Do you promote your novel on social media?

[sarahmassey998]

I was toying around with the idea of brancing out on my promotion of my novel but am NOT social meadia savvy.
Does anyone else do this? If so on which platform and how? I know artists share art on instagram but what do writers share?
Help I'm a gen-Z'er that dosn't know how to social media! I'm a helpless oxymoron.

[VibrantFox]

I personally don't write novels myself but a couple that come to mind that I've followed are Turtleme (TBATE's write/creator) and Penni (What Lies Within + Fox Trap)

There's definitley other writer's here on the forums that promote their writing and I'm aware of #writingcommunity being a thing on twitter so hopefully this gets more eyes on it so our tapas writing community can give you some tips. Best of luck

[nostalgicroxas]

I'm curious myself because pretty much any efforts I've tried just has led to .......... artists on instagram and not writers. Unless they're children's book authors.

[darkone4587]

I do try to promote my works every so often on Twitter, but that's really the only social media I tend to use and that's kind of the worst one to use for writing. I hear Facebook is easier to use, but I don't use Facebook outside of just talking to friends so I wouldn't know.

[BWMaste]

Our group would like to. But personally, I don't know how. Been racking my brains trying to figure it out! If anybody has some ideas or ways to help. Would greatly appreciate it!

[surenlicious]

I do. Especially on my Twitter. Like a maniac, haha. And of course on my Patreon too.

I do it on Instagram too, just invading the writers and authors tags, but I am having better luck on my Twitter. A thing I've noticed is people often just assume I am making comics just because I draw the art for my novel, which kinda hurts me? XD I specifically chose to WRITE my novel, because I can express myself so much better that way.

[Geekstress]

This is a really good question. Think of it this way - who is your target audience for your novel? Is your audience Gen-Z? And this may sound like a dumb question, but do many Gen-Z not like social media? I'm older so I don't know. The reason I'm asking this? You will want to promote your novel where your target audience hangs out at. Does that make sense? That is where you will start. I might be able to help you bounce some ideas around. Only because I've done some research for myself. Let me know. It doesn't mean I'll have all the answers. But I might be able to get you going. And know that if I help you, I'll ask a million questions. : )

[sarahmassey998]

To be perfectly honest I don't really have a target age audience. I think some of my material is a bit mature (not NSFW but stream of consciousness writing and some harder to grasp horror concepts) so its probably not a truly teen audience. Its very niche, as its cosmic horror and alternative history with some gothic literature.
I've joined some Facebook groups that specialize in Lovecraft and gothic lit but haven't worked up the courage to put my stuff on their yet. These are the real fans and my take on it all might not measure up(I mean I've really abused the lore).
I guess I would ask where you could find specific audiences? Tapas is wonderful but I'm not writing a straight up romance so its a bit harder to find readers.

[sarahmassey998]

I get that, I write because I don't have the artistic talent to express myself in drawings and because I like to that I'm good at it. You don't want to disappoint your could be readers by selling them a false bill of goods but it might be the only way for them to check you out. If I ever get fan art made for my novel I'd love to share it but I WON'T be the one drawing it!
On a side note you have a Patreon? what do you offer your patreons as a writer? If I get a large enough audience I'd like to make one but not sure what I could make for tier rewards.

[Geekstress]

Have you had anyone at all provide you feedback? I wouldn't be a good person because that isn't something that I normally read. But, for example, I have a group of friends that I run my stuff by before I publish it on Medium.com and they are a varied group of people. So I get a very good idea of how it will be received. And some of them are fellow writers. Additionally, have you thought about putting your writing through a free editor first to make sure it is cleaned up on sentence structure and readability? Not just spelling? You would do this before letting anyone read your work. I often use the website Hemingway App. For some reason, everytime I give this website out, people think they need to pay for it and download it. NO! That is only if you want an offline version for when you do not have internet access. I'll give you the link. READ the page. It tells you what to do. Which basically is copy and paste your text right over their text into the website. And it can take a great deal of volume of text. This is a long time favorite of writers. http://www.hemingwayapp.com/
And there are various online supportive communities of writers where you can have them read your stuff. But first get it cleaned up. Then? Have Natural Readers read it back to you. Because I promise having it read out loud to you will find more things in your writing that you missed. This website will give you their FREE voices unlimited time. But, they will give you 20 minutes a day if you choose their Premium or Plus voices. I find 20 minutes works well for me. https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/ - OK. That's a lot of information. Does any of that help?

