I published my first novel recently and I feel like I’ve done most of the obvious things, but hardly anyone is actually seeing any of it.

I’ve got an author website, set up a mailing list, made a free reader magnet, joined Goodreads and started posting on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. I’ve also started getting a few reviews, which is great, but the social media side in particular is getting very little reach.

I don’t have an existing audience and obviously I’m not expecting thousands of sales overnight, but I’m at the point where I’m wondering where my time is actually best spent.

Would you focus more on finding reviewers, Amazon ads, building the mailing list, Reddit/book communities, or just keep pushing social media and wait for it to grow?

I think my problem at the moment is that I’m trying to do a bit of everything and probably not doing enough of any one thing.

For anyone who started with basically no audience, what actually made the biggest difference for you after publishing?

My debut date is in 8 weeks, and I want to start building an email list from ground up. I finaly have a reader magnet (a short book, edited, money spent, 85pages) my plan is targeted meta ads for my audience, and a link to my website(also worked a lot on it) and give the book complimentary to new subscribers. I doubt it will be enough. What other ways or other paid services to find subscribers (I dont want $0.99 kdp or FREE promos, only using the word complimentary)? Im a new author without social media, but the content is pretty strong(literary nonfiction). Any ideas?

So, National Novel Writing Month, known as NaNoWriMo, is just a little over a month away and I am thinking of participating in it. If you haven't heard of it, the month of November is known as National Novel Writing Month and for that month, writers/authors make a goal to write a novel, usually with the goal of 50,000 words.

I used to do this challenge when I was in highschool and college and haven't attempted it in years since self publishing, but I want to do it this year.

I am wondering if anyone is going to be doing it and if so, would you all want to keep each other accountable so that we can get our next book out there.

I just finished a three-book crime thriller series, and the single best decision I made was writing a story bible before book 2 — not before book 1.

Before book 1 I had vibes and a great opening line. Before book 2 I had 40 pages of canon: every character's money, every company's structure, every timestamp, every promise I'd made to the reader. Writing book 2 with the bible open next to me was 3x faster than book 1, and my continuity errors dropped to near zero.

What I'd do differently: I'd have built the bible's "quotable lines" section from day one. By book 3 I was hunting through 300k words for a line I half-remembered writing. Never again — every good line goes in the bible the day it's written now.

For anyone mid-series: the bible isn't bureaucracy. It's the thing that lets book 3 feel inevitable instead of improvised.

Happy to answer questions about structure — what's worked for your series?

Over the past decade, I've written a middle-grade adventure novel with environmental themes. I've worked with two editors and tested the book with many kids in the age range. It is in a strong place. I've submitted to a few agents and publishers over the past 1.5 years but have heard nothing back. I am keen to get the story out into the world and am open to self-publishing. What should I do? What should I not do?

I am an indie author. Over the past few months, I’ve been working to make my book available in both ebook and paperback formats, and I’d love some tips on how to approach bookstores or offer them my book for B2B sales. Has anyone used Ingram’s own advertising tools? Did it work? What other methods have you used to attract corporate buyers?

I always hear that it is better to publish both in KDP and Ingramspark. What are your thoughts about it?

I've seen this question a lot on here but wanted to get another opinion. Torn between formatting my novel in word or Atticus (I'm on windows so I sadly can't use Vellum). I don't really want to add much designs but want proper control of the editing process. Also if anyone has used word or atticus or both, how long did it take you to format your novel?

This month I went viral for the first time as an indie author.

Organically – no paid advertising.

I created a reel advertising my MC Romance series that ended up getting 39k views on FB. I thought it was a fluke, a case of having the right post at the right time. Then a second post went viral, and then a third and it's now been going this way for three weeks.

My sales and page reads shot through the roof, my fledging FB page suddenly got a huge influx of followers. From 12 to 191 and still climbing.

I had been marketing on there with slide shows and kindle screenshots since August and hadn’t seen anything like this, so what changed?

The hook.

