Author Lessons: Writing Community, Social Media, Newsletters, and Support

Author Lessons Part One by K.M Allan

While I’ve been writing for over twenty years, as of 2024, it’s been nine years since I launched my author accounts.

Later this month also marks one year since I completed my debut series, Blackbirch. When I started writing an upcoming blog post to mark that occasion, my habit of rambling off-topic led to lessons learned in the authoring game—so here they are!

Author Lessons

Every writer’s journey is different, but we’re all striving for the same goal, and that’s to put our art into the world, hope it finds an audience, and go with the lowest of lows and the highest of highs.

Because of those shared goals, I’m going to share parts of my journey regarding the lessons I’ve learned as an author.

When I started taking writing seriously, there was a lot I didn’t know. There’s still a lot I don’t, but there are some things I do thanks to years of consistently running social media accounts, blogging, and releasing books.

I wish I could say I was a runaway success at any of these, but I’m just like most people—putting myself out there and hoping it works.

The Writing Community

The first lesson I’d advise, and what I did, was join the writing community.

Even though writing is a solitary effort, I would not be where I am today without the friendships made and the support I’ve received.

My intro to the writing community was kick-started by starting social media accounts, this blog, and interacting with fellow writers. I’ve had friendships develop from beta reading and swapping manuscripts with writers in other countries, some of whom I count as good friends today. I would not have made those connections without putting my little introverted self out there, and you can do the same.

What I’ve also found in the writing community are fellow writers who will encourage each other, write with each other regularly for years, meet up in real life, go on writing retreats together, beta read for each other, and support each other’s books. As a part of the community, I’ve also read some of the best books, and found new favorite authors with backlists I’ve devoured.

While a reason to join the writing community is to get your name and work out there, it’s also about making connections. Find friends, not just potential customers/readers. They will help you more than paid assessment services, will lift you up when you get bad reviews, rejections, and disappointments, and encourage you when you feel like giving up.

They’ll support your books and you, and if they’re writing too, they’ll understand. They know what it’s like to put your heart and soul on the page and not have it come out how you want it to.

Lesson learned: the writing community gets the ups and downs because they are in the trenches too. It might take you a while to find others you mesh with, and writers will come and go from groups just as friends do in your life, but it’s all worthwhile.

Social Media

Years ago, I used to worry about taking time off from posting on social media, because if you took time off, you’d come back to no engagement and fewer followers.

Now, there’s so little engagement across all platforms that most people don’t even notice when you’ve taken a break.

You can do absolutely everything in your power on social media and follow every tip posted by those who have been successful, and in the majority of cases, nothing changes.

Don’t burn yourself out over it. Do what you’re happy to do. If you like making and posting graphics, do that. If reels are the only thing you can create at the end of a long day, post reels. If you can swing posting Monday to Friday, but take weekends off, take the weekend off!

I spent years posting 6 days a week, trying to find the exact right time, and the right posts, and you know what happened? My social media numbers grew quickly and then stopped.

On Instagram, I quickly gained over 2,300 followers—and that’s it. For the last 9 years, my follower count has stayed the same. Doesn’t seem to matter what I post, who I follow, or what I do, I can’t grow the numbers. Occasionally I’ll go up by 5, but that number then dwindles back down.

My Facebook author page has limped up to 600-odd followers. Twitter for a brief time was the best and got to around 3,000, but then Twitter went to crap, the majority of the writing community left, and I barely check it anymore.

My blog/website has had the best growth and follower count. Almost 5,000 of you amazing readers follow my posts, but like everything in 2024, the algorithm has strangled reach and engagement is now down here too.

Do you know how I get any new followers now? From real life. The few times a year I go to a book event, everyone just looks each other up on Instagram and then we follow each other to keep in touch. I’ve gained more followers doing that at two recent book launches than I have for the last two years.

Lesson learned: You can’t control social media, you can do everything “right” and still not get anywhere, which you’ll of course blame yourself for even though it’s out of your control. So…

• Post what you enjoy and what you’re comfortable with.
• Post when it suits your lifestyle, not rumored rules that no one can verify.
• Accept that you can’t control it all.
• Engage when you can.
• Don’t expect others to reciprocate with likes, comments, and shares. Most don’t, and most of the time it’s because they honestly don’t see your posts, even if they’ve been following you for years.
• You’ll find people who will interact with you regularly—do the same for them.
• If you’ve reached a point where checking social media gives you anxiety, take a break. The world won’t end.

It will feel pointless most days, and as much as I’ve moaned about social media, I wouldn’t have sold the books I have without it. The best way is to run your social media accounts, don’t let them run you.

Newsletters

From July 2019 until October 2020, I ran a newsletter. It was a free version with Mailchimp, so it didn’t cost me anything but time to put it together and send it out, and I enjoyed doing it when I first started.

Like my social media accounts, the newsletter got stuck at 210 subscribers, and then most subscribers stopped opening the emails.

In the end, putting together the newsletter content was taking time away from writing and editing, so I closed it down and now publish the content on my blog as my roundups. My current version of a newsletter is now encouraging readers to subscribe via email to my blogs (which you can do here).

Having a newsletter gives you direct contact with readers who are interested in your work, and isn’t reliant on an algorithm showing your content to others, so there will always be an incentive to start one.

If, like I did, you find the effort is costing you in other areas, no rule says once you start a newsletter you must keep it going for the rest of your life.

Lesson learned: always reevaluate what works for you, and don’t push yourself to do something you hate because social media (or blog posts like this) say you should have a newsletter. If a newsletter works for you, start one. If it doesn’t, don’t.

Support

You’ll never get more support than with the first of things.

First time in the query trenches. First full MS request. First rejection. First published book. You should celebrate all these things, and you’ll find most people will celebrate with you, and support your posts with shares, comments, wishes of luck, cover reveals, and release day announcements.

First books will be bought by friends, family, and followers who’ve been watching your writing journey progress and want to see what your work is like.

The longer you’re around, the more work you release, the different ways that support fluctuates. In a perfect world, every release of anything new will build and become more. In reality (for the majority) support drops off. Not because you’re getting worse, but because that’s life.

Lesson learned: support who you want, and don’t expect the same level of support back, or support to last forever. Always (and I am) be grateful for any support given, especially from those who show up year after year, release after release. They’re worth more than subscriber numbers or sale figures.

As this turned into a bigger-than-expected post, I’ve split it up for easier reading.

Part two can be found here and covers indie publishing with IngramSpark, thoughts on Amazon, burnout and self-doubt, grieving the end of a project, author extras, and what you can and can’t control.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about the topics in this blog post, drop them in the comments.

— K.M. Allan

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