Facebook remains one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. Authors are acting accordingly, taking advantage of the platform’s vast audience to get books in the hands of new readers.
If you’re already using Facebook for its Author Pages, great. If not, it’s time to tap into this venue for readership!
Since we first wrote this post, Facebook has moved every page to its new page experience, and the old “classic” pages are gone. The big change? Everything is much more simple and uniform, and every author now follows the same steps.
Updating your page can be a bit of a hassle, but don’t worry, we have you covered. Set aside 15 minutes, grab a cup of coffee, and check out these tips to help your Author Page get more engagement and get your books into the hands of more readers! Don’t have a Facebook Author Page yet? Check out our post on how to create one.
How To Optimize Your Facebook Author Page
Optimizing your Facebook page means putting forward the information readers want in the best, most efficient way possible. When optimizing your page it helps to imagine that you are a reader. Why are you on an author’s Facebook page? What are you looking for?
By putting yourself in the shoes of your readers, you will be better able to create a page that gets the results you want.
Before you start, make sure you’re working as your page. Click your profile photo in the top right of Facebook, click “See all profiles,” and select your Author Page.
Select “Author” as your Facebook page category
To begin, we want to define what your page represents, and the best way to make this clear to readers is to categorize your page.
How to categorize your Facebook page:
- Click “About” on your page.
- On the left side, select “Category,” then click “Edit” next to it.
- Start typing your category (we recommend “Author”), and select it from the dropdown.
- Hit “Save.”
Choose an eye-catching cover photo
One of the first things a reader sees when they visit your page is the cover photo across the top of their screen. Use a tool like Canva to create an image that has good color, but is not too busy. Bonus points if you are able to promote a book or include a call to action in the image.
Your Facebook cover photo should be around 851px wide and 315px tall (and at least 399px wide and 150px tall). For the fastest loading, Facebook recommends an sRGB JPG under 100 KB, or a PNG if your image includes a logo or text. Click here for Facebook’s exact guidelines.
Mark Dawson does a great job with his cover photos. The one below promoting his then-upcoming release has brilliant color and works well with the positioning of the profile photo on the bottom left. The image is eye-catching, but a reader can understand the entirety of it in a quick glance. It’s not so busy as to distract from the rest of the page.
Use a real headshot as your profile photo
To update your page’s profile photo, simply click on it and follow the prompts.
Our recommendation is that you use a real photo of yourself for this photo. Readers who visit your page want to connect with you. They value the human behind the work, and by using a real photo of yourself, you can deepen that connection.
Of course some authors won’t be comfortable with this, and that’s absolutely fine. But, if you’re ok with using a real photo, you should.
Write a 255-character intro/bio
The intro text on a Facebook page is short, so make every character count. If you haven’t looked at yours in a while, now is a good time to update it.
How to update your Facebook page bio:
- From your page, click “Edit.”
- Select “Edit” next to your intro and write your 255-character bio.
- Select “Save.”
Your bio can be 255 characters max, but you don’t need to use it all. Write a short intro about yourself, consider including your genre, or use it as an opportunity to promote your email list.
Looking at what other authors in your genre are doing here can be helpful when coming up with ideas.
Edit your action button to meet your goals
Your action button is your primary call to action (CTA) on your page, and you get to customize it. But, before you do, decide on your primary goal for the page. Do you want readers to join your email list? Go to your website? Buy a book?
Decide on your ideal goal, and then select the action button that meets your needs.
How to customize your Facebook page action button:
- From your page, click the “Options” button (the three dots).
- Click “Add action button” or “Edit action button” from the menu.
- Choose the action button you want from the options, then click “Next.”
- Follow the prompts on screen and click “Save.”
Many authors will choose the “Sign Up” option and include a link to their email signup form. Others will use the “Learn More” button to send readers to their Amazon Author Page or author store, where readers can find all of their work with just one click. Pick what works best for you. You can always change it later on.
List your books as Offers
Facebook’s Offers section is a great way to show readers the books you have for sale. You can add up to 10 promotions, so you can give each title its own offer with a direct link to buy it.
How to add an offer to your Facebook page:
- Click “About” on your page, then select “Offers” from the menu on the left.
- Under “Give your promotion a title,” enter your promotion, like “10% off” or your book title with the deal (“Book Title – 20% off”). This is the only required field, and readers will see it next to your discount code.
- If you’re running a sale or have a promotional code, enter it under “Discount code.” Otherwise, leave it blank.
- Under “Link,” enter a URL of a page where readers can buy your book. For most authors, this will be an Amazon link, but you can also link to your own author store.
- Under “Add a description,” write a short pitch for your book. You have 150 characters, so think of it like a tagline: genre, hook and a reason to read.
- Repeat for each title, then click “Save.”
Your offers will appear under “Promotions” in the About section of your page, so readers can see your title and discount code at a glance.
Once a promotion has ended, simply click “Remove” next to it in the Offers section so readers don’t try to use an old code.
