How do you do marketing for your novels?

[JessDullahan]

So, I've seen a few people start to touch on the idea, but not exactly it.
I've found the most effective marketing for my novels has actually been to not market them.
Before you come at me with pitchforks, saying that's the opposite of what you're trying to do, hear me out. Tapas especially is very community based. Instead of constantly promoting only your novel, focus on "promoting" yourself... Obviously having an engaging and well written story is important, but the biggest draw for first getting eyes on your novel is for people to be interested in you and your success in your writing endeavors.
I notice the only posts you've made in the Tapas discord were links to your story. You could try popping into the novels channel and actually talking to some of the other authors... There's a lot of cool people in there, many of whom frequently check out someone's novel simply because they were enjoying the conversation and want to be supportive. Plus, snippet time is a perfect chance to showcase your writing style and drum up extra interest in your story.
My most dedicated readers are people who decided they liked my vibes when we talked and checked out what I was working on because of it. Hell, the person who became my biggest supporter of anything I write now only looked at my stories because we happened to do a RP with a mutual friend and they liked the character I used for it... Now I'd be worried for their wellbeing if they aren't one of the first people to read/respond to anything new I post.

[VibrantFox]

I think it's something a lot of folks bring up but in pretty varied terms but you're absolutely right. most connections i've ever built were just people whose vibes or personality i liked. i think someone had mentioned it in another thread how yeah people will totally just check out your work if you've had a pleasant conversation and even though it may sound crazy it's possible but i think the other half of that is divorcing oneself from the whole hinging solely on "trying to make the numbers bigger"

i also do think it's helpful though when people also remember that people don't live on their devices or are constantly looking at comic all the time and wont always be the "super active reader". coz like i was one of those people who was reading every update as soon as it was posted but then life got busy and i kinda fell of the grid for a while a was barely reading anything save for occasional sporadic binges before returning to my corner of the void.

just kinda sucks how hard it is to get people to see the value in just forming having and building community than just "oh my subs my views my likes"

[Dashio_Sumeragi]

@JessDullahan Interesting point of view. To be honest I´ve never looked at it this way. Thank you.

[GiveMeThatBread]

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

Exactly this. I also want to input Jwabeasley's quote above:

Very few currently-writing novelists are famous. Very few members of either group earn a substantial income from their creative output.

As a novelist who has been on Tapas for 6 years, it took that long to grow my IP (one of the top ten novels on Tapas that originally begun in Community and now in Premium). To grow my amazing community and interact with them, enough that they support me for half of my monthly income. I let them know how much I adore them and their support.

Of course, I have a full-time job above writing, as most creatives do. But it took SIX YEARS to grow this far.

I didn't really market, either. I didn't have social media for my author name until three years into writing, which I already had half a million views by then without marketing. Readers will come. They will find you. It just takes time and is not an instant thing. Most authors on the site took YEARS unless really lucky with winning one of the contests as a new writer.

But even if wanting to grow "big," you HAVE to love what you write. The passion in your art/words is so apparant when the readers can FEEL what you felt when writing it.

[Dashio_Sumeragi]

GiveMeThatBread, 6 years or not - that is a fantastic acomplishment.