You’ve labored over writing your book. You’ve breathed a sigh of relief that it is done. “Wow, that was a lot of work.”
One of my clients said to me, “I’m done with the book. Now, can I start the next one?” Not so fast.
Now the work begins. You’ve got to promote your book.
Your promotion plan includes creating videos, revising your website to include a sales page, holding a book launch party, being a guest on a podcast, writing blogs on the topic, and so much more.
And yes, also writing social media posts. You could post an image of the book, write a post or build a carousel post. Under the new 360 Brew rules of LinkedIn, carousel posts receive preference because they keep a viewer on the platform longer.
A carousel post is a short set of slides your reader swipes through, one idea per slide. On LinkedIn, you upload it as a PDF, and on Instagram, you post it as a set of images. For an author, it’s a way to put one useful idea from your book in front of people who haven’t read it yet.
Which tool should you use to build carousel posts that promote your book?
Many authors assume the tool decides how good the carousel will be. It doesn’t. Your content decides that. The tool only changes the ease of creating the slides.
When you sit down to make a carousel post, you may be asking yourself:
- Which tool is the easiest to learn?
- Which one looks the most professional?
- Can I make carousels for free?
- Can AI write the slides for me?
That last question is the one I want to answer first. AI can arrange slides. It can’t tell your reader what you know. Keep that in mind as you look at the three tools below.
PowerPoint: the tool you already own
PowerPoint’s biggest advantage is that you probably have it and know how to use it. If you are a professional who speaks, you’ve built slides for years and already know where everything is. You control every word, every image, and every line break. When you’re done, you save the file as a PDF, and it’s ready for LinkedIn.
The drawback is that PowerPoint was built for wide slides on a projector screen. A carousel needs a square or tall slide that reads on a phone, so you’ll need to change the slide size and then rework the layout yourself. PowerPoint has few templates made for social posts, so the design is on you. Without some care, your carousel can look like a slide pulled from a business meeting.
You can use PowerPoint to create carousel slides, but I’ve found it to be more tedious than other platforms.
Canva: the template shop
Canva gives you a large library of carousel templates already sized for LinkedIn and Instagram. You drag in your text, swap the colors, and export a PDF or a set of images. The free version does a lot. The paid version saves your brand colors and fonts, so every carousel matches the last one. If you have the free version, you will receive constant requests to upgrade. In my experience, Canva misses no opportunity to remind you of the paid plan.
The drawback comes from the same thing that makes it easy. Other people use those templates too, and a reader who has seen a design ten times scrolls past it. The flexibility of Canva means that it is easy to get lost in the options and spend more time than you allocated.
No tool works every time, either—I once watched Canva transcribe the first word of my video and then quit.
Gamma: the AI that builds the slides
Gamma.app works differently. You paste in text or type a prompt, and it builds a full set of slides in a few minutes. The layouts look polished, and it’s good at turning a blog post or a chapter into slides fast. You can export to PDF, images, or PowerPoint.
The drawback is the words. If you let Gamma write them, you get generic sentences that don’t sound like you or your book. You also have less control over exactly where things sit on each slide. You’ll need to carefully review every image it creates, because the AI-generated text can be garbled.
The free plan puts a “Made with Gamma” badge on what you export, and the AI credits run out. Gamma is only a machine. It doesn’t know your reader.
I use the paid version of Gamma for the ability to gain additional credits.
How to choose
Here’s how to pick the tool that fits you.
- Write the words before you open any tool. Pull one idea from your book and write it out in five to eight short slides. It is your job to decide what you want to include in the slides, and how to limit the idea to the space available. You find the words. The tool only dresses them.
- Pick the tool you’ll open again next week. One carousel won’t sell your book. A steady series will, and you’ll keep making them only if the tool is easy to use.
- Match the tool to your patience for design. If you like control, use PowerPoint. If you want a head start on design, use Canva. If you have your text ready and want slides fast, use Gamma.
- Make every slide sound like your book. A reader who likes your carousel and then buys the book should detect your voice in both.
After experimenting with all three platforms, I find Gamma to be easiest to create carousel posts. There is much less work using it. I’ve created my custom template with my logo and colors, and can get consistently high quality slides in a fraction of the time.
Pick one tool, write your words first, and post your first carousel post this week.
While I focus on using carousel posts to promote your book, you can use this form of social media post to share ideas as you are writing your book, to spread your expertise, to comment on news stories in your niche, and so much more.
Authors work with me as a book coach to help them accomplish their goal of getting that book written. Let’s talk about how I can help you. Reach me through the contact form at patiyer.com/contact.
Pat Iyer MSN RN LNCC is a consultant, speaker, author, editor, and book coach. She has written or edited 73 of her own books and worked with dozens of authors as an editor and book coach. Book 74 is coming out in a month.