It’s well known that only a portion of our social media followers and friends ever see a given post, so it’s not too obnoxious to repost and repurpose stuff. But I’ve still had to fight my reticence for posting frequently on social media without having something new-ish to say each time.

But I do like have something new to say if I post something, so having these reviews and/or interviews helps give me an excuse to post.

Once my book was published, I started promoting it on social media channels like Facebook and LinkedIn. To my surprise, I got a lot of strong feedback and sales through LinkedIn. In retrospect, that makes sense. I have built a strong professional network of people who respect my writing on LinkedIn, while Facebook is more intimate, and more diffuse.

For example, I’m connected to my neighbors on Facebook, and we share information about garbage pick-up, but they don’t necessarily know or care about my writing, or my experiences regarding the Holocaust and generational trauma.

It also turns out that there are tons of Facebook Groups that could be relevant, and I’ve joined a number of them. At first, I was hesitant to promote my book directly for fear of offending or seeming too self-serving, but it turns out most of them welcome that sort of activity – and many people do it.

I don’t know yet exactly how effective any of this is – I have to wait for some more detailed reporting on sales, which I expect to get from my publisher at the end of the quarter. (What an anachronism that is – quarterly reporting in a digital age!)

That said, my publisher, Amsterdam Publishers, has also done a good job of supporting me, especially in light of the fact that it’s a very small independent press. My editor did some advertising on Amazon, and is pitching my book for foreign translation rights.

All that being said, there’s still a huge difference between engagement on social media and actual book sales.

I agreed to resuscitate my podcast, But I Digress, when a small press reached out to ask whether I would host one of their writers. It’s an opportunity to connect with another writer, which I always welcome, and to broaden my network.

It also pays to pay attention. Last Sunday, I took my son to a baseball game; coincidentally, the New York Boulders, a Frontier League franchise, were holding a celebration of Jewish-American culture, and a reporter from the Jewish News Agency was there speaking to leaders of a few Jewish groups seated nearby.

I said hello to him and suggested that he review my book, which he agreed to do. We exchanged numbers and he reached out a few days later to say he had ordered my book and intends to interview me after he’s finished reading it.

Always be selling!