 'TikTok Shop' and how can it benefit creators?

TikTok Shop is a feature that allows creators to sell products directly through the app without users having to leave the platform. It benefits creators by providing a seamless shopping experience for their audience and potentially increasing sales.

How can creators repurpose content on TikTok without repeating the same video?

Creators can repurpose content on TikTok by reusing hooks, visuals, or themes that have worked well in the past, but changing up other elements such as the specific page from a book or the visuals in a video to keep the content fresh.

What resource does the speaker offer for authors interested in using TikTok to sell more books?

The speaker offers a comprehensive guide with video tutorials called 'The Book Talk Blueprint,' which has been used by over 2,300 authors to increase their sales on TikTok.

Outlines

00:00

📚 TikTok for Creatives: An Updated Guide

Shelby Lee, a marketing coach for creatives, introduces an updated tutorial on leveraging TikTok for creatives to sell their products. She emphasizes that while TikTok can significantly boost sales, success requires time, dedication, and consistency. The video discusses the importance of starting an account, engaging with the community, and understanding the platform's dynamics. Shelby also highlights the potential for virality but manages expectations by explaining that gradual growth is more common. She outlines the video's content, which includes updates since her last tutorial, new video ideas, and tips for success on TikTok.

05:02

🎨 Creative Video Ideas and TikTok Best Practices

This paragraph delves into various video styles that creatives can use on TikTok to showcase their work. It covers 'get ready with me' videos, which offer a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process, and 'aesthetic' videos that use stock images or videos to represent a book or creative project. Shelby discusses the importance of creating hooks to capture viewers' attention within the first second, as this increases watch time and the likelihood of the video being recommended to others. She also mentions new features like carousels and text posts, as well as the introduction of TikTok Shop, which allows for direct sales within the app. The paragraph reassures viewers that TikTok does not have to be time-consuming and encourages repurposing content effectively.

10:03

🔄 Repurposing Content and Future Guides for Creatives

In the final paragraph, Shelby addresses concerns about the time investment required for TikTok by explaining how to repurpose content effectively. She suggests using hooks and visuals that have previously performed well, with slight variations to keep the content fresh. Shelby also mentions her comprehensive guide, the Book Talk Blueprint, which has helped authors increase their TikTok sales. She hints at an upcoming guide specifically for non-authors and invites viewers to share their TikTok handles for further engagement. The paragraph concludes with a thank you and a sign-off, encouraging viewers to explore TikTok as a platform for creative expression and sales.

Keywords

💡TikTok

TikTok is a social media platform known for its short-form videos. In the context of the video, it is presented as an effective tool for creatives to market and sell their products. The script mentions that TikTok is still one of the best platforms for creatives, indicating its relevance to the video's theme of promoting creative works.

💡Creatives

The term 'creatives' refers to individuals involved in creative industries such as authors, musicians, and artists. The video's theme revolves around helping these individuals to leverage TikTok for selling their creative works, as indicated by the script's focus on providing a tutorial for this demographic.

💡Sales

Sales are a central theme in the video, as it discusses strategies for increasing the sale of creative products through TikTok. The script mentions the potential for significant sales, such as the example of selling 7,000 books within a couple of weeks, demonstrating the impact of effective TikTok usage.

💡Dedication and Consistency

These concepts are emphasized in the script as necessary for achieving results on TikTok. They are defined as the ongoing commitment and regular effort required to grow a presence on the platform and increase sales. The video warns against the expectation of instant success, highlighting the importance of these qualities for long-term growth.

💡Viral

The term 'viral' in the context of the video refers to content that spreads rapidly and gains significant popularity on social media. The script mentions the possibility of a video going viral and selling a large number of books, illustrating the potential impact of successful content on TikTok.

💡Content Creation

Content creation is the process of producing material for social media platforms. The video discusses various types of content that creatives can produce on TikTok, such as 'get ready with me' videos and aesthetic videos, to engage their audience and promote their work.

