How do you promote a novel you wrote and self-published?

September 3, 2024 12:57 PM

At the beginning of last month, I published my first novel through Kindle Direct Publishing (amongst others). And while I have gotten some sales, I don't know how to grow any following. I've been using a Facebook page, but no one's joined it; the same with an Instagram account, a YouTube account, and a TikTok account. I also post about it on my Bluesky and Twitter accounts. I don't have a huge social media following, so I'm not sure what I can do with my budget, which is effectively zero.

I know that a zero-budget attempt at advertising relies entirely on word of mouth, and you can't force that. I also don't want to be one of those annoying people where it's all they talk about.

I mean, I sold 18 copies! That's not bad! But there's a part of me that wants to get it out to more people who might like it.

I've created a video to promo it on YT and Tiktok, but if it doesn't get suggested to anyone, no one sees it. I don't know much about promotion - I once tried freelancing and was so bad at selling myself that I had to give up.

Thank you.

posted by mephron to Shopping (24 answers total)

The world now is different than the world a decade+ ago, but the two full-time indie authors who I'm trying to keep up with both worked on building online communities. Nathan Lowell talks about it in this interview (and somewhere there was a podcast where he talked about setting the tone, and bringing people into the community), though he also managed to ride the early podcasting boom. I don't know of specific interviews, but Rick Gualtieri has built a thriving Facebook community, with several volunteer moderators, and that community has spawned various other indie authors (though I don't think many of them have made the leap to being full-time).
posted by straw at 1:03 PM on September 3

You know those online listicles that're like "fantastic thrillers coming out just in time for summer!" and "Best new beach reads!" and "Top 20 breakout authors"? Those writers didn't do a lot of research such as reading books to come up with those lists; the writers for listicles like that aren't allowed the time to any kind of in-depth research. Rather, they come from press-releases and other promotional material such as from publishing houses. You are a publishing house, of sorts.

Do you have any press contacts you could turn into promotion? The Press isn't exactly lazy, but they do like low-effort news sources which allow them to dedicate budget and time to the more high-effort stuff.

You could even try just submitting press releases announcing your book. I'm not sure what goes into these releases, but reading stories about book releases, at least ones that aren't interview-based, would be a good lead. Make your release soemthing that can be easily massaged into a printed story. Send it to the local paper, local news (local because you're a local author), and find some web-based lit-news publications that fit your genre or intended audience; send it to them.

Conceivably they may have a paid advertising requirement, so prepare yourself to receive a brusque reply requesting payment. One day you may have a budget, and this sort of thing may give you some ideas of how to spend it; in the meantime, decline politely so as to not burn the bridge. Remember, it's not personal-- if they're shaking you down, it's because they shake everyone down.

Good luck!
posted by Sunburnt at 1:17 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]

I think you should think about this as not promoting the book, but promoting you as a person who writes things people want to read. This means building a community of people who know you and are interested in you beyond just this book. Post and engage with others in an organic way on social media, especially social media activities that are popular with people who might like this sort of book. This means posting frequently, replying to other people, sharing thoughts and ideas and content that makes people think that you are interesting and worth getting to know more about. This could also mean going to in-person gatherings like meetups or other events for indie authors, fantasy lovers, and queer spaces. But essentially, without a marketing budget for the book itself, the best thing you can do is get people interested in reading stuff that you have produced, and the only way to do that is to be an active participant in social communities.

I have a book that was not self-published but a lot of the reason anyone read it in the first place was due to the time I had spent both blogging and being active in related social media to the book topic. My publisher did very little to sell my book, but I had an audience for it that I had built before it was written. If the book is good, it can escape the community of people who know you (or sort of know you via social media), but this is really the only way to get eyes on it without any marketing money.
posted by ch1x0r at 1:20 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]

This might make you uncomfortable, but things like ChatGPT are actually really great at coming up with actionable marketing lists. Be specific about what you wrote and who you want to target when you write the prompt, and it'll give you a pretty good step by step guide.

