How do you do marketing for your novels?

[eunwei]

Hey guys! So, I'm genuinely curious how y'all promote your novels. I'm not asking for artists but novelists!

I tried several different methods, but can't seem to reach the right audience even if I use a decent amount of tags. Also instagram has been weird lately because we can only use a maximum of five, and I'm getting literally 0 views.

I've posted stuff on Instagram before, and it used to at least get some views, but I'm genuinely shocked that there are no impressions at all.

Also, I've been active on Tumblr, X, and Instagram, and I even promoted it on several FB groups and on Discord servers that let us promote og novels.

Doing so has gotten me a few subscribers over the last couple of days, but recently, I'm seeing no increase in reach at all despite doing the same

If you're going to suggest me to stay consistent with daily updating on social media,,, I would but when I see the 0 views it demotivates me a lot ToT

This is LITERALLY how I feel

If you guys have any tips, please do share any methods that have worked for you. I really want organic readers who are actually interested in reading rather than sub4sub or pay for beta readers..

Sorry if you guys felt I'm ranting here but I fr need some tips on how you got your novels to reach the right audience.

Thanks in advance y'all <3

For context, this is my novel:

Read Legend Of The Crimson Blossoms | Tapas Web Community

[gsython]

Not gonna lie brodigy but novels probably get way less traction then webcomics so best thing is just go to forums, spam it and then spam discord servers each time you drop a chapter. What else can you do?

[eunwei]

Honestly, can't do anything T_T I've basically done what's there to be done
maybe I should hone my drawing skills then
This is lowkey sad, but I guess I'll stick to spamming them for now

[AmysGames]

Marketing is hard even for comics, lol. Even when you do everything "right," there's no guarantee that you'll get any meaningful uptick in views.

All I can really say is keep trying and see if anything sticks. Good luck!

[kimketli]

Man, I'm on the other side... Like, I'm trying to find something I would love to read but dunno how to filter through the things I don't like. In comics' case I can at least look at the previews of the episodes and get a sense but in novels' case everything seems the same and I have to put a lot of work to get to know them. There's no easy method... I feel like there's an invisible wall between me and my potential favorite writers made of content that I'm not interested in but can't avoid. So Idk... Maybe if you hire an artist to make some comic strips from your work and post those on places like IG, tiktok, youtube. Short comic strips would be much more suitable for platforms that operate with visual content. Even art with sketch-like style can lure a lot of attention and they're much more affordable.

[VibrantFox]

honestly never thought of something like that but the idea of collabs with artists and writers to do just short strips of interesting scenes does sound fun and both would benefit

one thing i feel like i havent seen from novel promos in a while is having excerpts of the story narrated. i feel like in the attention age getting people to slow down and look at a thing regardless of comic or novel is hard but when you dont have good artwork i feel like decent voice work could be enough and it could take less cost if you've got a good enough voice to do it yourself.

like ive seen voice over artists do voice reels or just random scenes on tiktok so i dont doubt you could do the same with a novel just have art or the page itself presented with a nice font and some good ambient music or sound effects. ive considered doing something like that with my own work but in a rough storyboard or animatic style since its fairly easy to edit

[eunwei]

hiring an artist is gonna cost a lot
ngl I have considered this idea to make comics on some excerpts of my novel so people can get some exposure to it. if im able to get a drawing tablet soon I'd make them myself

but im trying to use ai now (sorry artists who hate ai-art) which pretty much looks like a real real artwork. even so there are like 0 views and i literally don't know what im doing wrong when im just adopting the same thing as a reel I saw which has like thousands of likes.

[eunwei]

this idea isn't bad!
making something like a short audio clip from my novel sounds really great. I'm gonna have to try this!

thanks for the idea (⁠ ⁠╹⁠▽⁠╹⁠ ⁠)

[eunwei]

thank youu
good luck to you too :")

[briiza29]

I never want to be negative, but I'm an artist and novelist...
Despite this, I couldn't reach my organic readers!
I make illustrations for my characters, I am active on Instagram, Facebook... but still have 12 subscriber!!!!!!!!!
the views are 1.2K, but the subscription is terrible!
gimme time to cry T_T TOT....

[VibrantFox]

i think in this case its still better to try and organize cross collabs with artists than use ai because it'll cheapen your work and youre more likely to blend in with the other slop content even if on a super duper surface level it makes sense to try

obviously its harder to get some artists onboard if the work is unpaid because work is work but you may get lucky on finding folks willing to do one off drawings even if its just a sketch but you're also beholden to respect them by not plugging that into ai either

but audio stuff is always good if you cant make things work with visuals

[vapidink]

I think it depends on how you're doing the marketing. Posting nothing but ads and links to your story isn't going to do much to grab anyone's attention. It's just another ad in the sea of ads that is social media. So, you have to let others know a little more about your story. If you can't draw you can still make moodboards or get creative with some image editing.

I would not recommend you use AI. Apart from it not being allowed on Tapas, you're also branding your work with something that a lot of creators look down upon. Think about what it says when you have AI art. To me, if a creator uses AI it tells me they don't value the work of others over their own convenience. It also makes me question whether the story isn't AI as well.

It sounds like you need to distance yourself from the numbers, accept that an audience isn't built overnight, and interact with readers/creators outside of advertising. Maybe try bluesky, there's a lot more interest in OCs there and it feels like the smaller community makes it easier to reach more people.

Build relationships instead of looking to build up numbers. Make friends with other creators who can help boost you up and do the same for them. Talk about your story, share why you're passionate about it, what inspires you, post excerpts. It can be tougher to market without art, but it's definitely doable.

