We recommend that, as an author, you set up a LinkedIn profile. Check out these reasons why you should have a LinkedIn profile and how you can promote your ebook on LinkedIn.
But don't worry about it taking as much time as some of the other social media outlets. A LinkedIn profile is low maintenance.
Benefits of a LinkedIn Profile
1. You can fill it out and forget—just update it once a year. It is very low maintenance.
2. Links from LinkedIn to your online content are counted by Google; Facebook links aren’t. That means that including your links in your profile makes them more likely to show up in a Google search.
3. Having a profile looks professional.
4. You can use LinkedIn to find professional editors, designers, beta readers, and reviewers, and they can find you. You can also connect with other authors.
Tips on How to Promote Your Ebook on LinkedIn
1. Fill out your profile
Add your industry, your current job title (this should be "Author"), skills, education, and summary. You can include relevant courses you took in college, and any certifications or awards you have earned. This will take some time, but once you've filled it out, you'll never need to do it again! All you'll need to do is update it at least once a year.
2. Add each of your books as a job position.
A great way to promote your ebook on LinkedIn is to put the book in as its own job. The Title would be something like "Author" and the Company would be the name of your book. Next, put in the dates you worked on the book. In the Description, list a few bragging points about your book and the work you put into it, include a short description of the book, and add a few short reviews from well-known magazines, people, editors, or authors (not just some random Amazon reviewer).
At the bottom, you can add a link to a page on your website where viewers can purchase the book. Also upload the image of the book cover and, if you have one, the book trailer. Additionally, you can link to a sample chapter of the book or a Q&A session about the book on your website.
If you have a lot of published books, it may be easier to put in each series as a job position instead.
3. Choose a good profile picture.
Find or take a picture of yourself. Make it professional and friendly; what works best is a headshot of your smiling, well-groomed face.
4. Link to websites on your profile.
In addition to linking your Twitter profile, LinkedIn allows you to link three websites to your profile. We recommend using those links to link to your website, your Facebook page, and your author page on an ebook site (like Amazon or Google).
5. Fill out the summary.
Use first-person and a conversational tone. Try to use key words that relate to what you do.
6. Build your connections
Add family, friends, and other authors to your connections. Ask them to endorse your skills that they feel they can endorse and do the same for them.
7. Join author groups on LinkedIn.
Through these groups, you can talk to fellow authors to receive and offer advice, or exchange books to beta read for each other.
8. Post when convenient.
Don’t worry too much about posting updates. If you write a blog post that is a helpful guide for readers or authors, pop over to LinkedIn and post an update that contains a link to the blog post. This is a great and easy way to build trust with your connections.
How do you promote your ebook on LinkedIn? We'd love to hear any experiences in the comments below.
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Re Point 2 in your article above: "Add each of your books on Linkedin as a job position."
Hi, You suggest this as a good way to promote ebooks, only you don't explain how to do this! Pls mail me some instructions as I'm new to this. Many thanks, David
David, I've edited the post to give better instructions on how to do this, including a screenshot. Let me know if you need more details!
Hi Ms Shattuck, Thank you for the helpful info.
Add each of your books as a job position. Brilliant advice and the rest of your article is laced with wise words 🙂
Thank you for your post. I am a self publishing author who is about to publish 7 books. I am now looking for ways of promoting my upcoming releases. I am looking forward to putting your advice into practice. Oh and since there is nothing wrong with a little self promotion in comments, my website is wearewisethinkers.blogspot.com. So check out and subscribe to my website to keep up with my book publishing notifications. Hope to read more from you, since I am very new to the self publishing world of books.