By Kia Carrington-Russell

I remember starting out as a young author, utterly naïve to the hard work ahead of me and the different ways to connect with readers on a personal level. In my opinion, having a supportive group was a massively influential part of my development as an author.

When creating a Facebook Group for your readers, you really need to think about the theme and atmosphere. Every author has a different personality and quirk. A good friend of mine is always posting dark memes that she finds on Google; another is posting about being a mother and writer at the same time, with images of her children; I post a lot of inspirational memes, videos and photos from my travels, and cute fluffy animals.

You’re posting conversation starters and the opportunity for your readers to see and learn something that they haven’t before. Or very simply they want to see what their favorite author does in their daily lives and how they can relate. It enables them to talk about the books and characters freely with other members and be the first to know about upcoming releases.

So, let’s start our own Facebook Group! Once you’ve logged into Facebook, you’ll notice a tab on the left-hand side and the icon ‘Groups’. Select ‘Create Group’ and enter your group name. You can choose something quirky but don’t make it too hard to remember or difficult to search. You will have the option from three kinds of privacy settings.

1. Public: Which will allow anyone to see who’s in the group and what is being posted, whether they are a part of the group or not.
2. Closed: Only members who send a request to the page and have been added to this group by you will be able to see posts. (I like to manage and know who my members are, so this is my personal preference.)
3. Secret: This is only for members who receive a direct invite from you. If you are trying to create a large group, I would avoid this option.

Once you’ve selected your privacy settings you will be prompted to your group page. Here you will add your group banner image, theme, description and clear introduction to the group. Some admins have rules for members that they must abide by. You can also add things such as location if this is an intended meet-up group. I personally don’t have a location because mine is for online engagement only.

Now that we have created our group, we need to acquire some members. I gained a fruitful bunch of members by participating in:

1. Online forums
2. Social events and in person
3. Facebook Events and participating in author takeovers, and by:
4. Sending out emails to my current list
5. Tweets and Instagram posts
6. Posts on my Facebook Author Page

Let as many readers, family, friends, bloggers and author friends know that you have a group that they are welcome to join.

A fantastic benefit to having a private group is that most members will want to become active in your upcoming promotions and releases. I often offer an array of competitions, giveaways and incentives if members are willing to help share by word of mouth. A few competition and giveaway idea examples:

1. A competition for members who share a post on their personal Facebook page about your upcoming release.
2. A competition for members who make your book cover their profile image for a set number of days/weeks.
3. Creating your own Facebook Event through your group and inviting fellow authors to join. This will create a certain number of hours where authors are sharing the spotlight with you. They will offer engaging posts, competitions and often cross promotion with both your readers and theirs. Often your personal members will get caught up in the excitement and share about the event or certain giveaways.
4. Prizes can be as budget-friendly or extravagant as you want: paperback bundles, eBook giveaways, Amazon giftcards, pamper bundles etc. Just be wary of international members, it’ll cost more to post.

If you are unsure of how to engage with your new members, here’s a few posts and starters that might help:

1. What are three things on your bucket list?
2. Have you met anyone famous in real life?
3. Here’s a photo of my pet and me. What about yours?

There are so many topics that you can cover, and I suggest making it as authentic as possible. Make sure they are posts and subject matters that you love too! Make it fun, inviting and allow your readers into your world and real life adventures.

Bio: Kia Carrington-Russell is an Australian award-winning author with twelve published books. She is most recognized for her paranormal vampire series, Token Huntress and contemporary romance series, My Escort.  She was announced the ‘Best New Author of 2015’ by AusRomToday and featured in U.K. Glamour Magazine. Learn more at http://www.kiacarrington-russell.com/