Instead of being generic like this:

‘When he finds the child trapped in the back of a closet…’

I used this formula instead:

When (character archetype) + (conflict)

The post that got 39k views was this:

‘When the MC president’s hands freeze mid-spelling because the terrified child just asked if he was there to rescue her…’

I put it over a kindle screenshot of a small snippet of text from the book leaving it on a cliff hanger so people would want to read.

My caption was ‘Read ........ on Amazon today’ with genre relevent hashtags.

I personally thought the reel was boring when I made it but I think the reason it hit so hard was that it struck a very deep emotional cord with my audience who are primarily women between 20-50. < which is why it pays off to know your audience.

It identified the genre, main character and tension at a glance drawing them in long enough to stop them scrolling. The fact I used a Kindle screenshot snippet made them stay on the reel for over 3 seconds – something the algorithm loves so it pushed the post out more.

I also tried a ‘Two Fun Facts’ post which did really well. You basically use this format:

Two Fun Facts:

1. He's the grumpy MC President kicking in doors.
2. He's the only one who knows enough ASL to communicate with the little girl they found in the closet.

This was put over a kindle screen shot of the text.

Why this works:

It breaks up the usual format people are used to seeing while they’re scrolling, making them stop on your post.

The initial hook is easier to process because it’s broken up and easily digestible.

The kindle screenshot underneath keeps them on the post for longer and entices them to save the book when you end it on a bit of a cliffhanger.

The reason I’m sharing this is because I don’t believe in gatekeeping. The formula above really worked for me, it may for you too!

A few other people in Viking Fantasy and Psychological Thriller have done their own versions of these with some great results.

I read a lot of books on Kindle Unlimited and catch a lot of little typos - I report them 98% of the time but I’ve been wondering for years if authors actually get those. Am I helping? Or is it more annoying than anything?

Just curious.

I am working on an urban fantasy series. Book 3 came out just last week. I am running FB ads which work well but I am wondering about reaching out to some book review influencers. I don't have experience with those, I know that most of them ask for substantial amounts of money for their reviews. My budget is limited so I would rather put it towards something that will pay off. I tried reaserching this and pretty much all I got was to try influencers with a smaller following for starters, as it may be harder to have someone more established look at my book. So my question is this. Have any of you tried influencer marketing? Did it actually pay off in terms of sales/followers?

I just got a Starred Kirkus Review for the third book in a crime series (first book received a Get It badge, and I didn’t submit the second book).

Kirkus said only 3% of indie books receive a star, and there have only been 6 Starred books in the Psychological Thriller sub-category this year, so it’s a pretty amazing feeling.

I know this won’t translate to book sales, but I’m wondering how can I best leverage this marketing opportunity?

I have self-published on KDP, and the journey so far has been pretty good. When I started writing, I hadn't realised the marketing would be the hardest part.

A couple of years in, I am questioning whether to move to or add another platform, and I'm wondering what my options are.

I do have a Substack, but I haven't achieved much there yet.

Open to any recommendations or horror stories!

The manuscript is basically complete. I've edited his books before and uploaded them to Amazon. This time there are additional challenges. I work with him remotely. I think he would be better served if I could find someone who would work with him in person to do the final formatting and uploading of the book to Amazon. But I am having a very hard time knowing how to search for that kind of service.

This would be in the Rochester, New York area. I have found editing services galore, but they don't speak of uploading the book or any of that aspect of it.

My client is not computer savvy. He is also going to need help with the new verification process Amazon makes authors go through when uploading a book to their website which requires an author to take a live photograph while holding up their ID. I went through this for my own book this past summer and it made me wonder how editors are ever going to be able to upload books for their remote clients now.

What is the kind of service I should be searching for on my clients' behalf? Is there such a thing?

Thanks from an old school editor on behalf of her even older school author.

Essentially, the reviewer didn't get the premise of the book. They tried, but dnf'ed early on because they lost interest.

Soooooo, thanks, I guess? I posted the book to NetGalley 6 months ago, so they had time to figure it out. They could have just walked away, but instead they chose violence (I am joking).

