While most of us authors work hard to excel at creative writing, one area we usually fall short in is marketing. Yes, the dreaded M-word that every writer hates to think about! We'd all rather bury our noses in our work and let someone else handle the marketing for us. Sadly, if you want to be successful as an author, you have to spend time marketing. But there are a lot of tools that can help you out. I've found that social media scheduling services are an AMAZING resource, one that has helped me to have a lot more time to focus on writing. Hootsuite, Buffer, Everypost, Sprout--these are just a few of the scheduling services around. The way they work is simple: you upload a post (complete with links, videos, images, etc.), input the date you want them to publish, and click "Schedule". You can go about your business, knowing the service will schedule the post for you. This is SO handy if you want to spend more time writing and less time marketing. For example, I've scheduled 4-5 posts per day:

• 2-3 posts with resources for writers and authors
• 1 post linking back to interviews/guest posts/podcasts where I show up
• 1 marketing post with a link to my book/s
• 1 blog post (4 days a week)

I've scheduled them a week in advance, and the scheduling service will post them to my social media accounts for me. I invest an hour every week, and I'm DONE! It's quick, easy, and highly effective. Sure, it takes a bit of planning ahead, but it's fairly easy to get into that mindset. Throughout the week, I'm collecting links to articles and useful resources, so I always have plenty of material to post. Which service is best to use? Hootsuite is designed more as a social media management platform, and it makes it easy for you to manage your various platforms and work with other people (PAs, fellow authors, etc.) to manage social media pages. It has the widest range of supported networks, and it offers analytics of your social networks. Buffer is a content publishing platform, one that makes it easier for you to publish quality content to your social networks. It supports fewer networks, but it provides analytics on your published content. Everypost is also a social media management tool, one that links to a lot of different networks, allows you to post to multiple pages, and offers a wide range of other features. Which is best? Everyone has their own preferences, but I've found Hootsuite to be the easiest to use. However, check them all out to find the one that suits your needs best!