[azurehayalet]

To market your novels through instagram, you need to entertain people. You can't just shove your story down people's throats in every post either. I'd recommend taking advantage of other skills you have to make content. If you gain a following, some of it will follow the trail to your stories.

Absolutely do not use AI. Most creatives hate AI and it will bring your hardwork into question as well

[jwabeasley]

If you keep your collab requests to 4 pages or less, I'm sure you could get some takers. I'd take collabs with novelists that were just short scenes like that.

[eunwei]

i didn't think too deeply about using ai up until now!

thanks for telling me this. now I understand what it means to use ai art even if I wasn't trying to be unappreciate the work of artists.

I will go with the advice of bluesky and try the platform. Also yes, I don't simply put links and stuff - that's just boring and if I was an audience, I know what kind of posts would attract readers.

I'll try to make more connections instead and distance myself from the numbers, that's for the best

[Dashio_Sumeragi]

And you need to ask yourself a question: Why do you write? I know everybody would want to get as many readers as posible and fast, but... Whats the goal? To entertain? To earn money? Or just to tell a story? To write because you love to write? Don´t set the bar too hight. As the coleagues said before - readers will come in time. Slowly. Promote, promote, promote. Maybe make an own thread about your story and ask people for opinion. When talk about a story starts, it creates attention and that can generate new readers.
Also art - there are platforms that allow AI generated covers, Tapas is not one of them. Maybe try the collab forum and search for an artis. Some young ones take unpaid jobs to hone their skills and add something to their portfolio. In this case don´t think about creating a comics, rather a cover or promo art - 1-2 images tops.

That is exactly what I am doing right now. My story is done, I have like 845 views and 4 likes. Not much. Do I want to have more? Yes. Does it happen overnight? I know it doesn´t. I am currently trying to create some promo art and I am looking for a person to collab with, because I know my skills suck in that department. I could put together some line art, but thats about as far as my old rusty skills go and I have no problems to admit it. After that I wanna try my own promo thread. I don´t expect miracles, since I know how old school based my story is. But bottom line is, I´ve created my own story, satisfied how it turned out, Is the story perfect? No. But I´m proud of it, I´ve learned something new and as long it finds people that can enjoy it - yeah, win.

[gsython]

I hear this point all the time and I get where it's coming from but it also does seem disingenuous a lot of the time. We are deliberately posting our work onto websites, forums and etc. We may enjoy writing for writing but if we didn't necessarily care for being popular or getting a fanbase then we wouldn't be posting in the first place.

I personally write because I love to but I also post online because I want viewers, I want someone to read the work that I've spent months and even years into. We all are posting on Tapas and other websites, stalking forums and places to promote for a reason. And that reason is to become popular.

[VibrantFox]

And that reason is to become popular.

I'll chime in a bit and say that this is the easiest way to burn yourself out and struggle to love your craft and I mean then genuinely as someone whose already gone through that experience. Obviously people want attention and that's normal but popularity also isn't really the goal either. What I think people are looking for is connection. To connect with other people, whether it's fellow creators or readers, to enjoy the thing you've made to get attention for it and to talk about it

It's the same as when we we're kids making and sharing things trying to make friends at school or elsewhere. It's a basic human thing. but because of social media and other online platforms that's been translated into only seeing that (friends and interactions) as the numbers on our screens (followers, subscribers, etc)

I acknowledge the possibility that I may be wrong but in most cases when I listen to people voice these kinds of complaints which having been on the forums for years I assure you it's a lot it usually still boils down to the same wanting to build connection and community off of the things we're working on.

This is why people are encouraging each other to redefine their goals to things other than a number of subscribers or even monetary gain because chasing numbers becomes exhausting and financial gain much less stability is never a guarantee especially in creative fields as we've seen with the rise of ai. It's also why people are growing insistent on taking the time to listen and learn about other peoples skills and crafts, understanding the value of art as much as writing as much as animating, sculpting, fashion, architecture, and so on and so on.

You build community when you form genuine connections not just ot gain another sub or land your next reader but by showing and having genuine interest in what each other are doing. There's folks who I've followed for years and while I don't interact as consistently as I could I've still gotten to experience the joy of seeing where their hard work has taken them seeing them try new things other than art, sharing hobbies, and just watching or hanging out with them as people.

"Becoming popular" is kind of what social media and the internet I think has conditioned us into wanting but the root of it is seeking human connection so that why that is what people insist on focusing on than the numbers.

[jwabeasley]

Seconding @VibrantFox because you can only upvote once!

If becoming popular or wealthy was your main goal, webcomics or webnovels are not the fields for you! You will make better financial returns by working nearly any job, and you will get better notoriety by making a fool of yourself in public or on social media.

No currently-creating comic people are household names. Very few currently-writing novelists are famous. Very few members of either group earn a substantial income from their creative output.

If you want to pursue this field, you have to love it for its own sake.

[VibrantFox]

id say noteriety of namesakes is possible but incredibly rare granted its usually attached to know or popular ips

if it is someone indie theyve been doing it for a very long time and this been able to build community around their works but yeah even still doing it for the love of the game is what gets you through

even with "normal" non creative jobs you've gotta find some degree of joy in the work you do or with the pople you work with or you're gonna get sick of it quick (speaking as someone whose managed to last three years at the same retail job so far and i thank god dor the favor ive gotten just with that)

but yeah stuff like that is why i had to divorce my joy from the numbers because of how miserable not getting interactions was making me and the way i was abandoning making things i enjoy just in the name of gaining popularity. you gotta gotta gotta do it because you enjoy it above all else

and be incredibly self indulgent!!!! if you're not making stuff YOU enjoy it can get so boring and unfun