This is a self-link, but I also have a guide to marketing your own book, which, if it makes a difference, I wrote all by myself.
posted by headspace at 1:28 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]

I'm not an author, but I've followed Dan Blank of We Grow Media for many years. He has a ton of practical advice for marketing your book, and also offers workshops. His main premise is finding quality readers and building your audience authentically.
posted by hydra77 at 1:37 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]

PS: Don't forget to add a link to it in your MF bio, and I think you can also post it on Projects(?).
posted by hydra77 at 1:38 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]

Do you regularly attend fantasy/ science fiction conventions?
posted by corb at 1:52 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]

Best answer: 1) We live in a shameless age and if you're going to draw any attention to your book, you're going to have to be a little shameless yourself. However vulgar or naff the process seems, you've just got to steel yourself to that. For a first-time author who's currently unknown, that goes double (but see point 5).

2) Is there a blog, podcast or magazine/fanzine which covers the kind of fiction you've produced? If so, send them a copy with a single-sheet press release designed to get them excited about it and feel it deserves some coverage. Keep the release SHORT and PUNCHY - you've got two minutes to grab their attention, so don't waste it. If you're lucky enough to find someone there who's interested, do everything you can to help them produce an interesting and entertaining piece (including making yourself available for an interview if they should want to do one).

3) If you're approaching a print magazine or a website, make sure you send them a good photograph of yourself and a good quality scan of the book's cover. These don't have to be expensive professional shots, but they shouldn't be crappy out of focus ones with half your head missing either. For any medium that uses pictures, this will improve your chances of getting some coverage and may win that coverage a slightly more prominent spot.

4) Make a Metafilter Projects post about the book, including a link to somewhere it can be purchased. This may be enough to sell an extra copy or two, and well as (maybe) getting a conversation started about your work.

5) Understand that most of these efforts will prove dispiriting and completely thankless. Only you can decide how much (if any) time you want to devote to them. You may decide you've got better and infinitely more enjoyable ways to spend your time, if which case there's a lot to be said for the simple satisfaction of having produced a book you're proud of.
posted by Paul Slade at 2:05 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: hydra88, Paul Slade: I did make a Projects link for it, here: https://projects.metafilter.com/6295/I-published-a-novel-The-Ballad-of-the-Grey-Swan

corb: no, I don't. I started this to distract myself from the existential despair of being unemployed (hello, rejection #327, came in as I was writing this) and I can't really afford them. December brings PAX Unplugged to town, which would probably be a perfect opportunity, but, uh, it's the money thing again.

ch1x0r: I've tried that, but either I'm just bad at it or somehow manage to be The Most Ignorable Trans Person In The Universe, because I literally posted about it on Bluesky and got a message of "hey, maybe you should post about it more often"... on a quote-skeet. Sometimes I think I have a superpower that makes people forget that I exist.

back to Paul: I tried reaching out to some of the podcasts and blogs, and didn't even get the courtesy of a "hi, we'll be in touch if we think it might be interesting" autoreply. Thus my kind of depressed state.

(This may just be a thing where I find something that despite trying, I'm not good at it, and should give up.)
posted by mephron at 2:21 PM on September 3

Authors in your genre promote themselves relentlessly. Not just the self-published authors, authors who are traditionally published don’t get much help nowadays and have to do it themselves. That means constantly posting videos and a newsletter and putting out books quickly.

My suggestion is to find a recent (past 3 years) author whose career path seems aspirational and see what they did.
posted by betweenthebars at 2:28 PM on September 3

ch1x0r: I've tried that, but either I'm just bad at it or somehow manage to be The Most Ignorable Trans Person In The Universe, because I literally posted about it on Bluesky and got a message of "hey, maybe you should post about it more often"... on a quote-skeet. Sometimes I think I have a superpower that makes people forget that I exist.

But my point is not post about your book, it's post more period, and make sure your book is prominently linked in your profile etc, so that people engage with you and look at your profile and your website and book etc. But, forgive me, I found your bluesky and you just don't seem like you're following enough people? "Follow back" isn't a foolproof strategy but I might try following more people, in the hopes that some will follow back, and start interacting with you more. Maybe start reading up on how to gain a big social media following? I think that's easier than selling a book, and a good first step to getting potential readers.
posted by ch1x0r at 2:44 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]

I self-pubish too; I've sold 50,000 books. Of which, oh dear, 908 were fiction. Selling fiction is hard. Years ago, I also tried submitting to publishers; it was hard then and it'll be near-impossible today.

I am also terrible at selling myself, but I do have one asset that may worth reflecting on: before publishing a book I'd spent 15 years establishing a presence on the web: a meaty, frequently updated website, a blog, a forum. Basically, if you provide a lot of material for free— not just ads or promotions for the book— you can get fans who will buy extra stuff.

