Authors' Social Media Toolkit
Short course
Expand your understanding of your author brand and how to utilise this to create an effective social media strategy.
- Benefit from focused workshops to ensure you develop practical skills in branding, basic image creation, and basic video creation.
- Run by authors for authors: our teaching team are also part of the renowned MA Writing for Young People at Bath Spa University.
- Learn to create effective image and video content that relates to your brand.
Run by tutors from Bath Spa University’s renowned MA in Writing for Young People, Authors' Social Media Toolkit: Strategy, Branding, BookTok, Canva and Beyond is designed for published and about to be published authors looking to enhance their social media know-how.
You’ll expand your understanding of your author brand and how to convey this to the industry and public via social media, including figuring out which platforms are the best fit for you, what your overall social media strategy is, and what your specific strategy for each key platform is.
You’ll gain a foundational set of video making skills, along with an enhanced understanding of how to take useful photos and how to use image making and editing software to create publicity graphics. With a solid grounding in the basics, you’ll find it easier to keep growing your skills in the areas most useful to you.
“Many authors are on social media, but few have a strategy for how they pick and use platforms, let alone a plan that supports their brand. Effective promotion and publicity via social media depend on understanding your brand and strategy so that in turn you can create effective content.”
Alexia Casale, Lecturer, MA Writing for Young People
Overview
You'll learn from a series of short lecture-style presentations from your tutors and at least one guest lecturer.
During the course you’ll workshop a range of practical skills in creating content with a focus on images and videos. You’ll cover how to take useful photographs and what to say about them in captions, basic image creation using templates in Canva, and basic video creation and editing.
By the end of the course, you’ll know how to
- identify your author brand and promotional focus for a specific book, and tie this into your social media strategy
- create effective image and video content that relates to your brand
- find and engage your target audience, including leveraging your content to increase your attractiveness to festivals, schools and the press
- understand best practice, including how to tie-in your independent efforts with the work of your publisher.
This course will take place online.
This course has now finished. If you'd like to be informed about future courses, please register your interest or email shortcourses@bathspa.ac.uk .
We're offering a special introductory discount for the first cohort of this course. You’ll pay £195 per person (discounted from £325).
It helps to bring your book; if you have several, we suggest you pick your most recent. You’ll need a pen and notebook, or laptop, for notetaking.
You must send us your author bio (as might appear on a back cover blurb), your social media links and website address before class starts – a form will be provided. You'll need a smart phone with TikTok and Canva already set-up, though you don’t need to have any content on your accounts.
It’s also suggested you have a phone stand for filming and a ring light, though the latter is not essential.
Meet the team
Gina Blaxill is an Associate Lecturer on the MA Writing for Young People. She has seven young adult (YA) novels under her belt, the most recent of which is thriller Love You to Death (2023).
In addition to teaching, she is a freelance editor for a literary consultancy, and worked for seven years delivering presentations and workshops for higher education institutions.
Having published her first book in 2011 and been an early adopter of X (formerly Twitter), she has worked on and adapted social media strategy with two different publishers. Her background in presenting is enormously helpful when it comes to TikTok.
Terms and conditions
Read the terms and conditions for taking part in this short course.
Contact us
If you'd like a bespoke course created for your company, would like to attend but can't make the dates listed above or have any queries, please contact us on shortcourses@bathspa.ac.uk .