SFFMP 192: Instagram, Swag, Book Boxes, and Launching Your First Book Without Spending any Money
This week, we chatted with YA science fiction author Jessica Pierce who launched her first book, Atlas Fallen, in April of this year. She didn’t spend a lot of money on her launch, relying instead on the fan base and contacts she’d accumulated on Instagram. We talked to her about how to acquire a following and build book buzz on the platform and also about some creative things she’s done with swag and launch boxes.
Here are some more specifics and links from the show:
- What it’s like starting out as a new author in the YA market right now.
- Overcoming the challenges of selling books to a young adult audience.
- Common tropes that might be addressed in YA science fiction (or YA in general)
- An introduction to book boxes.
- All the kinds of swag you can make as an author for contests or to help with a book launch.
- Doing magnetic bookmarks, custom book sleeves, and swag that goes beyond the typical book plates and bookmarks.
- Hanging out where your target audience is.
- How Instagram is a huge place to reach teenage/young adult readers.
- The importance of using the hashtags on Instagram including the popular #bookstagram tag.
- What to post on Instagram as an author to build buzz.
- Why Jessica hired artists to do character art for her who happened to also have large Instagram followings.
- If every author should be on Instagram or if it’s more ideal for those targeting younger readers.
- Making sure your cover and your blurb are tailored to your target audience.
- Society6 for creating swag.
- PackLane.com for creating custom shipping boxes.
- UPrinting.com for other print-on-demand swag needs.
You can visit Jessica on her website or (of course!) on Instagram. She just enrolled Atlas Fallen in KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited, so you can find the ebook on Amazon.
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This is awesome! Thank you Jessica for sharing with us about YA and Instagram.
Wow. Lots of good info but most of it was like listening to a foreign language for this dinosaur! Good on Jessica, though, for being so resourceful and innovative.
This was so helpful and informative. Thanks for talking about your Instagram strategies with us Jessica!