Also, one good way of not worrying too much about the last book is to write the next one. That's also something the big writers do: produce plenty of product.
posted by zompist at 2:47 PM on September 3 [7 favorites]

mephron: I've been using a Facebook page, but no one's joined it; the same with an Instagram account, a YouTube account, and a TikTok account. I also post about it on my Bluesky and Twitter accounts. I don't have a huge social media following, so I'm not sure what I can do with my budget, which is effectively zero.

The thing about social media is that it is, indeed, social. I think the best free way to promote social media accounts is to get out there and make connections with people. Start following relevant hashtags, post in them, but also comment on other people's posts and interact with what they're sharing, especially if they are fellow smaller/indie creators. Your goal here is genuine friendship and community. If you want people to read your stuff, read theirs and show them love; this should be a win-win for you because you'll also find some new cool books to read this way. If you want people to give you advice or help you in your career, do something nice for them first. Not all people are trustworthy or give back in equal measure, but there are good people out there.

(I'm not a published writer but I have made friends and found creative communities that support each other like this through social media)
posted by capricorn at 3:35 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]

Nobody has mentioned LibraryThing yet! The LibraryThing page How Authors Can Use LibraryThing tells you what you need to know, about what you can and should do and wght you can't or shouldn't do.
posted by Logophiliac at 4:10 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]

You can buy ads on KDP but you have to optimize your keywords to avoid paying more than you make in sales. You really need some kind of outside sales funnel, a blog, social media, helpful online tool, etc.
posted by credulous at 4:54 PM on September 3

Many, many years ago, I attended a talk on how to networking where the speaker said the basic rule of networking is "give, give, get" In other words, you have to invest significantly in building your network, connecting with others, supporting the community and getting known as a interesting useful person before you can expect your connections to do a favor for you.

The people that I know who are successful creatives spend a heck of a lot of their time on connection and community building (mostly via social media these days). It's a whole job - completely separate but just as demanding of the job of writing a book in the first place.

That said, can you ask all 18 of your readers to post reviews for you - Amazon, Good Reads, wherever else people go to find books? Do you know anyone personally with a bigger following who might be willing to do a free giveaway for you? Are there any independent GLBTQ or fantasy oriented bookstores where you could stop by and talk the buyer about creating an event. (Although then you might need to pay for physical copies to have on hand which might not be in your budget)
posted by metahawk at 5:16 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]

With the kindest of intent, you should seriously reconsider that title and cover art.

When I buy obviously self-published books it's because I saw an ad for it on Facebook and was either intrigued or amused by the title and/or cover art.

Sit down and write out at least 50 possible alternate titles and see if something better comes to you.

Commission an artist to paint the most visually dramatic scene from the book (or whichever the most dramatic scene you could depict without the art covering major spoilers). There are tons of highly skilled arts on Tumblr doing fantasy art commissions for very reasonable prices.

Then do some A/B testing where you set up two otherwise identical Facebook ads, one for each version of the book, both advertised to a random subset of the same target

Spend a little money on this experiment to see which version sells best before you do a full-blown marketing campaign -- you don't want to waste a bunch of time and money fighting an uphill battle to sell a few copies of an unappealing looking book when you could be getting an order of magnitude more sales from the same marketing budget with a more exciting title and cover art.
posted by Jacqueline at 7:18 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]

I love queer fantasy romance, so I am your target audience. I am only a reader and have no advice for promoting your book. I just wanted to note that the cover art doesn't suggest "queer fantasy novel" and the font made me initially read the the title as "The Ballad of the Grey Sulan." Neither would have enticed me to click on your description, so I would have missed your book.
posted by Sauter Vaguely at 7:39 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]

