Tweeting for self-published authors Self-published authors have to do a lot of self-promotion to get the word out about their book. Of course, we now have a lot of wonderful social media sites that make this task a bit easier. Most authors go right for Facebook, which is smart, but Twitter is often underutilized. If you have a website or if your book is listed on Amazon or another eCommerce site, you can get a lot of traffic to your website or listing by promoting on Twitter.

Here are some Twitter marketing tips to spread the word about your labor of love:

1. Tweet multiple times per day, every day. Many authors tweet once a day or once a week and think that will be enough. Keep in mind that the average Twitter user follows over 100 people, and many people follow a lot more than that. Tweets can be going by at lightning speed. So, you have to keep getting the word out there about your book and your progress to catch as many people as possible.

2. Tell a story in your tweets. You're good at that, right? :) In other words, be creative. Don't just tweet variations of "Buy my book" over and over again. Talk about your subject matter. Ask questions. If you have a work of fiction, mention your characters. Talk about the genre. Generate interest.  If you're passionate about a subject or a plot, let it show!

3. Schedule time to follow people that fit your possible readership demographic. This can be very time-consuming, but it is critical. Unless you are really well-known, you'll usually only get followed by the people you follow. And, generally speaking, the  only people who will see your tweets are those who follow you.

4. Check your interactions at least once per day. If you're logged into Twitter, it's that "@Connect" link up at the top that shows you who has mentioned you in a tweet or has followed you. It's a good idea to check your feed in the morning and then again in the late afternoon or evening. During that time you can reply to people who have mentioned you and also thank those who have taken the time to follow you.

5. Scan your twitter feed at least once per day. Spend a few minutes scanning the tweets of those you follow and retweet ones you find interesting, or ask and answer questions, watch for trends and news, or just "listen". You'll get a lot of ideas from other people about what you can tweet if you just spend some time reading other people's messages. If you follow other authors, you'll get inspiration from them as well.

6. Get involved in conversations. Many people forget that Twitter can be a way to actually talk to other people. You can ask questions, answer questions, make observations, thank people, etc.

7. Use hashtags in your tweets. Hashtags (#) help people find tweets that contain a certain subject. They also help people zero in on what your tweet is about. For instance, if your book is about the history of the violin, you can use #violin or #history in your tweets. Check out https://support.twitter.com/articles/49309-what-are-hashtags-symbols for more information.

8. Promote other authors. Many authors use Twitter to promote their work, so it will be easy for you to find other authors, follow them and find out what they are doing. Take the time to retweet them and promote them, and it's likely they'll do the same for you. After a while, you can create a network of authors who look out for each other and cross promote.

9. Start a tweet chat about your book's genre or subject matter.  Tweet chats are easy to set up. You can use a site like www.tweetchat.com to schedule a chat and choose a hashtag to use to identify the chat session. Let your social networks know that you'll be having a tweet chat, and you'll get a great conversation going! You might only have a couple of people the first time, but give it another shot and you may soon have a

If you're an author who uses Twitter to promote your book, do you have any other tips to share?