What I Think About When I Think About Making Content

This time, with video

Hey friends,

My I don’t want to think activity is watching Instagram Reels, as I have said before on this newsletter 100 times, I’m sure. It’s not great. Reels are not great and yes, I could watch TikTok but I am denying myself that pleasure for reasons I’m still unpacking. Anyway, I went into this whole writing and promoting my own book thing saying I am not going to be on TikTok. I do not want to do video. No one balked at it or told me I had to. They said cool, ok, moving on. And that was that, I thought.

And then I started promoting my book. As. You. Have Seen. I’m going to be doing it a lot for a long time, I think, and that’s normal and I am ok with it. It’s work, but also, I like my book and want people to know about it. And I know that everyone who follows me does not see every little bit of ~content~ I make, so what might feel like spamming my accounts to me might be a reasonable number of posts to anyone else. ANYWAY, posting on insta isn’t getting me much traction¹, and I am not super surprised. I post to the grid and to stories and I get some likes and that’s cool. I’m not looking into deeper analytics, yet, because that way madness lies. Mainly, I want people to know they can preorder the book now and when I have a new post up or a client has a new book out or something like that. I am not looking to go viral. I am not looking to become an influencer.

The reason I didn’t really want to do video is that it takes so much time. So much set up, editing, takes, etc, etc, etc. I don’t mind putting my face on the internet, and the last time we talked about this, everyone so helpfully reminded me that the overly polished stuff doesn’t look as authentic as the hey I’m in my car and want to tell you something stuff. Which will be forthcoming, lol.

So, yesterday morning I spend maybe ten minutes making this video. What do you think?

Good enough! But here’s what I thought about after I posted it:

1. There are many features on insta that I do not know about to boost or whatever this video and I’m ok figuring it out as I go along.

2. I reallllllly wanted to check for notifications instantly but lol people barely had a chance to see it.

3. There’s probably a “best” time of day to post these things but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. 9am on a Monday morning was the time I had.

4. I will not let perfect be the enemy of good.

5. I don’t expect any of this to have a DIRECT, INSTANT affect. If I’m lucky it will have a CUMULATIVE, LONG-TERM affect.

6. Other people do these things better and that is ok! I do not have to do get an A in instagram reels. I just need/want to do some.

And you know what surprised me? Other people shared what I shared!!! That’s the whole point! The point is not to make the most perfect piece of ~content~ that will make you go viral and instantly rich. That’s not going to happen. The point is to talk about your stuff and give other people an opportunity to talk about it, too! Your stuff can be other people’s stuff! It’s a conversation! If you want social media to be part of your whatever plan, you have to use it and not expect too much from it!!!!!!!!

I think I’m going to do more silly stuff on Instagram and maybe <gasp> TikTok. Maybe? I don’t know! But watch this space. Or those spaces. Or whatever.

I’m not going to maximize this or do it perfectly or spend 50 hours watching “experts” tell me the exact recipe for a perfect post. That sounds boring and I do not have time for that. I’m just going to do some stuff. See what happens.

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SPEAKING OF BOOK PROMOTION

One of my clients, Anna Cowan, has a new book coming out next year and WHOOOOOOOOOO BOY if you like hot historical romances, this one is FOR YOU. It takes the sullen Duke trope and asks, what if that Duke was a hot, hot, hot, HOT lady? If that sounds like a book for you, you won’t be disappointed.

The kind folks at St. Martin’s Griffin are giving away 100 bound manuscripts² to lucky winners who enter their Goodreads giveaway. Click here to enter. Giveaway ends March 10th!

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Back to the content mines, my friends. Take care. Call your reps. Raise hell.

OXOXOXOXO,

Kate

1. What’s “traction?” To me it’s likes and shares and reposts. I’m not comparing it to others’ posts. Just to my own. Just because my post got 50 likes and someone out there got 50M doesn’t mean my post was a failure.

2. What’s a bound manuscript? It’s like an advance readers copy/galley without a finished cover. It’s an early copy before the early copies.