Your best sales tool for your book? The next book. Write it now. 😎 I would also say that making yourself part of a community may have multiple positives for you. Many successful writers began as fans of the genre; their involvement in the community has assisted them in becoming known when they make the switch into professional authorship. If you use your social media to promote other writers (and possibly artists) whose work you like, as well as your own, you are actually contributing to your community in an organic way and it is more likely that these people will get interested in your work, potentially opening avenues for cross pollination of marketing between you all. Being in community with others who are going through the same writing/promoting challenges is so affirming! Bonus: if you are at all comfortable with social interaction, involvement in your community can be beneficial for your mental health. It can be such a relief just to sit down and have a cup of coffee with someone who enjoys words as much as you do! And it doesn’t have to be expensive. Chances are good there’s already a genre writing group in your area, but if not, you can start one. You can meet up at a coffee shop or bookstore or public park for co-working sessions. You can attend one another’s book launch parties, etc. (just did this last weekend. Discovered a new-to-me bookstore in addition to being out of the house.) I wish you well in your writing, and I am digressing just for a moment to congratulate you on finishing the book! First one’s the hardest. Remember to give yourself encouragement. You deserve it.
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 8:20 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]

Also, now that I’ve clicked the link and looked at your blog, I agree with the suggestions above that you reconsider at least the font. Regarding the cover, it might be a useful exercise to look at the top 20 sellers in your specific genre and see if there are any common elements that code them as queer fantasy. Remember that most people looking for your book are going to have just a flicker of their eyes across the cover to have it register their attention or not. Make it easy for your readers to spot your book and recognize that it’s for them. Hiring an artist is absolutely in your best interest. Did you know there are artists that license pre-made covers? Those are generally less expensive, but you have to spend a lot of time looking for the right match.
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 8:48 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]

I would definitely have no idea what your book contained by that cover, for sure.

Have you considered giving copies of your books to folks in exchange for reviews? I’ve had friends who wrote books send copies to me for similar requests.
posted by corb at 11:59 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]

I follow author Jason Pargin on social media. He recently made a short video describing everything he does to promote his books. His strategy on social media is to make frequent short videos on a variety of weird, funny, interesting topics, most of which have nothing to with his book but they help to build a following. He says he posts 95% interesting content, and throws in a plug for his book about 5% of the time. He's one of my favorite creators on social media, even though I don't read the kind of fiction he writes. I'd totally buy his books if I did though.

Anyway, check out his video linked below for a super-quick rundown of his marketing strategy.

Link to Jason Pargin video
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 3:50 AM on September 4 [2 favorites]

First, I suspect that marking your book as 18+ effectively puts it in the porn dungeon--I literally searched for "Ballad of the Grey Swan" and then your name on Amazon and got ZERO results on either search--but as I don't upload books myself, I'd have to defer to someone else if it's true or not. If my guess is right, a regular sex scene is not a reason to mark it 18+, they're basically asking if it's erotica.

Second, I am a cover designer for indie authors (I am not your cover designer, nor am I shilling for business). Harsh but true: the cover is amateurish, and people do judge a book by its cover. They have to. They're overwhelmed by thousands and thousands of results when searching for books to read. If nobody they know has recommended it, they judge first by the cover and second by the description.

Take a look at the top 100 Amazon bestseller lists in your genres. Does your cover look like those? Does it effectively get both the title and the genre across at 1.5" tall? (Tip: the rapier is too stylized to look like a rapier at small sizes) Does it also get across the mood of your book? I fear that swashbuckler stories like the ones you name-check tend to have pictorial covers, not object covers, but fantasy with object covers looks better if it's more highly designed (for, er, want of a better term).

Third, you also need to work on your description. There's at least one punctuation error, there's a few vague words, etc. I'd suggest finding a group of writers online to workshop the description. But as a thought to start, begin with the stakes, like a hammer-blow, then work on refining it so that there's less setup and more action, and pare away as many words as possible that aren't necessary. (Look at the description for Nicholas Atwater and Olivia Atwater's A Matter of Execution for an example of what I'm talking about.) For example: do we really need to know the Grey Swan is robbing merchants in their barony? The words "Baron Corbeau" and "bandit" get that across effectively without the extra verbiage.

And fourth, the secret to selling a bunch of fiction on Amazon is to (1) write a bunch of fiction and get it uploaded, and (2) to find where your audience is and go to them. Sales come from sell-through on multiple books--it's extremely rare that a single book sells well, if at all. And unfortunately you will eventually need to advertise, but others above have mentioned various places you can try to find your readers.

Good luck!
posted by telophase at 3:36 PM on September 4 [3 favorites]

Do you do Discord? If yes, join this server immediately. It was founded with romance writers in mind and still has that broad focus, but their industry-related information, self-publishing advice, and so on is top notch as they are all working in the self-publishing sphere.
posted by daikaisho at 2:38 PM on September 5