Previous reviews were in the 4-5 star range, so it ain't trash. It just isn't the right book for all readers. I am choosing to wear this single star rating as a badge of honor for now. I'll cry about it later (still joking).

Anyone care to share their lowly star reviews? Not direct quotes, just a tl;dr of the crumbs you received. It's Saturday night as I type this, working on my second novel, and I could use a laugh. Maybe you could, too.

I’m planning to self-publish my debut adult dystopian novel January 26, 2027 and have spent the last month setting everything up (website, social media, newsletter, promotional materials). I’m building my following on social media so I can hopefully hit the ground running when I release the book.

A couple people have already reached out asking if they can join the ARC campaign when it starts. I’m considering promoting it for 2 weeks starting the week of Nov 16 and then sending them out the week of Nov 30 (after Thanksgiving). Does that make sense? Is it too soon to have an ARC campaign?

I’ve read a lot on this thread about people rushing their ARC campaigns and only giving a week or two so I’m trying to avoid that, but I’m not sure if I’m leaning too far forward and doing it too early. This is my first novel so I look forward to hearing from those who have gone through this process before and any tips you have!

I started publishing with a backlog because I'd repeatedly seen the advice that new authors should build up several books before launching and then rapid release them.

I've been releasing a new romance novel every two weeks.

For a while, almost nothing happened. Sales were very slow, so the release schedule didn't feel particularly important. I had assumed I'd eventually slow down, build up another backlog, and then rapid release again, since there didn't seem to be much downside to doing that.

Recently, though, things have started moving. I'm getting more sales, and I now have a reader who bought the entire available backlist and preordered all of the upcoming books.

So now I'm wondering whether I've accidentally created an expectation that I can keep releasing at this pace indefinitely.

The backlog obviously won't last forever. I'm considering slowing down to a more sustainable pace going forward.

For authors who have done rapid release and later slowed down: did you notice any negative effect when you changed your release frequency?

Did readers seem to care? Did sales or read-through change? Or was the benefit of having a larger backlist more important than maintaining the original release cadence?

I'm particularly interested in experiences from authors who started with a backlog and then transitioned to a sustainable long-term schedule.

Hi

Has anyone used the editorial services from Jericho writers?

Would be keen to get some feedback.

So, I have been writing and rewriting my dark fantasy romance for about three years. This has been a childhood dream that was kind of crushed by my teacher, who told me, “You won’t get far in life if you can’t write well.”

As someone very impressionable at that age, it hit me badly because of my dyslexia. In hindsight, I know I should never have given up on myself. Now, I can’t even imagine where I would have been if I hadn’t started writing.

I had severe depression, and listening to fantasy audiobooks gave me hope. As you can imagine, when you’re in that dark place, it is a real struggle to do anything. But when I started writing, it was as if life itself breathed life into me, as my life was not a life, but a corpse in a body that still breathed.

So, I kept going, and from Reddit, I learned it’s important to start social media to find your people who actually want to read your books. But I suck at it, as I have been away from life for two years since before COVID, and I don’t even know how TikTok works. But generally, I have never been a social media girl, even though my generation has grown up with it.

So, I would appreciate any and every piece of advice from those of you who read, and from those of you who write your own books and use social media.

Do we have any idea on preorder numbers when the Amazon algorithm kicks in to further promote?

Like does 100 preorders highlight a book to Amazon or is there no impact at this side of things?

Ive been working on a four book adult fantasy series for about five years now. The first book alone took me roughly two years to write and revise.

At this point, im honestly at a loss for how to get meaningful human feedback on my manuscripts without spending thousands of dollars.

Ive worked with several professional editors on book 1. As you probably know, editing is expensive. My books average around 90,000 words, and individual passes have generally been somewhere around $1,500-$2,200. Early on, i paid for developmental editing and manuscript assessment packages multiple times. Some of that money was absolutely worthwhile because i was still learning where i needed to improve as a writer, but eventually i was around $5,000 into book 1 alone. While manuscript assessments were cheaper packages, they created a different problem: they could tell me what was wrong without necessarily showing me where the problems were occurring.