Adjust your page tabs
Facebook pages no longer offer different templates and layouts to choose from. Customization is a little more limited, but there are still some options for authors. You’ll need to use a computer for this step.
How to customize your Facebook page tabs:
- Select “More” at the top of your page and click “Manage Sections.”
- Check or un-check options to have them appear on the page. Some essential sections, like About, Reviews, Followers, Photos, and Videos, can’t be removed.
- After you have made your selections, hit “Save.”
Create an Event
Are you going to be at a conference or a local event and want to let your readers know? Set up a Facebook Event to let your followers know when and where you will be. To create an event, go to your Author Page, open the Events section, and click “Create new event.”
Fill out all of the information for an online or in-person event in the form that appears. Then, publish or schedule the event for when you want it to go up.
That’s It!
Once you’ve followed these steps, you’ll have a Facebook Author Page optimized for book sales and event engagement. With billions of Facebook users, devoting some time to optimizing your Author Page is a great way to reach more readers. The easier it is to purchase a book, the more likely readers are to buy it. With a clear call to action, event listings, and advanced publishing tools, Facebook is a great platform for turning potential readers into fans.
I don’t have an Edit Page option under settings. I tried it through my personal page and my author page. Is this just available to certain pages, I wonder?
I see! You’re not talking about settings under the account settings. I watched your video again and got it figured out. Thanks – great tips!
I had this same issue! I kept ending up in the Facebook account settings. Finally I saw the page Settings…I was beginning to think I was crazy!
This was a fantastic post! The video clips made this process so easy. Thanks so much for these tips, Chloe!
Thanks, Chloe! Took the pain ou of it. I originally had it set up for email subscriber conversion, but they changed the FB settings or something, so, now with your help, I’ve optimized it for sales. 😉
A very useful article. Have just followed all the steps and got my store up and running. Didn’t know about any of this!
Thanks so much! I just set up my Facebook shop! Your directions were perfect 🙂
Thank you for posting this. I had no idea this was available, but with your instructions I was able to change my page easily. Thank you!
When I click on “Shop” in the left-hand column to set up the shop I didn’t get a pop-up box. It says “Finish Setting Up Your Page” and wants me to use Stripe or Paypal. How do I get back to Terms and Policies and Checkout Method?
Hi Mike, I played around with this and unfortunately it looks like in order to get back to the pop up where you select “checkout on another website” is to delete the shop and start over from the beginning again.
Ho w do you delete the shop? I have the same issue.
Thank you . I love the step by step instructions.
Do you have to pay Facebook a commission for selling your products there? If so, how much?
Hi Jade, When you click “check out on another website” when you set up your store, you are still selling your books through Amazon, and simply using the Facebook store to drive traffic to your titles. Since this is the case, and Facebook isn’t actually collecting any funds for you, no, you don’t pay a commission.
Hey Jenna, sorry for the trouble and thank you for pointing out the issue. It looks like Facebook has changed their shopping options, and unless you already have it set up, you can no longer use the shopping tab to check out on another site.
We have researched the new options and updated the article with new best practices for authors that don’t have the old shopping options.
Thanks for this valuable info. Can’t wait to get started!!!
Thank you for the great, easy to follow post! I just updated my Facebook page!
Very helpful information! I just updated my page!
Chloe, Facebook is definitely a number one platform for authors! You can promote, engage and even sell books! The best option they came up with, I agree!
Great post, exactly what I needed when I needed it, thank you!
Awesome article. As a author and publisher, I am always asked about ways to sell more books using social media. This is excellent. I am sharing this post with all of my authors. Thank you so much.V
The option of proving a checkout URL is not there.
Any idea why? Not usable ottherwise.
Hi Kathy, It’s likely that you selected “check out on Facebook” instead of “checkout on another website” option when you set up your shop. Under the first option, you sell directly through Facebook (which is not recommended). Under the second option, you can direct readers to Amazon to download your books. Unfortunately, the only way to re-set this setting is to delete your shop and start the process from the beginning again. When you have selected “checkout on another website”, you should always have a URL field in the product settings.
Thank you for sharing! This was super-easy to do. I appreciate you!
It works but it doesn’t let me put in my amazon affiliate link in the URL slot.
Hi Ann, I was able to append the affiliate tag to the end of our Amazon link. Make sure that you selected the “checkout on another website” option when you set up your shop. That will allow you to direct readers to the amazon page using whatever link you’d like.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! So easy to set up.
Great article, and very useful. But while I did everything as described, when I had a product in my shop, I don’t have the Check Out URL appearing in the options. I’m trying to figure out what I did wrong but it is a big mystery for me!
Hi Patrice, It’s likely that you selected “check out on Facebook” instead of “checkout on another website” option when you set up your shop. Under the first option, you sell directly through Facebook (which is not recommended). Under the second option, you can direct readers to Amazon to download your books. Unfortunately, the only way to re-set this setting is to delete your shop and start the process from the beginning again. When you have selected “checkout on another website”, you should always have a URL field in the product settings.