💡Hooks

In the video, a 'hook' is defined as the initial element of a video that captures the viewer's attention within the first second. The script stresses the importance of creating strong hooks to increase watch time and engagement, which is crucial for content to be recommended by the TikTok algorithm.

💡Carousels

Carousels on TikTok allow users to post multiple photos or videos that viewers can swipe through. The script mentions this feature as a new type of post that creatives can use to increase engagement, by providing a text hook to entice viewers to swipe through the content.

💡TikTok Shop

TikTok Shop is a feature that enables users to sell products directly through the app without redirecting users to external sites. The video discusses this as a new opportunity for creatives to sell their products, emphasizing the platform's push towards e-commerce and its potential for increasing sales.

💡Repurpose Content

The concept of repurposing content in the video refers to the reuse of successful elements from previous videos to create new content. The script suggests that creatives can save time and maintain consistency by reusing hooks and visuals that have performed well, adapting them to fit new content.

💡Book Talk Blueprint

The 'Book Talk Blueprint' is a comprehensive guide mentioned in the script, designed to help authors sell more books using TikTok. It includes video tutorials and has been used by over 2,300 authors, illustrating the video's focus on providing practical tools for creatives to succeed on the platform.

Highlights

The most popular video on the channel is an updated TikTok tutorial for creatives on selling books.

TikTok remains a top platform for creatives to sell their products.

Individuals should decide which social media platforms are best for them.

Success on TikTok requires dedication and consistency, not instant results.

Viral videos can significantly boost book sales but are not the norm.

TikTok offers a steady stream of new audiences for creative works.

Shelby Lee, a marketing coach, shares her expertise on selling books via social media.

The importance of engaging with the TikTok community before posting.

Choosing between a business or personal account on TikTok has different implications.

The significance of a compelling profile picture and bio on TikTok.

Understanding the content and styles popular in one's genre on TikTok.

The不同类型的视频 that creatives can make on TikTok have evolved.

Get ready with me videos and aesthetic videos are popular among authors.

The concept of a 'hook' in short-form videos is crucial for capturing attention.

Carousel posts and text-only posts are new features on TikTok.

TikTok Shop allows for direct sales within the app, competing with Instagram Shop.

Content repurposing is a strategy to save time on TikTok.

Shelby offers a comprehensive guide for authors to sell more books on TikTok.

A TikTok for creatives guide is in development for non-authors.

