Why yes, this is my marketing strategy…why do you ask?
It’s been approximately…one year since my last blog post. One year as of yesterday, in fact. Yikes . I’ll be up front with you: the first part of this post is going to be a bit of a drudge. But if you get through that, I have some fun work and life updates to share! So please “bare with,” as Tilly would say in the BBC sitcom Miranda(IYKYK).
March first was the one-year anniversary of the release of Wake of the Huntress! I truly can’t believe it. I had all these grand plans in my head, cool things I could try to put together as a celebration for this milestone, maybe create some of the much-needed buzz that has been waning as of late. But best laid plans, as they say, and it turned into nothing more than a regular Instagram post with a picture of my book cover and some of my favorite reviews. I was left feeling like I could have done more. Much more.
I’m not a marketing person. I’ve learned that lesson over the past year as I was trying to get my book out there. Writers aren’t usually the kind of people who like to put themselves “out there”, so to speak, and I have made a lot of friends in this community who are in the same predicament as myself. Depending on your life situation, it’s hard enough to find or make time to actually write, let alone try to sell your book.
There are a few issues that go into figuring out marketing. First of all, there are the choices of mediums. Things like social media, Amazon, and Google ads are REALLY expensive. And based on my research, they are seemingly set up to only benefit those who are already making a lot of money rather than those who are starting from scratch. So for people like me that leaves the free option of content creation, which I am not prone to whatsoever.
Second, there’s the choice of which social media platforms to favor. I have mainly stuck to Instagram but I recently waded into the Threads pool as well, which has been several different kinds of interesting. I also have a Facebook page that I thought was public and connected to my Instagram, but I recently discovered it might not be. I have to look into that a little more. I’ve thought about YouTube, but I’m not sure how I would do with long-form content and it also requires some equipment that I don’t have at the moment. Perhaps I’ll get into that at some point in the future. And before anybody asks, I flat-out refuse to get into the murky mess that is TikTok. I know a lot of people who are on it, and that’s great for them. But even the potential ban stuff aside, I simply do not have the energy to sift through the saturation and toxicity that exists on that app. It works for many. I know it wouldn’t work for me.
Third, one must be able to find their niche on any platform. There’s an online community for basically anything (for better or worse) if you just take the time to look for it. So far, I’ve managed to connect with many a fellow writer, no problem. It’s the readers I can’t seem to find. I’ve had a few odd posts do pretty well, but views rarely translate to likes, comments, follows, or sales. Even the most viral of posts won’t often lead to actual sales of whatever you’re selling, which is unfortunate. Frankly, social media usually feels like you’re just shouting into the void. That gets discouraging real fast, which is why I’ve often taken an extended break from that stuff. I’ve just run out of things to shout.
I should say here that I’m super grateful for how well my book has done so far! I sold over a hundred copies in less than a year, which is pretty solid for a self-published debut. Books have an odd thing about them though in that they often don’t tend to sell more over time until the author has released more of them. That turns into a double-edged sword when they end up needing the sales in order to continue writing. That’s not as true when it comes to traditionally published books. Despite this fact, I have to say that I’m still happy I chose to self-publish. I have creative control over my stories and characters, and I don’t have an agent or publisher breathing down my neck about deadlines. Just the little voice in my head telling me I can’t let myself down or disappoint the readers I do have. That’s what keeps me going.
Okay, that’s more than enough of the doom and gloom! Onto the fun stuff!
Work updates first: I have REALLY been struggling with book two in my trilogy. Not to spoil anything too much, but Xanya will be spending a lot of Shadow of the Citadel traveling on her own, being truly alone for the first time since she was first lost as a small child. I found myself writing pages and pages of nothing but describing landscape and detailing Xanya’s conversations with her horse, which was incredibly boring to write and would be even worse to read. That left me going back and forth on how to solve that problem without lots of little time jumps or Jedi hand waving things away. I don’t mind telling you that I was completely and totally blocked. I had to force myself to write, which felt terrible for so many reasons. Honestly I was about ready to give up and just let people speculate what might have been coming from beyond the mountains, as things left off in my epilogue.
Then just yesterday, IT came to me. In the most unremarkable of circumstances, things suddenly became clear. I was driving home from dropping one of my dogs off at the vet and out of nowhere, I thought of the solution. A solution that would not only solve my travel problem but also help me get rid of multiple plot holes and things I previously didn’t know how to wrap up. I don’t remember the train of thought that led me to this idea or even what I was listening to at the time, which is rare for me. But what matters is that for the first time in nearly a year, I am excited about Xanya’s story again! I’m sure there will be more of these blocks to overcome before this trilogy is done, but I know now I can get through them! For those who are interested, I’m hoping to have a little sneak peek of book two (very rough, I will say) here on my blog sometime in the next couple of weeks. In the spirit of feeling renewed and wanting to get over the melancholy I was describing in the first part of this post, I also want to get back to blogging again. Not only is my site another free marketing tactic, it’s a way to connect with my readers on a more personal level. I can say way more here than I ever could in a post on Instagram. Plus I enjoy putting these together.
MAJOR life update coming in hot: At the beginning of August, my husband and I welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world! She’s seven months old now and we could not adore her more. It feels so strange to say that we’re parents and have a tiny human to raise. It’s also an incredible responsibility and even though she can’t even talk yet I find myself praying that I won’t screw her up. I suppose every mom and dad feels that way about their kid though. Luckily, I have an amazing husband who has also proved so far to be an amazing father. I am so incredibly blessed to have them both. Pregnancy was utterly miserable, but I would go through it all again just to see that little girl’s adorable smile and hear her contagious laugh. She makes me cry tears of joy on a daily basis and I can’t imagine my life without her. It’s harder to find time to write, but I truly don’t care about that as much as I thought I would. I’ll make it happen sometime between playing, singing, and reading books to my daughter. All I want to do is be the best mom I can and help her to have the greatest life.
Well, that’s it for now! Thanks for reading this far, those of you who have, and thanks as always for following along on this journey! I have many more stories that I hope to share with you as time goes on. From Beyond the Mountains is only the beginning!