[Geekstress]

You are wondering about Patreon? You are getting way ahead of yourself. Maybe get to the point where you start sharing your work with other writers first. Concentrate on that? lol

[Kelheor]

Help I'm a gen-Z'er that dosn't know how to social media

Yeah, you have to google all that. I mean, there's a community of booktubers and bookstagrammers there, and I found out about them by suddenly watching a random book review on YouTube. Always search for writers on Instagram/Twitter first ( I mean, use the hashtag #writersofinstagram, look what people put there. Also look on YouTube, many writers are there, some just doing reviews and sometimes telling people about their books, but maybe it'll be useful too. I follow readwithcindy and Elliot Brooks, they are reviewers but they write too, and maybe YouTube will show you other more relatable videos because of them

[sarahmassey998]

Right now I'm using grammerly (lite version!) and a beta reader (who is also my mom). It probably wouldn't hurt to run it through a second editing software (especially with my writing!)
I'm defiantly checking out the natural readers website, I love a good audio book and want to hear what mine would sound like in that format.
As for Pateron that's a loooonnnngggg way down the road but a monster has to dream and always has to keep ideas on the backburner. Right now my main focus is on finishing the last few chapters of my book so I have a strong backlog in case of rainy days.
Thank you so much for your suggestions and resources!

[surenlicious]

As I can offer both art and writing related stuff (though offering art related stuff is the easiest bit haha). Writing related stuff includes offering snippets of future chapters, lore talk for my loyal readers, teasers of future stuff and just unleash discussions about my world.

I also allow my readers a chance to help flesh out some of the lesser developed parts of my lore and give them a little hand in the development process. That sort of stuff.

[sarahmassey998]

Oh google where would I be without you! To the search engines, away!

[Geekstress]

I will tell you that the Hemingway website is much, much better than even the PRO version of Grammarly. Without a doubt. So please give it a try! I'm glad you have a beta reader! My mom was often my beta reader as well. Please know that I have a ton of resources that I've accumulated over time. Not only does Tapas have a discord server, but I also have my own Discord server for writers. It is 13+ ages. Totally clean (no NSFW stuff on it). And very supportive. Anything that is horror that could be gore? It has its own channel. DM me if you are ever interested. I'm kind of the mama to about 30 writers on my server. Good luck!

[mrtoontastic]

I'm not social media savvy either. But I do have things like pinterest, mix, and deviantart to share my works or completed stories every once in a while.

[DogshitJay]

I like Twitter for promoting my novel. I've thought about instagram but since I don't have art, I'd have to make visual collateral myself and I don't want to direct that much energy to it. Let me give a few tips and suggestions that I've received and learned about novel promotion:

1. Social media marketing is a time sink, and can also be emotionally draining. If you engage, make sure you set yourself some boundaries so you don't find yourself feeling bummed out and burnt out. I suggest turning off push notifications so you control when you get interrupted.

2. It feels like shouting into the void, apparently that feeling never goes away. Ignore it and do your thing.

3. Follow some people at similar stages in similar niches to you. They'll follow back.

4. Don't get stuck only promoting to other creators. This means not only using hashtags like #writingcommunity

5. If you want feedback and to chat with other creatives, you'll probably have a better time joining a writers group in person or on Discord.

6. Don't let promo time eat your writing time.

Hope that helps. Keep in mind that you will get readers from social media, but it's not the only way, or probably even the best way. So if you don't like it don't do it.

[sarahmassey998]

That is true, I don't want it to take away from my writing time.

[DogshitJay]

I pressed reply too soon by accident haha... just added some more details