When you have your photograph right, you can move on and start building your page.

Step Four - Add Some Detail

Beneath the profile picture is an “About” section and to add to it, just click on it or on the button to “Update Page Info”. It's down to you what you add in here, just make sure it counts. You must fill in the sections for “Short Description”, which is a page description relating to you, and “Bio” which is just the information you use for promotion – a personal history, what you write and what you have published.

Step Five - Likes

The “like” button is how you get people to subscribe and that ensures any updates show up on their newsfeed. Anyone who sees your page can see how many likes you have. You should advertise your new page on your Twitter account as well; people expect authors to have fan pages. You can add a “Like” button to any other website or page that you are personally involved in too.

You can change how the button looks and what pages you want in on by clicking on it. When you have done that, a code will be provided; this gets included on any website to create the “Like” button.  Anyone who clicks this can like your page even though they may not be on Facebook at that point in time.

You can also pay a small amount to advertise your page and this will appear to the Facebook audience you choose. Click the “Advert Manager” button to do this.

Step Six - Add Content

To get those likes, you need content and this can be a status, a link to other content, videos or pictures. These appear on the newsfeed of anyone who likes your page. Make sure you use relevant content; your fans want to see you as an author so that’s what you need to give them.

Step Seven - Book Pages

Once your author page is done you could consider creating pages for each of your books. That’s entirely down to you but keep this in mind – if a book you write is popular, somebody will start a fan page for it – why not you?

Having control of your author and fan pages means that you can advertise across both, ensuring that fans on each page know about the other pages.

What’s Next?

Following these steps will help you to set up your author and book pages – what you put in them is up to you but just make sure you keep it professional and relevant. Next, you need to add your content to start building up your audience. Keep the content coming at a reasonable pace and interact with your followers. Cross advertise between Facebook and Twitter and any other social media site you are on for marketing purposes.

And remember, Facebook has been designed to be user-friendly and is one of the top social media sites in the world; learn how to use it to your advantage and watch your audience grow beyond your wildest dreams.