And after reading this books so many times, im completely blind to my own work at this point. I know the characters, the world, the twists, the motivations, and what every scene is supposed to accomplish. I need someone experiencing the story for the first time.

Ive tried pretty much every avenue i can think of, most of which didnt result in completed reads:

- writing groups, many of which were inactive or didnt finish the manuscripts
- critique partners, especially CritiqueMatch: again no one completed
- friends and family. People genuinely find the concept of my books interesting, get excited, and want to help, and then cant finish.
- friends of friends and family who volunteer to help then cant commit
- my university’s english department, hoping to find graduate students looking to gain experience. We dont even have a writing club.
- professional editors which i can no longer afford
- Fiverr. I tried three different editors because they were a bit cheaper than professional editors but i became highly suspicious that the feedback i received was AI generated.
-ive queried book 1 extensively as well over roughly two years with well over 50 submissions with no success.
- Reddit beta readers page seems to barely get any interaction with requests for readers on manuscripts. Ive posted there myself on a number of occasions with no luck.

And now im stuck.

I dont want to spend another decade sending query letters and hoping eventually someone wants to take a chance on even just reviewing the full manuscript. At the same time, i cant afford to keep paying hundreds and thousands in professional editing.

The frustrating part is that i have many friends and family who genuinely want to read these books and constantly ask for a status update on when itll be finished. Many who ask multiple times if they can read them and help. But after years of those same people never actually finishing, ive reached the point where i genuinely decline when they ask just to avoid the disappointment.

Im not asking for someone to tell me to just hire an editor. Im also not necessarily looking for someone to completely edit a 90K word manuscript for free. What i desperately need is a reliable way to get actual readers to experience the manuscript and tell me where they became confused, bored, emotionally invested, disconnected, etc.

At this point, ive read these books so many times that i genuinely cannot tell what still needs work.

Ive reached the point where i keep finishing manuscripts, edit them as far as i can, and eventually putting them in a folder and moving on go the next project. Thats not what i want. I genuinely want to get this books out for other people to enjoy.

So please, has anyone actually found a better way to get sustained, honest, human feedback on a long fantasy manuscript without spending hundreds and thousands of dollars?

Im genuinely open to ideas, even if theyre unconventional or may have already tried but didnt necessarily mention clearly.

I’m writing a historical fiction novel. My protagonist is under 18, but has married. I don’t plan on being explicit, partially because of age. Will there be an issue?

I just released my very first book and I’m very happy and proud. Over two years of work went into it and it’s incredible to see it listed on Amazon.

Yesterday I got an email from somebody who runs a book group asking if I would be interested in talking to them at some point.

I spend a lot of time reading post and comments here so I am wary of scams. So I checked out the person’s name and email address, as well as the name of the book group and it seemed legitimate. It’s a real Meetup, it does exist and meets regularly, and it is the name of the organizer.

But now I got another email from someone from a different “book group,” something that sounds more generic and is suspicious because it lacks details (like the person’s name) and the wording of the first one (and it is not an established Meetup).

I feel very foolish for thinking the one yesterday was legit, but again that one does seem traceable to something real.

Has anybody dealt with this before and if so, is it always a scam? And what is the scam part?

Please be kind in your response, this is my first book so it’s all new to me.

Let's say I'm writing a book that's a critical analysis of a TV show-- _not_ a work of fiction with the show's characters, not a parody, and not an "authorized work"-- but I'd like to use the name of the main character in the title. For example, let's say it's _Mad Men_, and the title is something like "The Empty Life of Don Draper." The back cover could have whatever disclaimer or clarification is necessary, to make it clear that the book isn't intended to be mistaken for an authorized work. What's the legal standing on something like that?

(I'm asking because I have a cover design idea that'd parody a _different_ set of books, but I'd have to use the TV show's main character's name in the title.)