It seems the “checkout on another website” is no longer an option. Did I miss something?
Hi James,
I’m sorry to hear that you’re experiencing difficulties. I just tried created a page from scratch and I was given the option to choose “Check Out on Another Website” as I was setting up my store, so all seems to be in order as far as I can tell.
You are correct. My mistake.
Great article and so easy to follow- Your the master!
Thanks for the tip! I put it in use right away.
Thanks a lot. Your posts are so enlightening. I do enjoy your engaging styles.
Cheers! My Facebook Author page looks much nicer now!
for the link to Amazon, I suggest you use an affiliate link – That way you will earn commission on any click through sales in addition to your book sale.
I’m pretty sure that this is against the affiliate/bookseller terms of service. I’ve been told Amazon really does not want us authors “double-dipping.” You may want to look around K-boards or some other venues.
When I switch to the Shopping layout there is no shop tab option. I get events now, but no shop tab. 🙁 Is this something only available in the US?
Hi Ashley – it’s possible they are rolling this out slowly. Keep checking back and hopefully you will have the shop tabs soon.
Thank you Chloe, absolutely brilliant advice!
Great article, but I never get the option to choose where to check out. It jumps straight from terms and conditions to paypal or stripe. Any idea how I can force this? Thanks!
Hi Helen,
Unfortunately, no, I don’t have any recommendations for how to guarantee that you get that option. Sorry we can’t be of more assistance!
I’m not sure we’re allowed to use a Facebook Shop for ebook sales. Facebook wording in two different places gives me concern about this:
1. In the Commerce Policy here – https://www.facebook.com/policies/commerce – which is part of the Seller’s Terms & Policies we must accept when setting up the shop, #12 states “Non-physical items are prohibited on Facebook Marketplace, including but not limited to services, subscriptions, digital products, or rentals.”
2. In the Facebook Business help section here – https://www.facebook.com/business/help/846547442125798 – the Shop Section states, “Note: You can’t sell things like services or digital goods through your shop section. At this time, you can only sell physical products.”
On these pages, Facebook makes no distinction between items we sell directly via Facebook and items for which we send customers to external sites like Amazon to check out. For this reason, I’m reluctant to set this up.
Does anyone have confirmation from Facebook one way or the other?
Hi Betty,
Our understanding is that digital downloads cannot be sold directly through the Facebook Marketplace, however, it is appropriate to push customers to a third party retailer where they can download digital products. You cannot use Facebook to sell digital products directly in part because they lack the functionality to act as that type of store: whereby a customer pays for a digital download, and can immediately download it from the store. When you send the reader to another retailer to download, however, you are bypassing this concern, since the transaction isn’t taking place on Facebook at all.
Hi Ms Chloe!
You have been a BIG help for my Facebook author page! Big thank you to youuuuuu!!!
Monique
Reblogged on Wind Eggs https://www.ptstephens.com.
Much happier with my page. Not finished, but your guidelines and instructions have been most valuable.
Very cool. Thank you for this, Chloe.
I’m wide and really would like to see some sales shifted to some of the other sellers. Is it okay to list the same books multiple times but indicate they’re for the other stores?
Would be interested in this answer please.
You can absolutely list the same book multiple times, directing to different retailers. You’d just want to be sure to label them all in a clear manner so that readers don’t get confused.
As of today (March 26) I cannot find an “Apply Template” button on the Shopping template option anymore. After you go into View Details there is not button there that I can find. I went in to change the template on a client’s page today and found that option is no longer available. Anybody else seeing that? I have it changed on my own page (did it in January) and it is still working but can’t seem to find the option on pages now with the Standard template.
Hi Chris,
I just made a dummy page and found all of the options still available. I’m sorry that I can’t be of more help, since I’m not experiencing the same issue.
This is a very helpful article, but when trying to set up my page, I find that I don’t have a ‘Shop’ button. I’m wondering if I did something wrong.
Hi J.B., There is a chance that Facebook is rolling this feature out slowly (as they often do) and thus it isn’t available to all users yet.
Is there an initial or ongoing fee charged to me for selling my books through a shopping template on Facebook? I haven’t found any mention of fees so far.
Hi Dan,
No, when you sell through a third party seller using Facebook’s shopping template, there is no fee.
Fantastic article. I’ve set up several Facebook pages and it can be confusing sometimes. I added your article to my recommended links page, it’s a great resource for my readers.
Thanks again.
There is no template option on my page – where do I go from here?
Hi Mandy, There is a chance that Facebook is rolling this feature out slowly (as they often do) and thus it isn’t available to all users yet.
I was going to ask the same thing
Hi Ellen, you don’t technically need both, but they are both great ways for your readers to view your books and get a feel for you as an author. We always recommend people do as much as they can to connect with readers!
Thank you … this is awesome.
This is the best article I’ve found so far for a new author that is also new to facebook.
Is this still relevant? It looks like it was written in 2017.
Hey Nicole! This was last updated in December 2022 as Facebook often makes updates to their interface.