It’s never been easier to get a book published, but I think it’s never been harder to get noticed (I’m sharing what’s working for me later in this post).
While I’ve released a lot of short stories as ebooks during the past two decades, last year I finally indie published a new book. The book was a dark fantasy called West of Apocalypse. Writing that book gave me a high unlike anything else I’d previous written. It was creative heroin, and I’ll be chasing that high the rest of my life, a problem I’m happy to suffer. Only, once I finished the book, it broke my heart.
West of Apocalypse was inspired by the first book my wife Sheri lent me way back in high school, Stephen King’s The Gunslinger. I used King’s Roland Deschain as a template but made my main character a young woman on a quest for revenge with a magic sword. I started Ayleen Torr’s journey in a similar place and let her take me where she wanted to go. It started as a bit of a thought experiment. As I wrote the book, I realized my writing had leveled up, which thrilled me. The book spilled out of me with a joyous ease.
But West of Apocalypse never found a home as I spent the next five years submitting to agents and publishers. That’s why it broke my heart and why I finally indie published it. I couldn’t stomach the idea of something so special to me being hidden from others and not being able to talk about it and why it was so important.
Indie publishing forces a writer to wear a lot of hats, and the option and ease of self publishing has never been as accessible as it is now. That ease of access creates a new problem, though: how to get noticed.
Once I released West of Apocalypse, getting it noticed seemed near impossible. I posted it on NetGalley for a month. Only thirteen people downloaded it, and only one of them even posted a review (thankfully, a glowing one, but still… only one person).
In the months that followed, I realized how difficult it was to get noticed. I learned important lessons about navigating social media, but also came to recognize where my strengths are as a promoter. I’m a damn good public speaker, but finding a stage to stand on… that’s not easy. I have to convince strangers I’m worth the effort. I also discovered tools within Instagram I hadn’t realized I could take advantage of. I’m also recognizing that paying to do ads actually does pay off.
I also learned my weaknesses. Doing a newsletter… Ugh. I hate it. I’ve been lousy with getting any traction on TikTok (but getting better), and I hate BlueSky.
Things I discovered were especially vital to promotion:
Perfecting my pitch, not just in conversation but for a one-to-two sentence post in social media (they aren’t the same)
Your passion for a project doesn’t improve the marketability of the concept. No matter how brilliant and well-written West of Apocalypse might be, readers of dark fantasy aren’t as rabid readers compared to the romance and erotica markets.
Even if your book isn’t funny, finding ways to engage potential readers with humor can go a long way.
All those pre-order campaigns don’t apply to indie books. Traditional publishing requires added emphasis on pre-orders and sales in the first few months. Indie is a long game, but that also means it’s easy to get lax and fail to promote the way you need to. The long game requires the author to maintain a steady amount of promotion.
For the release of my upcoming novel, The Dragon Spy, I’m off to a stronger start even with two months before the release. What am I doing differently?
More creative videos to post to promote the book. I did a fun unboxing video that riffed on the spy genre which is a major part of this novel. I already have other video ideas to do between now and the book’s release.
When my first book Gidion’s Hunt came out back in 2013, the bookstore I did my book release with told me the big questions most readers have is “Why” the author wrote the book, but in social media, I’ve learned the question a reader asks is “Why” they should read it. I had some small success with this approach while promoting West of Apocalypse.
Repetition is important in social media, but with lots of non-promotional material scattered between the promos. Thankfully, I have two adorable dogs, but I’m also happy to help promote other writers, which isn’t the same as promoting my own work. When the book release event rolled around for West of Apocalypse, the bookstore told me that each time I posted, more people signed up. I just got the Eventbrite link from Fountain Bookstore yesterday to promote the book release for The Dragon Spy, and I’ve already started sharing it, even though the even isn’t until October 1st (note the shameless use of a hyperlink for the event there).
On Instagram, I can share a hyperlink in a story, even though I can’t in a post. And if I tag someone in a story, they can then share it in their stories. I can also hide some of the tags by hiding the text beneath images or by making the font the same color as the background.
Since I’m releasing my paperback copy of The Dragon Spy through IngramSpark, I’m shamelessly tagging them in almost every post I do for the book. IngramSpark’s social media manager is great about sharing posts and stories on IG.
I put The Dragon Spy up on NetGalley for a month, but this time, I got it up earlier (four months prior to the book’s release). With West of Apocalypse, I cut it too close, putting it up the month before it came out. While I think the timing helped The Dragon Spy, I suspect the book’s more marketable concept helped even more. More than 45 people downloaded it, and it already has five reviews, four of which are extremely positive. And I’ll be putting those to good use in my social media.
TikTok will recognize when you’re selling something and limit your posts from showing. Once I selected the option to acknowledge I was essentially a commercial account, it improved my visibility. The trade off is that my music option are dramatically limited to avoid using unlicensed music (the options are still better than I expected).
I’ve discovered many writers LOVE using Canva to create promotional graphics. I hate it. Even though I use an ancient program called Paint Shop Pro 7.0, I still find it’s faster for me to make a static image. HOWEVER, Canva does allow an option for animations that I can’t do with my old program, so I’m still trying to get better at using it. If I use multiple images in a post, though, I find the transitions allowed by TikTok and Instagram both provide plenty of punch without resorting to Canva.
This is how life is for trying to get noticed in the indie world. Truth is, it’s not much better even for authors who are traditionally published. Not sure how helpful this will be for some of you, but share your tricks of the trade in the comments.