Transcripts

to date the most popular video on this

YouTube channel is the first video I

ever posted about how I sell thousands

of books on Tik Tok but things have

changed since I posted that video in

2022 so today I am bringing you a new

and updated Tik Tok tutorial for

creatives Tik Tok is still one of the

best platforms to be on for creatives

looking to sell their creative products

so if you are not yet on Tik Tok I

highly recommend it before I get started

I want to say that it is really up to

each individual to decide what social

media platforms are best for them and do

your research so if Tik Tok is available

to you I highly recommend that you jump

in and give it a try knowing that while

there are a lot of videos out there that

will tell you you can sell thousands of

books tomorrow that's not what you're

going to find here it took me a few

months to start seeing a slight increase

in sales and continue to grow from there

but it isn't instant and it takes

dedication and consistency to start

seeing results yes you can go viral

right away which is awesome and I've

seen it happen but it's not super super

common at this point so I don't want to

give you the wrong impression that this

is going to be an easy way to make a ton

of sales quickly but it can be done one

of my most popular videos sold me 7,000

books within a couple of weeks getting

over 10 million views on that video so

if something like that happens to you

you certainly can sell a lot in one time

but the Great thing about Tik Tok also

is that it brings you a gradual stream

of new people exposed to your book or

your creative work and it becomes a

steady increase in sales which is

awesome so let's go ahead and dive into

the content of this video which is going

to be the updates that have happened

since my last video on this topic some

video ideas and examples for you and

just my top tips on having a successful

video if you are new to the channel my

name is Shelby Lee and I am a marketing

coach for creatives I've worked with

over 2,000 authors musicians artists and

more to help them sell more on social

media as an author myself I have over

half a million followers on social media

and have sold over 50,000 books in just

the last 2 years using organic social

media strategies so I'm excited to jump

into this video and share my top tips

with you so the first thing you're going

to do is start your account now

something that has been newer that I've

seen more and more lately is people

starting a new account and immediately

starting to post and and Tik Tok kind of

categorizing you as a bot or fraud

account and banning that person from the

platform and I don't like seeing this

cuz that obviously doesn't mean that

every person starting a new account and

immediately starting to post is a bot or

a fraud account but I do recommend at

this point that you make your account

and you do spend a few days at least to

engage with other people and get a feel

for the platform especially if this is

your first account what I like to

recommend doing is once you create your

account you can choose between business

or personal business is going to have

more options such as analytics that are

great however there is less access to

all music in the music library and

that's because businesses promoting

their projects should not be using

non-commercial music for promotion so

that's something to keep in mind as well

so it's really up to you which one you

want to choose and kind of know that you

could potentially be using music that

isn't licensed for commercial use with a

personal account after you've made your

account you're going to add your profile

picture which should be a nice engaging

photo of you that fits kind of the vibe

of your genre or the vibe of your work

and then you're going to write your bio

which there's not a ton of space for but

typically I recommend a mission

statement I've talked about this before

so I won't dive into it too much but

I'll link a video that talks about

mission statements you can watch it

after this one then search for your

genre or your category if you're a

musician you can try searching for your

genre of music if you're an author

search for your genre of books if you

are an artist artist try searching for

other artists and see what comes up take

a look through the content get a feel

for the different styles because there

are so many different ways you can make

an engaging video on Tik Tok and just

start scrolling through you can like

videos that you like leave comments on

videos that you enjoy and start

following people as well now I also want

to note that following hundreds or

thousands of people right away might

also trigger the Tik Tok algorithm and

make them think that you are a bot

trying to follow thousands of people at

once so don't go too hard on following a

bunch of people but it is good to get a

little bit of Engagement going right off

the bat plus it will also teach you

about the types of content that works

well on Tik Tok so after you've done

that it's time to make your first video

and I want to talk about a few different

video types that are common for

creatives that have changed slightly

since my first video that I posted now

some of them are still the same there's

page flips there's spine flips and I'm

going to link that first video I ever

filmed so you can watch that and get a

sense of those types of videos that work

work well but there's also other types

as well so I'm going to talk about those

the first one is get ready with me type

videos that are more like manyi Vlogs of

different clips you put together and

these can work really well for people

who have a creative process that they

want to show so a lot of artists will

show the behind the scenes kind of time

lapse of them creating a project so you

could do a get ready with me to create

my new painting for example and film

yourself in a Time apps doing that video

and put together maybe multiple clips of

you setting up the studio and cleaning

up afterwards so it's like a mini Vlog

and the same could apply to your writing

process or whatever type of creative

process you do so that's definitely a

very popular get ready with me Style

video the next style of video that I see

most often with authors versus other

types of creatives is going to be the

aesthetic video which is stock images or

videos all put together that that

represent your book well the visuals of

your book so you'll want to get stock

images or videos from license free

websites such as unsplash or canva or

pixabay or pixels to name a few and find

pictures or videos that fit well with

your genre with the vibe of your books

and then you'll put them together in a

Quick Clip with some music that's

fitting from the Tik Tok music library

and you'll also want to add text on the

video that describes the book now I've

done an entire video on creating hooks

for your book and how to really find

strong hooks so I'm going to link that

video for you as well to watch after

this one if you need some help with your

Hooks and while we're on the subject of

hooks let me go ahead and just explain

what that is if you're unfamiliar so

with short form video which you'll find

on Instagram reels Facebook reels

YouTube shorts here on YouTube and Tik

Tok videos as well you really need to

capture attention in the first second or

you're going to lose people and so that

first second is called your hook what

actually gets people to stop and watch

the video which could be your visuals it

could be text on the video that you've

added within Tik Tok it could be the

sound maybe you're voicing over the

video and say something that makes

people stop typically a mix of two or

more is going to be a solid hook and

that's something that you really want to

practice and nail Your Hooks because

that's really what's going to get people

to watch the video which increases your

watch time which tells Tik Tok they are

making engaging content that they will

show to more and more people so that's

why that's really important is you want

people to stop while they're scrolling

their feed so experiment a lot with your

hooks no matter what type of video

you're making and eventually you'll

start to pick up on patterns and realize

what is working well for you and what is

not there's also been new types of posts

such as carousels which are similar to

Instagram where you can post a few

photos and people can swipe through them

you can still add a text hook to these

types of carousels so people are hooked

and they want to scroll through the rest

of the photos this is one that I've been

using quite often and it sometimes

really takes off so I encourage you to

try them if you haven't yet they also

introduced text posts only earlier this

year which was surprising to me because

it's such a video platform it has been

slow to take off because people want

that fast-paced exciting video on Tik

Tok so you might find that you try text

post only and doesn't really work super

well I've tried a couple so far and

haven't had great results but if you are

just starting out on Tik Tok and are

feeling kind of the weight of having to

create videos I think it's worth trying

but of course you do have to have

something engaging about the text post

for it to work something else that is

newer to Tik Tok is Tik Tok shop which

has been pushed so much by Tik Tok they

introduced this to compete with

Instagram shop where you can buy things

Direct on the Tik Tok app without having

to leave the platform which is ideal for

Tik Tok who doesn't want people to leave

and see more ads and so on and so forth

so if you are interested in selling your

products directly to your consumers and

shipping out those products you should

definitely try Tik Tock shop because Tik

Tok is really pushing accounts out to

more people that are using Tik Tok shop

so there are definitely authors seeing

success and artists selling their

artwork directly through Tik Tok so

certainly give it a shot Tik Tok will

take a commission of those sales that

you make and you'll get the remaining of

course as well if the whole thought of

Tik Tok makes you feel overwhelmed and

you're unsure about starting I want to

give you a couple reassurances about how

Tik Tok works so you know that it is not

as timec consuming as you might think it

is the first thing that is wonderful

about Tik Tok and a lot of the short

form video platforms is that you can

certainly repurpose your content quite a

bit now this does not mean posting the

exact same video over and over again but

this does means that you can reuse hooks

that have worked well in the past you

can reuse visuals that have worked well

in the past so I have certain pages of

my books for example that do really well

most of the time and so I'll repeat

those every couple months or if I find a

hook that works I'll use the same hook

again pretty soon after I used it the

first time but I'll change up something

about the video such as the visuals or

the page from my book that I'm showing

for example so there are lots of

different ways you can change it up

while still not having to restart from

scratch so it can be really easy to do

it does take time though so in the first

few months you might find yourself

spending more time creating content

because at that stage you are still

learning what is working for you if you

are an author curious about using Tik

talkk to sell more books I have an

entire comprehensive guide with video

tutorials called the book talk blueprint

that I will link in the description of

this video over 2,300 authors have used

this guide to see more sales on Tik Tok

and I've personally worked one toone

with dozens of authors now to see more

success so that's why I wanted to refilm

this video for you and share some new

insights and if you are another type of

creative that is not an author stay

tuned because I am working on a Tik Tok

for creatives guide that is just for you

that should be out soon so I'll make

sure to update the description with that

link whenever it is available I hope you

found this video helpful if you are on

Tik Tok feel free to leave your handle

below so I can check it out and thank

you so much for watching have a great

rest of your day bye